Social media is extremely difficult to implement and manage on an organization-wide basis, for three reasons: Social media is new, so best practices, tools and skills continually evolve at a relatively rapid pace, and organizations lack expertise, and tools. This book provides management systems and tools. Successful social media efforts require significant coordination across many functional areas. This book explains how. While most social media tools are free to start, companies that seek meaningful business outcomes need dedicated resources with specialized skills, new roles, in addition to training and policies for employees who interact with external audiences (e.g., sales, customer support, recruiting, billing) These challenges impact the vast majority of people involved in social media efforts, and these are the people we seek to help with this book. This book will help those organizations: Define an organization-wide strategy for social media Empower employees and teams to utilize social media effectively throughout the organization, not just in a single person or department Ensure brand consistency in online conversations Measure the ROI of social media investments and ensure appropriate business value is achieved over time. Train and monitor employees public conversations, avoid lawsuits and comply with new FTC disclosure guidelines Respond to negative customer feedback
