What Makes Social Work?

Great piece today over at Mashable about how to strengthen your company’s social media voice. And when you talk about what makes social work in an organization, one point in particular really stood out to me:

“Develop an Intelligent and Flexible Organization Structure

Big companies oftentimes suffer from a silo effect where each department carves out its own territory and operates in its own bubble. Social media combines elements of existing groups — like marketing, content distribution, PR and press — and can greatly amplify the efforts of those groups. But we also recognize that social is more than that, and unique.

With this in mind, companies must create a flexible organizational structure that prevents the social media group from sitting squarely in any of those departments, but rather works closely with all of them. In our experience, this has empowered the social media team to stay true to its own unique strategic course and overall commitment to authenticity and community advocacy. While we’re always trying to figure out innovative and organic integrations for sponsors, we’ve found our approach ensures our tweets never become too corporate or commercial.” [Emphasis mine]

I agree, but only to a point. Social can’t just be a department or a part of one. As I have said for years, social is people. The companies that are winning in the social marketplace are doing it by giving their people—regardless of department—the platform to best represent their company simply by being themselves.

Many companies assume that social networks suddenly give your employees a way to talk to your customers. Actually, every employee in your company has already had the ability to talk to your customers for years—even if it was while standing in line at the grocery store. The difference today is that social tools make it possible for you to know what they’re saying.

Yes, social networks provide your employees an amplifier and a potential audience. That’s true. But, if you’re trying to shape your social presence by creating characters, you’ve already lost. Hire people you’d love to have telling your story, give them guidelines and tools to tell that story and then let them do just that.

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