What questions should every CEO ask their CMO about social media?
Questions I've been asked so far:
- How does our social media strategy layer into our key business objectives?
- What metrics are we using to determine the effectiveness of our efforts?
- Is there a clear path or strategy in place to monetize our social channels in some way, shape, or form?
- Do we have the right internal and external resources to effectively meet the needs of every consumer who's taking the time to interact with our social media presence?
If the answer to that last question is no, then you've got a problem.
What are your thoughts?
Hi Cassidy, the questions you listed are fantastic. I would probably add:
What are you using to focus your attention?
Particularly in the SME sphere, one of the biggest killers of social media efforts I've seen is waning motivation to find great content. A great way to combat this is by having, for example, a monthly focus- or anything that helps them give direction for their content.
How are you going to learn?
From what time of day you are posting to the wording of questions, there is always something that can improve your posts if you pay attention. Is the social media team paying attention? If so, where?
Will we be able to consistently add useful information to the social sites?
Can we ensure the quality of the information (no typos etc)?
Who will be in charge of all this?
Who will have access (on our side)?
What can we do if we get after hours spammy, hateful, trolls?
Hi Cassidy,
The CEO should have the big vision on top as to where s/he wants the company to go. Only then will the questions be relevant because the answers should feed back into your decision making process.
Eg. If you want to tackle the consumer market to increase profits and your CMO says "ok let's use social media" then your question might be "how much does social media add to our profit line?"
Along the line you should also define the key metrics that lead to success (the profit)....what we call the signals (all the other steps in between and before the success)...that help you decide whether or not it's traveling in the right direction.
All of the questions above from the other members are relevant, and relevant to the extent that you've already set your goals, necessary outcomes, success and signal measures.
All the best.
