Dialoguing with Departments: Winning Support for Social Media

By Michael Marchionda - Even for the most seasoned communications professionals, talking to different departments about social media can be tough. Each department has its own opinion of social media and how it affects the organization. Communicating the value of social media to various departments is a three step process.

1. Recognize that not all departments use social media equally.

Don’t assume that all employees are comfortable with using social media internally just because they use Facebook or Twitter at home. All departments do not, and should not, contribute to social media tools equally. According to Prescient’s Intranet 2.0 Global Study 2010, the responsibility of contributing content to social media tools is delegated to a few departments:

Which groups/departments are regular content contributors?

60% of organizations with Intranet 2.0 tools have Communications staff as regular contributors
53% have IT/ Systems staff as regular contributors
48% have Marketing staff as regular contributors
46% have HR staff as regular contributors
Customer Service and Finance round out the bottom two, at 15% and 18% respectively.

In consideration of the above data, expecting IT and Finance to have a shared understanding for social media’s value to the organization doesn’t make much sense. All departments are not on the same playing field when it comes to social media, and therefore different approaches must be taken when talking to these user groups.

2. Identify the unique responsibilities, challenges and resources of each department.

Unless you can show employees how social media impacts their job directly, your words will probably fall on deaf ears. Before you can discuss social media on their own terms, you need to understand their unique responsibilities, challenges and resources. Knowing what excites, interests (and scares) different departments will help you develop a strategy for talking to them about social media.

3. Develop strategies for talking to these departments based on their unique responsibilities, challenges and resources.

The following table lists some of social media’s benefits that appeal to various departments based on their unique responsibilities, challenges and resources. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of approaches and supporting data that can be used to talk to different departments about social media, but is a useful starting point. In a related April 2011 webinar, Toby Ward and Shel Holtz expanded on some of these ideas.

Department	Sample Approach	Supporting Data
HR	“Social media tools are essential to acquiring and retaining talent.”	According to a recent study by internal communications firm Insidedge, 41 percent of Millennials say social media is important in the workplace, while only 22 percent of Baby Boomers and 10 percent of Veterans feel the same. Social media tools play an important role in acquiring and retaining talent given that Millennials now make up 50% of the workforce (See Competing for Talent with the Social Intranet).
Finance	“Intranet 2.0 tools are inexpensive and offer many opportunities for ROI.”	According to Prescient’s Intranet 2.0 Global Study 2010, organizations don’t have to break the bank for social media tools: 47% of organizations have spent $10,000 or less on their social media tools. 33% of organizations have spent between $10,000 and $100,000. 20% of organizations have spent $100,000 or more. The 11% of organizations that measure the ROI of their social media tools are seeing visible return on investment (e.g. Océ’s Money Making blog has thus far generated 60+ ideas and one idea was implemented which accounted for 400,000 Euros in savings – See The Social Intranet Whitepaper).
IT	“Choosing the right technology based on business and functional requirements (rather than just buying a tool) is critical to social media success.”	Nearly half (43%) of organizations have not yet evaluated any Intranet 2.0 tools, or have implemented tools with no evaluation period. IT needs to be involved in the evaluation period (including the requirements gathering and building the evaluation criteria). 2-4 months per technology solution is considered best practice and par-for-the-course.
Customer Service	“Engage with one; reach many.”	Social media is providing new opportunities for engaging with customers. Best Buy’s TwelpForce, as one example, leverages the combined knowledge of hundreds of employees throughout their store-wide network to provide customer support and technology advice via Twitter.
C-Level	“Executives that endorse and even pen social media tools play a fundamental role in communicating current business objectives and the direction of the organization to employees.”	According to a recent study (PDF) by Weber Shandwick, 71% of U.S. employees want more communications from top management. Despite this need, a staggering 64% of CEOs are “unsocial” and are failing to communicate effectively with employees online. According to Prescient’s Intranet 2.0 Global Study 2010, employees want to hear more from the executive suite. 50% of executives have never contributed content to social media tools or have done so infrequently (less than once per month).
R&D	“Idea sharing platforms make aggregating suggestions for new services and products simpler, easier and faster.”	My Starbucks Idea gives customers and employees a place to voice their ideas for improving almost any element of Starbucks. In its first six months, My Starbucks Idea had over 75,000 ideas receiving thousands of votes and hundreds of comments. EmployeeStorm allows Dell’s 80,000 employees to post and discuss ideas on topics ranging from product upgrades and innovation to critiques of company policies, facilities improvements and benefits.
Legal	“Clear guidelines and policies enable employees to use social media responsibly.”	Every organization needs a clear policy that delineates how employees should use social media. According to the Intranet 2.0 Global Study 2010, 26% organizations cite internal policy concerns as the biggest barrier to implementing social media tools. Even the U.S. Army recently issued an extensive and publicly available policy (PDF) that provides personnel with the guidelines they need to use social media responsibly and safely.

Department

Sample Approach

Supporting Data

HR

“Social media tools are essential to acquiring and retaining talent.”

According to a recent study by internal communications firm Insidedge, 41 percent of Millennials say social media is important in the workplace, while only 22 percent of Baby Boomers and 10 percent of Veterans feel the same. Social media tools play an important role in acquiring and retaining talent given that Millennials now make up 50% of the workforce (See Competing for Talent with the Social Intranet).

Finance

“Intranet 2.0 tools are inexpensive and offer many opportunities for ROI.”

According to Prescient’s Intranet 2.0 Global Study 2010, organizations don’t have to break the bank for social media tools:

47% of organizations have spent $10,000 or less on their social media tools.
33% of organizations have spent between $10,000 and $100,000.
20% of organizations have spent $100,000 or more.

The 11% of organizations that measure the ROI of their social media tools are seeing visible return on investment (e.g. Océ’s Money Making blog has thus far generated 60+ ideas and one idea was implemented which accounted for 400,000 Euros in savings – See The Social Intranet Whitepaper).

IT

“Choosing the right technology based on business and functional requirements (rather than just buying a tool) is critical to social media success.”

Nearly half (43%) of organizations have not yet evaluated any Intranet 2.0 tools, or have implemented tools with no evaluation period.
IT needs to be involved in the evaluation period (including the requirements gathering and building the evaluation criteria). 2-4 months per technology solution is considered best practice and par-for-the-course.

Customer Service

“Engage with one; reach many.”

Social media is providing new opportunities for engaging with customers. Best Buy’s TwelpForce, as one example, leverages the combined knowledge of hundreds of employees throughout their store-wide network to provide customer support and technology advice via Twitter.

C-Level

“Executives that endorse and even pen social media tools play a fundamental role in communicating current business objectives and the direction of the organization to employees.”

According to a recent study (PDF) by Weber Shandwick, 71% of U.S. employees want more communications from top management. Despite this need, a staggering 64% of CEOs are “unsocial” and are failing to communicate effectively with employees online.
According to Prescient’s Intranet 2.0 Global Study 2010, employees want to hear more from the executive suite. 50% of executives have never contributed content to social media tools or have done so infrequently (less than once per month).

R&D

“Idea sharing platforms make aggregating suggestions for new services and products simpler, easier and faster.”

My Starbucks Idea gives customers and employees a place to voice their ideas for improving almost any element of Starbucks. In its first six months, My Starbucks Idea had over 75,000 ideas receiving thousands of votes and hundreds of comments.
EmployeeStorm allows Dell’s 80,000 employees to post and discuss ideas on topics ranging from product upgrades and innovation to critiques of company policies, facilities improvements and benefits.

Legal

“Clear guidelines and policies enable employees to use social media responsibly.”

Every organization needs a clear policy that delineates how employees should use social media. According to the Intranet 2.0 Global Study 2010, 26% organizations cite internal policy concerns as the biggest barrier to implementing social media tools.
Even the U.S. Army recently issued an extensive and publicly available policy (PDF) that provides personnel with the guidelines they need to use social media responsibly and safely.

Communicating the value of social media to various departments is a three step process:

Recognize that not all departments use social media equally.
Identify the unique responsibilities, challenges and resources of each department.
Develop strategies for talking to these departments based on their responsibilities, challenges and resources.

Intranet Insight

Follow Us

Dialoguing with Departments: Winning Support for Social Media

1. Recognize that not all departments use social media equally.

2. Identify the unique responsibilities, challenges and resources of each department.

3. Develop strategies for talking to these departments based on their unique responsibilities, challenges and resources.

Related Articles