The next steps in social media - H&H Web Management Round Table

Friday, June 11, 2010

Another H&H Web Management Round Table has taken place, where online communications professionals meet to share their experiences. This time most of the discussions were about social media, as well as how to obtain commitment and resources.

Björn Alberts, Senior Partner at H&H, presented the latest views of social media. For companies it is becoming more and more about creating a corporate sphere online where the search engines often rule how companies become visible through using different types of content.

In the heads of online communications responsibles

The participants of the round table represented different types of companies, for which they were responsible for online communication including websites and social media.

The challenges that they stand before right now is about getting commitment within the organisation, how to drive change, how to organise resources to work both with websites and with social media etc.

Involving the business operations to get committed

All participants agreed that getting the managment as well as the colleagues' commitment is a constant challenge. Companies' resources for updating and maintaining local websites are in almost all cases only part time dedicated to their task as web editor. To get them to prioritise the website among all of their other daily tasks, one company made sure that measurable goals were set up for each individual, and that this was connected to their bonuses.

The best way, but also the most time consuming, is to involve the business operations and to talk to them on a regular basis so that they truly understand the importance. This way they can help local web editors to prioritise their work with online communications. 

Drive change by showing results

Working in large corporations often means that it takes time to change mindsets and ways to work. As the online medium rarely has a deadline, in the way that perhaps printed material, or issues related to fairs and events or financial reports do, it can often be postponed. Group functions such as corporate communications often find themselves having to deal with local initiatives and ideas, as well as identifing group guidelines for this. However, the best way to drive change is often to be able to show results and positive effects.

Rather one full time responsible for multiple areas then part time resources

In almost all discussions, we came back to the question of resources. Apart from involving the business operations and managers of local web editors, one company found that having one person responsible for four country websites on full time was a lot more efficient than having four persons working part time. Resources for social media today were mainly distributed on those already working with the website.

Social media for corporate communications

The big discussion was of course about social media where the participants shared what they are currently doing and their experiences. Recent experiences was about successful employee interviews on Facebook, incidents in Wikipedia as well as on Youtube. In general, companies seem to have adapted to the advice to monitor and listen to what is being said about them. Most have also started to take baby steps into the social media world.