I’m currently going through some exercises that will require our organization to figure out who “owns” what part of the Social Networking marketing mix.  There are several ways to go, but my challenge is to maximize the value we bring to the consumer while minimizing internal resource needs coupled with building out a long term communication strategy.

This article from Forrester has a couple data points that I found pertinent to the decisions my organization is currently going through:

Report: Companies Should Organize For Social Media in a “Hub and Spoke” model

Forrester Data

These insights greatly help me organize my thoughts around how to effectively execute a long term SocNet strategy.  My thoughts:

• There a lot of stakeholders that will rightly feel a need to help steer the strategy.  The only way to make sure all have an equal stake is to have a big tent approach.
• Long Term SocNet requires a lot of resources to create content and respond to consumers.  The more folks involved the more these roles can be spread across the organization.
• Your SocNet strategy should help several business units achieve their goals — everything from Marketing, PR, Promotion, Retail, Sales, and Corp Comm.  The Big Tent approach gives them all a voice.