Many marketers involved in social media management tell me that they struggle to get their subject matter experts engaged in social media. But focusing solely on engagement is the wrong goal. What we should be talking about instead is getting those experts involved in creating ideas.
In an interview this week with Stephanie Tilton (thanks, Stephanie!) on the Savvy B2B Marketing Blog entitled How to Gain Real Traction with Thought Leadership, I talk about how marketers need to create an idea network within their organizations to spur their subject matter experts to start thinking.
Create an idea network as the basis for social media
Marketers need to facilitate a process for internal development of ideas and for external feedback. The combination of internal and external creation and feedback creates friction and competition. Experts need to defend their ideas, get input and collaboration from others, and compete for attention. Here are some examples of how this can work:
Internal
- Knowledge share sessions
- Awards programs
- Primary and secondary research
- Competitive intelligence
External:
- Customer councils
- Collaboration with academics and analysts
- Partnership with trade associations
Creating an idea network helps demonstrate the importance of ideas to the organization. Many companies take it a step farther by making idea development part of employees' annual goals. The high-end consulting firms like McKinsey have done this for years. Ideas are baked into the culture. To rise in the firm, consultants know they need to come up with good ideas and try to get them published.
Marketers need to help create that culture in the company by facilitating the idea process. Companies need to create a platform-and an expectation-that enables subject matter experts to be thinking all the time.
When ideas are an expectation, social media participation is easier
When employees know that they are expected to be thinking-and getting that thinking out into the market-engagement in social media participation becomes easier. They have something to talk about! Social media becomes a great test bed for testing ideas and getting feedback. It also becomes a way to slice up big ideas into more consumable pieces.
What do you think? How are you getting subject matter experts to engage in social media?