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So you want to build a social media command center?

February 27, 2012 | 7 Comments

If you have been in the social media space for a while, you can’t help but have heard of the new shiny toy, called social media command center.  Companies like Dell and Gatorade have had one for a while, and many more are building new ones.

I have been following these developments for the past eighteen months, and for the most part, I see two main objectives for companies wanting to build these persistent capabilities (I am excluding the social media command centers that are set up exclusively for events, like the one built for this year’s Super Bowl): either to create excitement and market social media both internally and externally, and/or to build core social media listening capabilities within their respective organizations.

While I cannot argue against the 2nd objective (i.e., build core social media listening capabilities), I believe that building a dedicated physical space that people can walk by and be awed by / order the beautiful eye-candy charts on your monitors is not the way to go:

  • Social media is not about pretty charts: So what if your Twitter followers have increased 15% from last year, or you now get 15 likes for each of your Facebook posts from India?  How is that helping your business?  I would argue if you are trying to drive change within your organization, a social media command center will not help you in the long-run.  Are you continuing to prolong the hype by showing how social media provides instant gratification, and re-iterating the need for it to be separate from the rest of your business?
  • Social media doesn’t work 9-5:  While some of these facilities are staffed 24×7, I find it somewhat ironic that in 2012, we still have to create physical, and in many cases, time-bound instantiations of something that happens globally and virtually
  • It is impossible for a small team to be intimately connected with the business:  While for many organizations, this is serving as a triage center, I would argue the value of listening can only come from people who know the business, something difficult for a small dedicated team sitting at your headquarters to do.  Unfortunately, the reality is that one of the main reasons why companies build a social media listening command center is because almost every social media listening tool is a complex beast that requires significant training and investment.
  • Need to think through what you are trying to achieve: While I don’t want to underestimate the importance of listening to your core audience, you first and foremost need to understand why and what you are listening for.  While social media has significantly increased the availability of data, with it has come an increased ability for us to be lazy and inundate our internal stakeholders with reams of (not so useful) data.

 

So, what should we be doing instead?

If you are still trying to figure out how social media can help your business, then my advice is simple.  Take the money and resources you have allocated for your social media command center, and instead do the following:

  1. Find an internal partner and work with them to prove the value social media can add to their business.  As I have argued before, this is not easy, but demonstrating how social media drives value for your business, is the best way to ensure adoption.
  2. Invest in social media tools that do not require an army of consultants to deploy and even more investments in the ongoing training of your employees to operate (see this post for more background).

I am now going to set-up my own social media command center to track all the negative sentiment that I am sure this post will generate.  As always, I look forward to the debate and your comments.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. david k waltz says

    February 27, 2012 at 17:55

    Ted,

    Eye candy is marketing too, they might need that to get the internal partners required for the solution you recommend.

    That being said, there is something quite ironic about the fact that something as virtual as social media requires a bricks and mortar solution.

    Reply
    • Ted Sapountzis says

      February 28, 2012 at 23:18

      David, thanks. I have no issues with marketing – I am a marketer:-), all I am saying is that there are better ways to spend our (hard earned) money.

      Reply
  2. Dr. Janice Presser says

    February 28, 2012 at 12:59

    My social media solution consists of trying low-effort/high potential of fun (for me) interactive venues, like Quora and tweetchats, until I can gauge the level of people I’m interacting with in terms of their interest and likelihood to become a customer, partner, or referral source. If there’s sufficient, coherent traffic, I stay with it. If not, on to the next. LinkedIn varies, depending on the group, so I’ve stayed with it, tweaking my participation.

    Interact, leave, or tweak by results, and don’t pay for it.

    I think I just confirmed both 1 and 2 for you, Ted, so don’t bother setting up that negative command center just for me…

    Reply
    • Ted Sapountzis says

      February 28, 2012 at 23:16

      Janice, thank you. Although I was not explicitly referring to the use of social for our ‘personal’ brands, I am glad to hear my thoughts are applicable there as well. I really like your elegant suggestion: interact, leave or tweak…

      Reply
  3. Dennis says

    May 10, 2012 at 05:13

    it does not matter you do it in a jazzy place or a plain old room, does not matter if the tv size is 52 inch panel or a 15 inch monitor, the core need here is Listening to the chatter and making sense out of it.

    but remember little bit jazz does not hurt, it gathers the required attention, gets you the eyeballs and tells the world you are serious about it. all else is marketing

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Dell disbands its social media team | NextPrinciples says:
    April 1, 2013 at 04:57

    […] of the poster children of companies that ‘got’ social media; heck, they even built one of the first social media command centers. It is no more however.  According to Michael Dell on a front-page […]

    Reply
  2. Dell disbands its Social Media team | Lead, Don't Manage says:
    April 1, 2013 at 05:21

    […] of the poster children of companies that ‘got’ social media; heck, they even built one of the first social media command centers. It is no more however.  According to the words of Michael Dell on a […]

    Reply

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