So what happens to your communication program if you get hit by a bus tomorrow? Okay, that's really dark. How about this? What about you win the lottery and move to Fiji tomorrow?
Will your social media initiatives fall apart? Will your strategic communication plan suffer? Will anyone update your feeds and pages... or know why you were even doing it?
Developing and putting into place a strategic, focused social media program really isn't an option any more. See Andy Shaindlin of Alumni Futures,who writes, "if organizations don't seize the tools and start working outside our old silos, our audience will do it for us. Are you comfortable with that?"
What also isn't an option though is hiring a "specialist" or some students who know some FBML or can run a Flip Video (HD of course) and calling it a day. A sustainable program has direct lines drawn between the social media tactics and the overall strategic communication plan. It can be justified in terms of staff time and dollars spent. It has an impact that can be felt and would be missed if the whole bus/lottery thing happened.
So, the challenge is to integrate your social media plans into overall planning efforts and to communicate your goals and strategies internally just as well as you do externally. Talk about the technologies, how you're using them, and how the are meant to affect change or support initiatives.
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