Calling all Balanced Scorecard practitioners, here is a generalized Strategy Map for Social Media / Social Business initiatives within your organizations. After having developed the strategic framework for more than 40 companies at Leader Networks, including many large enterprises, we sat down with pen and paper (literally!) and pulled our approach and methodology into a Strategy Map.
(double click image to download)
This is, of course, a generalized Social Media Strategy Map that will need to be adopted to your company's goals and objectives but it is a great starting point for applying the Balanced Scorecard approach to Social Media and Social Business.
For those who are curious, a Strategy Map is " a diagram that is used to document the primary strategic goals being pursued by an organization or management team. It is an element of the documentation associated with the Balanced Scorecard, and in particular is characteristic of the second generation of Balanced Scorecard designs that first appeared during the mid 1990s. The first diagrams of this type appeared in the early 1990s, and the idea of using this type of diagram to help document Balanced Scorecard was discussed in a paper by Kaplan & Norton in 1995 [1]." See the rest of the Wikipedia entry for more information.
There are many strategic tools and frameworks - such as The Lean Enterprise Institute , Six Sigma, Business Process Reengineering and each one has a different, deeply valuable approach to their system. Over the course of time, we will also develop (when appropriate) tools that help support the other premiere management systems. However we started with the Strategy Map because of our work with Palladium Group - run by Drs. Kaplan & Norton- the fathers of the Balanced Scorecard, so needless to say we became quite well versed in the methodology!
No matter what management system your organization embraces, the important thing is to develop strategic intentions for social business and social media. The time has come to expand our understanding and use of social media from marketing tactics alone to a be higher order strategic initiative. What other efforts in your organization have the potential to impact customers, product or service innovation, reduce costs and increase shareholder value? Isn't it about time to start thinking strategically about Social?
Please take this Strategy Map and share it across the C-Suite, improve upon it, adapt it, exercise it and put it to good use - and be sure to share yours with us- you can post it here or share it with us privately ([email protected]) and we would be happy to give you feedback.