THE CUT

Parking social media in only the marketing department is akin to trying to get your whole body in shape by working on just one muscle group. The most “fit” companies are recruiting their other departments to join and strengthen their social team.

There is also broad debate about how many employees should be involved in social media, and more often than not, companies have some form of restriction in place for how employees can use social. The most effective teams, however, generally have prepared all members to perform if needed. IBM, for example, encourages all of its employees to be socially active and provides clear guidelines for its now massive army of sharers.

After several years of the “ready, fire, aim” approach to social, in which every brand, division and or campaign seemed to warrant its own Facebook and Twitter presence, enlightened companies are stepping back to conduct social media audits and find ways to eliminate superfluous social accounts.

Perhaps due to the newness of social media, a sizeable majority of companies also do not have a clear road map for their social activities. Just as no self-respecting fitness trainer would let his/her clients take a step without a clearly defined and highly disciplined regimen, companies that neglect to plan their social media strategy will inevitably flounder.

Remarkably, few companies surveyed had a social media disaster plan in place. Unfortunately, it often took a crisis to inspire the creation of such a plan, raising the question that trainers often ask of their clients: “What the heck are you waiting for?” The benefits of having a disaster plan go well beyond the peace of mind that comes with it.

Fully 1 in 3 companies admit they are better at talking than listening, and fewer than 1 in 4 are listening and responding in real time. This is the fitness equivalent of sharing your resolutions to get fit, joining a health club and then never showing up. True social media fitness requires listening and responding, often in real time.

Though it would be hard to get into an argument about the importance of good content, fewer than half of the companies surveyed actually believe they are consistently creating quality content that engages their target. Perhaps these are same folks that go to the gym every day only to spend most of their time in the shower. The key with quality is to set the bar high and then keep raising it based on consumer feedback.

With social media training still the exception rather than the rule, it shouldn’t be startling that only a minority of companies claim to deliver the same customer experience regardless of the channel. The risk of inconsistency is that, inevitably, the customer relationship breaks down at the weakest link, leaving the entire enterprise exposed.

Despite all the talk among marketers about the importance of metrics, it’s amazing that more than half of the companies surveyed still don’t have a consistent measurement program in place for social media. Measuring a brand’s social footprint, as in the number of likes and followers, is a meager but necessary first step. From there, brands have numerous options to measure engagement, sentiment, influence, reach, leads and in some cases, sales.

Fewer than 1 in 10 companies have established any kind of repository for lessons learned. Without it, every division or employee is at risk to make the same mistake or not capitalize on a recent success. Small companies may not have the breadth of experience in-house to share so they may need to set up external networks among their peers to achieve the same benefit.