Social Media Primer Part 6 - from the SMinOrgs S.M.A.R.T. Blog

Social Media Primer Part 6: Human Capital Management Challenges Leave No (Rosetta) Stone Unturned Social Media in Organizations (SMinOrgs) S.M.A.R.T.* Blog *Social Media And Related Technologies Click here to read the full blog entry that corresponds with this SlideShare version

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Introduction
One of the interesting paradoxes of social media is that its biggest impact is human rather than technological.
As people adopt and leverage social media, their personal, consumer, and professional lives are changed in significant ways.
The human impact of social media is not limited to individuals, however. The human capital that drives organizations will also be transformed significantly as organizations continue to incorporate new digital technologies into their operations.
This part of the primer builds on these ideas by discussing specific human capital challenges.
The first section provides an overview of some of the ways in which organizations will have to change various aspects of how they manage their human capital as social media technologies become more fully integrated into their operations.
The second section demonstrates some of the specific issues an organization may have to address via a case study using the publicly-held company, Rosetta Stone .

HCM Issues Addressed in Primer
Human capital issues associated with the rise in social media have been addressed in previous parts of this primer:
Part 2 discussed ways in which 2.0 technologies can be leveraged to upgrade and transform various intra-organizational processes, such as knowledge management, the intranet, and human capital management (including communications).
Part 3 identified four mental shifts organizational leaders need to make to thrive in the social media era, including recognizing that the balance of power between them and their employees is shifting, embracing a more egalitarian set of cultural and operational values, and changing their perspective on productivity.
Part 4 highlighted the importance of an organization’s values in determining social media success, including human capital values such as employee engagement, trust, and transparency.
Part 5 addressed the issue of resource allocation, noting that the engines of social media are fueled by the time, effort, and expertise of human beings. Organizations need to allocate human resources to their social media initiatives and give them the space and support they need to be successful.

Human Capital Management Challenges
As noted in previous parts of the primer, leaders must take strategic ownership of social media.
From a human capital perspective, this means consciously considering its impact on their organization’s human resources, and planning for that impact over both the short and longer terms.
In particular, they will need to consider potential changes to
Human capital strategy
Organizational structure
Staffing
Job design
Training and development
Performance management
Compensation

Strategy and Structure I
Even with a global recession, the rise in social media has already created a proliferation of new job titles at all levels. As social media applications continue to grow, we will see more positions specifically focused on social media.
In determining whether to add social media positions to their organizations, leaders will have to address the relevance of these positions in meeting the organization’s strategic objectives, as well as whether and how organizational structures should be modified to accommodate them.
Questions to be addressed include the following:
Who “owns” social media?
Should social media evolve as a separate function or be integrated into existing functions? What’s the best way to manage the interdisciplinary and intra-disciplinary aspects of social media initiatives?
How high up in the hierarchy should the “chief” social media leader be?
What functions and/or departments are likely to be impacted by the increased use of social media? Where will the new jobs need to be?
Where should social media leaders and staffers report?

Strategy and Structure II
In addition to planning for new positions, leaders will also need to reevaluate existing functions and positions to determine their ongoing strategic relevance. It is likely that the addition of headcount in certain areas will be accompanied by reductions in headcount in others.
The more social media is viewed as an integral part of how an organization functions, the more organizational leaders will have to consider its impact on all aspects of operations, not just certain areas.
Questions to be addressed include the following:
How will existing functions and/or departments be transformed by the increased implementation of social media technologies?
What existing functions and/or departments will become less strategically relevant as our social media initiatives increase?
Which existing jobs will be transformed? Which existing jobs are likely to go away?
How does social media enable us to operate more efficiently, and what impact will that increased efficiency have on our current structure and positions?

Staffing and Job Design
In staffing for new positions, organizational leaders will have to determine things like
How many positions are necessary
How job duties should be defined
Required knowledge, skills, and abilities
Relevant prior experiences
The criteria for selecting the best candidates.
Similar questions will have to be addressed for positions that are not primarily focused on social media but will be transformed by changes in digital technology over time. The necessary knowledge, skills and abilities, as well as the job requirements themselves, will have to be modified to reflect social media technologies and expectations.
Staffing challenges are complicated by the fact that the transition to 2.0 operations will be gradual, potentially requiring organizations to run parallel systems.
In the short run, organizations may need to add more staff to accommodate new functions and responsibilities while retaining existing staff to maintain traditional systems.
Once the transition is complete, overall headcount should end up decreasing because the organization will be able to accomplish more things with fewer people.
The risk, however, is that organizations will not make the necessary cuts, which could lead to bloat, which in turn will create inefficiency and impaired financial performance.

Training and Development
As jobs change to incorporate more 2.0 elements, employees will need to increase their proficiency with digital technology.
All staff will need to be trained in social media, both generally and in terms of the specific applications and platforms used by an organization.
In addition to knowing how to leverage the social media tools that are directly related to fulfilling their own duties, they will need to understand how social media is being used in other related areas and by the organization as a whole.
Their knowledge and skills should be refreshed and upgraded on an ongoing basis.
In addition to understanding the social media requirements for their staffs, managers will need to understand social media and its strategic importance to achieving the organization’s mission, as well as the tactical ways in which it can improve their group’s efficiency and effectiveness.
Everyone will need to be trained on the organization’s social media policies and procedures, to be sure they understand the rights and responsibilities of both employees and managers/the organization.
This training should also be provided on an ongoing basis, to reinforce key concepts and to reflect the fact that the “rules of the game” are constantly evolving as the technology evolves.

Performance Management
As job requirements and responsibilities change, so will the standards by which employees’ job effectiveness is judged and measured.
Performance management systems will have to be updated to adequately and accurately match newly expected knowledge, skills and behaviors.
Managers will need to understand the new ways in which they should evaluate the success of their staff in achieving objectives.

Compensation
Changes in job responsibilities may necessitate a reevaluation of pay, whether those changes result in more work or different work.
In certain areas (e.g., customer service, HR), there may be fewer people meeting the needs of their user population, but the needs they have to address will be more complex.
Organizations may have to increase the compensation for these positions to reflect their increased sophistication. Similarly, the criteria used to determine variable pay for certain positions may have to change to reflect the new performance metrics created by social media.

Case Study: Rosetta Stone
The points above can be illustrated by studying a real organization that is in the early stages of making a strategic commitment to social media.
The search began in the jobs section of Mashable.com in mid April 2010 and focused on non-technical, internal social media positions.
Rosetta Stone was searching for a Social Media Manager . The Mashable post was linked to a listing on CareerBuilder.com , which also included a number of other positions at all levels throughout the organization.
10 of the 70+ jobs listed on CareerBuilder.com were selected to illustrate the human capital challenges leaders will face as social media becomes more fully integrated into their organizations. These jobs, which are listed on the next slide, were grouped into categories based on the descriptions provided in the ads and the information provided on Rosetta Stone’s website .

Rosetta Stone Positions
Information Technology
VP and Chief Information Officer
Social Media
Social Media Manager
Social Media Lead
Social Media Contributor
Customer Success
Director of Customer Success
Customer Success Data Analyst
Institutional Sales and Marketing
Inside Sales Manager - Corporate
Consumer Sales and Marketing
Senior Manager, Consumer Marketing
Online Marketing Manager
Inbound Telesales Manager
Click here for the complete sample of jobs and notes about the job postings

About Rosetta Stone
Rosetta Stone (RS) is a publicly-held company that provides “technology-based solutions for learning languages.” Based in Virginia, it operates in several countries and targets four markets: personal, organizations, schools, and home school. It has 1300 employees and prides itself on being progressive and employee focused, with a positive and dynamic culture.
RS has already made an external commitment to social media. It has a Twitter account (@ RosettaStoneJob ) and two Facebook pages: one for learners and one to serve its recruitment efforts . Recently, it has increased its commitment to social media by forming a Social Media team to be led by a Social Media Manager (the job I saw on Mashable.com). It has also created a Social Media Lead as part of its newly-created Customer Success department .
You can learn more by visiting Rosetta Stone’s website .

The Rosetta Stone Case Study
Based on a brief review of the company’s website, its social media platforms, and the job ads referenced previously, several comments and questions in the following areas come to mind:
Strategy and structure
Staffing and job design
Training and development
Performance management
Compensation
Disclaimers:
I have no first-hand knowledge of Rosetta Stone. I have never used their products, I know no one who has worked for them, and I have never provided my services to them.
The comments and questions I provide below are based on the limited information I accessed on the internet.
My assessment is not intended to be a critique of Rosetta Stone’s management or operations. I selected the company and the jobs simply for illustrative purposes.

Strategy and Structure I
Is there an integrated strategy for pursuing social media initiatives from an external perspective? It appears that RS may be pursuing social media relatively independently within its Customer Success , Institutional Sales and Marketing and Consumer Sales and Marketing departments, as well as across various platforms and channels (e.g., web, TV, social media).
To what extent has RS considered the ways in which social media will support a global audience? Do their plans, for example, extend to social networks beyond Facebook and Twitter, and will they be supported in multiple native languages?
Has RS created a set of policies and procedures to guide their social media efforts?

Strategy and Structure II
Where does the Social Media team report? Who is its champion? Based on the other job titles, the Social Media Manager position appears to be relatively low to be responsible for RS’s social media strategy. What exactly will the team and the manager focus on – Marketing? Customer service?
What are the differences between the Social Media Manager and the Social Media Lead in the Customer Success department ? Are both positions necessary? How will their efforts be integrated?
Is there a C-level executive who has overall responsibility for social media at RS? Should there be a Chief Social Media Officer ?

Strategy and Structure III
Does the newly-created Customer Success department focus on learners from all markets? If so, how will social media be leveraged to achieve the department’s goals relative to success with learners from these different groups?
What is the strategic relevance of TV ads with respect to RS’s future social media efforts? How long will this advertising channel continue to rate a Senior Manager to head it up, relative to other marketing/advertising channels?
Similarly, how strategically important is it going forward to emphasize SEM/SEO (see Online Marketing Manager position) relative to other metrics and analytics that better reflect the firm’s future social media initiatives.

Staffing and Job Design I
Although the CIO job description is very detailed, there is no mention of social media in it. What are the expectations for the CIO with respect to RS’s social media efforts?
The job descriptions for Director of Customer Success , Senior Manager, Consumer Marketing , and Online Marketing Manager also do not mention social media. How will the leaders in these positions incorporate social media into their responsibilities?
Should Customer Success Data Analysts be specifically required to have familiarity with social media monitoring tools (e.g., Radian6, Biz360) in addition to web analytics packages? Should they have strong knowledge of social media platforms?

Staffing and Job Design II
Job design issues for sales and customer service employees:
As RS increases its use of social media, prospective and current customers will become more proficient and self-sufficient at obtaining answers to their basic questions by using on-line help features, FAQs, and user forums.
As a result, the volume of calls to the sales and customer service groups will likely decrease, but they are likely to be more complex.
That means that the sales and customer service jobs will become more sophisticated, requiring them to understand the organization’s products and services much better.
They may also interact with customers using social media tools themselves, such as chat features and discussion forums, as well as leveraging other tools such as wikis, which means they must have strong social media skills.
As RS seeks to fill new positions in all areas, they should review the job specifications to make sure they properly reflect what the firm’s expectations are with respect to social media, both in terms of job requirements and key duties and responsibilities.

Training and Development I
Managers in the Customer Success , Institutional Sales and Marketing and Consumer Sales and Marketing departments will need to understand social media and its strategic importance to achieving RS’s mission, as well as the tactical ways in which it can improve their efficiency and effectiveness.
All staff in these departments will need to be trained in social media, both generally and in terms of the specific applications and platforms used by RS.
In addition to knowing how to leverage the social media tools that are directly related to fulfilling their own duties, they will need to understand how social media is being used in other related areas.
Their knowledge and skills should be refreshed and upgraded on an ongoing basis.

Training and Development II
The increased complexity of the jobs in the Customer Success , Institutional Sales and Marketing and Consumer Sales and Marketing departments could necessitate an increased need for training in conflict resolution. Because they will be dealing with more frustrated customers/users who have escalated their issues to the “human level,” these staff will need to enhance their ability to deal with difficult situations and resolve conflicts in effective ways, using all communication channels.
Both managers and staff should also be given specific training about their social media rights and responsibilities.

Performance Management
As social media becomes more fully integrated into various roles within the Customer Success , Institutional Sales and Marketing and Consumer Sales and Marketing departments, the ways in which performance is measured will have to be updated to match the newly expected knowledge, skills and behaviors.
Managers will probably need to receive training to understand the new ways in which they should evaluate the success of their staff in achieving objectives.

Compensation
As the nature of customer-facing positions changes and becomes more complex, RS may find that it needs to increase the compensation for these positions to reflect their increased sophistication.
Variable compensation for sales agents and others may also need to change to reflect the changes in job duties and performance metrics brought about by social media.

But Wait – There’s More!
The analysis above was primarily focused on the impact of social media on externally facing departments and their staffs. But, as discussed in part 2 of the primer , social media will also have a significant impact on internal functions as well.
Some questions that come to mind relative to the intra-organizational implications and applications of social media include the following:
How is RS leveraging social media internally? Who is responsible for that?
How will social media be leveraged in departments like International Development , Technology and Labs , Human Resources , Product Development and Operations ?
What are the human capital issues resulting from the intra-organizational application of social media in these departments? Have the internal social media initiatives created any new positions? If so, where? And what are they?

Conclusion
The point of the Rosetta Stone case study is not to critique their approach to incorporating social media into their operations.
They should be commended for being a relatively early adopter and embracing social media’s potential.
They have already addressed many if not most of the questions and issues raised.
The illustration is intended to demonstrate how important it is for organizational leaders to raise strategic and tactical questions about their social media efforts as early as possible.
Even if they’re not able to answer the questions right away, or if they choose to wait to see how things change before making decisions, there is tremendous value in identifying the questions and issues and having them be salient as the organization moves forward.
Both the questions and answers will morph over time, but having a strong sense of the strategic and tactical issues early on puts leaders and their organizations in a much stronger position to navigate the necessary changes.

Previous Primer Parts
Part 1: What is this “Fire” of Which You Speak? (clarifies the distinctions between social media, web 2.0, and social networking)
Full blog post
SlideShare version
Part 1a: What is Your SMQ (Social Media Quotient)? (discusses the “fast and fun” SMQ (Social Media Quotient) quiz I created in the fall of 2009)
Full blog post
SlideShare version
Part 2: The Juggernaut is Bigger than You Think! (discusses some of the intra-organizational applications of social media)
Full blog post
SlideShare version
Click here or on the icon below to go to the blog to see all entries

Previous Primer Parts
Part 3: Reality Check – Four Mental Shifts Organizational Leaders Need to Make (discusses the mental shifts necessary to accept digital era realities and move forward with social media)
Full blog post
SlideShare version
Part 4: Ante Up – Organizational Factors Relevant to Joining the Social Media Game (discusses organizational/workforce characteristics to consider in deciding whether and how to move forward with social media initiatives)
Full blog post
SlideShare version
Part 5: You Can’t Outsource Leadership (discusses how leaders can prepare themselves to provide social media leadership in their organizations, not just in the short term, but over the long haul)
Full blog post
SlideShare version

Coming Soon to SlideShare …
11 Lessons about Digital Communities from Rome – A Photo Essay (using Rome as a metaphor for virtual communities, provides insights into the factors that should be considered when building, maintaining, and participating in digital communities)
Full blog post
The Early Bird May Get the Worm, but the Brave Bird Gets ... the Fries?!?! (discusses the importance of taking calculated risks to achieve goals, and the costs associated with risk aversion)
Full blog post

For Further Information and/or Help Courtney Shelton Hunt Principal, Renaissance Strategic Solutions Founder, Social Media in Organizations (SMinOrgs) Community 312.225.3365 (O) 312.752.7418 (M) [email_address] [email_address]

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Social Media Primer Part 6 - from the SMinOrgs S.M.A.R.T. Blog

by Social Media in Organizations on Aug 08, 2010

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Social Media Primer Part 6 - from the SMinOrgs S.M.A.R.T. Blog — Presentation Transcript