We know that some organizations are not quite ready for the deep dive into a full social media strategy project – especially if you don’t really know what your stakeholders are doing, if anything, out there on the social web – or if you’re not sure what kind of organizational capacities you might need to build internally in order to do this right.

We can help.

We’ve partnered with very specialized consultants and a research implementation firm in order to be able to provide three standalone services which are available on an ad-hoc basis:  a 30 Day Social Media Audit, a workshop on Building Organizational Capacity for Social Media, and a Social Media Policies Consultation.  Each of these offerings is designed to give you a head start so you can feel confident that you can start experimenting with social media in a way that makes business sense.

30 Day Social Media Audit

“We are drowning in information, but starved for knowledge” – John Naisbitt (author of Megatrends)

A Social Media Audit will provide your organization with a snapshot of the conversation and activity happening on the social web around your brand and industry, along with an assessment of the readiness of your stakeholders (members and staff) to start participating in that conversation. The audit will help you determine how quickly, where, and in what ways your organization might start taking advantage of social media to advance your mission.  We’ve partnered with 922inc for the implementation of this research.

The Social Media Audit includes five key parts that will make your social media work more focused and effective:

* 30 second surveys to members and staff – we will analyze the results from a 3-4 question survey for your members which will help you gauge not only their capacity for online activity but also how they define your organization’s brand identity. We’ll analyze a similar survey for your staff, and compare how they define your organization’s brand identity.

* 30-day tracking of web/Google alerts – we will track the frequency of brand/industry keyword mentions for your association and up to three of your competitors on the several social media sites that make the most sense for you. We’ll include qualitative results so you can drill down and see exactly what and where people are talking about you, and sentiment analysis of positive and negative brand mentions.

* Search analysis – we will distill the results from the survey data and listening process into two useful lists:

• top 5 key influencers – These are people who are champions in online social spaces and/or have social capital in your industry–people that you should listen to in particular. We’ll rank them as fans, critics or bloggers.

• top 5 search keywords – we’ll identify the top 5 keywords people use to find your content, and compare these to up to 3 of your competitors.

* Key industry sites – we’ll list the biggest blogs, Facebook groups/pages, LinkedIn groups and other communities we find that are related to your industry or brand that you might not know about.

* Executive Summary – we’ll provide an executive summary of the audit that will position your organization along a spectrum of urgency for making changes to your social media engagement level. In other words, we’ll help you answer the questions, “how quickly do we need to start taking action?”. We’ll also make some recommendations for simple, actionable ways to get started, from building capacity internally to building relationships on the social web in spaces where your stakeholders are already gathering.

Social Media Audit Subscription – Your first Social Media Audit will serve as a baseline. If you’d like to track your social media progress, the Social Media Audit Subscription is a good option. We repeat your Social Media Audit every six months over the course of 18 months with the same methodology for a much more comprehensive view of where you are, and the direction you’re heading.

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Workshop on Building Organizational Capacity for Social Media

We provide tactical training sessions on any number of specific topics, but this workshop is different.  We’re working with Jamie Notter, a highly respected organizational development consultant and AMC executive to develop a full or half day workshop with you and your staff which will help you frame what challenges you face in getting ready to start using social media.  Social media is changing individual behaviors, internal processes and organizational structures;  this workshop will help you define and understand what these challenges are for your particular group and will show you how to overcome them and effect change from the inside out.

This workshop will help you understand how to build internal capacity to get started with social media:

• how to figure out who in the organization can or should participate,
• how to establish new interdepartmental ways of collaborating and sharing information,
• how to provide a framework for employees to speak for and evangelize your brand

These are all elements which social media communication requires but which organizations may not know how to do in a mission-driven, strategic way.  We’re here to help.

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Social Media Policies Assessment

All organizations should have a complete set of social media policies and guidelines in place before they start experimenting with social media. Organizational communication via social media encourages more staff, members and volunteers to engage in conversations about your association – which can be daunting, because of the perceived relinquishing of control over brand messaging. In order to participate effectively and strategically in social media spaces, organizations need to have distinct, clear social media policies to provide a “safe space” in which all stakeholders can interact. Employees, in particular, need clarity on how to operate in these spaces in a professional role.

Often, this just means tweaking your existing policies, but sometimes you’ll need to establish your own Social Media Guidelines. We work with Leslie White, an experienced risk manager and consultant. For a flat fee, we will assess your existing policies that are affected by your social media activities. We will consider the particular needs of your specific organization and industry. We will:

• Provide a checklist of social media policies and guidelines to help you decide which policies you might need;
• Offer recommendations for social media elements that need to be added or edited;
• Provide a template for social media guidelines if you need one; and
• Provide some examples of good policies to emulate, relevant to your association’s particular concerns.

CONTACT US for more information on these services.