5 Challenges Implementing a Social Media Strategy

In a cross-industry study that I conducted, companies identified 5 key challenges to developing and implementing a social media strategy.  Interestingly, 4 of the challenges were internally focused, including:

Ø  Culture

Ø  Governance

Ø  Technology investment and emerging technologies

Ø  ROI

Only the fifth consideration, channel selection, involved external considerations.

The ability to manage the shift in organizational culture to greater opennesss to effectively engage employees in social media was a major consideration.  A social media policy was seen as necessary good corporate process, but the cultural shift was perceived to be a major driver.  And the cultural shift begins with clearly articulated, employee-embraced core values.

Zappos built their culture on 10 core values, which drive their interactions in social media.  Much like the marines who tell the corps “In the absence of guidance: do the right thing,” (see the socialmedia-insideout blog post of March 6), Zappos says that “ Our core values are always the framework from which we make all of our decisions.”  (You can see all 10 of Zappos’ core values at http://about.zappos.com/jobs/why-work-zappos/core-values)

Core values need to go beyond the standard basics to define what makes the company culture unique.  When core values change and adherence is required, the culture will shift as those employees who are a good fit flourish, and others leave.  Enabling social media is about trusting the people in the company.