There was a recent report by Useful Media who produced a report called ‘The State of Social Media Report’ from over 100 corporate social media practitioners in December 2010

It is an interesting report which echoes the Yorkshire Social Media report Optimum Exposure wrote in November 2010.

There are some interesting points that I felt I’d reflect on based on my experience as a social media practioner:

Question:
Should you create a distinct ‘social media team’ separate from other departments or  are the expertise better placed in a pre-existing department?

Is it better to avoid planning for a social media team or assign social media responsibilities to a variety of individuals

The consensus of the research by Useful Media shows that 41% of companies have no-one solely working on social media. Whilst 86% have 2 or more companies working on social media as part of their role.

From my experience, creating a social media working group wit the team of people who have social media as part of their role.  The people who have social media as part of their role should be a cross mixture from the organisation:

• IT – as they’ll need to manage the wordpress blog, manage access to Twitter through firewall.
• Product team – as they’ll need to give updates and share news on the social networks
• Communications /  Marketing / PR – writing blog posts, writing comments, responding to feedback

Mainly the communications / marketing teams will take a lead on social media but with input and support from the other teams / departments

Question 
Is social media becoming a more important part of your company’s marketing strategy?

More companies we are working with are using social media as part of their company’s overall strategy –  communications, sales, marketing,  customer service & engagement

It’s a key way to create a competitive advantage and buzz about your company, products and services.

Question: Who is the most senior member of staff working directly with social media?

Unless a senior director supports the social media efforts. Even then the team members who have social media as part of their role, need to have other responsibilities removed, so they can focus on ensuring the social media campaigns are successful and deliver the ROI needed.

In specific organisations the CEO may use social media to put a ‘face on a large organisation’ and then direct the questions and queries to the relevant person within the organisation.

How do you structure your social media team and responsibilities within your organisation?