Communication skills are important to all aspects of life, including work. It doesn’t matter if your expertise is in political science, economics or journalism – everyone needs to be able to communicate. This means anyone within your organization can be tapped to work on your organization’s social media campaign.
How do you find the right person within your organization?
First, get to know your staff’s social media skills. If you already have a staff member who has a personal Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or blog, chances are they enjoy social media and may take an interest in handling it for your organization. They will also have the experience to hit the ground running, rather than requiring training.
Second, get a sense of your staff’s workload. Can this person take on another task in addition to their current commitments? You want to be fair and not overwhelm one person, while someone else may be looking for additional responsibilities.
Third, does this task fit in with your staff’s duties? If you have a marketing department, social media would fit perfectly into their bucket of projects. Alternatively, it may make sense for your organization to assign the writing task to a membership coordinator or assistant and have an IT person actually post the message. Maybe you have a staff who attends a lot of meetings and conferences where their involvement in social media would give your organization more exposure, for example through live tweets.
Finally, the most important quality to look for is the “want.” This person should want to do this or at least want to learn how. If the desire is not there, this project will not succeed in the long term. If the person who has the knowledge is unavailable because of a crazy workload, for instance, assign the expert as a backup to support someone less knowledgeable but with the desire to learn. This will create a collaborative team that will bring lots to the table, as well as get the job done!
Alexi Turbow is an account executive at one of the world's largest public relations firms. She currently works in health PR where she manages accounts ranging from health technology to big pharma. Previously she worked at U.S. News & World Report as the communications relations coordinator and formerly worked at the United States Tennis Association. Alexi has a Bachelors of Arts from the Indiana University School of Journalism. She enjoys travel, baking and cheering on the Hoosiers in basketball. Disclaimer: Alexi works at Edelman. The thoughts and opinions expressed here are her own.
