Applying the Calibrate Stage 'Process'sFor a Social Media Strategy

By Barton Goldenberg

As promised in my previous blog post, I will be describing the third and final stage of my proven three-stage process in designing a Social Media strategy for creating successful Social Media communities: “Calibrate”.

To calibrate an organization’s Social Media strategy, one must set and measure community metrics, outline execution and ongoing support activities. One also must have a process to assess results and make improvements to the Social Media community.  Each of these areas has its own set of challenges.

Setting & Measuring Metrics: While setting metrics is relatively simple, measuring metrics is often challenging since it is hard to determine whether the lift in a member’s sales resulted directly from their participation in the community (causation) or whether their community participation was just another factor that led to increased member sales (correlation).  My advice: organizations need to use multiple measurement tools over a period of time to secure accurate community metrics.

Community metrics typically include community health as well as business metrics.

• Community Health Metrics. These metrics are straightforward but take time to achieve.  They measure member activity/engagement in the community.
• Business Metrics. These metrics are more difficult to quantify but equally important. They help secure the ongoing support for the community from an organization’s executives.

Ongoing Support Activities: To properly execute a Social Media strategy, an organization must have enough personnel to deliver all the elements required for a successful Social Media community.  One of the areas that members of the governance structure are responsible for is to secure ongoing support activities for the community.

Within the Social CRM people, process, technology mix, the process component is the most delicate since automating a broken Social CRM process will only make this process worse.  Many organizations embarking on the Social Media component of Social CRM initiative have found the Contemplate, Navigate and Calibrate process framework valuable in creating a sound Social Media strategy.

In my next blog posts, I will discuss the people component of a Social CRM implementation in greater detail.  For the people component, I will discuss issues such as the importance of excellent communications throughout the Social CRM initiative, the different types of Social CRM training, and how to apply best ‘people’ practices to the Social Media component of Social CRM.

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Barton Goldenberg, is the founder and president of ISM Inc., customer-centric strategists/implementers serving best-in-class organizations globally. As a CRM leader for 30 years, he was among the first three inductees in the CRM Hall of Fame. Recognized as a leading “customer-focused” author, his latest book, The Definitive Guide to Social CRM, is hailed as the roadmap for Social CRM success. Barton is a popular speaker on “maximizing customer relationships to gain market insights, customers and profits”. He is a long-term columnist for CRM Magazine and speaker for CRMevolution and frequently quoted in the media.