How Many People Should Write For Your Corporate Social Media Program?
June 15, 2010
I was reading one of my posts from June 2004, "Many Voices, One Company," about my interview with John Dowdell from Macromedia on multiple authors for blogs.
I wrote, "John stated that "the group speaks for itself on the company's website". A company is a collection of different voices. Perhaps by empowering more employees by giving them blog tools. The chance that one voice will dominate the groups (company's) voice is diminished."
Yet when I think of the successful social media programs like Dell, Microsoft, Comcast and Ford strong individuals rise to the top. Other programs like Best Buy or General Motors are certainly more focused on getting more employee voices in the community.
I think the answer to the question is one voice better than many? Is it depends upon, the company, the individual and the audience.
To illustrate here are five advantages for many voices or one voice in social media:
- Many people can produce more content.
- Lots of content does not necessarily mean consistent or themed content.One individual will keep the same themes in their content.
- One person can easily represent a brand or an aspect of the brand.
- Especially for large companies, it is not always possible for one person to have the sort of coverage in social media that's needed, in terms of building relationships and understanding the industry. Many employees can build a lot of relationships and cover the whole industry.
- Having many people puts reduces the danger of losing your presence in social media if an individual leaves the company.