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Bringing Social Media into the Strategic Planning Tent

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of presenting at Federated Business’s Strategic Planning Skills event.  When the invitation to present arrived a few months earlier, the topic at first blush seemed a little awkward.  Once I started to research it, I was amazed at social media’s potential impact on all the key facets of corporate strategic planning:  Sales & Marketing, Legal/Regulatory issues, Human Resources/Recruiting, and Customer Service. View or download the presentation at the link below – mind bending stuff, I promise.  Looking forward to your comments.

http://slidesha.re/social-media-in-the-strategic-planning-process

It’s 11:00 in the Twitterverse. Do you know where your people are?

One topic that we’ve been spending a lot of time discussing with clients is corporate social media policies.

Due the medium’s explosive growth (see Social Media Counter post) companies are having a real challenge managing employees’ use of social media and networks.  On the one hand, these tools make up the lingua franca of a fast growing market segment. On the other, using them without some forethought, knowledge, and structure can be a dicey proposition at best. The challenge is compounded when many of us use these tools at work for both business and fun.

What to do then?  First, train both executives and employees about the dos and don’ts of social media.  Second, develop a social media policy that prescribes what is permitted and what is not.

Drug giant Roche recently published guidelines for social media. They’re written for employees, but posted for all the world to see. The Social Media Principles, which incorporate elements from the company’s code of conduct, guide employees on both personal and professional social media use.  Here is the full article  – http://bit.ly/abrf4O.  To help you get going, here is a link to the Social Media Principleshttp://bit.ly/social-media-guidelines.  These should give you a head start in crafting your own.

Does your company have a social media policy? We’d love to hear from you.  Post your comments, thoughts, and ideas below.