Why doesn’t social media work for some companies? Should some companies just leave it alone for now?   Unfortunately as with all other booms there are an awful lot of people who just get it all WRONG. Why is that? In part 1 of this article we looked at how the limited perspective held by some companies can be a fundamental reason why they can’t get social media to work for them.  We also looked at the problems arising from assuming people will be interested in what you have to say – and considered the impact of a company’s overall marketing mentality on its likelihood of social media success.  To read part 1 of this article in a separate window, click here. 4. They haven’t put the building blocks in place. If they haven’t already opened up to the concept of blogging or treating their website as a functional platform, attempting to jam an effective social media campaign on top isn’t likely to work that well. For one thing, social media activities that don’t drive traffic back towards the company effectively don’t have much benefit, and if there’s nothing interesting to find then the whole initiative will fail. In most cases, the need is for an evolution of thinking first - not a revolution in the tools and channels used for marketing. Companies and in particular their leaders and managers have to reach the point of trusting and believing that this is in fact a brave new world and that it is not just OK but desirable to join it. You can’t do it for them. Until they do, the very idea of opening up and allowing the company’s beliefs, ethics and opinions to show through in the confident knowledge that potential customers and others will resonate with them will never seem a safe strategy. 5. They won’t commit to it properly. This is a very common complaint at the moment, because although many businesses are starting to get the idea that social media might bring them some benefits, they want to ‘just do a bit’ to try it out. This is in part about investing to create the building blocks mentioned above – a website that is more than static brochureware, perhaps. In larger enterprises social media funding is often painfully carved out of the mainstream marketing budget rather than included as a strategic component. They also tend to regard social media in bits and pieces – heavily influenced to try out the things which are currently in the news, rather than properly evaluating the vast range of potential strategic social media tools. When social media activities are simple add-ons to the marketing strategy rather than part of how a company operates, it will slowly but surely seem more and more of an expensive drain of time, effort and resources. 6. They pick the wrong people! The people who drive your social media thinking and in particular those tasked with the responsibility of representing and ‘being’ your brand online really have to have a visceral understanding of the medium. More than that, they have to want to do it, and often need to be allowed the time and space to engage in what many senior managers (if pushed) would admit to thinking is wasting time or working on an activity that is a “nice to have” rather than a business essential. Many businesses start out by allowing a junior to try out Twitter in their spare time – who may be enthusiastic but probably won’t have much of interest to say to their corporate customers. This in itself is considered a risk (because they had a problem with staff wasting time on Facebook last month until they banned it!). They wait and wait – and when they see no immediate business benefit are most likely to decide to can the idea. 7. They let the boss take charge. Some senior executives can of course occasionally feel the excitement and can unleash the resources and funding to make it happen.  Sometimes they even want to get involved. In theory, that’s great – except that they rarely feel it incumbent upon themselves to manage or limit what they say. An over-exuberant CEO can be like a naughty puppy and really need a smack on the nose to shut him or her up - but rarely will you find anyone willing to do so. This kind of activity MUST be linked to the rest of the marketing or communications strategy. Otherwise, operating totally out of the purview of the PR team or marketing director it is an uncontrollable and big risk. For publicly held companies which are used to ensuring that every external communication is carefully examined so as not to create any material imbalance or legal liability, the idea of an unfettered CEO in cyberspace can be a terrifying idea.  Encouraging the CEO to take the right role in a social media strategy can be hugely significant advantage or a massive liability – get it wrong and things can get very nasty indeed. The moral of the story as far as I can see it is that if you’re going to do it: do it properly. You don’t have to spend a fortune – in fact, that’s one of the most compelling things about it – but you do have to commit time, effort and some resources. To derive real benefit, you need to plan, conceive and create the content that is right for the medium. Start small if you want, but recognise that it is going to take time. Manage risk by making sure you have the right people with the right attitude and awareness in place, and make sure it is considered as a real and relevant part of your marketing. Be human and realistic: the world doesn’t revolve around you! Understand that you are not creating a controlled and captured new channel, but opening up your business to thrive in the economy of the future.  Lastly, get that pesky boss under control, because they can either stop you in your tracks or become a liability.   If you can’t do any of that, then perhaps you might be safer to leave social media alone for a while …