This week on Friday, I’ll be speaking at the Module 09 Midwest Digital Conference about building internal and external communities. The internal bit is something that I don’t think gets talked about enough, but it’s something incredibly powerful about what’s happening with all this social communication stuff.
(By the by, if you’re going to be in Detroit and haven’t yet signed up for the conference, come do so here, or even sign up for the streaming version of the event for just $25. They’re letting me hang out with the likes of Shannon Paul, Ken Burbary, my CEO Marcel Lebrun, and Chris Brogan.)
Your Community Doesn’t Classify Social Media
To me, part of the power of social communication is uniting disparate parts of a business that haven’t talked to each other in years. Maybe ever. Why? Because the outreach you do out onto the web has implications far beyond whether or not people heard your brand messages.
People want to talk about your product and what makes it great (or not so great). They want to talk about your customer service, your executive team, your charitable and community initiatives, your website and the article that got published about you last week. They want to talk about their experiences with you, for better or worse.
Your customers don’t park social media neatly in a “communications” bucket, nor do they care whether you put it in PR or marketing or customer service or all of the above. They probably don’t even identify or label the social media they’re using, or consciously choose a “social” tool over another.
They’re just trying to open up a line of communication to your company.
Inside the Firewall, Things Need to Mesh
So given all of that, if you’re a community person inside a company, it’s my view that part of your job is uniting the clans inside your own walls to work together. If your customers aren’t distinguishing between the buckets of marketing or customer support or public relations, your team for approaching outreach and engagement needs to be multi-disciplinary.
As a community professional, it’s partially my role to not only build community within and among our customers, but to help our internal teams work better together. I’m often the conduit for a lot of information and insights from our community. And I also need to touch lots of areas of the business – business development, product support, communications, and content – so that we’re all working together to ultimately meet the needs of the people that drive our business.
We need to communicate well, be able to track our engagement and outreach efforts, and collaborate as a team on the best way to support our company and community goals along side each other. There’s just no way you can keep this stuff confined to the PR department and ever hope to scale it or have it make a fundamental, positive impact on your business.
So I’ll be talking this week about some of the things that define strong community management, both inside the walls and out. And if I don’t see you in Detroit, I’ll have the presentation up on Slideshare with some notes for your review later on.
What else do you think folks need to know about how to build and bridge communities?
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“So given all of that, if you’re a community person inside a company, it’s my view that part of your job is uniting the clans inside your own walls to work together.”
Awesome assessment Amber. It really doesn’t matter what channel you go through. It’s the interaction and uniting that makes a community great/healthy.
Stuart Fosters last blog post..Mass Innovation Nights
“So given all of that, if you’re a community person inside a company, it’s my view that part of your job is uniting the clans inside your own walls to work together.”
Awesome assessment Amber. It really doesn’t matter what channel you go through. It’s the interaction and uniting that makes a community great/healthy.
Stuart Fosters last blog post..Mass Innovation Nights
Amber,
You are so right, I wonder why we even need to discuss this. But as a former Manager Internal Communications at two corporations, both of which got it, our employees at both were great at spreading the word about who we were and what we did–both good and bad.
However, since at both companies executives understood that employees come first, they did all the right things to ensure employees always heard the news about anything and everything first. The philosophy inherent within is:
“If employees come first, customers are best served and great customer experiences are always possible and probable.
Lewis Greens last blog post..The Power of Virtual Friends and Peers
Amber,
You are so right, I wonder why we even need to discuss this. But as a former Manager Internal Communications at two corporations, both of which got it, our employees at both were great at spreading the word about who we were and what we did–both good and bad.
However, since at both companies executives understood that employees come first, they did all the right things to ensure employees always heard the news about anything and everything first. The philosophy inherent within is:
“If employees come first, customers are best served and great customer experiences are always possible and probable.
Lewis Greens last blog post..The Power of Virtual Friends and Peers
Hey Amber,
I work at a community hospital where we struggle with our internal communication. There is no shortage of communication though. The problem is that 1/3 of our employees do not have access to computers regularly and budget cuts prevent us from printing tons of flyers and publications.
Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Andy
Hey Amber,
I work at a community hospital where we struggle with our internal communication. There is no shortage of communication though. The problem is that 1/3 of our employees do not have access to computers regularly and budget cuts prevent us from printing tons of flyers and publications.
Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Andy
Amber,
Good post. We live and work in a world where by definition there needs to be more unity in the workplace. Content and technology are inextricably linked. Yet often they are two disciplines that least understand each other, or don’t see things from each other’s perspective. Another truth is the fact that people who know something valueable have no idea who else could benefit from that knowledge, and the person who most needs it often has no idea it resides in the mind of someone down the hall. At my company, Mullen, I am working on bringing people together across disciplines more often physically, allowing them to define what they need from each other and then replicating that with social networking and sharing. The real key is, as with all social media, not to let management decide, allow the voices and participation of the community determine it.
Edward Boches
edwardbochess last blog post..What can Twitter do for you? Demonstrate that social media really works.
Amber,
Good post. We live and work in a world where by definition there needs to be more unity in the workplace. Content and technology are inextricably linked. Yet often they are two disciplines that least understand each other, or don’t see things from each other’s perspective. Another truth is the fact that people who know something valueable have no idea who else could benefit from that knowledge, and the person who most needs it often has no idea it resides in the mind of someone down the hall. At my company, Mullen, I am working on bringing people together across disciplines more often physically, allowing them to define what they need from each other and then replicating that with social networking and sharing. The real key is, as with all social media, not to let management decide, allow the voices and participation of the community determine it.
Edward Boches
edwardbochess last blog post..What can Twitter do for you? Demonstrate that social media really works.
Having a strong community management both inside and outside seems to be the biggest struggle in most businesses. Having a strong unity of good communication balance surely spells success so developing a good business plan for this is a must. Good topic.
JustinSMVs last blog post..Being Productive In Social Media and Using Time Wisely
Having a strong community management both inside and outside seems to be the biggest struggle in most businesses. Having a strong unity of good communication balance surely spells success so developing a good business plan for this is a must. Good topic.
JustinSMVs last blog post..Being Productive In Social Media and Using Time Wisely
United the clans inside the company–loved that line. You’re absolutely right. The key part of a community manager’s job, in my opinion, is their ability to connect, educate and motivate people internally to become brand advocates for the organization.
One other important point, the community manager needs to have a unique skill. The ability to “talk the language” of various departments across an organization. He/she needs to be able to translate techy IT talk, understand the sales model inside and out and be able to “manage up” to execs. Oh, and by the way, you need to do all this and have a solid foundation in PR or marketing and understand the nuances of social media. Needless to say, that’s not an easy skill set to find. But, it is quite necessary for community-building success.
Arik Hansons last blog post..Twin Cities PR/communications pros on Twitter
United the clans inside the company–loved that line. You’re absolutely right. The key part of a community manager’s job, in my opinion, is their ability to connect, educate and motivate people internally to become brand advocates for the organization.
One other important point, the community manager needs to have a unique skill. The ability to “talk the language” of various departments across an organization. He/she needs to be able to translate techy IT talk, understand the sales model inside and out and be able to “manage up” to execs. Oh, and by the way, you need to do all this and have a solid foundation in PR or marketing and understand the nuances of social media. Needless to say, that’s not an easy skill set to find. But, it is quite necessary for community-building success.
Arik Hansons last blog post..Twin Cities PR/communications pros on Twitter
Looking forward to sharing this with some of the thinkers in our business. Esp this: “Your customers don’t park social media neatly in a “communications” bucket, nor do they care whether you put it in PR or marketing or customer service or all of the above. They probably don’t even identify or label the social media they’re using, or consciously choose a “social” tool over another.
They’re just trying to open up a line of communication to your company.”
Dilos last blog post..First Installment of Two Man Advantage!
Looking forward to sharing this with some of the thinkers in our business. Esp this: “Your customers don’t park social media neatly in a “communications” bucket, nor do they care whether you put it in PR or marketing or customer service or all of the above. They probably don’t even identify or label the social media they’re using, or consciously choose a “social” tool over another.
They’re just trying to open up a line of communication to your company.”
Dilos last blog post..First Installment of Two Man Advantage!
Amber,
This is a fantastic post. I think one of the greatest things about integrating social media into a business is that it forces those businesses to rethink or develop their internal communications strategies. Social media/PR/marketing departments now have a responsibility to relay those holistic customer views you’d mentioned to their entire company, not just keep it within their department, which is fantastic because it forces open the internal lines of communication.
It shouldn’t take that kind of outside feedback from social media to force inside communication, though. Building and maintaining bridges and communities on the inside should be at the top of a company’s to-do list, and I think developing an overarching company brand message that is reiterated throughout the company’s internal (as well as external) communications will help put everyone on the same page. Having a strong employer brand that fosters employee engagement and pride is a huge part of building community, and that community is what creates outstanding brand ambassadors, too.
Ok, I’ve said way too much. I’m still learning here. 🙂 Thanks for the great post! Looking forward to seeing the notes from your presentation.
Amber,
This is a fantastic post. I think one of the greatest things about integrating social media into a business is that it forces those businesses to rethink or develop their internal communications strategies. Social media/PR/marketing departments now have a responsibility to relay those holistic customer views you’d mentioned to their entire company, not just keep it within their department, which is fantastic because it forces open the internal lines of communication.
It shouldn’t take that kind of outside feedback from social media to force inside communication, though. Building and maintaining bridges and communities on the inside should be at the top of a company’s to-do list, and I think developing an overarching company brand message that is reiterated throughout the company’s internal (as well as external) communications will help put everyone on the same page. Having a strong employer brand that fosters employee engagement and pride is a huge part of building community, and that community is what creates outstanding brand ambassadors, too.
Ok, I’ve said way too much. I’m still learning here. 🙂 Thanks for the great post! Looking forward to seeing the notes from your presentation.
Amber,
Bravo. You are absolutely right. Not only should there be no external buckets but social marketing tools are a great way to communicate to and with employees.
I encourage folks to read my blog and discuss things with me whether they agree with me or not. It has become a great way to encourage additional internal conversation and internal and external brand promotion for our small company.
Thanks for the great insight,
Jon
Jon Newmans last blog post..Who is your “business spirit?”
Amber,
Bravo. You are absolutely right. Not only should there be no external buckets but social marketing tools are a great way to communicate to and with employees.
I encourage folks to read my blog and discuss things with me whether they agree with me or not. It has become a great way to encourage additional internal conversation and internal and external brand promotion for our small company.
Thanks for the great insight,
Jon
Jon Newmans last blog post..Who is your “business spirit?”