Megan Hjulfors, ARC Resources Ltd.
“How do you get management buy-in for social media?” This is the most common question our IR team receives in relation to social media. When I started at ARC Resources Ltd. over three years ago, one of my first assignments was to develop ARC’s social media program. Admittedly, I am one of the lucky few who got to skip the step of picketing management’s door and was able to get straight to the task of figuring out how social media could be used in a way that was relevant to ARC and its audience. We have built our social media program up over time, at first taking baby steps and slowly adding more platforms and content. In this article I will share the steps we took to get the program going, maintain buy-in and build support across the C-Suite.
The key to securing social media buy-in is information. I have found that most executives who are skeptical about social media are so because they are afraid of the unknown. How much time will it take? How will we handle comments? What type of content will we post? If you can address these issues and educate on the medium, your chances of success will be much higher.
Build Your Case
The underlying question you need to be able to answer is how social media can be used to more effectively tell your company’s story. Do your research. Provide a view of what is already being said online about your company and where the conversations are taking place. Compile peer benchmarking to show which of your peers are active on social media and how they are using it. Identify your key audiences and their primary communication needs. From here you should be able to clearly define your key objectives and to articulate why social media is a useful tool to reach them. Remember that social media is one wedge of your greater communication strategy. Like a talented character actor, it serves a great supporting purpose, bringing energy and life to the story, but should never take the leading role.
Create a Detailed Plan
If you are like me, the thought of spending hours outlining policy and procedures isn’t a particularly exciting task. However, it will be the most important step you take in securing buy-in and ultimately getting a social media program up and running. I have seen a wide range of social media plans, from stringent policies that are heavy in legal language to utilitarian action plans. You will know which will best serve your company. No matter the format of the document, the following areas must be addressed:
Internal Controls. By developing clear roles and responsibilities around social media use you will build confidence in the plan. Document who will have access to platforms, where the passwords are stored and what the process will be for content approval. It is important to design these processes with the responsive and fast moving nature of social media in mind. It is not realistic to have a process that takes a day or two to approve a tweet. Be descriptive about rules when it comes to content. For example many companies, including ARC, have a rule that external social media posts must link back to a source document on the company’s website. Social media communication must be treated the same as any email, phone call or meeting – all of the rules outlined in your disclosure policy should apply.
Strategic Action Plan. Create strategy around what platforms you will use and how you will use them. When we began our social media program at ARC, the original action plan included three progressive phases of engagement. The first phase included only Facebook and Twitter and we began by only tweeting news releases. Eventually, as we gained comfort, we expanded to more platforms and worked to create more engaging content. An important part of social media strategy that is often overlooked is whom you will follow. This should be just as deliberate as content creation – as they say, ‘you are judged by the company you keep’. Finally, your plan should include mandates like how frequently you will post. This is important because consistency is key and as things get busy, having this in writing will help you stick to your plan.
Handling Comments. The biggest fears attached to social media are how to respond to unwelcome comments or defamatory remarks. You will come across comments or posts that you wish would just go away, and you have to be prepared to respond. Build policy surrounding how the company will handle these instances. Oddly enough, in my experience, by acknowledging that this is likely to happen and being prepared for it, you will build confidence in your plan and your ability to execute it.
Report Results
If I could give only one piece of advice to someone starting out on social media, it would be to find a mechanism to report your results. In my experience, this has been the most effective way to maintain buy-in and build additional support across the organization. Social media can be difficult to quantify, but make an effort to provide reporting beyond measuring ‘clicks’ and ‘likes’ and to provide context to the results. Has traffic to your website increased? Are visitors spending more time on certain content? At ARC, we produce a monthly Social Media Report that provides results, including monthly website traffic, most viewed content and increases in followers. When we started out, the report included a Social Media in the News and Industry Benchmarking section. The report helped to build an understanding beyond our department of why ARC’s social media program was relevant and how we stacked up against our peers. As we began expanding our program and asking our senior executives to participate in things like quarterly videos, having built a basic understanding of the value of social media and having the results to back up our conviction was critical. An additional bonus of preparing the report is it keeps our team up to speed on new trends and helps generate ideas to keep our program fresh.
By conducting research to build your case, creating a detailed plan and reporting your results, securing and maintaining management buy-in should be as straightforward as updating your Facebook profile.
Megan Hjulfors is Investor Relations Advisor at ARC Resources Ltd. in Calgary.