Continuation of the review for Jay Baer & Amber Naslund’s book The Now Revolution, 7 shifts to make your business faster, smarter and more social.
This chapter started out strong with clear examples of employee roles for companies introducing social media. They provide insightful guidelines on how to find a volunteer social media marketing army from within your company’s ranks, understanding that sometimes the person with the most knowledge may not be the right one for the job. Social media requires advocates who are passionate about the delivery system. Jay & Amber developed a quiz outline to help you find those passionate team members.
“If you don’t trust your employees to communicate with good judgement, you have a hiring problem, not a social media problem.”
The Now Revolution
Also included in this chapter is a huge time saver… important points to include in your social media policy. Every company should have a clear social media policy. Each will be unique to your organization’s needs but the authors have saved us a tremendous amount of time by outlining several points that should be included. This alone is worth the price of the book.
I finished this chapter feeling like there was some additional clarification needed on the following points:
When companies are handling Social Media themselves, the authors explain to companies that social media is a changing market…
“No one has found the social media magic bullet, so try new things, learn as you go…”
Yet on the other, when a company chooses to use an agency…
“Don’t worry there are agencies that have been doing comprehensive work with companies for several years now…”
Along with this there is a list of what to look for when planning to use an agency. This makes complete sense, when you hire someone, they should understand their field because you’re paying for access to that knowledge.
My clarification:
Having employees follow the trial and error method still costs the company money and while an agency is able to draw on the experience of multiple clients to determine campaigns that are “more likely” to be successful, it is still a trial and error process. An agency SHOULD constantly be trying and evaluating new processes.
I realized, too, that throughout this book (so far!), the assumption is that if companies are outsourcing social media support, they have solid money available for marketing. Since not every company has access to the budget required to complete all recommendations immediately, agencies can also help you develop a step-by-step plan building to full social media integration, over time.
There is another type of agency that offers a third option and assists small businesses with limited time and budgets.
There are several boutique agencies, such as CyberCletch, providing all the recommended attributes, but with a different execution style. These agencies partner with clients long-term and are involved in a variety of business areas, in addition to social media. They are able to absorb the company culture to a higher degree than traditional agencies because they become partners and coworkers in almost every sense, except payroll. They provide ongoing services that agencies often delegate back to the company.
The authors say, “your community is clamoring for a connection with you not a hired gun.” This is true if the company is represented online by a singular person, but if the facebook page and twitter stream is the “company”, using these boutique agencies is a legitimate option. Just like an employee, they will source out needed information from within your company. Before hiring, ensure they have have a solid business history with references.
In Shift 4, we’ll learn how to answer the new telephone.
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