This is probably going to be one heck of a short chapter review. To make it even shorter, let me say that chapter 3 of Now Revolution might be the favorite chapter of a book I’ve read since I got into this Social Media world. Yep. I said it.
Oh, you want to know why I have to eat crow first. Well, okay. Here’s the thing. There’s a huge chunk of this chapter that talks about how to integrate agencies into your Social Media efforts, as part of your Now Revolution army. Yep. That aspect I’ve been talking about since I first started blogging – Amber and Jay go into it in detail!! They outline several different ways that agencies can participate, and they even explain how you can interview an agency (as I noted in my last post) to make sure they are a good match for you.
Oh, I could just hug them! But that’s my bias. If you’re not on the agency side of the business, it’s still really good information.
The other thing I really really liked about this chapter was a discussion of how roles in a company are or can transform into new roles. Based on the premise that anyone can become an ambassador for your company online, Jay and Amber discuss how roles like “creative designer” or “HR” could change in the near or now future. This is something that not a lot of people talk about. A lot of the gurus that talk about how companies should slam into Social Media leave off the fact that a lot of companies have infrastructures that make this extremely difficult. Amber and Jay show you how you can start to move different parts of your company in this direction. It’s an evolution, not a sudden “OH, hey, we’re online now” thing.
The only thing I wasn’t 100% sure about is that the chapter segments people who listen and gather information from people who respond. I’m assuming this is more in regards to a huge company, where both responsibilities would be a full time job. Even so, I would think you’d need supremely good communication between those people and departments – they’d have to function as one entity, just like your ears and mouth may occasionally opt to work towards one goal.
So, that’s it. I have only good things to say about this chapter. I’ll be curious to hear what you think of it. I found it to be much like a very very refreshing beverage on a super hot day.
Image by Nick Bradsworth. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/nbphotogfy
Hey Margie –
Thanks again. Figured you’d like the agency stuff!
And yep, re: listening and responding, in many small org it can easily be the same person/people. At scale, we wanted to demonstrate that you *can* parse those functions if you have good workflow in place both in terms of tools and process.
Thanks again for the thoughtful posts. Really digging the piece-by-piece review of each section.
Cheers,
Amber
Margie
This is something we have discussed on the phone so I am elated to see that they covered it in an entire chapter. The struggles of an agency not being so our agency does, we, we do for our clients, we … you get the picture. The challenges for an agency that is fully staffed with different departments to create and then implement a social media plan is on the surface almost crazy. However reading this it makes one think of all the avenues the different departments can explore and create the online relationships and share their areas where they excel and expertise. This can help the business grow but also the individual to learn from others in their field. It almost begs a policy for each department under the company policy.
Interesting chapter that is yearning for me to win the giveaway and read!