source: dsearls (http://ow.ly/aZrTc)

I’ve been to enough social media conferences, panels, and events that the statement “Social media cannot live in a silo; it must be integrated” makes me want to poke my eyes out. Speakers like to say this all the time but they don’t ever seem to provide solutions. They want you to convince upper management that departments must work together. Yet they don’t give any advice to attendees who have paid hundreds of dollars to hear them.

I’ll tell you right now that it’s tough to un-silo. This is across the board – not just in corporate settings. SMBs can also have problems integrating social media into their “traditional” marketing plans. The first step is to recognize where your social media program sits and which road you’re going to put that program on. It may be housed in customer service first or marketing or communications. It will change as you move your company’s social media program forward. The road might also change, but that’s why you’re here – you’re the social media director who’s driving the car.

Second step? Talk to people in those various “silo’d” departments. You must make allies. The onus is on you because there is probably no other advocate for a social media program except you at this point. I have to do this every day, even if I get  weird looks from people who consider me inconsequential. Be present.

Third step. What can you do for them? What can they do for you? Sometimes, the only thing that is the barrier is not knowing. They don’t know what you do, they don’t know what you need from them. I’ve been in meetings with clients where I go through a checklist of assets they have, promos they’re planning, archives, existing or future partnerships, and so forth, and the client says, “Oh!” The lightbulb comes on and they begin to see what their existing assets (and future plans) can work within a social media program.

Fourth step. That’s up to you. Rinse and repeat, and then adjust. You’re going to have to show potential ROI and prove ROI. I’m not saying it’s easy. It can be an uphill battle every.single.day. Continue to work with your allies and make more allies. How else will you have buy-in if you physically silo yourself from the rest of the company?

So, what are you going to do? Complain and talk about how everyone is silo’d or are you going to do something about it?

A big thank you goes out to the students of UCLA x425 and to Erik Deutsch for inviting me back to speak.

Check out the student blog posts of my night (my co-panelist was Melissa Robinson of Weber Shandwick):

• A Conversation with Melissa Robinson of Weber Shandwick and Green Dot’s Chris Lam – post by Kimberly Alves (@mskimalves)
• A Conversation with Melissa Robinson of Weber Shandwick and Green Dot’s Chris Lam – post by Kristen Endow (@krispenita7)

Erik interviewed us for his YouTube channel. Here’s the resulting video. (I never said I wasn’t spazzy.)

My co-panelist is Melissa Robinson of Weber Shandwick. We’ll be kicking off the semester so it’ll be a free-for-all Q&A session for students.

Want to see who else will be on-hand for the class this semester? Check it out!

If you’re interested in Erik’s class, visit the UCLA Extension site for more info!

The Eventbrite is up and running. The venue is almost confirmed – just know it’ll be on the Westside. If you’re not an SMCLA member, tickets are only $10!

RSVP HERE: http://socialmediaclubsocialgaming.eventbrite.com/

See you soon!

So get up, stretch, walk down the block and come back. Grab a coworker with you! I just did this yesterday – I booked a meeting with my colleague and we walked around two blocks.

source: http://www.onlineuniversity.net/work-is-murder/

As you know, I come from managing social media for food & beverage, travel & hospitality, and consumer products clients. Switching over to financial services is a new ball of wax. I’m not joking. It’s a regulated industry, and there are a lot more “rules” to follow – not only the internal rules by compliance and legal but the rules by many government organizations that help protect the consumer. That flashy promotion you see on Twitter and Facebook? Probably not going to fly here.

Much of my time at SMSS was spent in sessions with attorney and social media managers presentations on social media in regulated industries. Attorneys!?? Yes.  I found these to be fascinating… and I found myself validated in what I was doing “back home.”

One of the most useful workshops was one held before the official conference started. It was with Orrie Dinstein of GE Capital and Carisa Miklusak of tMedia Strategies on managing social media in a regulated industry. Orrie helped explain regulatory guidelines with the numerous acronymed government groups: FINRA, FTC, CUNA, CARU, CDA, DMCA, Note – FINRA is the most aggressive in publishing guidelines. Ie. They are 10% more hip to social media than the rest, which means they may have a meatier set of guidelines to abide by.

Did you know that if a doctor created a Facebook Page and a patient blasted him on the wall with “Hey Doc, you cut off the wrong leg! You’re a terrible doctor”, the doctor is not allowed to respond, even to denounce that claim (lie or not). If the doctor posts anything in response to that post, even if it was a false claim, the doctor would, of course, violate HIPAA. Do you see why I don’t recommend medical professionals be on social media? You’ve got to be extremely careful what you do when you’re in healthcare.

I found Orrie and Carisa to be refreshing and helpful. Their session confirmed that my strategies and tactics were right on the money at my new workplace. “Regulators don’t understand social media.” That’s ok – that gives us an opportunity to educate them! Part of my time is educating someone at work, be it an email or a “did you know” convo.

Here’s a takeaway that I thought was helpful in designing a guideline for employees at my workplace:

You’ve got to have a set of employee guidelines (or policy -depending on HR) – Just because you ban Facebook on their work computers doesn’t mean they can’t go on via their personal mobile phone. Employees must remember that if they are publicly linked to the company in some way (Twitter profile, FB profile, LinkedIn, etc), then they are bound to conduct themselves appropriately. You’ve got to make sure said employee discloses himself if he decides to post on the company FB page, or you lose that transparency to your audience. Guidelines help employees connect the dots between social/electronic communication to traditional forms of communication that are not allowed. (This would be like having a trader tweet about good stocks or bad stocks. You’d never do that via email or phonecall to your mom, so don’t broadcast it on your social channels.)

Examples of questions to address in your employee social media guidelines:

1. Who can talk on behalf of the company?
2. Who can talk to different audiences?
3. What can they say? Can they create content? Can they use the company logo?
4. How should they identify themselves in your social sphere?

Policy Integration: Help employees understand your employee SM guidelines.

• Sending out an FAQ
• Scripts
• Internal training
• Include in the employee code of conduct

For employees, the things you say or do outside of work that’s not about work can still affect you.

If your company is international, then you’ve got a set of international privacy laws that may also apply. Think about how you or your employees may engage in data transfers via social media.

Other attendees who were in the room worked for: utilities, insurance, healthcare, automotive, universities, pharma and financial services. I have to say, it was nice to know that I wasn’t the only one NOT in consumer products social media.

There were a couple other sessions I found to be useful, and I hope to post my recaps in the next week. Stay tuned!

I’m looking forward to the Legal track as my new job is stuck in a highly regulated industry. I’m also looking forward to a few marketing strategies and community engagement sessions.

The folks who are putting this on is GSMI and their Twitter handle is @gsmionline. Follow along as I tweet with #SMSS.

If you’re in the LA area, I encourage you to join us for our Understanding the Mobile User and the Future of Mobile Tools event. It’ll be held at the ING Direct Cafe in Westwood, right on the corner of Santa Monica and Cotner. You can’t miss it.

Speakers scheduled include:

• David Teichner, CEO of Yowza!! - You may know it as the company that actor Greg Grunberg (of “Lost” and “Heroes” fame) co-founded a few years ago.
• Tim Street, VP of mDialog – These guys offer advertising via streaming on mobile devices. Tim also is a co-host of This Week in Media.
• Patrick Mahoney, VP of Biz Dev and Strategy of Mogreet – The company makes mobile apps and offers advertising via mobile. If you watch Pretty Little Liars, you can register your phone number to receive clues from “A.” That’s a Mogreet campaign. (Neat!)

RSVP here: http://mobilesmcla.eventbrite.com/