Social Meteor

Building the right social media team is like being an HR recruiter for the team of Super Friends, the Saturday morning cartoon from 1973 to 1986 featuring a cast of superheroes who formed the Justice League of America and COLLECTIVELY faced challenges, mad scientists and (eventually) the Legion of Doom.

Why the Super Friends? Social Media is a team sport — and you want to find the best team possible to meet the challenges and chaos associated with integrating social media into the CULTURE of your business.

It takes a team to change a culture.

Companies like Ford that build their social media program around an individual (like @scottmonty) risk compromising their culture for pseudo celebrity status. In Super Friend terms, these companies are convinced (as many of us were ask kids) that all you need is Superman, the Man of Steel.

“With Superman around there was no point in having anyone else on the team. Name one problem that a bat-shaped boomerang could solve that Superman couldn’t solve in one billionth of the time.”said Super Friends Page Publisher Sean Baby. “Superman had at least 150 powers, and the writers were making up two or three more every episode. If a script called for it, Superman would leak paste out of his ears that can control the weather. His fingernails might cure cancer and create food, he may never remember.” The downside? Kryptonite, that small piece of rock that make Superman useless. Even when you choose a Man of Steel, you’re vulnerable.

Build a team of social media super friends with a good distribution of powers.

Super powers

First, and foremost, social media superfriends are communicators. Good ones. Super communicators. In most companies, you don’t have to look outside. There already among you in areas like corporate communications, marketing, education, customer service and IT and human resources. Find them. The power to communicate comes in different forms: speaking, writing, video, design, technology.  I like to have them all represented on the team.  Some are optional. Writing, technology and video are essential.

Why video? People are using online video at record rates. Online video usage is up by 53 percent in May, 2009, over 2008. The number of people watching video via cell phones is up by an 52 percent. Although online video viewership is still overshadowed by traditional TV (the average American watches online video for 3 hours compared to 153 hours of TV each month), its growing rapidly.  According to YouTube, we’re collectively uploading 20 hours of video a minute to their site alone. When you’re building your social media team, have video covered.

In addition to having the power to communicate, individuals need to have as many of the following characteristics as possible:

• Motivation. Want will accomplish exponentially more than a great communicator? A TEAM of MOTIVATED communicators.  Social media super friends cannot be bound by their job description.  Their work ethic won’t allow it. They roll up their sleeves. They invest their hearts. They make strong contributions individually.  They achieve more collectively than they could alone by learning from each other, and challenging each other to keep pace.
• Diplomacy. Superheros serve many nations. Social Media super friends serve many corporate divisions. You can’t keep them in a silo. Look for individuals have SHOWN the ability to work across traditional corporate boundaries. Don’t take a prospect’s word for it. They need to demonstrate it.
• Evangelism. To successfully change the culture, you need to have many voices that passionately communicate your team’s mission, objectives and contributions. Every social media super friend needs to step up and be the team’s champion when the opportunity arises.
• Experience. Team members need to be proficient in their core discipline (marketing, corporate communications, training, video, interactive media, etc.) so they can strategically apply their skills in social media environments.  Ideally, team members will also have experience navigating your existing corporate culture. And, in-depth knowledge of your company’s products, services and relevance within the industry.
• Problem solving. Team members need the ability assess situations propose/apply appropriate social media tactics and solutions.  This requires the ability to deploy their experience. Their research skills. Their listening skills. It requires the ability to adapt to the needs of each situation.

Each member of the team will contribute a unique perspective, skills set, and blend of super powers.  When you look at the team as a whole, they should compliment each other.  The more diverse your team is, the more complete it is.

Team members must be keenly interested is social media, but hands-on experience isn’t always required — or desirable.  Presumably, you’re reading this article because YOU’VE ALREADY got a baseline understanding of social media. You’ve got atleast the beginning of a vision and you want to build a team that can execute and improve upon it.  Hiring communicators, as described above makes that possible.

Meet The Social Meteorites

Social Meteor has its own team of super friends. The sell-prescribed Social Meteorites further our mission to “Break through and make  an impact using social media.”  When asked to describe their superhero alter-ego, this is how the mild-mannered team responded:

• Buster. Team leader with the ability to enter any fortified or protected location, online community, or conversation. Rarely using stealth, Buster can get his team into any of these locations. Thereafter, he provides backup to the team in the form of strategy. Background: marketing, digital media, programming, PR, social media, strategy and ideation, evangelism
• Elemento. Who needs to leap tall buildings in a single bound when you can adapt and become as tall as one? Elemento wears many hats and can call on his different experiences to meet the needs of his team. Elemento can stretch his body to be 1,000 feet tall – giving his team a much-needed lift during battle. Who needs to leap tall buildings in a single bound when you can grow to be as tall as one?Background: corporate communications, TV production, publishing, field communication and industry knowledge
• Mr. Cog. In perpetual motion, Mr. Cog can simultaneously send intelligence and information to the minds of the team in order to keep a unified approach and keep the team moving in the best direction. Background: corporate communications, design, industry knowledge
• Forsightia. She has the ability to see every element of the business as it related to integrating Marketing efforts, and bring all people together to work toward a common goal. Background: corporate communications, PR, strategic communications, corporate culture
• The Bug. With an ability to infect large groups of people, The Bug can get into your system and infect you with his passion and enthusiasm. Background: corporate education, distance learning, industry knowledge
• Viz. Viz has the ability to visualize and create video and photography to tell a story. From behind the lens, he is naturally a quite observer and a gatherer of information and ideas for the mission at hand. Background: TV production, corporate media, industry knowledge
• Crawler. Formerly an automated bot, Crawler was struck by a social meteor which morphed Crawler into another entity with mysterious powers. Her abilities include scavenging the internet at tremendous speed, searching and indexing relevant information for world wide web execution, recording & analyzing metrics of social activity life on the internet.  Background: technology, social media, programming and design
• Interface. He can communicate with strange APIs to create new and interesting life forms. Interface has an uncanny ability to separate organic matter into its PHP equivalent using the classical Greek elements: model, view, controller and the almighty database.  Background: technology, programming and design
• Optimizer. Driven to provide an optimal customer experience. She leverages events and sponsorships to bring our brand to the people. Background: marketing, events, sponsorships

There isn’t a Superman in the bunch.  That’s ok. Social media isn’t a show of force — it’s a show of voice.  Your team doesn’t need to be a large as mine.  It only needs to be as dedicated. Two or three individuals, working part time on social media initiatives can make a big impact.

Office space

Before building your own team of Social Media Superfriends, make sure to check the terms of your lease. Otherwise, you can get in trouble. Enjoy the case study below, courtesy of Family Guy and Hulu.

• Social media enables marketing ‘by the numbers’ using new data models
• Sweat and dollars: Strong social media programs grow in tight spaces
• Goin’ Mobile: What marketers need to know about short codes and bar codes
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