Chief Social Officer? No Thanks

An article in Business Mirror Online Space today talks about the four challenges social media poses for business. One of these is integration, and the article suggests (but does not endorse) the idea of a chief social officer.

The idea of such a post misunderstands how businesses should be using social media. It has to be integrated into the way employees work, as a way of communicating with colleagues, customers, prospects or suppliers. It is a rich tool to enable quick communication and feedback so as to deepen the understanding and relationships between the different parties.

So just as you do not have a chief email officer or a chief telephone conversation officer, you do not need or want a chief social officer. Someone has to provide and control the infrastructure and tools for social media - the job of an up to date IT department - but then it is a matter of training employees to use these, as you would for other tools.

Not that the training should be treated lightly. Social media is incredibly powerful in allowing quick, unvetted messages which have the potential to be broadcaset widely. So it is vital that everyone in a business knows what they are trying to say and what standards and ethics apply when using social media.

If your company has a good culture, social media is a fantastic way to enhance your brand since you can have many ambassadors for the culture. The key is the production of individual communications, which convey the personality of the communicator rather than a faceless organisation's carefully prepared messages, while at the same time reflecting the organisation's underlying principles.