Social Media Architecture – At Web 2.0 Expo in New York
Image by Laughing Squid via Flickr
I was happy to hear that my talk on Social Media Architecture was accepted for Web 2.0 Expo in New York. The conference runs October 10th to 13th and is always packed with great speakers, exhibitors and chances to network. This is the abstract that I submitted:
Short Description:
Social media has enormous potential to reshape business but right now corporate use of social media is a mess. With the barriers to creating a social media presence approaching one-click simplicity organizations are developing a vast, disconnected constellation of social media sites. Organizations need a social media architecture.
Abstract:
We need a Social Media Architecture.
Based on field work with several major European and US brands, this talk is about a critical problem facing any organization of size and the methodology we have successfully used to address the problem. In this regard it is (1) based on real and current business needs and (2) very prescriptive.
Take one look at any large brand and you find literally dozens of social sites that lie abandoned with no active engagement. Many are redundant, fracturing the same potential audience into separate, so-called “communities”. Further, the majority of these sites are isolated, without any formal linkage to a brands’ other sites where customers might find value. And the bigger the organization, the bigger the problem. In one recent project we found our client had close to 150 Facebook pages and over 65 YouTube channels and 100 Twitter feeds.
This is unsupportable and counterproductive. While most companies and agencies are still talking about successful on-off initiatives the terms of success are shifting from “pages” and campaigns to coordination and connectivity of customer experience.
The solution is a social media architecture.
A Social Media Architecture is defined as “A structure that brings harmony, utility and durability to the diverse elements of an organization’s social media presence”
A proper Social Media Architecture answers the following questions:
- What is my current blueprint? —Techniques and tips for visualizing your complete social media presence across all platforms
- What communities will I serve? —How to identify unique communities that you can serve.
- What needs will I focus on? —Communities vary, needs do not. Discover the five need states common to all communities and how to prioritize which need states you should focus on.
- What is our “Link and Like” structure? —How to design your social site map so customers can navigate (link) to the communities where they belong (like).
- How do I design for durability? —Paradoxical as it sounds for social media, everyone should be designing for a durable architecture. I will introduce a basic checklist to ensure the architecture remains sound over time.
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