Simple answer…one person cannot manage it all. Take that back-you can do this alone, but not well. Social media is not an add-on to any one department and requires commitment and responsibility across the organization.

Social media takes a village

A village cannot exist without the skills of the butcher, baker and candlestick maker and various other contributors to the village wellbeing. Social media is comprised of several online villages, each made up of numerous communities. A butcher may be able to bake, but he will not do so with the expertise and finesse of the baker. Just like the butcher/baker example, your social media listening, engagement and measurement will require the expertise of several departments across the organization.

One of those village communities is your organization. How do you bridge your organization from being a hermit to being an active member of the village? Your organization exists because of the skills of those in customer service, communications, human resources and a plethora of other departments. Take advantage of those skill sets and personalities. Bring them into the fold of social media and see the expertise and finesse spread across your organization and permeate into your listening and engagement strategy.

Think and execute beyond a linear process

You may only have one individual on the social media frontline and not a team for listening and engagement, but that set-up does not prohibit streamlined, behind-the-scenes collaboration with those of vital skill sets throughout the organization. Not only are you being able to process and answer questions you could not have done so within a silo, but you are building social media buy-in enterprise-wide with the collaboration and creditability of social media sharing.

Listening is much more than monitoring, but about processing the data you receive into actionable insights and enabling the right connectors in your organization to engage in relevant conversations. We recommend developing a listening grid – a system of gathering information, categorizing and segmenting it based on your needs, communicating internally about responses and engagement, and having up-to-the-minute notification of happenings in social media that are relevant to you.

Twenty reasons you cannot do this alone

Take it from someone who has gone down this path as the sole person responsible for listening/monitoring and engagement, you cannot do this alone. Case in point, take a look at the presentation below outlining the Top 20 Reasons to Listen. Would you be able to handle the monitoring and response for every situation listed? True, not all twenty will happen at one time (hopefully not), but several will happen concurrently and your organization must be prepared to retrieve and act on all for the betterment of your company/customer relationship.

Additional Resources

Take a peek at the new Radian6 site and The Engaged Brand. Every month, we are tackling a new topic area in and around social media, complete with articles, podcasts, webinars, whitepapers, videos…all to help you get a handle on industry best practices. This month we are focusing on the foundations of listening and engagement. We have a lot of stuff to share with you! Snack on the items on the newly designed site and keep checking back here for more on listening and engagement from the Radian6 team and featured guest bloggers.

Tags: Listening