In John Bell’s recent article “Five Types of Social Media Integration,” he identifies five key ways that companies need to integrate their social media activity within the organization. Integration is important because, ” to get the most out of social media, brands need to integrate it across the enterprise.” While many have noted this in the past, few have identify key elements of such integration.
Five basic type of integration:
1. Paid, Owned, Earned – Combining the power behind your own Web site and Facebook page, with some purely social strategies like engaging influencers or inspiring a community to share with sympathetic advertising geared to increasing reach and presence you will have a more successful program.
2. Global & Local – Big multinationals in B2B and B2C often split budgets between the corporate center, often called ‘global’ and the local market.
3. Across the Enterprise – HR, IT, Legal, Finance and Product Development are just three examples beyond the marcom and customer service units that are increasingly affected by social media.
4. Inside & Outside the Organization – Addresses what does the staff at the brand do and what do their agencies do.
5. Inside Every Job – Brands need to work hard to deliver the training that will help grow proficiency and confidence.
I could be wrong, but there might be one missing integration point, or at least one that could be more transparent:
6. Throughout the Value Chain – The value any company deliveries to its customers is the result of a complex set of inter-connections up and down the business value chain. Their products come from supplies, which in turn are customers of someone else. No company is an island in that they can not truly do it all themselves. As such, it becomes an imperative to integrate, if not merely coordinate, social media through the value change. At a minimum, this process reduces message conflict, and at best, adds real value to all consumers.
Practical Aspects of Social Media: Art, Science, and Humanity 