Along with the Fortune Global 100 Social Media Report that Burson-Marsteller launched this week, we have also launched a new product, the Social Media Check-up. The Burson-Marsteller Social Media Check-up is designed to very specifically advise a company or organization on their social media health and reputation. Our point of view within the agency is that there are several elements that define your online reputation – search positioning, blog presence, network of websites and social media – but that social media is the area that is least defined within companies. Therefore we created he Social Media Check-up as a subset of our Digital Check-up Product. It focuses on several critical elements that organizations must address to participate in social media. A snapshot of the elements considered includes:
- Infrastructure – assessment of staff readiness to embrace social media and company infrastructure including adoption of guidelines and monitoring programs
- Profile Pages – what is the quantity, tone and influence of conversations happening on the most popular social networks and does the organization have an appropriate engagement plan in place
- Opportunistic – are organizations contributing to communities of interest, how is the social position impacting search results, are you linking your various profiles
- Competitive Set - how does the company rate against competitors and what is the white space that is available for an organization to take a leadership role
We happen to like our product a whole lot but the reality is that anyone with a little common sense and a willingness to invest some elbow grease can do an online scan to help a company determine if and how to proceed. It is important that the data be used beyond analysis and actually be used to inform a strategy that is integrated across departments, objectives, and social media properties. Only then can companies truly begin to tap the potential of social media and enjoy creating relationships with stakeholders.
February 27th, 2010 at 8:04 pm
Thanks for sharing. I sent you a tweet as well. Impressive stats and information.
February 27th, 2010 at 9:40 pm
Amani, I’m glad you found the research helpful. Nice to connect with you – I’ll look forward to seeing you on Twitter.
March 1st, 2010 at 6:29 am
Erin,
This was a great read! I definitely agree, the digital landscape is changing the way people and businesses communicate/interact with one another.
As technology increasingly becomes a vital component of our day-to-day lives, it’s no longer just Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and blogs we need to focus on. Social media channels are expanding and there are more innovations – for example, players offering location based, real time service such as Foursquare, Gowalla, and Loopt. As companies have more access to information about consumers and individuals it will boil down to how organizations use all this information to achieve goals and implement strategies.
Best,
Jooyoun Kim