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Some companies approach employee social media participation from the starting point of: “we hire smart people… they will do the right thing… we trust ‘em and the company benefits when our people are participating in the larger conversation…” Other firms are deeply cautious of the new scale/scope and install policies as an extension of the PR/AR/IR process: “only a very narrow approved list can play and then, only with copy that has been pre-approved with a Legal dept. scrub…”.
Perhaps it’s a natural evolution, from one end of the spectrum to the other.
If you happen to be a B2B marketer caught anywhere else than in the “we trust you” space, using social media networks, Twitter in particular, can be unexpectedly challenging. Here, let’s explore solutions to two of the more common challenges for navigating the real-time and tweet approval maze.
Challenge 1: Content Approval Not Aligned to Risk
For B2B, Twitter catalysts group very naturally into predictable categories. The list here is a starting point, depending on your segments and how granular you might want to get. Chime in w/others that you think make sense.
- Events/tradeshows and associated panels and presentations
- Educational opportunities, webinars
- Content Assets (new whitepapers, videos
- Product and/or Technology milestones/launches
- Re-tweets of posts by others to keep the buzz alive
- Product and trade news
- Investor relations/financial-related news
A starting point for conversation w/the approval/Legal team: conceptually, present the idea that Twitter participation falls into predictable categories: many very low risk, some with higher risk, some peppered with significant risk.
A solution: Strive for an agreement with the approval team that risk levels vary and that approvals should scale in alignment to risk. Then, focus on the content types with little/low risk. For high risk content like financial transactions, earnings calls, acquisitions, etc. content may always need to undergo a rigorous and very specific scrub. As well, AR/PR/IR tweets will usually be in the hands of company media professionals rather than the day-to-day marketing leads.
Challenge 2: Marketing Participation Real-Time
When social media participation policy is an extension of PR/AR/IR practices, a consequence is that the thinking around review/approval is tied to historic and old-media cycle time. Twitter and buzz opportunities move faster and break the mold. Marketing needs a pathway to participation that is both corporately safe as well as sales-useful.
A solution: Narrow the Twitter participant list to approved spokespersons from the marketing and product teams already media trained. Add additional training on the nature of the social media beast. Partner w/Legal on the training content so governance and risk issues are illuminated and addressed.
A solution: In advance of need, work w/the approval team to pre-qualify Twitter content and approach. The strategy is to define an approved architecture for tweet-types which then both complies with the approval policy and frees Tweeters to participate spontaneously w/out risk or delay.
As examples, here’s a few generic approaches relating to event/tradeshow speaker presentations, panel discussions and downloadable media assets:
“Check out (company name) and boothxxxx at (event name); stop by for (a chance to win… product demo… special presentation… etc.).”
“Attending (event name)? (Name/Title) from (Company Name) will present a paper on (topic) in (location)(time). Listen in, join the conversation (link to presentation/paper abstract)”
“Listening to (names and companies) and the (panel title) discuss (panel topic). For a deeper dive, visit (your company name) at (link)”
“New analyst whitepaper on (topic) for download. Visit (link) for a closer look at (product and/or technology description).
You get the idea. By being armed w/ a pre-approved architecture, marketing should be better able to participate.
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B2B Marketing Savvy: ScoopDog's Blog 
10/30/2009 at 6:33 am
Excellent post. Well done.
Thank you!
10/30/2009 at 9:36 am
I especially like #1 Aligning content approval to risk. B2B marcom folks are often treated with a “one size fits all” approach to content approval. I’ve even seen this go as far as to require approval to repurpose existing content such as breaking down a white paper into a series of blog posts.
A risk-based approach to content management goes a long way toward satisfying legal while allowing marcom to participate in the conversation online.
11/01/2009 at 8:51 am
I think the risk assessment is an excellent approach for companies that can’t open themselves to social media. When coupled with the concept that you can introduce social media as a gateway drug which will eventually expand into company wide involvement, this can be a very successful approach.
Thanks,
Chris
11/05/2009 at 8:41 am
Great post, Kevin. Thanks!
11/07/2009 at 8:14 pm
good article… 🙂
I would come back to read your post again next time.
11/08/2009 at 7:27 am
good article 😀
thank you..
11/16/2009 at 1:43 pm
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