One of the topics I didn't cover in last week's columns about social media is who gets to do it.
It's one thing to come up with a strategic plan but it's another to actually designate someone to post on a regular basis.
Before deciding on the "who," it is important to understand that effective social media means doing it on a regular basis - whether it is every day or four or five times a week. In many respects, social media is a lot like going to the gym - it is better and easier to do it on a regular basis as opposed to working out like a fiend for a couple of weeks, and then taking two weeks off.
Once you understand the level of commitment, you can figure out the person who can handle the job. For small businesses, it may be the person most comfortable with writing and marketing, which could be anyone from the boss to the salesperson who happens to have a lot to say.
For larger companies, social media usually falls to the public relations or marketing departments. In many cases, someone is designated as the "social media person," and a few hours of their time each day is allocated to social media.
If your company is fortunate enough to have someone who can handle social media on a full-time basis, or you can hire someone, here's some advice: hire a person with solid experience as opposed to someone with little experience but lots of enthusiasm for Twitter or Facebook.
The key reason is that a social media person fills multiple roles as he or she goes about establishing a stronger corporate digital footprint. This includes marketing, public relations, customer service, business development, sales and investor relations. The last thing you want is someone who does not have the experience to effectively handle these roles.
No matter the size of your company, social media can play a key role in your communications, marketing and sales efforts. As result, it is important to make sure that you have someone committed to the cause, and able to wear different hats depending on what arises within the social media landscape.
Special to the Globe and Mail
Mark Evans is a principal with ME Consulting, a content and social media strategic and tactical consultancy that creates and delivers 'stories' for companies looking to capture the attention of customers, bloggers, the media, business partners, employees and investors. Mark has worked with three start-ups - Blanketware, b5Media and PlanetEye - so he understands how they operate and what they need to do to be successful. He was a technology reporter for more than a decade with The Globe and Mail, Bloomberg News and the Financial Post. Mark is also one of the co-organizers of the mesh, meshUniversity and meshmarketing conferences .