A Bridge From Industrial to Post-Industrial Communications

Any company planning to use social media in a systematic way to support customer service, sales, or any other business function needs every employee on board from the start. It’s a corporate culture shift that won’t work with a traditional management approach.

But using the right combination of educational and information-gathering techniques, presented in a stimulating and memorable way, will get you the data or feedback you need at the same time that you’re preparing employees to get involved in the transition.

And there’s no need to make this project very complicated or widgety. Here’s my suggestion of how you might get off on the right foot. It’s an original idea I came up with in response to the request for help from a member of marketingprofs.com.

1. People get involved in social media because they want to feel connected and engaged with other people, and hopefully learn something in the process.

2. Technology has changed how we engage with each other, but not why we feel that need (especially Americans, the world’s most avid association junkies).

3. The more AUTHENTIC the initial online engagement–the more relevance, proof, and value in first interactions–the more a person wants to stay in touch with another individual or group.

4. So divide your employees and other stakeholders into three or four random groups and have them read several posts, communications, messages etc., each of them written in a style similar to one of the major social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube etc).

5. Then have everyone complete a survey with 20 or so questions, each with five multiple-choice answers. This will help determine how engaged respondents felt with the writer or presenter: how interested they might be in meeting that other individual in person, post a comment, refer it to a friend, etc.

6. If you’re clear on your project objectives, it wouldn’t be very hard to make sure your survey also gathers some data about specific execution or transition issues you expect to face.

7. Before starting have each respondent indicate how often they already use the various platforms in order of frequency, so their answers can be weighted accordingly.

Good luck and let me know if I can help!