Chapter 3
Building Enterprise-Wide Engagement Capability
Listening and analysis is not enough. Companies' stakeholder communities want to engage with the organizations with which they are involved. Of course, to do this effectively, employees beyond the marketing department have to be empowered to engage in a variety of digital environments. Given the newness of social destinations and the different rules of engagement that govern them, this requires employees to develop additional skill sets.
For starters, they need to know how to engage successfully and safely and how to do so in what social web users consider a timely manner. To take advantage of the insights gleaned in these conversations, employees throughout the organization also need to know how to funnel their learning back into relevant areas of the organization because customer dialogs don't necessarily follow the delineations of organizational silos. Customer service personnel may end up hearing about new product ideas, just as marketing personnel may learn about the real reason employees left to work for a competitor, and human resources may find itself in discussions about product design flaws.
Finally, employees need to be able to close the loop, explaining to various stakeholder communities what they—and the larger company—have done with the insights that have been provided. This is a critical step. It honors the people within the communities, lets them know that they are appreciated, and keeps them coming back ...
