Social Media Needs To Become a Team Sport

Team play and trust is what it is all about. You cannot conduct Social Media in a vacuum. All players must be on play with the same play sheet of plans to move forward. No detail is to be or too small.

★ No detail is too big or too small. ★ So true

Nice collaboration to you two!

Thanks Chris. :)

But this does also apply to small businesses ... who don't want to stay small. If there is only one person doing social media in a small biz (especially those of us who are solo-entrepreneurs) ... that's just not scalable.

And people have taught that the solution is to have tweets/social media communications ghost written -- but ghost conversations do *not* build relationships.

When really, we need a bigger solution. Making the "personality" or CEO just *one* touchpoint of the social media plan, and adding additional touchpoints to make social media scaleable as the biz grows.

Is anyone really teaching this yet?

Even in small business Elizabeth, I think the problem is we think about social media as something else we do, something we assign to someone, something some ONE is responsible for. To be authentic (& therefore effective) it has to become an integrated part of our thinking. It's got to be HOW we do business, not something we do.

That said, some businesses ("business people") just won't be able to get their arms around it in that light. They've done business from a perspective of scarcity for so long that they just can't grasp an abundance mentality. Those are the businesses that will just naturally fall behind and eventually close up shop as the Zapos of the world fly by.

jtrigsby

ps - Just re-read that, didn't mean for it to come across as critical of your comment. sorry if it reads that way!

and really, social media is just part of building relationships ... and building relationships *is* business.

but since many businesses (both large and small) are in the business of the force/push/sale, of course they don't get the idea of using social media to build relationships. because that's not what they are already doing.

for those of us who inherently build relationships in the rest of our marketing, social media is just another tool to integrate into our entire business.

Yes! That is right on!

Now how do you convince those in the force/push/sale mode to change their errant ways?

I wish I knew the easy answer (if I did, I would make billions as a consultant for that magic tip). That's one reason I became an entrepreneur, so I didn't have to spend more time explaining to bosses why they were wrong. ;)

But a lot of the convincing is more and more evidence (case studies, tracking data, etc.) that it works (and how competitors are using it the *right* way to get amazing results), and that the old ways don't work.

And like Chris says in his post, making social media not be a "thing that we do" or a "tool that we use" but just one part of the overall integrated business plan ... and inherently making that business plan different (relationship based, instead of transaction based).

Elizabeth - you're always asking good questions. I love the idea of teaching social scalability.

ooo, I love that: "social scalability"

Exactly. Social media is about conversations and relationships -- it begs to have many 'real' people continually having 'real' interactions.

~Susan

I couldn't agree more. Genius insight and a great way to describe it. The best social media is based on being social. There's so much more that becomes possible when a group of people are intentionally co-creating something - especially when it's something meaningful to each of them.

While people are putting their toe in the waters, it'll still look like solos or duets. But as companies get comfortable and "on-board", inevitably a team approach should take shape. I think many don't even realize the many facets of business that can be touched and impacted by networking approaches. Yet.

Yes.

I was just thinking about this. You're right. Take a look at the second half of this (brief) video (http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=4680523) where Cris Carter is talking about receivers doing everything they can to bring attention to themselves if their team is sucking. People working together is what wins games. The same is true for social media. It is social not just a grab for attention.

I think this holds true with most things. Rarely can the individual have as much impact as a team, unless it is truly and individual sport.

Unfortunately, it often takes an individual LEADER to pave the way before the fast followers join in. Few have the guts to lead early, therefore the effort defaults to a single person not a team.

Good choice on using the Patriots in the picture, they personify team. Go Pats

Great analogy.

I often think teach that social media needs to be every person in the company, but realize that it's not going to happen soon for some large organizations.

In the mean time, putting a first string of starters on the field makes a lot of sense

So many large companies see themselves as the Patriots - a team that embraces many of the team points in which you are speaking. Of course, very few people are the Patriots and particularly when it comes to Social Media, I think many would be surprised to find out they are the Raiders.

To that end, the cool touchpoints about the Patriots are very real - plenty of diverse ways to access their vibe yet are real and human (think about the difference between Brady and Moss and that's just two.)

As always, good and provoking thoughts.

"We’re building a cluster of solo players out there on the field when what is necessary is a team methodology with all kinds of touchpoints, system connectors, and deeper communications/strategy channels."

Hi Chris. Well put. However, a "everyone's gotta do it together like a team" isn't a selling point or a helpful insight for a large company that knows (deep in its bureaucratic heart, in its rare moments of honest reflection) there isn't anything their "machine" really does together, all "on the same page", from the same "play book." Even all the "standard" boxes to check and blanks to fill in are done differently by everyone. The people at the tops of big companies know this.

And they also know that every "management fad" since the 1970's that has promised "same page" has delivered far less. Your message of "same play BOOK, because it's a TEAM" (ahhh.. not just a "page"... a "book") better be more clever AND actually deliver over and over even after you leave - unless you want to be discarded like so many of the the one hit wonders that came before you (/me plays background music... "Go on, take their money and run... woot, woot, woot...." )

:-)

Now we're talking! I love football so thinking about SM this way makes complete sense. It also makes me think of how using examples like these is a great way to educate people. Football works for me, but it might not work for another person so having a few good examples or ways to explaine could make all the difference in helping a company "get it".

I also just watched the movie Blind Side. There is a scene where they talk about how valuable the QB is to the team, but that without an awesome left tackle they are never going to be able to do their job well. We need a leader, but we also need incredible supporting playes to make it all work well. Everyone has got to have eachothers back.

Shoot, even the people on the sideline matter. Those in the company who might not be the 1st string or players at all can help make a good social media plan great.

http://twitter.com/franswaa

I like the analogy... so what positions should I look to fill on my social media team?

Staying w/ the analogy: You won't have a good quarterback unless you have a solid front line. :-) So wherever you have frontline personnel or people interacting with your customers.

It's difficult to imagine people not understanding the greater value of social media is in the word social, and while to be social you only need one other person technically, to really get involved in social anything the group is more powerful than an individual.

This doesn't even touch the smb issue which scales differently than big business. It is still an evolving process and will take time for companies, both big and small to understand where to find value and where their value in SM lies.

I agree with your theory and believe it applies to the larger impact of responsibility for marketing in an organization. Everyone in a business markets. Every employee represents a brand. But again, many organizations designate an individual or a department to be "marketing." The concept that all have responsibility for marketing, social media and representing the brand is one which should be communicated more effectively to businesses.

Agree! I just got back from the WOMMA summit last week and there was much discussion around the need for organizations to move beyond a silo approach for SM implementation. I sensed there was an understanding (or at least a start) that marketing, PR, IT and Customer Service need to spend additional time talking to each other. I think one cause for the lack of team initiative is that there has been little effort around building SM strategy and istead a rush to jump to execution.

Great analogy, Chris. Organizations really need to re-think their social media strategies to incorporate multiple touchpoints within their company. But, I think "how" is the question. Not only for companies that have adopted social media, but for companies that are still leery and dont see the value.

Great insight as always!

The idea of having a "Social Media Rep" is the same as any company having a spokesperson. Having a singular "spin-doctor" to represent and defend your company and its decisions isn't the point of social media. You have to involve your entire organization. Granted, you'll need a friendly person in charge of encouraging this effort, but too many out there are just direct-translating their PR efforts to the web and it has no sense of community.
Adam @Advent Creative Web Design

Paul thanks for his advise. This is still very new to me.Robert Service The bard of the North said; Plugging away ,helps win the day. that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

It'll be interesting to see how this type of "social team" works in practice. Any hints on where to start to look?

Paul thanks for his advise. This is still very new to me.Robert Service The bard of the North said; Plugging away ,helps win the day. that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Chris, a agree. So, thats why we need to win the big knowledge hubs as communities for open innovation processes to get middle management turned from custodian to incubants.

Chris,

A great analogy, however if you (not the royal you) have the answer to the problem of getting a team to play as team, you have the source of a great income generator.

The problem isn't just an issue of Social Media; it belongs to many organisations per se.

Regards

Paul

Not only building the team but making sure your social media team is a part of the whole team. Companies serious about Social Media should get their experts in the marketing and strategy meetings so the Social Media "guy" or "team" stays in the loop and current. Quit treatin' them like gophers

Chris,
Are you saying it should be a sort of requirement? Or just discouraged less? What about editors? How can they choose who can speak for the company (who gets what 'position'?)

Sorry so many questions, but especially on the small business scale these choices are crucial. If you have someone on your team who says the wrong thing, then is the company is at the mercy of the criticism. Is it worth the risk?

Amber, here's one way to look at it: You want someone who is naturally social -- the person who goes to a party and makes new friends, not the one who sits back and only watches. Because you want someone who is not afraid to engage others.

Find a handful of these people in the company then have them sit down with the customer service and public relations teams (yikes! yes I said it, PR). Customer service people have a great attitude and excel at finding solutions. PR people are the crafters of the company message, and while you don't want to sound corporate in social media, you do want to get your message across. So the PR folks will tell you what's important to say or not say, then the social person can convey the idea in their own terms. Make sense?

I know a small company may not have all these people on staff, but if you can hire consultants occasionally to help that might be a good idea. Just a thought.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. Thought provoking ideas, thank you for these too.

Great point! I never really realized that. I've always been an advocate of having a team working with you but I've never implemented it into my social media/networking. I'm going to start doing that now though.

Hey Chris... I agree with the sentiments expressed in your blog entry here... but I find it rather difficult just to get a company to buy in to what social media can do for a brand. Forget building a team for it all right now. I have to convince a team of folks who are used to doing the "tried and true"/older methods to change the way they think about marketing business. We are at least a year out from considering a team to handle all these media... although I would love it if they could come on board to help me much sooner than later!

Chris -

I agree that social media is filled with solo players. At Blue Sky Factory, we fit are pretty close to what you describe here: "Sometimes a company will have a few more employees doing it, but then they’re just shadows of the functions of the “main” person doing it."

While I'd love to build out the BSF Social Media Team right now, I think it sometimes takes time. I'm fortunate to work for an organization who has leadership (read: Greg Cangialosi) who understands the value. But building that team can still take time.

I think about Southwest Airlines all the time. How do they do it? Seems easy in some ways, right? All of their employees seem to really get it. Why can't the other airlines replicate this? Why can't they hire SWA-type employees? The answer is that this type of thinking has to come from the top down and the bottom up and meet somewhere in between. This type of culture has been ingrained in SWA from their inception. Same w/ Zappos.

Re-reading Amber's post about hiring for social media (http://altitudebranding.com/2009/11/hiring-for-...), reminded me why this role is a tough one to find good people. Not everyone has the appropriate skill set and/or attributes. So then the question is the typical "build vs. buy." Do you train current employees to be part of the "Social Media Team" or do you hire from the outside?

My take is you do a bit of both.

Hmmm...that could be a good blog post.

DJ Waldow
Director of Community, Blue Sky Factory
@djwaldow

DJ, you're right. Fortunately, I work for a company that has a forward-thinking executive team. Several people in different depts are doing different things with social media. While mainly independent, there is no one person doing everything. There's plenty of work to go around! The result is we all have to depend on each other some of the time. For instance, I handle Twitter and am on the fringe of our Facebook/MySpace/YouTube endeavors, but have nothing to do with the blog. If I want the blog to do something for me I have to go talk to the editor. And that's no problem, because I try to tweet about the blog frequently, and at some point the blog is going to want Facebook to promote something for them. It all works.

I think you can teach your current employees who are social minded to engage in social media for the company, but you also want strategic thinkers (as with any other communications endeavor) who will be looking for the next big thing, the proper channels to reach your audience or a new audience. If you have to go outside to find that person, then you do.

The real problem in this economy, is finding the resources to build and develop a social media team. Many companies are working with what they have. Due to budget issues it's come down to making a decision about which projects to pursue and what to set on the back burner. To stick with the football analogy, maybe it's the difference between kicking the extra point (safe) or going for two (risk). Each company has to determine how much risk it can take right now, but maybe when the economy gets better more companies will be creating larger teams, faster.

Great post and it reminds me of playing soccer - my coach would drill into us "go where the ball isn't" I think it makes sense for social media as well... whats next, who can we help, how will we all benefit?!

Absolutely, As an athlete (Boxing) many factors and people have valuable input. Although with the sport of boxing you have one on one action going on, their is the referee, cornermen and judges. All of whom have very important roles throughout the match. The fighter has his job but without the trust and dedication of others, no point in playing the game.

Absolutely, As an athlete (Boxing) many factors and people have valuable input. Although with the sport of boxing you have one on one action going on, their is the referee, cornermen and judges. All of whom have very important roles throughout the match. The fighter has his job but without the trust and dedication of others, no point in playing the game.

Absolutely, As an athlete (Boxing) many factors and people have valuable input. Although with the sport of boxing you have one on one action going on, their is the referee, cornermen and judges. All of whom have very important roles throughout the match. The fighter has his job but without the trust and dedication of others, no point in playing the game.

Great analogy. Every football team needs their quarterback, but most plays come from the sideline - - executed serially by the entire team. We still need a quarterback (or a quarterback coach, like you?) in the social media world, but the greatest value from the team will come with a greater engagement around content. Things move at a fast pace and everyone needs to engage on the content, and the reaction it causes, and the content again, etc. Far more complex than just calling the next football play.

Big business or small, there is much value in a team of people who have their heads deep into what is being said and where to go because of it.

Great point, businesses love the team concept. Beyond that is the fear that the individual will become bigger than the brand.

All great quarterbacks will put team first, individual accomplishments second. How do you get this in Social Media where it is usually all about me and what I have done?

I have been promoting exactly this in working with companies, but I have not found it to be embraced. Trust issues are a big part of that. Many companies don't believe their existing employees can learn to do this effectively. Which is crazy to me. They *are* the company - the people who are the voice of it every day. Social media amplifies that voice, but they speak for the company already. There are major control issues here too. Many companies tend to be heirarchical with a chain of command, and social media is about collaboration and contribution. My experience to date is there is still a long way to go to break companies out of their wedding-cake org charts and lines-of-business silos to embrace the pot luck party happening in the break room. But I think there are some who will. Your post is great - let's build a team!

Chris, I have never agreed with you more than in this post. It astounds me how many people are acting as solo flyers in what is easily the most potentially collaborative space in history. I have been writing about collaboration a lot on the blog lately and I am thinking about writing a book on the subject. It seems so obvious that we need to be acting as groups that make the whole better. None of us have all of the ideas, technology, money, or skills to be the best that we possibly can. Even if this means informal strategic partnerships or simple mastermind groups we really need to stop asking 'why' companies aren't adopting social media and using the technology to prove it to them! There are WAY to many smart people out there that really need to be working with others that compliment their skills! Great Post!

@keithburtis ~ Feel Free to Collaborate! I'm Serious :)

I totally agree! I've been trying to figure out what it is that doesn't feel right about the way many companies are approaching social media and you nailed it. You can't be social with only one person. That's just playing solitaire.

Agreed. on the points of collective responsibility and creativity, I think of having all ten fingers working interdependently with one another to play a piano. More beautiful and effective than one finger at a time.

A team approach makes the most sense if there is a social media policy -- or maybe something more exciting like a "social media manifesto" behind it.

After all, one of the barriers to a team approach is the company's need to manage corporate risk ... from the risk of lower productivity from larger scale social participation, to regulatory compliance, to making sure social interactions are quality interactions to simply getting the timing right across media channels.

When has objectives and strategies for engaging through social media...and guidelines for the many employees where its relevant...then unleash the team!

As a sports enthusiast and football nut, I always like a good biz-to-sports analogy. This certainly serves as one. However, the intro begs the question (at least for me and perhaps others who don't typically fly w/ access to TV) - as you fly over different markets, do the games/programming you're able to watch on TV change accordingly?

The one time I had the luxury of watching TV while jetting (w/ JetBlue, of course), I watched golf's U.S. Open, which of course is a constant broadcast regardless of which part of the country you're in.

I suspect the plane's TVs stay tuned to a single market, but it would be cool (or, if you have your team's game for any portion of the flight, disappointing) if the games switched according to which market the plane was over. Anyway, I digress.

Good post.

Some businesses haven't fully committed to Social Media yet. It is an experiment in their minds so it is easier to send out a "scout" to explore. Until they buy into it as being necessary and meaningful these solo ops will continue.

Chris,

You put in a way that truly brings out the word "building". You can not be a soloist to survive in the social space. You have to reach out and build each day in order to create a winning team.

Great analogy Chris! Your power of painting pictures just keeps growing.

Drawing this analogy out a little further, sooner or later companies of all sizes will recruit for social media skills in all positions: customer service, marketing, technical, financial, everything. Just like professional football teams recruit for both general and specialized football skills. Just like, as DJ Waldow from BSF pointed out already, Southwest recruits for customer empathy skills. And just like companies now recruit for advanced (or at least minimal) writing, analytics, and computer skills.

But we can't consign companies whose people resist change--as at least some of the folks working in my client companies always do--to the scrap heap.

What all companies can do right now is foster a culture where it's safe for individual staff members to experiment, learn, and make mistakes while developing their social media skills.

I agree. As a consultant, I try to pin point one or a couple of people as pure facilitators. They are responsible to make sure that the technology, users, fan pages etc is all there. The content on the other hand has to be provided by the people who are in the midst of it all. Just like with phones, e-mails and other communication tools. Personally, I do not see much of a difference between the phone and the online tools we call social media... more than that you can be more efficient and proactive with the latter.

That makes perfect sense if what the goal is is to get the entire company engaged. One thing I have been thinking about: Why not start the discussion with the problems or issues people have -- and show how social media can help deal with them? One small hands on success is worth a hundred presentations -- even by the ever-interesting Chris Brogan ;-).

Came to the same conclusion last week - already starting to act. Thanks for the clear connection to something all can relate to - will help me get the team on board.

I couldn't agree more, in fact Lisa Barone just wrote about such an encounter where the company was "using social media" bu it hadn't filtered down to the people on the front lines.

For any company that touches the public everyday, like a restaurant, everyone needs to at least understand what the goal is and what the strategy is.

Our crew here all play to their strengths - some are more behind the scenes & some are in the spotlight. All of us have a say and all of us have softer spots in our expertise. We fill in the voids of each other. Personally I think it has *nothing* to do with social media (cough...) and everything to running and being a part of a highly functioning small agile business. Larger businesses (1000+) must have a hard time in my opinion unless they can somehow hit upon some morphed version of Dunbar's number.

Great analogy, Chris.

At TreeHugger.com and PlanetGreen.com, I've tried to turn social media into more of a team sport, to use your analogy. Instead of just staying heads-down and doing my own thing without explaining the reasoning and processes to the rest of the team, I've done many training sessions to teach best practices and strategy with the a few select tools so that the writers and producers can each play a role in the process of sharing our content with the world. It hasn't always gone as well as I'd like and some on the team like it more than others (to put it nicely) but overall I think it's been a big success. Businesses just can't allow social media to be a one-man job. It is and requires so much more than that. If you're curious about how this has gone, I'd love to chat. And thanks for the analogy. I'll be sharing this w/ the team.

I was introduced social media this spring via Simon Ford. I've seen the best and worst of egos at play since then. One of the most positive experiences I've had was watching videos of a conference hosted by the US Embassy in Zagreb, Croatia http://bit.ly/7gWkMq (The video's sound isn't good but the cross cultural discussion was. Kent Collins, David Mathison, and J. Eric Braun were the guest speakers from the US.)

I also entirely agree as do most. Everyone needs to be on board and contribute to a company's social media efforts. By all means give several people access to the blogging platform, twitter accounts, facebook account, etc.

However, I do believe there needs to be one "owner"--a coach-- to stick with the analogy. Someone who is responsible for ensuring that goals are identified, the strategy is executed and measurements occur. If those tasks fall amongst the entire team or company, then things risk falling through the cracks, i.e. people get too busy with the functional roles and things begin to falter or become stale.

I think often times companies fail at social media not because of wrong intent or even initial execution, but because that coach isn't there being held responsible and pushing/motivating the team.

Chris
I am there on what you are saying however within a corporate structure how realistically will they be able to effectively work as a cohesive unit. Staying with the football analogy when a kicker shanks the kick there is nothing that the offense could do at that point. Albeit they could have scored a TD and avoid the FG but not every visit to the red zone ends up with a TD - just as every lead does not land a sale.

In the case where there a pass is intercepted - did the QB throw to the wrong spot or did the WR run the wrong route? Who made the mistake or was the defense just that good? In a corporate environment having many hands in the huddle seems as if there will be a lot of finger pointing to different departments in the event of a fumble, mistackle, etc. Flipping it around when it is 4th and 13 and a long ball is thrown and bounces off defenders shoulder and into the arms of a player on your team and you win the game, then there are not fingers but self pats on back.

I am not there yet as to how logistically within different departments sharing the SM efforts will be effective and ongoing.

Thanks for reminding me on a monday that your team beat up on mine. I was almost over the pain ...

Chris-- this is a very important post- a very important idea. The solo stars need not to show off, but enable the rest of folks to do things well also. Social media specialists create social media teams. Well played sir.

Shall we take this one step further?

With social media, the entire company (read: team) needs to buy-in and be involved, on some level, with the process to reap all of the benefits. While you can probably make this analogy for most business processes/initiatives, I think this works even better when talking social media. Riffing off the football team comparison, the Owner represents your company's higher-ups that buy-in and support social media initiatives and provide the means to make sure that the company has the necessary resources to be successful.

The team's Head Coach is the primary strategist, the big picture thinker, designing the overarching X's and O's of the campaign. Success or failure is his/her responsibility.

At the next level is your Quarterback, the rock star who implements all of the plays in as fundamentally sound a way as possible. The Quarterback is also a strategist who has the ability to make important strategic and tactical calls in a flux (i.e. audible and broken plays).

Supporting the QB are multiple teammates, including the offensive line who can best be described as a company’s army of tacticians that help support implementation and day-to-day to maintenance. The defensive side of the ball is involved with mitigating risk and aggressively averting unnecessary damage that impacts the final score (read: “bottom line“). The defensive line and line backing corps help your company to hold down the fort when things go wrong (I.e. your legal or HR department) by providing defensive statements and positions that avoid risky social behavior. Your defensive backfield consists of more senior executives that specialize in avoiding letting up the “the big play” by ensuring that the right team is in place in the first place.

The rest of team, Wide Receivers, Running Backs, etc. can be considered your “skill players,” or the company rock stars that are responsible for the fundamental success of your organization. These players need not be intimately involved with social media operations, but can be called upon to offer their deep domain knowledge of subject areas for thought leadership purposes (blog posts, etc). Lump Kickers in here too…the truly skilled players that have that unique skillet that few others in the organization may have (think of the importance of a company’s IT department to all of these initiatives)…

Clearly there are many ways to look at this analogy, but I thought I would offer my first take! We could probably flesh this out further, with all sorts of diagrams and analyses (and inclusion of Special Teams bit players, etc.), but I think I’ll leave that to Chris!

Jeff
@jbenanto

Hey Chris,
An inspiring post, has long thought about it. Today no need to be a genius to appreciate all the benefits of social media. Companies often ignore this banal, in the end they are not satisfied with the result.
By the way, too, love football.

This is a great article! Social media is by definition a collaborative experience externally, so there is no reason it should not be that way internally as well. The personality of a company is made up of its employees – its online presence should be the same case. I can’t wait to show this around my office…I still have some convincing to do about the value of running a joint-managed blog, you just helped out my case more than you know!

christmas presents

Chris - Great post.

Sports teams are a really good example. Even though every team member has a different role on the field, they all HAVE to buy in to the strategy that is set before the game. They have to trust the coach and eachother implicitly at every moment and although QB's (or equivilant in other sports) have the high profile position, and take the plaudits and abuse in equal measure...every player is just as vital if the team is to get the win.

Love it!

Actually, the analogy holds even more for small businesses, due to their limited resources, as I've been telling my small business clients for quite some time. Making social media a team sport is the only way they can fully manage it. They have to team up and partner with industry and community friends, peers, and supporters.

I think this point is a well made one but is certainly not news (at least in my experience). I'd like to know how you change that mind set. How do you create a healthy social media culture? How do you keep up a high level of content? If a large enough amount of staff are involved the net result will be a mean average of all the contributions. I'm not professing the have any answers but advocating teamwork and a large number of people efficiently working together across multiple and emerging platforms is a big challenge.

Tom

Great perspective Chris...I think it happens to depend on where a company or organization "are" with respect to what they are doing in social media. I try to boil it down to the simplest of actions when we define social media at Molson Coors - its a simple as the "conversation" between the corporate brand and or our brands of beer. Facing that opporutunity the conversations tend to get led and or coached by someone in my team "communications", yet the infrastructure - Facebook, web sites, brand promotional programs etc are designed and built by CRM/Digitial. We also have created a SMIT (Social Media Influence Team) that is a combination of Communications - Digital/CRM - Brand - Media Agency - Consumer Insights and our outside creative teams building our on line tools. Ultimately this is our "team" and everyone needs to understand the play they need to make to keep advances the ball...sorry...the beer. Cheers @MolsonFerg

Interesting post as this morning I as thinking about the book "Crush It" and interview I listened in on with Gary Vaynerchick. He is an amazing guy with huge energy. I came away thinking that CEO's, and even senior staff, at my clients (both small and large organizations) will not be able to keep up with the social media marketing techniques Gary implores us to execute without it being a team effort. We find setting in place process and work-flow with tools that make it easy to monitor and assign social media marketing work is key to long term success for most organizations. In other words, make sure the team has a "game plan".

How true!
I'm the one in my organizations (a museum) that has planned and implemented our social media presence, (http://www.bcn.cat/museupicasso/en/get-involved...) and I'm on my way to achieving some participation of museum staff. It's not easy and it takes time. When I first prsented the project there was no oppisition but no enthousiasm nor committment either. Now that we have been on the 2.0 road for 6 months, we have some spontaneous bloggers among staff and now people are starting to think of Facebook when developing some museum initiative. I'm confident implication will only grow, but needs to be nurtured (every day!)
Conxa
@innova2.

Chris, As usual you hit the nail squarely on the head. Since social media is really a plaform for conversation, by its nature it can not be a solo sport.

Whether businesses, or large companies choose to believe it or not, these conversations are popping up around their business. I found several separate Facebook pages for a major energy-related client that is resisting social media. The same company had at least 6 Twitterers tweeting about the company. And there were over 5,000 people that LinkedIn had connected to the corporate profile that was compiled by Business Week and not managed.

It is all about the conversation, and that takes at least two, or many. And the playing field doesn't recognize large or small companies, just the honest, open conversation.
Beth

I think you're right on, Chris. And I think that one of the reasons is that we're still in the formative stages of creating the social media culture. The language we use, the intentions we have, the passion we simply ooze - it's still a bit foreign to the corporate masses. They simply don't understand what we're saying. We need to think about how we approach getting folks through this learning curve. How we get them to understand the language and the vision.

In order for a company's social media efforts to be successful, some sort of team work must be done. If you think about it, many companies have social media policies in place that dictate to others how they should participate in social media. If all employees, whether specifically assigned to social media or not, are disseminating different messages online then something ends up lost in the shuffle. In order to convey the right message, everyone has to be on the same page, working together.

Tessa Carroll
www.blogs.vbpoutsourcing.com

I agree with you, I've made the same thinking with rugby (http://poncier.org/blog/?p=771), but unfortunatly it's in French

We need to move away from the competitive sports model. I realize that we swim in a cultural-sea of competition - but that's the problem. Companies aren't teams - especially the large ones with lots of workers who are there for a paycheque. Smaller companies can be teams in the truest sense - when they are a group of like-minded people who have come together to throw their different skills into the mix so they can benefit by the synergy.

When competition exists among members of the team, as on a sports team where each player lives with the fear of being axed in the event of a mistake, we don't have a team.... because there's someone in the wings praying for you to screw up so they can take your place.

A real team is structured so that it succeeds when everyone succeeds, so that we truly assist each other in reaching the goal.

Sadly, the business mind-set is still in the competitive model. There is a bigger picture, where people can make their livings doing what turns their cranks without getting unnecessarily cut-throat.

As I watch the hype about what is now appropriately called "Black Friday", I know that we haven't learned anything in the last year about where the competitive model has landed us.

Thanks for this post, Chris. There's a HUGE discussion about paradigm shifting here.

I've been crunching data on a survey about community management I plan to release at the beginning of the year and it is FILLED with responses from community managers who feel very much alone. I can relate 100%. I am hoping that the results will be eye opening for companies that continue to put people in these roles with little to no support and expect them to make magic without burning out in the process.

I am always surprised when companies go to the effort of having analysis done, and then fail to listen to the results. Had they listened to their "team members" in the first place, they wouldn't have needed to call in a consultant.

Angela... I hope the tides are turning, and that you will be listened to. Perhaps there is hope. I'm pulling for you!

Hi Chris:

While there may be solo players in the consulting community - there are no successful solo players in the organizations effectively leveraging SM to achieve business results.

Frank E has a team, Jeffrey H has a team, Scott M has a team. This cannot be successfully done alone.

TO'B

Agreed. And this is really an art. In larger orgs, typically the more cross-functional the idea/project/initiative, the tougher it is to get anything done - well. But with respect to social media, I think companies really have to galvanize around their goals - the 'whys' not the 'whats'. Doing this will make the required team & the approach self-evident.

Great point, Chris. The problem with many companies is that they don't have the infrastructure to support a team on social media. Enterprises may be able to to implement such an approach, which makes total sense. Most medium to small sized companies have trouble figuring out who should own the role let alone divvy up the responsibilities.

Okay, so you have QB, RB, WR, kickers, etc... but it strikes me that for the SM team dynamic to truly transfer to the corporate playing field, everyone must be in lock-step on strategy, objectives, and individual plays. I suspect many companies still struggle with getting their players to that level. They fear too many fumbles, too many losses, and next thing you know, they're at the bottom of their division.

So perhaps the preliminary step is to introduce SM as an internal development & collaboration tool - to watch, affirm, and coach players to perfect their game... as practice scrimmages improve and you're confident in your first string team, THEN you head to the stadium, turn on the lights, bring in the ESPN film crew, and let the real game (with clients, partners, etc) begin. [PS: you keep doing the internal SM piece to develop bench strength - so you have players ready to replace IR] - What do you think?

I'm not so sure this about implementing a team approach as it is defining it. A company that acts like a team already will naturally take on the best aspects of team behavior in everything they do. Even if they only have one person in charge of social media, they're using a team approach without knowing it. That single person isn't operating in a vacuum. They need input from multiple departments in order to effectively use social media tools to engage their community. That input may come ad hoc or through serendipity or through an organized approach. Either way, it's still team input.

I do agree that companies need to have more people engaged in social media communication. Every department is critical to the company's success and every department has clients and vendors, whether they be internal or external. People in those departments are already communicating (and by communicating I mean listening as well as talking) with those clients and vendors. Using social media tools simply extends the community beyond its existing communication sphere. Peter Drucker's view of the only two functions that every company performs (marketing and innovation) is dead-on right. Everything and everyone markets in a company already; from the way you answer the phone, to the way you pack and ship a product, it's all marketing. Formalizing it to gain leverage and synergy--things that sound buzz-wordy, but are actually what all good teams do--may be prudent if the company culture is right. If not, it won't matter.

Chris, I think that not only does this analogy apply for small businessess but it holds for small and medium sized bloggers as well. I just came here from reading Josh Hanagarne's World Strongest Librarian blog and Fatchomper. They have both acted as a team by sharing blog posts with eachother and helping to build eachother's brands. I can't remember where I found Josh origionally was it here? But he had done a guest blog on another site and I followed through to find out more. Oh, I remember now it was at Copyblogger The point is by sharing and helping eachother to succeed we act as a team and we raise the level for everyone. I've recently been writting two blog series that are basically the same thing Web Marketing for small local business, and Neighborhood - these blog series focus on small business and building community. They require that you act as a team. The Neighborhood barbershop is the perfect example of how businesses need to support eachother online. It's really what you and Julien have said in trust agents help your customers and help your partners and you will benefit somehow somewhere. I guess what i'm saying somewhat more passionatly than I thought is: Don't discount the team therory for Small Business. It's more important now than ever.

Chris, you highlight the opportunity that so many companies face by having everyone realize that social media marketing is part of each's job. How else to truly bring value to our customers.

Although I find the team sport analogy relevant, I wish there were a more organic one. Take how Zappos embodies the spirit of customer service - at the heart of social media - that's more than team sport. That's DNA guiding each move so each operates in concert with the other, improvising while keeping to the musical theme...

Wonderful discussion.

Chris,

This is really interesting. I recently wrote a guest post for somebody called "blogging is a team sport" about how multi-author blogs are going to be the future of blogging and collaboration will be the future of social media. Teamwork increases production capacity significantly and I think that's going to be a huge thing for the future of social media.

Teaming up and collaborating is the future for business. "Social media huddle" I love it!

A self employed Realtor working as an agent for a Brokerage within a regon of the country. The team concept is good and will be needed in our industry to encourage the public to listen.
Thank you

Chris,
Your post on social media execution being an organizational team sport leads my thinking to the next step which is closely integrating (dare one use the buzzword synergy?) both social and traditional media campaigns for maximum strategic effect. Traditional media can trigger social media results as well as visa versa. We've seen some of that within the political and celeb promotional sectors. I bet there's lots to share and learn about how its been or being well done in B2C or B2B as well.
Thoughts?
Ford

I 100% agree that social media needs to be a team effort. For example, a Twitter stream is so much more interesting and engaging when a whole host of people are contributing content. It doesn't matter if it's a restaurant or large B2B company, a variety of voices and expertise makes Twitter more interesting. In fact, I wrote a blog post on this a while back "3 Reasons to have Multiple People Tweet for Your Brand" http://www.tweetfunnel.com/blog/three-reasons-m.... And in terms of scalability, there are a host of tools out there to make team tweeting easy.

Great post and completely agree. The more people involved, the more engagement there will be and the conversation will be much richer. It's not "solo" media it's "social" and that requires people--plural.

It may help to have a few people come up with a plan for internal review and input. And then, based on that feedback, refine the strategy, process, etc. and get everyone on board to execute.

Great post and completely agree. The more people involved, the more engagement there will be and the conversation will be much richer. It's not "solo" media it's "social" and that requires people--plural.

It may help to have a few people come up with a plan for internal review and input. And then, based on that feedback, refine the strategy, process, etc. and get everyone on board to execute.

I couldn't agree more. I work primarily with small to mid-size companies and it is always a challenge to convey just how important it is to have more "players" on the social media field. It resonates with me that having more points of view from within an organization is important. Maybe even imperative. The irony to me is that in order to get my prospects to convert to clients I have to muster the support of multiple people from the within the organization to get them on board as a client but their efforts are almost always seen as the "job" of a single person. Doesn't make sense to me. Everyone wants to be part of the decision to begin utilizing social media but then everyone disappears once the real work begins.

I'm not sure that the "team" approach would work as a cookie cutter model to every company. For some, yes, for others no. It boils down to what networks the company wants to be involved in, what types of social media, what their goals and expectations are with social media and the individuals at the company.

I think that you can and will find people in almost every company that "get it," but management allowing those people to have that kind of "power" can be challenging.

Having multiple authors on a blog makes sense, different administrators for a FB page yes, Twitter I would say is case by case as well as other social networks like digg, SU etc. Although, with social media going more mainstream for business, I think the team approach will be more necessary in the near future.

Great analogy with the sports.

I would say that many people that are champions of social media within a company are like a college coach. They are recruiting players. I don't disagree with the ideas in the post but in my experience the players on the field think it is valuable but they aren't ready to make it part of their everyday until they see the proven value. I also think that most people are scared of what they don't know and many people don't know where to start.

An important topic. I agree that the most successful SM strategy would include the involvement of many as opposed to few. However, would you agree that the nature of SM is such that it will not be of interest to everyone no matter how it is positioned or sold? Or is there a way to widen the net and engage even those who will never be interested in posting themselves?