[report] social media education for employees, by charlene li and ed terpening

By Charlene Li and Ed TerpeningWith Christine Tran

Includes input from 13 managers of corporate social media education programs, as well as data from Altimeter Group’s 2012 and 2013 survey of digital strategists

A Best Practices Report

Social Media Education for Employees:Reduce Social Media Risk and Activate Employee Advocacy for Scale — How Leading Companies Prepare Employees for Social Media Success

December 5, 2013

Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States | © 2013 Altimeter Group | 1

Executive SummaryThe average corporate social business program was established more than three years ago, and dedicated social media staff now span at least 13 departments.1 Yet those without “social” in their title — from the functional manager to the subject matter expert — often lack an understanding of the organization’s social business strategy, let alone how to use social media safely or effectively.

No policy or guideline alone can ever be comprehensive enough to anticipate every potential social media scenario. Employees need to be prepared for the inevitable “gray areas” created by the fast-changing social media space. As Amy Heiss, who leads Dell’s global social training and activation program, told us: “There’s no one clear example. Employees need to be trained to expect the unexpected and use their better judgment when engaging online.”

In 2013, 43% of companies identified internal social media education as a top social business priority, while only 38% indicate having such a program in place, or in progress. Through interviews with companies such as ARAMARK, RadioShack, and Kaiser Permanente, Altimeter Group has identified a four-component, roles-based approach to help organizations design their education strategy and curriculum — and a checklist of action steps to launch, and scale, this business program.

With a social media education program in place, companies can achieve two primary business objectives: 1) reduce social media risk, and 2) activate employees for engagement and advocacy.

Methodology

Altimeter Group conducted both qualitative and quantitative analyses, using a combination of online surveys, interviews, and briefings on corporate social media education. This included:

• Interviews with 13 managers of corporate social media education programs. Altimeter conducted these interviews between February and June 2013.

• Quantitative study of 130 executives and social strategists at companies with more than 1,000 employees, conducted online during Q4 2012 by Altimeter Group.

• Quantitative study of 65 digital strategists at companies with more than 500 employees, conducted online during Q2 2013 by Altimeter Group.


Table of Contents

Establishing Social Media Education Is a Top Priority ..............................................................................................................3

Social Media Education Achieves Two Primary Business Objectives ...............................................................................31. Safety: Protect the Company and Employees from Social Media Risk .....................................................................................32. Activation: Scale Employee Use of Social Media for Engagement or Advocacy ....................................................................4

Base Your Social Media Education Strategy On Four Roles ..................................................................................................5Component One: Social Media Policy Training for All Employees Should Strive to Impart Judgment .................................6Component Two: Social Media Introduction Enables Employees to Become Advocates in Social Media .........................6Component Three: Social Media Practitioner Development (SMP) Drives Business Impact ...................................................7Component Four: Executive Education Focuses on Driving Business Results with Social Media ........................................7

Checklist: 10 Action Steps for a Social Media Education Program ....................................................................................8

Scaling and Advancing Your Social Media Education Program ........................................................................................ 13

Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................................................................... 13

Appendix ....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 14

Ecosystem Input ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 15

About Us ....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 16


Establishing Social Media Education Is a Top Priority

The average corporate social business program was established more than three years ago.2 Yet as social business efforts permeate the enterprise, those without “social” in their titles often lag in understanding of the corporate social business strategy, let alone know how to use social media safely or effectively.

The need for employee education on social media becomes apparent as social business programs formalize and mature. More than 60% of companies report having no program or only ad hoc social media education programs (see Figure 1.1). Yet when asked about their top internal objectives, developing social media education was the second most important priority for most organizations, with 43% of companies planning to develop internal education and training this year, and nearly a quarter of companies planning to connect employees directly with social tools (see Figure 1.2).

Social Media Education Achieves Two Primary Business Objectives

For this report, Altimeter interviewed 13 managers of best-in-class corporate social media education programs and also surveyed companies in two online surveys. In our research, we found that companies develop internal social media education programs to achieve two primary business objectives: 1) reduce social media risk, and 2) activate employees for engagement and advocacy.

1. Safety — Protect the Company and Employees from Social Media Risk

A constant spate of social media crises (Applebee’s, Taco Bell) serves as the foundational justification for social media education.3 These risks are compounded as social media savvy Millennials enter the workforce and social media-enabled devices proliferate the workplace.4 In fact, 52% of organizations surveyed reported that they had experienced at least one social media incident or violation of the corporate social media policy in the past 12 months (see Figure 2.1). It is also very likely that the number of incidents is much higher than reported, as companies may not actively monitor employee accounts and employees protect their accounts from employers through privacy controls.

62% of Companies Have No Social Media Education Program, Yet It's a Top Priority

Source: Altimeter Group's Survey of Digital Strategists, Q4 2012 (n=130) and Q2 2013 (n=65)

Fig. 1

Q. “In 2013, what are your top three internal social strategy objectives?” (Select up to three choices.)

Create metrics that demonstratethe value of social media

Develop internaleducation and training

Scale our social program

Connect social data to other enterprise data sources to deliver actionable insight

Connect employeeswith social media

48%

43%

40%

33%

23%

None, or ad hoc efforts only

In progress to, or already formalized

38%62%

Q. “Do you currently have a formal social media education program?”

Fig. 1.1 Fig. 1.2


While many companies start with a social media policy as the basis for their education program, the policy itself is typically a legal document buried in new hire manuals or an annual ethics/compliance course. Amy Heiss, Global Lead for Social Training & Activation at Dell, observed, “As great as our policy is, we knew no one was going to read through a lengthy legal document.” Our data supported this finding: While 85% of companies have a corporate social media policy,5 only 18% of companies said that their employees’ knowledge about social media usage and the social media policy was “good” or “very good” (see Figure 2.2).

Employees need guidance and guardrails on social media usage, especially as personal and professional profiles and activities increasingly intersect online. In our interviews, social media education managers told us that this type of education helps safeguard 1) the company, against social media risk that can result in brand damage or even revenue loss; and just as importantly, 2) employees, from penalties as severe as termination.

2. Activation: Scale Employee Use of Social Media for Engagement or Advocacy

At the other end of the spectrum, social media education is deployed to empower employees as advocates and scale the social business program across the enterprise.6 But a dedicated social media team can’t respond to the rising volume of customer demands in social channels. And, already companies average 131 social media accounts, with new accounts and platforms being added at a rapid pace.7

To help with this, some companies are turning to their employees — from rank-and-file employees to subject matter experts to executives — and equipping them with the skills needed to effectively engage with customers in social media. Even those with official social media responsibilities require ongoing education to learn new platforms and features, as well as hone their skills set.

For example, RadioShack’s goal is to give associates enough social media skills to advocate on behalf of the brand. Cosmin Ghiurau, Director, Social Media & Digital Strategy at RadioShack, shared: “We’re a 90-plus-year-old company. We have some employees who have been here 40 years. The end result is that we want more associates to use social media, know how to work with the social media team to create content, and share our content on their personal social channels with the right guard rails in place. If only 1% of our current 34,000 employees participated and became ambassadors, we’d have an extended social team of 340.”

Knowledge Level and Violations of Organizational Social Media PoliciesFig. 2

Fig. 2.1 Fig. 2.2

Source: Altimeter Group's Survey of Digital Strategists, Q4 2012 (n=130) and Q2 2013 (n=65)

Very Goodor Good

Fair

Very Pooror Poor

45%

37%18%

No incidents

1-5 incidents

6-10 incidents

11-25 incidents

More than 25 incidents

49%

43%

5%

1%

3%

Q. “In the last 12 months, how often has there been an incident where an employee in your organization violated your internal, organizational social media policy?”

Q. “What are employees' knowledge level of the organization's social media policy?”


Employee activation not only increases the volume but also the quality of engagement and advocacy. At World Wildlife Fund UK, for example, those with the best stories to share on social media are its conservationists, who are in the field doing work that directly supports the organization’s mission. Neil Gunn, Digital Strategy Adviser, shared: “The theory is that people who have the stories to tell are on the ground. If you really are going to do social well, you need to make the connection with those who have the story to tell.”

Base Your Social Media Education Strategy On Four Roles

In our interviews, we found that companies structure their social media education programs to address typically up to four sets of roles and learning objectives: Social Media Policy Training for all employees, Social Media Introduction for some employees, Social Media Practitioner Development, and Executive Education (see Figure 3).

The actual rollout of these components varies highly — and is dependent on objectives and goals that are unique to each organization. Regardless of where you start, prepare a plan for how you will address all components of the education framework — every company has these training needs and they will need to be addressed at some point in the future. This plan will become the foundation of your social media education strategy — an agreement and alignment across the company of what you will do (and won’t do) when it comes to social media education.6

Four Components of a Social Media Education Program

Source: Social Media Education for Employees, Altimeter Group, December 5, 2013

Fig. 3

Social Media Policy Training

Social Media Introduction

Social Media PractitionerDevelopment

ExecutiveEducation

OpportunityCapture

Risk Mitigation

Component One Component Two Component Three Component Four

This continuum is meant to show the range of education from risk mitigation to opportunity capture. It also shows how the type and number of employees trained for each component varies, from everyone (Policy Training) to leadership only (Executive Education).


Component One: Social Media Policy Training for All Employees Should Strive to Impart Judgment

No policy or guideline alone can ever be comprehensive enough to anticipate every potential social media risk. Employees need to be prepared for the inevitable “gray areas” created by the fast-changing social media space. As Amy Heiss at Dell told us: “There’s no one clear example. Employees need to be trained to expect the unexpected and use their better judgment when engaging online.”

Training for judgment is difficult, made all the more so if you have to do it consistently at scale for the entire organization. One way to do this is to use the policy as the starting point for baseline social media training — and then layer on additional content such as scenarios and exercises that help develop judgment. For example, take the scenario where a customer or client sends a “friend request” on Facebook. What should the employee do, especially if he visits Facebook primarily for personal reasons? There is not necessarily a right or wrong answer to this dilemma, but the company can and should provide guidance on how it defines the exercise of good judgment in such circumstances.

Since 2010, RadioShack has included a required social media module as part of its onboarding program for new hires, which provides a brief, 10-minute overview of RadioShack’s social media program and policy. At Aetna, policy training is also required of “any business relationship that falls outside the corporate umbrella,” such as agencies and business partnerships or acquisitions, according to Lauren Vargas, Aetna’s Community Strategy Director.

Organizations increasingly face pressure to ensure that employees know the “basics” and are not only aware of the policy but also have confidence in their personal use of social media. In the near future, some regulated industries may also be required to provide a base level of social media education.8

Component Two: Social Media Introduction Enables Employees to Become Advocates in Social Media

While a core team of experienced social media practitioners will likely handle the bulk of social media engagement on a day-to-day basis, other employees may be hesitant to use social media professionally or lack the skills and practice to engage in social media positively and effectively. To activate employees outside of the core social media team — for example, someone managing product marketing — introductory social media education is needed to provide proper guardrails and best practices, as well as to develop an understanding of how social media is used at the company to meet business objectives.

At this component, education focuses on social platforms, features, and engagement best practices (which, as you can imagine, must be constantly reevaluated and updated). Many companies deliver these classes in person for more interactive learning and modeling. For example, Adobe offers live, 90-minute workshops conducted by Adobe social media managers. The workshops are hosted at Adobe’s headquarters in San Jose and through teleconference in the morning and evening to accommodate both US and global teams. To date, over 30% of Adobe’s 10,000 employees have completed this program, which is entirely voluntary.

Companies like Mayo Clinic and Cisco also supplement and scale through on-demand courses that can be accessed at any time by employees through a

Component One: Social Media Policy Training For All Employees

Audience All employees, as well as agencies and partners

Objective Mitigate social media risk with education on corporate social media policy

Topics Social media policy, including what is allowed and/or not allowed

Format • Usually mandatory • Typically short (20 minutes to 1 hour) • Delivered online for consistency and scale, on-demand for convenience • Can be part of annual ethics/compliance training or new-hire orientation; supported by the corporate Learning Management System (LMS)

Outcome Reduce and prevent incidents of social media policy violations by employees, agencies, and partners who learn to exercise good judgment

Component Two: Social Media Introduction for Advocacy

Audience Any employee (salaried) or social media practitioners only

Objective Ensure that employees interested in social media for business purposes have the same education on platforms and best practices

Topics Corporate social media program/strategy; overview of platforms, best practices, and how to get started

Format • Usually voluntary • Short (20 minutes to 1 hour) on-demand courses • Live workshops (in person or teleconference) that range from 1 hour to half-day

Outcome Increase employee engagement and activity in social media generally to positively impact the company, e.g., increase brand sentiment/mentions or share of voice, as well as reduce risk of social media crises


corporate learning management system. On-demand courses at Mayo Clinic include dozens of introductory courses, including courses like Cultural Considerations in Social Media or Pinterest Applications in Health Care (see Appendix A. Mayo Clinic’s Center for Social Media Course Catalog). At Cisco Systems, on-demand courses include How to Write for Social Media and How to Find Your Social Voice.9

Often, this component of social media education provides not only the proper guardrails and best practices but serves as tacit encouragement from higher-ups that the company wants its employees to use social media, even if it’s just starting out on their own personal accounts.

Component Three: Social Media Practitioner Development (SMP) Drives Business Impact

For employees who use social media intensely in their specific roles and responsibilities, more advanced training is required to deepen understanding of best practices and craft social strategies that result in business impact. Social Media Practitioner (SMP) development is usually the outcome of very specific business objectives for social media, such as: “We want our scientists to write about their research to increase share of voice and brand sentiment,” or “We want to increase customer satisfaction scores by improving how our customer care team responds in social media.” In such cases, the SMP is acting on behalf of the company in an official and visible way.

Here, we found the most variation in course duration, format, and content. While companies’ SMP development can be delivered through on-demand courses for scale, we found that the companies interviewed for this report preferred in-person formats delivered as half-day workshop to months-long, ongoing “boot camps” tailored to specific roles or departments.

An example of this type of in-person training is Adobe’s “Social Media Bootcamp” program, piloted with the company’s email team. Modeled like an advisory and consulting relationship that lasts over several months, the program’s goal is to help functional groups integrate social media with their particular business goals. Currently, Adobe’s program is delivered in five modules, including 1-on-1 advisory and mentorship with the company’s core social media team.

Dell recognized that its customers wanted to connect directly with the company’s technical experts. Yet, an internal audit revealed that only 20% of Subject Matter Experts (SME) had social media accounts. To address this, Dell rolled out its “Social SME” program. During the three-month program, SMEs meet every two weeks and receive guidance from social media trainers on how to set up their profiles, identify influencers, and interact with customers for technical support. To date, 150 SMEs have participated in the program, with impressive results: SME posts generate 2X engagement and 6X clicks over branded posts, and SMEs have helped connect Dell to 10,400 new influencer relationships.

Component Four: Executive Education Focuses on Driving Business Results with Social Media

Social media education for executives is important to companies who want to increase executive alignment around the social strategy or increase direct executive engagement in social media itself, either internally or externally. Altimeter’s research found that executive support is crucial to drive the strategic impact of social efforts deeply and widely into the organization.10 Yet providing education to executives is challenging due to their schedules and unique learning objectives. We found that companies with executive education typically offer this on an ad hoc or one-on-one basis.

Component Three: Social Media Practitioner (SMP) Development

Audience Social media practitioners across business units or functions who are driving specific business objectives with their social activities

Objective Enhance skills set for those whose jobs require social media, or advance skills set for general employees for the purpose of employee advocacy

Topics Advanced best practices and deep dives on platforms and tools; can be tailored to business units or functions, e.g., social media for customer service, sales, or recruitment

Format • Usually voluntary • Short (20 minutes to 1 hour) on-demand courses that make up a “Choose Your Own Adventure” path that is unique to the role • Live workshops (in person or teleconference) that vary widely in format, from ad hoc or monthly one-hour sessions to multiple-day “bootcamps” with coursework

Outcome Increase the effective use of social media to achieve specific business goals in official company social media channels


A best practice of executive social media education is to focus on the business outcomes — especially the relationships that can be formed with customers and employees — rather than the technology itself. An executive’s eyes will glaze over if you try to explain hashtags on Twitter, but they will pay rapt attention if you can demonstrate how Twitter can be used to turn a complaining customer into a company advocate. And they will pay even more attention if you can tailor the education around how social media can be used to achieve their specific goals and objectives.

One example of this is at Cisco, which launched a reverse mentoring program for executives earlier this year. Cisco recruits social media practitioners as mentors and “puts them through a rigorous qualification process” to determine fit for the program and with specific executives. There are currently 15-20 mentors who typically work with more than one executive over a three-to-six-month period. The relationship is formalized with a contract that outlines commitments on both sides, and mentors receive a lesson plan tailored to their mentee. One recent participant reported the following benefits of Cisco’s reverse mentoring program: “As it relates to social media, EVERY executive should have a [practitioner] help mentor them. Most are fearful of not being considered an expert. Once the fear is gone, social media is a great tool for executives to use.”

This last component, executive education, was less common among the companies interviewed yet often identified as aspirational. It typically reflects maturity in social media education, addressed after the three components above.

Checklist: 10 Action Steps for a Social Media Education Program

While companies tend to start their education programs informally and then formalize them over time, companies we interviewed recommended putting a strategy in place from the get-go. As with any business program, an enterprise-wide social media education program will require a strategy, organizational alignment, buy-in, roles, and resources. Below, we outline 10 action steps and requirements needed to deploy a formalized education program, regardless of which component you roll out first.

1. Define learning objectives and roles — guided by your business objectives. Start with clearly defined business objectives to help you define and prioritize learning objectives and roles. Go back to the Four Components of a Social Media Education Program framework (Figure 3) and identify your company’s priorities. Is it risk mitigation? Is it employee advocacy? Is it practitioner skills development or executive alignment? Once you know your priorities, you can focus on learning objectives by role, then develop a rubric of competencies and ascertain optimal learning formats for each.

A best practice is to outline learning objectives for all roles at the start. Even if you don’t roll out all components at once, doing so will help guide a longer-term program roadmap over ad-hoc or patchwork offerings that might eventually culminate into a broader but potentially fragmented program. One company that did this was Aetna, which is creating a 6-path training program for the following roles: 1) content creators, 2) community managers, 3) self-identified employees for employee advocacy, 4) all employees for risk mitigation, 5) agencies, and 6) executives. Key stakeholders and resources needed for each of these programs were identified and laid out as a strategy to be rolled out over time.

Component Four: Executive Education

Audience Social media practitioners across business units or functions who are driving specific business objectives with their social activities

Objective Develop executive understanding, buy-in, and/or engagement in the use of social media to support business goals

Topics Focused on the business value of social media; specific strategies for executives to engage in social media; for example, for media relations or employee engagement

Format • Ad hoc or one-on-one; for example, in the form of reverse mentoring with social media savvy associates

Outcome Increase executive alignment on the business impacts of social, engagement, and activity in social media to achieve that executive’s and company goals


2. Formulate success metrics to benchmark and demonstrate program impact. While 72% of companies with social media education programs track participation numbers, this is by no means sufficient (see Figure 5.1). Success metrics should also measure outcomes related to your business objectives, for example, the reduction of social media incidents or an increase in employee activation and engagement.

Only a few companies we interviewed had metrics in place to measure impact on business goals. A couple examples stood out: At Dell, the desired outcome is to see increased employee engagement. To help measure success (and encourage proper disclosure), education managers ask newly minted social ambassadors to use a special hashtag (#iwork4dell) in their posts. They then monitor that hashtag to track volume, sentiment, and reach — and see what kind of impact those posts have against campaign or business objectives.

Some companies also use surveys to help track outcomes. One way to do this is to simply ask participants after they complete a course how they anticipate their new skills will impact their work — and then to survey them again at a later date to see if they actually achieved the desired outcomes (see Appendix B for a sample participant survey).

3. Engage executives and internal stakeholders during strategy and planning. Education is an enterprise-wide program that will require executive and cross-functional support. All of the companies we interviewed spoke to the importance of involving executives and internal stakeholders during the strategy and planning phases. Executives help “bless” the program, while internal stakeholders provide alignment.

For example, Dell identified potential participants for its “Social SME” program and then went to VPs to explain the program’s benefits. When the program was launched, invitations to the program came from those VPs. According to Amy Heiss at Dell, “Once we got the executive team to support our program, we had even more strength behind what we were trying to achieve.”

Other companies we talked to also involved stakeholders such as PR, Learning and Development, HR, or Legal. Aetna needed to work closely with Legal and Compliance teams due to the unique risks of social media in the healthcare industry. RadioShack worked primarily with its Operations and Training team to roll out the program to store associates. Most of the companies we talked to worked with HR to integrate social media policy training into new hire onboarding.

Checklist for a Social Media Education ProgramFig. 4

Source: Social Media Education for Employees, Altimeter Group, December 5, 2013

1. Define learning objectives and roles − guided by your business objectives

2. Formulate success metrics to benchmark and demonstrate program impact

3. Engage executives and internal stakeholders during strategy and planning

4. Dedicate education and training resources

5. Audit existing resources to reduce duplication and integrate with corporate training program and systems

6. Determine if the curriculum will be built in-house and by whom, or by external partners

7. Align curriculum with existing policies and governance

8. Create an internal marketing strategy that creates incentives for participation

9. Run pilots to manage resource constraints, get continued buy-in, and refine additional tiers

10. Create ongoing learning and opportunities to engage


Current State of Corporate Social Media Education ProgramsFig. 5

Fig. 5.2 Half of Companies Have Only One FTE to Manage Social Media Education

52%

12%24%

% with 1 PT/FT employee

% with 2 PT/FT employees

% with 3-5 PT/FT employees

% with 6+ PT/FT employees

12%

Fig. 5.3 Most Companies Develop Their Social Media Education Curriculum In-House

Fig. 5.4 Social Media Education Curriculum Primarily Owned by Social Media or Marketing

Fig. 5.1 Education Program Success Largely Tracked Through Employee Uptake

32%32%24%8%4%

Social Media

Marketing

Corp Comm/PR

Learning/Development

HR

72%52%36%24%20%20%16%12%8%12%

Source: Altimeter Group's Survey of Digital Strategists, Q4 2012 (n=130)

Each year, Altimeter Group surveys digital strategists. In our most recent survey, conducted Q2 2013, we asked specifically about social media education programs at companies with over 500 employees. Of 65 total respondents, 25 respondents reported having a formalized social media education program, either in place or in progress.

It was developed by anoutside vendor, with guidance from our internal team.

We developedmost of it in house,with guidance froman outside vendor.

We developedit entirely in house.

56%28%

16%

Q. How many full-time equivalent employees manage and deliver this program?

Q. Was your curriculum developed in-house, or by an outside vendor?

Q. Which group has primary responsibility for developing the curriculum?

Fig. 5.5 One-Third of Companies Have No Formal Process to Update Curriculum

8%28%16%16%32%

Dynamic/Daily

Quarterly

Semi-Annually

Annually

We have no schedule for updates

Q. In general, how frequently are your curriculumand materials updated?

Q. Which of these metrics do you formally track to measure the success of your social media education program?

Participation numbers

Employee engagement/satisfaction

Level of employee social media activity

Final test scores

Overall quality of public-facing social media programs

Control of inappropriate activity (policy)

Net promoter score (NPS)/customer satisfaction

Number of employee social media accounts

Level of employee amplification of corporate messaging

We do not formally measure the success of our program


4. Dedicate education and training resources. As soon as a strategy is in place, companies should dedicate at least a part-time education manager and/or trainer to own the planning and roll out of the program. These part-time managers may also conduct the courses themselves, at least in the pilot phases.

More than half of companies we surveyed had one FTE or less managing their social media education program (see Figure 5.2). In many cases, we learned that budgets for social media education programs consisted entirely of this headcount.

At Adobe, two social media team members spend approximately 10% of their time on the education program. Aetna’s social strategist reported spending up to three-fourths of her time on the program in the run up to its launch. One social strategist told us, “You can do it with a very limited budget, but you at least need some staff capacity to develop this initiative.”

5. Audit existing resources to reduce duplication and integrate with corporate training program and systems. For some companies, the Learning and Development organization is a key partner, as it owns existing corporate training and the corporate learning management system. Tom Carusona, Sr. Director, Digital & Social Media at ARAMARK, explains why this is important: “We want to teach the way ARAMARK wants to teach.”

Audit existing education programs to surface content that can be adapted or related courses where social media can be incorporated. Lauren Vargas at Aetna audited classes offered through Aetna’s Learning Resource Center and found that content on the brand voice could be modified for social media specific purposes. Vargas said, “Make sure you retrofit what you deploy to what already exists.” There may also be opportunities to include social media content in other related courses, such as business ethics, technology, or information security. Small additions to existing training make social media education more relevant and reinforces learning.

Lastly, integrating social media education into a company’s existing learning management system also allows education managers to 1) track participation and completion rates and 2) survey participants upon completion of the program to measure outcomes.

6. Determine if the curriculum will be built in-house and by whom, or by external partners. Creating curriculum and content for social media education is no easy task, nor does it usually have a clear owner. On the one hand, the core social media team has likely developed a common set of best practices that have been documented — but they lack the skills to transfer them to the classroom for effective learning. On the other hand, stakeholders in the Learning and Development organization have a deep understanding of learning principles specific to your company, but lack social media knowledge.

We found that most companies (84% of those surveyed) develop their curriculum in-house (see Figure 5.3), usually by members of the core social media team, and in a few cases with support from the Learning and Development organization or HR (see Figure 5.4). For others, an external partner may be the best owner if internal capacity is limited and budget is available. Three of 11 companies interviewed partnered with external partners to help develop content. However, these companies intended to bring content updates in-house. For example, Kaiser Permanente created its 101 series with an external partner but plans to update and improve the curriculum on its own.

Whichever you choose, make sure to define a clear owner going forward, who is accountable for curriculum updates on an ongoing basis. Of companies we surveyed, 28% updated curriculum on a quarterly basis and 32% on a semi-annual or annual basis (see Figure 5.5)

7. Align curriculum with existing policies and governance. As curriculum is developed, ensure that all content is aligned with existing social media policies and governance. In our work with one Fortune Global 500 organization, we found that training scenarios in the company’s social media education curriculum raised more questions than it answered. The course, which was based on the then-current social media policy, didn’t offer the guiding principles needed for participants to begin using social media confidently. As a result, this Altimeter client had to rethink its social media policy and return to internal stakeholders like HR and Legal for feedback and to request revisions on both the policy and the curriculum.


As you’ll find, much of your social media education will not be black and white — and the curriculum developed will test your organization’s current policies and governance. Consider this action step as a “stress test,” and audit your curriculum against policies and governance as it is being developed and again before it’s deployed.

8. Create an internal marketing strategy that creates incentives for participation. A “build it, and they will come” approach by no means guarantees that training will have an impact. While some companies we interviewed had no trouble enlisting participants, you may find that this is not the case — especially if the program is voluntary or the benefits are not sufficiently articulated. Including an internal marketing and communication strategy early in the program development stages can help you formulate program benefits, create incentives, and develop a communication strategy to prospective participants as you roll out the program.11

This can come in many forms, and one example from our interviews particularly stood out: Cisco organizes part of its education program as “team challenges,” creating healthy competition across functional and cross-functional teams to trigger participation. Once completed, participants also receive a certification, which is communicated to their managers and even up the executive chain.

Whichever you choose, building and communicating incentives as part of the initial strategy will help participants (and their managers) understand the program benefits, and, ultimately, increase participation and program satisfaction.

9. Run pilots to manage resource constraints, get continued buy-in, and refine additional components. When you are ready to launch, pilot with only one or two components in order to test, refine, and repeat. It also enables you to bootstrap a program sooner rather than later, and demonstrate some early successes to obtain additional headcount or budget. Lauren Vargas at Aetna confirmed: “You don’t have to have all the bells and whistles, and you can roll this out to a limited set of employees first.”

While this will happen organically, several companies we interviewed developed their roadmap with a pilot program in mind from the outset. For example, Kaiser Permanente deployed its pilot as a live webinar to a core team of 80 public relations and corporate communications professionals. Vince Golla, Digital Media and Syndication Director at Kaiser Permanente, told us: “We did this to both gauge the utility and value of the curriculum as well as focus the training on the most likely social media ‘first responders’ in the organization.” Afterwards, Kaiser Permanente adapted the content into an e-learning format and made it available online to the entire organization.

10. Create ongoing learning and opportunities to engage. Relying on a one-time course certification without opportunities for deeper engagement is a recipe for stagnation. As coursework is completed, continue to engage participants with more opportunities for learning and hands-on practice. This helps to reinforce course curriculum and motivate participants to put their new skills to good use. We spotlight a few examples below to spur your creativity:

• Aetna’s social media certification process will be required annually. Some tracks will require quarterly recertification as “things change so quickly,” said Lauren Vargas at Aetna.

• Dell follows up with participants after each class. For example, the company gives each “Social SME” participant a metrics scorecard to measure their progression from novice to intermediate to advanced. In addition, Dell hosts unconferences for social media practitioners around the globe and has a 10K member Salesforce Chatter group dedicated to social media.

• After participating in the Mayo Clinic’s “Social Media Residency,” participants are expected to submit plans on how they will apply social media to their work roles. Upon submission of their plans, participants receive a Bronze fellow. When they report back on their results, they become a Silver Fellow. Gold fellows have published their work in a peer-reviewed journal. Lee Aase, Director at the Mayo Clinic’s Center for Social Media, told us: “After the residency, we don’t want people to go back and not have lives or work be changed. We want to motivate and track their progress.”


Scaling and Advancing Your Social Media Education Program

Ultimately, some companies may eventually need to roll out social media education to thousands if not tens of thousands of employees who can span multiple brands and geographies. In such cases, a few workshops a year conducted by part-time education managers will certainly not suffice. While this may seem daunting, we share a couple important recommendations from the companies we interviewed, based on their experiences scaling enterprise-wide, global social media education programs.

On-Demand Modules — Online, on-demand modules scale well and are best suited for policy or social media introduction coursework. Work with your Learning and Development organization or an external partner to adapt existing content into online, on-demand modules that can be delivered through the corporate learning management system. External partners may also offer “off-the-shelf” modules that can be adapted, customized, and rolled out much more quickly than developing curriculum entirely in-house. Most of these courses last 20 minutes to one hour and run the gamut of social media and social business topics.

Train-the-Trainer Models — Some subjects require more interactive education; for example, hands-on training on tools like social media management systems or strategy workshops that benefit from group discussions and brainstorming. To scale live formats, companies enlist internal evangelists in a train-the-trainer model. For example, Juniper Networks plans to train a tenth of its 10,000 employees in the next year, utilizing a “hub and spoke” model. Cisco relies on already-certified Social Ambassadors to mentor and train participants using existing toolkits frameworks.

Conclusion

As social media efforts mature and permeate the enterprise, it’s imperative for companies to provide proper guardrails and skills development for employees, to: 1) mitigate risk and 2) activate employees for scale and advocacy. Starting with Altimeter’s Four Components of a Social Media Education Program framework (Figure 3), companies can begin to develop a program strategy and learning objectives tied to these business outcomes.

Over the long term, several companies we interviewed explained that educating employees on social media helped lay the groundwork for a bigger vision — to transform all corners of the company into a social business. Regarding his company’s social media education program, Cosmin Ghiurau at RadioShack told us: “It’s been an unbelievable journey to see how excited our employees are to use social to deepen customer relationships.”


Appendix

Appendix A. Mayo Clinic’s Center for Social Media Course CatalogBusinessBUS 101 – Introduction to Social Media Strategy* BUS 102 – Employee Access to Social Media BUS 103 – Opening Access for Employees BUS 105 – Social Media and SEOBUS 110 – Basics of Social Media ROI*BUS 115 – Intermediate Social Media ROIBUS 120 – Advanced Social Media ROIBUS 121 – Mayo Clinic ROI Case StudiesBUS 130 – Introduction to LinkedIn*BUS 135 – Social Networking for HR and the Job SearchBUS 150 – Social Media Planning for Your Workplace*BUS 155 – Social Media Management Systems

General Social Media GSM 101 – Introduction to Social Media Residency GSM 102 – Creating your SMHN AccountGSM 103 – The Social Media Fellows Program GSM 104 – Social Media isn’t (Mainly) about PlatformsGSM 105 – Overview of Social Media Tools* GSM 108 – Cultural Considerations in Social MediaGSM 109 – Connecting in SpanishGSM 110 – Mayo Clinic’s Social Media History* GSM 115 – Introduction to PodcastingGSM 116 – Introduction to FourSquareGSM 117 – Introduction to FlickrGSM 118 – Introduction to WikisGSM 119 – Introduction to RSSGSM 120 – Introduction to Slideshare*GSM 121 – Advanced Applications of Slideshare GSM 122 – Introduction to Pinterest*GSM 123 – Pinterest Applications in Health CareGSM 124 – Sourcing “Share-worthy” ContentGSM 125 – Introduction to Internal Social Networking*GSM 126 – Introduction to Yammer*GSM 127 – Yammer Use Cases and Case StudiesGSM 130 – Introduction to Google+GSM 170 – Criteria for Creating a Unique Community of InterestGSM 190 – Applying for SMHN Fellow Status

Ethical, Professional and Legal IssuesEPL 101 – Medical Professionalism and Social Media*EPL 105 – Mayo Clinic Employee GuidelinesEPL 110 – Guidelines for Medical ProfessionalsEPL 120 – Managing the Legal Risks of Social Media*

BloggingBLOG 101 – Getting Started with Blogging*BLOG 102 – Survey of Blogging PlatformsBLOG 103 – You Don’t Have to Call it a BlogBLOG 105 – Your Blog is Your Social Media HQ*BLOG 110 – Advanced BloggingBLOG 115 – Surgical Tagging: The Road Less TraveledBLOG 301 – Application: The Social Media Health NetworkBLOG 302 – Application: The Mayo Clinic News Network

FacebookFB 101 – Introduction to Facebook FB 105 – Managing Facebook Privacy*FB 110 – Facebook Groups and PagesFB 115 – Facebook Metrics and AdvertisingFB 120 – Advanced Facebook Techniques

TwitterTW 101 – Introduction to Twitter* TW 103 – Twitter Apps*TW 105 – Twitter Terms*TW 107 – URL Shortening*TW 110 – Twitter Chats*TW 115 – Twitter Measurement via TweetReach ReportTW 130 – Ending Twitter Impersonation

VideoVID 110 – Introduction to YouTube*VID 120 – Video Shooting Basics*VID 121 – Video Editing Basics*VID 130 – Improving Video Quality on a BudgetVID 140 – Solving iMovie Audio Sync ProblemsVID 145 – Avoiding SPAM Comments on YouTube

Appendix B. Sample Student Survey to Measure Success of Social Media EducationExamples of Immediate Post-Education Survey QuestionsI will be able to apply the skills and knowledge on the job. If yes, provide examples of how you will apply: • This training will improve my job performance • This training will have a significant impact on: (select all that apply) • increasing customer satisfaction • increasing quality • increasing productivity • increasing revenue • decreasing cost of sales • increasing customer satisfaction • decreasing cycle time, decreasing risk

Examples of 90-Day Follow Up Survey QuestionsI have applied the skills and knowledge on the job. If yes, provide examples of how you have applied: • This training has improved my job performance (give examples) • This training has had a significant impact on: (select all that apply,

and give examples) • increasing customer satisfaction • increasing quality • increasing productivity • increasing revenue • decreasing cost of sales • increasing customer satisfaction

Courses marked * are required core elements in Mayo Clinic’s Social Media Residency program. View in full at: http://network.socialmedia.mayoclinic.org/course-catalog.

http://network.socialmedia.mayoclinic.org/social-media-residency/

http://network.socialmedia.mayoclinic.org/course-catalog

http://network.socialmedia.mayoclinic.org/course-catalog


Ecosystem InputThis report could not have been produced without the generous input from the following managers of corporate social media education programs. Input into this document does not represent a complete endorsement of the report by the individuals listed below.

Corporate Practitioners (13)Adobe Systems: Pooja Prasad, Social Media Manager (former)Adobe Systems: Jen Atkinson, Senior Manager Social Media Strategy (former)Aetna: Lauren Vargas, Community Strategy DirectorARAMARK: Tom Carusona, Sr. Director, Digital & Social MediaCisco: Elizabeth Houston, Social Media Manager, Training & Enablement Cisco: Petra Neiger, Senior Manager, Digital and Social Media Marketing (former)Dell: Amy Heiss, Global Lead for Social Training & ActivationJuniper Networks: Adam Christensen, Senior Director, Corporate Communications & Digital Strategy (former)Kaiser Permanente: Vince Golla, Digital Media and Syndication DirectorMayo Clinic: Lee Aase, Director, Center for Social MediaRadioShack: Cosmin Ghiurau, Director, Social Media & Digital StrategyWhole Foods: Rebecca Stuch, Integrated Media Communication Systems Team Leader (former)World Wildlife Fund UK: Neil Gunn, Digital Strategy Adviser

AcknowledgementsWith thanks for support from: Natanya Anderson, Keith Boswell, Ashton Bothman, Cory Edwards, Cheryl Knight, Jennifer Lyell, Vladimir Mirkovic of Transart Design, Maria Poveromo, and Alec Wagner.

End Notes1 From Altimeter Group’s Survey of Corporate Digital Strategists, Q2 2013 (n=65). 2 Ibid.3 Earlier this year, an Applebee’s employee violated its social media policy by posting a signed receipt with a note from a customer who left no tip.

The employee was fired, which resulted in social media backlash. See: “Applebee’s social media faux pas a ‘learning experience,’” NBC News, February 5, 2013: (http://www.nbcnews.com/business/applebees-social-media-faux-pas-learning-experience-1B8251556). Also, a Taco Bell employee posted a photo of himself licking taco shells. See: “Taco Bell Employee Licks Taco Shells, Causes Social Media Nightmare,” Mashable, June 3, 2013: (http://mashable.com/2013/06/03/taco-bell-taco-licker)

4 As of late 2012, internet users aged 18-29 are the most likely of any demographic cohort to use a social networking site of any kind (83%). Read the full report: The Demographics of Social Media Users — 2012. Pew Internet. February 14, 2013: (http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Social-media-users.aspx). Moreover, 90% of employees used their personal smartphones for work-related purposes in the past year. Read the report: BYOD Insights 2013: A Cisco Partner Network Study: (http://www.ciscomcon.com/sw/swchannel/registration/internet/registration.cfm).

5 From Altimeter Group’s Survey of Corporate Digital Strategists, Q4 2012 (n=130). 6 Altimeter found that 40% of companies said that a top objective was to “scale social programs.” Source: Altimeter Group’s Survey of Corporate

Digital Strategists, Q2 2013 (n=65).7 Altimeter found that corporations with 500 employees or more average 131 social media accounts across the enterprise, including business

units, divisions, and geographies. Source: Altimeter Group’s Survey of Corporate Digital Strategists, Q2 2013 (n=65).8 In January 2013, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) issued proposed social media guidelines for financial service

institutions, which includes training. It reads, “Components of a risk management program should include the following: … An employee training program that incorporates the institution’s policies and procedures for official, work-related use of social media, and potentially for other uses of social media, including defining impermissible activities.” For the time being, this is a proposed guideline, but it may become a compliance area in 2014. For more information, see http://www.ffiec.gov/press/pr012213.htm.

9 For an example of social media introduction curriculum: Cisco has 12 publicly available courses for customers, partners, and the general public, available at: http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/social/index.html.

10 See Altimeter Group’s e-book, Seven Success Factors of Social Business Strategy: http://www.altimetergroup.com/research/books/the-seven-success-factors-of-social-business-strategy.

11 For additional research on gamification in the workplace, see Altimeter’s post “Holistic Gamification: Applying Social Dynamics to Solve Problems Across the Enterprise,” by Jaimy Szymanski, November 6, 2013 (http://www.altimetergroup.com/2013/11/holistic-gamification-applying-social-dynamics-to-solve-problems-across-the-enterprise.html)

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/applebees-social-media-faux-pas-learning-experience-1B8251556

http://mashable.com/2013/06/03/taco-bell-taco-licker

http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Social-media-users.aspx

http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Social-media-users.aspx

http://www.ciscomcon.com/sw/swchannel/registration/internet/registration.cfm

http://www.ffiec.gov/press/pr012213.htm

http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/social/index.html

http://www.altimetergroup.com/research/books/the-seven-success-factors-of-social-business-strategy

http://www.altimetergroup.com/research/books/the-seven-success-factors-of-social-business-strategy

http://www.altimetergroup.com/2013/11/holistic-gamification-applying-social-dynamics-to-solve-problems-across-the-enterprise.html

http://www.altimetergroup.com/2013/11/holistic-gamification-applying-social-dynamics-to-solve-problems-across-the-enterprise.html

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About Us

Charlene Li, Founder and Partner of Altimeter Group

Charlene Li (@charleneli) is founder of Altimeter Group and the author of the New York Times bestseller, Open Leadership. She is also the coauthor of the critically acclaimed, bestselling book Groundswell, which was named one of the best business books in 2008. She is one of the foremost experts on social media and technologies and a consultant and independent thought leader on leadership, strategy, social technologies, interactive media, and marketing.

Ed Terpening, Senior Consultant

Ed Terpening (@edterpening) is a Senior Consultant at Altimeter Group and leads advisory projects on social media education at Altimeter. To date, he has trained more than 300 professionals in social media for business and while at Apple was awarded “Teacher of the Year” for his work with Apple University. As former VP of Social Media at Wells Fargo, Ed led the charge to develop the first blog by any major US bank, their first blogger, and the first dedicated social media team. He led social media strategy at Wells Fargo for seven years. He is a founding member of SocialMedia.org.

Christine Tran, Research Manager

Christine Tran (@trantastico) is responsible for research operations at Altimeter Group and has researched and co-written reports on social business, content marketing, and the collaborative economy. She is currently conducting research on employee engagement and activation through social media. She has over 10 years of program management experience at organizations ranging from the nonprofit to technology sectors.

Open ResearchThis independent research report was 100% funded by Altimeter Group. This report is published under the principle of Open Research and is intended to advance the industry at no cost. This report is intended for you to read, utilize, and share with others; if you do so, please provide attribution to Altimeter Group.

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Learn More About Altimeter Group’s Social Media Education Offerings

Altimeter provides advisory, custom workshops, and program development for your company. We’ve worked with Fortune 1000 companies to:

• Reduce social media risk and increase employee engagement; for example, through education program strategy, curriculum development, and train-the-trainer workshops.

• Scale social media education for thousands, or tens of thousands, of employees; for example, through custom online learning products for social media education in collaboration with a product design partner.

• Increase executive engagement through executive workshops.

For more information, contact us at [email protected] or visit http://www.altimetergroup.com/services/altimeter-academy for more information about our workshops and social media education offerings.

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