Media Emerging

Yesterday, my good friend and former PRstore colleague Lisa Hoffmann announced that she’s joining Duke Energy as a Social Media Specialist.

To call this a well-deserved opportunity for Lisa is a huge understatement. Lisa is the definition of social media’s mantra to help others. Those who know her recognize an indescribable “it” factor that makes you want to be a part of whatever she’s doing.

But the real winners here are Duke Energy and the city of Charlotte. Until now, Charlotte has lacked the perfect pairing of a high-profile social media ace with a high-profile business.

Brandon Uttley is doing incredible work with Wray Ward. Rich Tucker won a Shorty Award for his work with @CruiseSource and still is under-recognized. Jason Keath is everywhere (seriously…how does he do it?) and recently organized SoFresh, Charlotte’s most important social media event to-date.

But Duke Energy is the first of Charlotte’s nine Fortune 500 companies to make a splash by hiring a homegrown social media star. The move attracts attention to Charlotte’s emerging social media industry and gives Duke instant street cred.

This move is good for social media, too. By calling up one of Charlotte’s own — not to mention one of its brightest — Duke lends validation to the work of other social media pros in our city. It’s a symbolic and meaningful gesture from a respected corporate entity that maybe, just maybe, there’s something to this customer responsiveness thing.

Give Duke credit for finding the difference maker in a crowded candidate pool.  Among Lisa’s many strengths as a communicator, her greatest asset is her humility. She elevates others, rather than promoting herself, and is generous without prejudice toward rank or stature. She’ll probably be the first to say this hire isn’t about her.

She might be right (sorry, Lisa, I’m still posting this). Still, if Duke follows her lead, they may just change how the public thinks about utility companies and corporations in general.

And that’s a big deal.

(Editor’s Note: In classic Scott fashion, I forgot to mention that I recently served on a Charlotte Chamber of Commerce committee with Lisa’s new boss, Michelle Pearson. I don’t know Michelle very well yet, but she’s sharp — real sharp. I expect great things from this team!)

A social media policy is a powerful resource to guide employee use of new media, earn buy-in from internal stakeholders, and get everyone to read from the same playbook.

So how do you craft a social media policy?

Policy vs. Strategy

First, let me be clear: I’m not talking about a social media strategy. I could write an entirely different post about identifying objectives, defining target audiences, choosing tactics, and measuring results (or you could read Mack’s post).

This post is about social media policy — a set of guidelines (and, yes, even rules) that help employees understand acceptable vs. unacceptable, encouraged vs. discouraged, best practices, opportunities and risks.

There’s no blueprint: Your social media policy should be unique to your corporate culture. Here are some steps to consider:

Involve Stakeholders Throughout the Enterprise

Social media isn’t just for corporate communications. There are ample benefits for HR, sales, accounting, product development, executive and operations. Involve these people early so you craft a policy that encourages innovation and reflects the strengths and limitations of those departments. A social media administrator who can bring the parties together is a good start.

Set Aside “You Can’t Do That” Thinking

You’ve heard the mantras about “If you always do what you’ve always done…,” right? Social media is a new-ish approach to business. It enables new forms of collaboration, new approaches to problem-solving, and new ways to increase efficiency. “You can’t do that!” is our default response, a knee-jerk posture we instinctively deploy as a defense against discomfort. Hear it, recognize it, accept it, and set it aside. Then, proceed.

Acknowledge Today’s Paradigms, But Plan for Tomorrow’s

Don’t draft a policy that reflects how you’ve done business for the last 100 years. Instead, think about the next 100 years. Technology, cultures, and human behaviors change. Is your policy flexible enough to adapt as the world around you evolves?

Consider these questions:

• Is it conceivable that, one day, many or most of your employees could work from home?
• Does a “9-5″ workforce still meet the needs of a “24/7″ consumer?
• Does blocking Facebook achieve anything when employees can still access it on their phones?
• Can someone in your personal network solve a problem faster than someone in your office?

The world changes, and the pace of change is getting faster. How you did business yesterday may be obsolete tomorrow. Create a social media policy that’s flexible enough to be relevant at every tomorrow.

Err Toward Innovation

The lawyers will have my neck for this one…

Creating a social media policy is a sensitive balancing act. Legal wants to minimize risk. PR wants to spread the word. Customer service wants a simpler, more cost-effective solution. Sales wants to fill the pipeline. IT wants to help, but doesn’t have the resources you need.

The CEO wants to hedge his bets, but shouldn’t.

Since the dawn of commerce, more companies have failed for lack of innovation than because of legal liabilities. Yes, be compliant with the law. Yes, know your risks. But there’s a difference between knowing your risks and deferring to them. Err to flexibility, toward encouraging new ideas and new models, and your people will astound you with their talents.

Know the Technology — But Don’t Legislate For It

Social media isn’t just Facebook and Twitter. It includes blogs you write, blogs you read, comments on blogs, niche groups and communities, file and link sharing, collaboration (wikis and other tools), applications, mobile platforms and more.

Many corporate social media policies are crafted in a vacuum, of sorts — that is, they’re written with an incomplete awareness of social media’s scope. A good policy starts with an awareness of social media’s breadth, accommodates the rapid evolution of the technology, and stays technology- or platform-neutral.