Creating reports can be addictive. All of those pretty graphs and charts…the color palette! But are you reporting information that is valuable to the organization? Better yet, are you reaching out and analyzing data for specific department involvement, buy-in and alignment with overall measurable business objectives?

Just like any other business channel, your social media strategies require business processes. Reporting will make or break your social media efforts. Go beyond a campaign and turn your social media successes into a business program.

1. Endorsement of Senior Managers – Effective communications, including reporting, require the endorsement of the organization’s senior leaders and managers. Why would anyone else pay attention to the data being reported if the C-suite does not find the insights credible or actionable?
2. Consistent Reporting – Ask for feedback and ensure you are reporting on items that are in sync with the needs and desires of the C-suite and other key departments within your organization. However, avoid too much tinkering or excessive graphics in your reporting from week to week. Be consistent in the data you are reporting and the manner it is presented. Let the limelight shine on the insights, not the fancy layout.
3. Attention to Detail – Do not measure or report for the sake of checking that off the list of responsibilities. Invite key leaders and stakeholders to the planning table and ask them what actionable items they want to see out of the social media efforts. What does success look like to them? Pay attention to what they ask for and desire. It can be measured. Perhaps it will be tedious connecting the dots, but if you deliver, you have won loyalty and support of that department.
4. Communicate with Line Manager – Do not rely on the cascade process to communicate important findings to the larger workforce. It is easy to get lost and bored in a sea of data. Meet with the managers to relay the business urgency and information that is crucial to their department goals and only relevant to them. Make the department feel exclusive. Meeting with them to convey findings gives managers a chance to ask questions, understand the findings and become invested in the outcomes.
5. Integrate Internal and External Communications – Go beyond reporting hard numbers and share the feel good stories and relationship building occurring through two-way dialog. Pretty graphs and charts may speak volumes, but will not connect as strongly to the organization as the emotional bond formed when putting faces and names to those people participating in your communities.

Determine how much is too much (or too little) on a team report and which levels of analysis and interpretation should be delivered to which internal stakeholders [team leaders, executives, etc.] by paying attention to the needs and desires of your organization. Just as there is no one-size-fits-all approach to social media strategy, you must the attributes that are relevant, important and unique to your organization’s objectives. Do not report for the sake of checking a box. Report findings that will spur action inside and outside your organization.