Mike Manuel wrote a post, "How to Create a Social Media Monitoring Strategy," earlier this year in which he describes the six step process a company may use for monitoring and engagement within social media.
1) Conversation Discovery
2) Conversation Aggregation
3) Conversation Escalation
4) Conversation Participation
5) Conversation Tracking
6) Conversation Archival
In step three, conversation escalation, Mike mentioned that his agency Voce has built an escalation system. I'd be curious to learn what elements went into that system? In the past I've used the word triage for this part of the process.
The next step participation is probably simple for an agency; however for a brand participation is a little more complex. Who at a company is going to respond? Initially I'd say figuring out who will participate is the most complicated part of the process. You may have a customer service issue posted by a customer online, who responds? Someone in customer service because they know the answer and have the expertise to respond? Or should someone in the PR department respond because responding means posting on a public website, and your company executive is concerned about what appears in public. For some brands deciding who should respond depends upon the delicacy of the customer interaction.
The workflow process for managing social media engagement is very much as Mike describes the process in his six step plan. What's complex for companies is deciding how that process will work for them.
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