The Executive Social Media Battle Plan

Before a commander takes to the battlefield, they and their staff first create a detailed battle plan. The same is true for executives communicating through social media.

A successful executive social media battle plan has the same three components as the battlefield commander: a strategic vision, operational guidance, and tactical execution. Without all three, any plan is doomed to fail.

The role of executive leadership as part of the overall communication plan for any organization has been transformed. The executive team no longer merely approves corporate communications, they take an active part through social media. To be successful with social media, executive leaders and their staff must first create a detailed battle plan of their own. This plan shares the same three components as plans by leaders taking to the battlefield: strategic vision, operational guidance, and tactical execution.

Here’s how:

Set Strategic Vision: Strategy is the use of logic and imagination to foresee the results of action, and to deploy finite resources to achieve those results. An organization’s executive team is a powerful, but finite, resource. To set a strategic vision for the use of that resource, the team must use logic and imagination to set overall goals and determine needed resources. Strategic goals that can be accomplished through executive use of social media include:

Brand Development: Executive leaders on social media become the face and voice of the company. These leaders are a credible source of information about the company and its values, practices, and philosophies. An executive social media strategy should integrate the strengths and voices of the leadership. The strategy is to build credibility in service of the corporate brand. Executives must know what brand attributes the corporation's marketing plan emphasizes and should seek the communicate those values through social engagement.

Direct Engagement: Each executive has the opportunity to speak to a unique audience. That audience will set the content, pace, tone, and placement of that executive’s engagement plan. In fact, many executives will be able to speak to more than one audience, and in a unique combination. The team should set the overall strategic goal for each executive’s communications, taking into consideration the audiences that executive can reach. Audiences to consider include:

• Customers
• Partners
• Prospects
• Employees
• Media

Crisis and Opportunity: Leaders today must respond immediately, online, to crises and opportunities. These responses are most effective if the executive has created a trusted voice. The middle of a crisis is not the time to begin building an executive’s social media presence. If the first social media post your CEO ever makes is to respond to a crisis, the CEO will be fighting an uphill battle for credibility. It is critical that the team consider which executives it will call on to respond in a crisis, consider which audience that executive will be speaking to (reporters, customers, dealers, employees) and begin now to have that executive build credibility and connection with that audience.

Establish Operational Guidance

Operational guidance sets the boundaries around the organization’s communication plan. These guidelines ensure that the executive social media program works as a whole. Without operational guidance, you will have several separate, unrelated efforts. To provide clear operational guidance to the executives executing the strategy, the team must consider:

Platform Uniformity and Guidance: The team should set the look, feel, tone, and voice for each platform, and determine which platform will speak to which audiences. The team must ensure a certain amount of uniformity in the look and message across platforms while tailoring the message to the strengths of each platform. Other guidance can include do’s and don’ts of social media, quiet period requirements, and other rules for the use of social media.

Goals and Objectives: The team should break the strategic goals down into measurable, specific objectives for each executive, team or department on social. The operational objectives must tie into the strategic goals in some clear way. Thought must be given to the measurement of these goals to determine progress and areas for improvement. Goals must be meaningful, measurable, and attainable.

Training and Support Plan: Many executives will be new to social media and may require training on the use of the various platforms. The team must communicate the strategic vision and the operational guidelines to the executives. The team should consider providing support to the executives, such as templates for various platforms, writing and editing services, and assistance in executing the tactical plan.

Execute Tactical Plan

It all comes down to the tactical execution of the strategic vision in accordance with the operational guidance. To be effective, the tactical execution must take into consideration:

Cadence: Different cadences are appropriate for different platforms. It is critical that the pace be fast enough to generate momentum, but not so fast that it is unsustainable. To build credibility on social media, the executive must have a persistent, predictable presence. The cadence for this persistent presence is different on different platforms.

Integration between personal and business accounts: Some executives may be posting using official corporate accounts as well as using their personal pages. This can be very effective. Some thought must be given to the voice and tone of the separate types of accounts used.

Campaigns: The use of social media by executives can be very effective if it is tied to specific campaigns. A series of posts on various platforms can be related to a particular event. Cross-posting should be explored and encouraged. Story arcs covering a specific topic can also be effective.

Conclusion

The use of an organization’s executive leadership team to promote brand and build trust through social media can be extremely effective. To make it effective, the marketing teams, communication teams and the executive must work together to set a strategic vision, provide operational guidance, and execute the plan with tactical precision.