Hire a Music Conductor to lead your social media team

Is your marketing department on stage performing a solo? Are they hogging the spotlight and acting as if the other members of the company orchestra are not on stage? Let us look at your social media initiative from another angle.

Let us consider every staff member with customer touch points as playing an instrument in your orchestra. The Brass section is sales trumpeting the company messages on a street corner like are found in New Orleans. Percussion is played by PR and marketing while the deep Bass Rhythm section is R&D and Engineering chartered to keep the beat of the company in time with the market. The String section is Customer Service playing an engaging melody in accompaniment with the whole; while HR plays woodwinds adding new harmonies to the performance by hiring talented new orchestra members.

So you see, without a conductor to lead or sheet music to follow, your orchestra has nothing to follow and your audience will only hear noise versus a pleasing company symphony. If your company concerts sound horrible – you’ll continue to lose ticket sales and your fan base.

Let’s imagine for a moment your orchestra without a conductor: Let us say that you've assigned "all social media activities" solely to the marketing department and they implement a tactical campaign without much forethought, and low & behold it is met with some success. Suddenly marketing personal find themselves in conversation with prospects and customers; while the salespeople, who own customer relationships, are not included? Would you not conclude some serious internal conflicts could ensue?

What if R&D and Engineering are not listening to their customers online conversations, nor including them in the next generation design phase; this rhythm section would not be in time with the public chorus. As a result neither your product launches nor product functionality meet expectations. If the strings of customer service come in too late or requires multiple menus to get to a human, the public chorus tells that department "you are too little to late" to gain much favor. Or if the strong sales brass section is only blowing their horns without adhering to the rests in the measure, they can't hear above their own noise. The brass of sales must rest when noted; adjust their attention to the public chorus and listen closely to learn what song their customers want to hear next.

We thus conclude that if a company does not begin its social media initiative with a strong composition for all to follow; the orchestra would sound like a high school band room during warm up and prior to the conductor tapping his baton. Pandemonium!

Thinking back, CRM was created because due process recognized the effectiveness in collaborative efforts between individuals managing customer touch points. Now collaboration is building to a crescendo as the Social Web has emerged providing great opportunity to those with a comprehensive understanding of what will be gained from a synergistic orchestral performance.

When an orchestra first plays through a composition, each member is playing from individualized sheet music designed for their part of the compilation. They don't need to know how to play other instruments - but they all adhere to the same rules of engagement defined by the composer’s work of creativity written on the sheet music in front of them. Players don’t even know what the music is going to sound like until they run through it a few times. But it’s been my experience that with practice over time - performances improve considerably as you prepare to please your audience the night of the concert.

Who knows, if executed very well you could suddenly find your company as successful as U2 & Bono helping address world peace in Iran through their music. Your company may end up resembling Eastman Chemical who fully understood a horizontal organizational chart as a winning formula to the coveted Malcolm Baldridge Award. Eastman Chemical’s motivation for team work was backed by a strong foundation in wanting to win customers. How very refreshing and hip of them to begin a "customer centric only" approach to their internal organization back in the 70’s.

Finally let’s mention the start-up company located on a sleepy countryside of the Appalachia able to perform for the entire planet -- for one internet connection allows your company to perform a song and reach an audience of millions from a solitary hilltop. You too can enjoy being part of the universal song, for with considerable Social Capitol Value find we don't need TV or Radio stations to carry our music and lyrics across mainstream broadcasting networks.

The emerging 21st century broadcasting company is SWN not CNN -- the Social Web Network is providing the venue—a platform for the worlds’ virtual orchestra and song. Your company headquarters acts as the stage and your employees are the orchestra members; while new social tools are the stage crew supporting the performance. Your browser; the plush red curtain rising; – so don’t sign on unless you’re sure you’re fully prepared to perform. Understand the social media tuning tools to gather the data and measure your pitch. You’ll need some type of metronome to keep pace; so what would be more ideal than to hire a creative conductor to understand these components, find the right symphony to play by popular request of your audience, hand out the individual parts for each department – and then as I heard from my mother and father ad nausea – practice, perfect, and practice some more!

Two references for more information:
Regarding "Social Capitol Value" refer to: http://www.customerthink.com/article/social_networks_communities_elastic...

Social Media for Business / Online Classes & Education offerings:
http://www.socialmedia-academy.com/html/usa.html