Social Media Paybook

Community Ebook / September 2012
What the Heck is a Social Media Playbook, and Why do I Need One?
Community Ebook / September 2012 / www.radian6.com / 1 888 6radian
What the Heck is a

Social Media Playbook,
and Why do I Need One?
Author Heather MacLean
Manager, Engagement & Influencer Relations,
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
@Macleanheather
www.radian6.com
1 888 6RADIAN 1 888 672-3426
community@radian6.com
Copyright 2012 Salesforce

Radian6
Copyright
2012 Salesforce Radian6
[1]

The best way to get your company started on your

social media journey, is to develop a Playbook.
Introduction
In todays business environment, listening to conversations about
your brand is critical. Building and developing an engagement
strategy for your community is essential. The question that we
are asked most often is where do I start? The best way to get
your company started on your social media journey, is to develop
a Playbook. This document is a guide to help you create an
effective, clear Playbook. Here are a few topics well focus on:
Business Objectives
Roles, Responsibilities and Expectations
Determining what to respond to and what not to respond to
Using Workflow to Your Advantage
- Knowing the Who, What and Why of Conversations
- Knowing the Who, How and When to Respond
Escalation
Reporting
This is by no means an exhaustive list. It is a starting point.
By having a Playbook that addresses these topics, your
organization will have a consistent and documented approach to
listening and engaging with your community. It will also enable
you to develop a workflow that provides reporting, metrics and
accountability.
Finally, we all know the importance of C-Suite buy-in. The
Playbook provides a framework that demonstrates a wellthought-out approach. It helps contextualize the breadth and
depth of social conversations. It also helps the C-Suite to
understand their role in terms of escalation and crisis planning.
Before jumping in, lets lay

some groundwork to get
the creative juices flowing:
This document is based on best
practices, and of course our
experiences and tools.
In addition to having your Playbook,
ensure that your organization has a
clear social media policy. Employees
need to know what they can and
cannot do or share.
A Playbook should always be a
living-breathing document. It should
be revisited at least twice a year
and updated consistently based on
the ongoing experiences of your
organization.
Not every Playbook will look exactly
the same. Your Playbook should
reflect your organizations unique
policies and procedures.
Be sure to keep your companys
goals and objectives in mind while
developing your Playbook.
Use this Playbook Guide for
inspiration to get your creative
juices flowing.
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Copyright 2012 Salesforce Radian6
[2]

Begin at the Beginning

When you begin planning your
Playbook, make sure you understand
your corporate objectives.
Why You Need to be an

Active Listener:
Because of the speed of social, being an
active listener means that you can alert
appropriate teams, and management
when necessary, to any issues AS they
occur. Using a good listening tool will
What strategic areas are

the focus of your business?
also help you collect sufficient detail to

act quickly to determine the appropriate
response.
Having this information at your fingertips
and being able to share with the
appropriate parties can really make a
difference when you need to take action
Reputation
Management
Lead
generation
to correct an issue or stop a crisis from

taking root. For example you can:
Research and
development
opportunities
Crisis
management
Get a quick snapshot or a detailed

report on the volume of mentions and
specific nature of the conversation
around your brand
Track posts to measure the impact

Customer
service
Competitive
intelligence
of your brand engagement or your

companys reputation
Gain a better understanding of the

competitive landscape
Once you have determined what is most important to your

organization, you can build this into your Playbook. For example,
if you are focusing on customer service issues, your hours of
operation, messaging and response times should all be geared to
meet your corporate goals. Once you know your objectives, its
time to define roles, responsibilities and expectations
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[3]

Determine Roles,
Responsibilities and
Expectations
With your corporate objectives in place, youre ready to develop
your Community team. Community teams are comprised of
people who are most actively listening and engaging on behalf of
the brand. This does not mean that other parts of the organization
are not actively involved in the conversations. Ideally, your whole
organization is social and, therefore, the Playbook holds even
greater importance. Playbooks should be shared across the
organization to help guide all employees.
When establishing your Community Team, there should be clear
roles, responsibilities, job descriptions and expectations for each
team member. Some common titles associated with Community
Teams include: Community Managers, Community Engagement
Specialists, Community Analysts and Social Media Specialists.
When establishing
your Community
Team, there should
be clear roles,
responsibilities,
job descriptions
and expectations
for each team
member.
General Things to Consider for Your

Community Team
Set up a listening schedule for your team. This has to
be a schedule that works for your operation and your available

resources. From our experience, weve found that assigning people
chunks of time between two and three hours is most effective. This
allows for people to focus on engaging on behalf of the brand while
monitoring all mentions around your organization. It also ensures
that the non-monitoring time is sufficient for other Community
work, including content development, personal engagement and
reporting.
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[4]

The following is a typical list of activities for those listening and

engaging:
Monitor your organizations Topic Profile for all mentions
of your company during the regular working hours.
Be sure to leverage your CRM system and add any
context around the conversation, customers and leads.
Assign posts to appropriate team members for
response, follow-up and resolution.
Assign sales leads to the business development team to
capitalize on potential sales opportunities.
Email posts to partners and follow up on their engagement
Ensure that when and where appropriate, that source
tags and post tags are used appropriately.
Ensure that your engagement team reviews and closes
all posts that have been assigned.
Things to consider for your Community

Its also important to define your responsibilities so that your
community knows what to expect. For example, begin by
determining what your regular hours of operation are and
when you will be actively listening and engaging on behalf
of your brand. Once you establish those hours and have
agreement from your internal stakeholders, be sure to post this
information on your various channels. Dont forget to indicate
the time zone for your hours of operation as well.
Why? The expectation in social
Next, determine what an appropriate turn-around or response

time is for your team. For example:
issue before it escalates or potentially
networks is far different than traditional

communications. Conversations in
social are real-time and people expect
responses in real-time. Establishing
response times, and sharing them,
demonstrates your commitment to your
community. Meeting these expectations
will also help to ensure that you solve an
goes viral. Outside these hours of
operations, good listening tools give you
options for Alerts to be sent directly
Facebook
Twitter
20 minutes
Comments
30 minutes
therefore, enabling your Community to

respond in a timely fashion.
Blogs
1 hour
1 hour
to the email of a designated person -
Mainstream News
1 hour
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[5]

Determining What to
Respond to and What Not
to Respond to:
As a part of the listening process, it is recommended that you
determine the types of comments/posts that you will and will
not respond to.
Why You Should Determine

this Up Front:
Question: If the conversation is really

peer-to-peer and there is no ask of you,
should you jump in? The general rule of
thumb is - no. Let the conversation continue
without jumping in. If however, there is a
question about your company, product or
service, then that could be a good point to
introduce yourself.
the trolls? This is an important phrase
Have you heard the saying: Dont feed

to remember. Knowing when to take
the high road and when not to engage
is as important as knowing when you
should respond. On occasion there
will be people who want to engage in a
public debate and perhaps embarrass
the brand. If you respond to these types
of posts, you will be feeding that need.
Most people see through the effort of
these people and they dont expect you
to feed the trolls - so dont.
The following are some conversations that are good

opportunities for engagement:
Mentions of your company participation in industry events

or presentations
Compliments of your product, service or people

Recommendations or referrals of your products and/or
services
Customer service/support issues or enquiries

Sales leads or product enquiries
Product requests
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[6]

The following are some examples of the types of posts that you may
choose to avoid responding to:
Generic mentions among a sea of competitors, without

commentary thats positive or negative
Sarcastic, snarky or potentially inflammatory comments

Straight retweets of company content or company news without
any additional commentary
Peer-to-peer conversations that mention your company in

passing, in which your involvement could be perceived as
intrusive
Posts/forum threads that require membership to respond

to, unless its a customer service issue, negative post or
misinformation you need to correct
Rumors
Be clear on what you would like your

team to avoid when responding to
your community. For example:
unwarranted public apologies
details about future

product enhancements
profanity or inappropriate
subject matter
starting rumors
reference to partners
customers or relationships
that are not publicly known.
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[7]

Using Workflow to
your Advantage
Workflow is all about tracking, consistency of recording
information, metrics, reporting and ensuring you respond in a
timely manner in order to protect the brand. It helps with the who,
what and why around conversations.
The following section highlights how our Engagement Console
can be used to track information, engage and analyze and report
data.
Before responding on behalf of the brand, we need to ask
ourselves a few key questions to make sure that we are
responding within our corporate guidelines. We will apply this
information in our workflow, which can be used for reporting
purposes, as well as providing us with a clear snapshot
around the context of each person we engage with, for future
engagement.
Who is posting?
What are they talking about?
Is it negative or time sensitive?
Who should respond?
Any further context to add?
Where does the post stand? Has it been closed off?
Question: Why is it important to know who is
posting? It is important since we respond/
route posts differently depending on whether
a person is a customer, partner, employee,
competitor or a general member of our
community.
Why Do You Need

Workflow:
Workflow can help both the
Community Team in their work to
listen and engage on behalf of the
brand by:
creating a record of the

conversation
tracking:
- sentiment of conversations.
This can be very useful for
marketing to adjust plans to
better reach customers and/or
the community at large
- whether or not a response has
been given for a particular
question or concern and who
responded
finding your companys advocates,

influencers or detractors
separating employee
conversations from community

members so that you can focus
your attentions in the right areas
escalating issues to other

departments or to senior
management
creating reports that show Share
of Conversation, Share of Voice,

sentiment and much, much more
When applied correctly, it can save

you and your team a lot of time.
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[8]

When first viewing a post you should research the person to

appropriately apply tags. For example, you may look at:
The persons social profile available through the Engagement

Console
Their Linkedin Profile

Check your companys CRM to determine if they are a
customer or prospect
To make listening and monitoring more efficient, we recommend

using macros to streamline the process. Here are some of the
most common macros that we use:
Who is posting? Macros.
Question: What is Share of Voice and why is it

important? It is the degree to which your brand
is mentioned in terms of your competitors in
online conversations. Its important because
the higher your Share of Voice (SOV) the more
you are being discussed in relation to your
competitors.
...the higher
your Share of
Conversation (SOC)
is the more your
brand name is
appearing in online conversations.
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[9]

Question: What is Share of Conversation and why

is it important? Its the degree to which a brand is
associated with the conversations in the industry.
Its important because the higher your Share of
Conversation (SOC) is the more your brand name
is appearing in on-line conversations. Of course,
you want your brand to be top of mind when
making purchasing decisions.
...you want your

brand top of mind
when making
purchasing
decisions.
What are they posting about

After youve determined who is posting (and used source tags), you
next need to ask yourself what they are posting about in reference
to your brand name. This is what will determine your classification
and post tags.
Classifications are selected by assignee/traffic coordinator to track
the nature of online conversation.
Classifications & Definitions

Product Review: Product feedback/review, including RTs
Gen. Product/ Company: Passing mention
Industry Discussion: Industry conversations, including

competitive references
Company Events: Conferences & webinars
Product Review: Product feedback/review, including RTs

Gen. Product/ Company: Passing mention
Industry Discussion: Industry conversations, including

competitive references
Company Outreach: Mentions by an employee/partner
Support: Existing customer support inquiry
Recommendation/Ref: Positive reference to using your

product or service
Sales Lead: Possible/potential lead
Partner/Reseller: Mention by a partner/resellers customer

Ensuring that you tag your posts appropriately will help with your
reporting when you are looking at SOV and SOC.
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[ 10 ]

Setting Engagement
Classifications
Why? Classifying engagement
The following are the engagement level options available in the

Engagement Console:
status enables members of the
New Content Not reviewed
posts that have outstanding issues.
Default when an on topic post is found
Reviewed, Determining Best Response
Qualified post, assigned to appropriate employee for

possible response
Recommend Follow up To be managed by assignee

Commented, Awaiting Reply To be managed by assignee
Commented Closed To be managed by assignee
Referred To be managed by assignee
Resolved, no further action required
Community team to keep track of

With people on different shifts,
they are easily able to determine
what is outstanding and what
needs action. Reporting can also
be done showing how many posts
were closed out in a given period.
This can demonstrate how much
work flow is being done by any one
person at any given time.
To be managed by assignee
Reviewed, Closed, no response needed

To be managed by assignee
Identifying Priority
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[ 11 ]

What is the tone of the post?
Why? Understanding the volume
of posts that are negative, positive or

neutral can help guide marketing and
communication plans. It provides a
pulse of the community. This can be
very useful information
What Types of Posts

Should You Assign to
Other Departments?
Social listening and engagement should not be
restricted to just the Community team. Social
organizations are just that - social. The entire
organization participates. While the Community team
will often be the first to encounter a conversation and
assign post and source tags, they will often assign
posts to other departments. Assigning a post could
be required because it should be handled by another
department, or, it could be to alert management and
the C-Suite of competitor activity, an emerging issue or
a mention. Assigning posts, helps with the Who, How
and When to respond.
The following table represents a variety of topics that
could be referred to other departments. This list is by
no means exhaustive. Each company will have their
own unique items that they wish to classify and address.
Support/Troubleshooting:
Technical issue, troubleshooting, etc.
Customer
Support
Product
Management
Team
Lead
Generation
Team
Manager or
Director of
Community
Training
Team
Executive
Team
Product Review:
Product Enhancement
Sales Lead:
Interest in a demo or want to buy
Industry Discussion or Company Content:

Conversations of concern relating to your brand
Support or Troubleshooting:
Requests for training
Industry Discussion: Financial, speculation of sale,

high-level business conversations, industry analysis
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[ 12 ]

What to do When You Are

Assigned a Post
1. Review the post to ensure that you are the right person to address
it. If you are not, reassign the post to the right person.
2. If you are responding publicly ensure that you are following your
corporate guidelines.
3. If applicable, copy the response if made from a personal handle,
into the notes section in the Engagement Console.
4. Update the Engagement Level in the Engagement Console to
reflect the current status of the post after you have taken action. For
example, Reviewed, No Engagement Required, may be selected.
5. Ensure to close out all posts that have been assigned to you, even
if they do not require engagement. This will provide more accurate
reports.
What about Escalation

of Issues?
Every Playbook should have an escalation process. This will be
unique to your organization. You should determine what categories of
posts you want escalated and to whom.
For example:
Competitor mentions and/or conversations

Libellous comments
Social attacks
Every Playbook
should have
an escalation
process. This will
be unique to your
organization.
You should also plan for increased volumes due to company events
and/or announcements as well as the worst case scenario of a full out
social media attack on your organization. For each, be sure to know
who will do what - when, and how you will handle each scenario. Map
this process out in your plan, including how to reach people in an
emergency and designate exact roles and responsibilities. Be sure to
practice this plan at least twice a year.
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[ 13 ]

Reporting
A great way to keep management informed of how your company
is doing socially, is through the generation of reports.
Ad hoc reports can be prepared to report on specific events.
Weekly reports can give a quick summary of the top issues and
where competitors stand in comparison to your organization.
Monthly reports can provide much more detailed information
around your overall objectives.
Other Resources
For additional information on
listening and engaging, please
check out the following:
How to Develop Your Social
Media Strategy
Final Thoughts
Playbooks are living breathing plans that take you through the
who, what, when and how to listen and respond on behalf of
your brand in both every day business operations as well as the
unplanned and unexpected.
Social Media Listening,

Measuring and Engagement
Primer
20 Ways to Succeed at Social
Media Engagement
Start with defining and aligning your:

Business Objectives
Roles, Responsibilities and Expectations
Determining what to respond to and what not to respond to
Using Workflow to Your Advantage
- Knowing the Who, What and Why of Conversations
- Knowing the Who, How and When to Respond
Escalation
Reporting
This will result in processes that guide your entire organization and
ensure buy-in with your C-Suite.
By having a Playbook that addresses these topics your
organization will have a strong plan of action in place.
Find us on the web:

www.radian6.com
Follow us on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/radian6
Read the Blog:
www.radian6.com/blog

Author: Heather MacLean
Editors: Julie Meredith,
Jason Boies and Mike Girard
Design: Lise Hansen
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[ 14 ]

Glossary
Listening
Engagement
Most people perceive someone who listens as

someone who cares. This type of listening has
to be visibly demonstrated; it is not passive or
unidirectional. It is two-way listening. Message
reception is not enough; the listener must respond.
This is two-way, conversational listening.
First and foremost, engagement is not a goal;

it is a result. Our approach to engagement is
the result of building a community by focusing
on the people that are in the community. It is
about sharing content and information that will
benefit our community. It is about expanding
our networks and connecting with more people
through conversations, likes and shares. Finally
it is about being present and being able to
have conversations. Being human and being
appreciative is important.
Conversational Listening Builds

Relationships: One-way data gathering is a
stealth activity. You may be doing it to better listen
to your customers and there is tremendous value
in analyzing what you hear and acting upon it. Why
stop there? Let customers see that you are listening
by acknowledging them and strengthen your
relationships too!
Conversational Listening Sends a Message:
On the surface, listening seems to be about
receiving. However, conversational listening sends a
message: you are important to us.
Conversational Listening Personalizes Your
Brand: A listening brand is an unmasked brand
that is more personal and less institutional. As you
listen & build trust, you will also increase the quality
of the feedback you receive since people will share
more openly when they observe true listening
behaviour.
The online communitys awareness that you are
actively listening will influence the conversation
significantly. Your very presence changes the
dynamics. Let people know you are listening.
Playbook
A playbook lays out the processes in which your
organization will listen and engage. It helps provide
information to all the players to ensure that they
are consistent in engagement and workflow, while
also guiding them through what can sometimes be
murky waters.
Post Tags
Provides a summary of the content in a post or
posts. They enable you to categorize posts. For
example, company outreach.
Source Tags
Used in the Engagement Console to identify the
source of the post. For example, sources could be
tagged as an influencer or a competitor.
Workflow
Provides the methods and processes for tracking,
measuring and responding to conversations about
your brand.
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[ 15 ]

Social Media Paybook

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Community Ebook / September 2012

Community Ebook / September 2012 / www.radian6.com / 1 888 6radian

What the Heck is a

Copyright 2012 Salesforce

Community Ebook / September 2012

The best way to get your company started on your

Before jumping in, lets lay

Copyright 2012 Salesforce Radian6

Community Ebook / September 2012

Begin at the Beginning

Why You Need to be an

What strategic areas are

also help you collect sufficient detail to

to correct an issue or stop a crisis from

Get a quick snapshot or a detailed

Track posts to measure the impact

of your brand engagement or your

Gain a better understanding of the

Once you have determined what is most important to your

Copyright 2012 Salesforce Radian6

Community Ebook / September 2012

General Things to Consider for Your

be a schedule that works for your operation and your available

Copyright 2012 Salesforce Radian6

Community Ebook / September 2012

The following is a typical list of activities for those listening and

Things to consider for your Community

Why? The expectation in social

Next, determine what an appropriate turn-around or response

issue before it escalates or potentially

networks is far different than traditional

therefore, enabling your Community to

to the email of a designated person -

Copyright 2012 Salesforce Radian6

Community Ebook / September 2012

Why You Should Determine

Question: If the conversation is really

the trolls? This is an important phrase

Have you heard the saying: Dont feed

The following are some conversations that are good

Mentions of your company participation in industry events

Compliments of your product, service or people

Customer service/support issues or enquiries

Copyright 2012 Salesforce Radian6

Community Ebook / September 2012

Generic mentions among a sea of competitors, without

Sarcastic, snarky or potentially inflammatory comments

Peer-to-peer conversations that mention your company in

Posts/forum threads that require membership to respond

Be clear on what you would like your

unwarranted public apologies

details about future

Copyright 2012 Salesforce Radian6

Community Ebook / September 2012

Why Do You Need

creating a record of the

finding your companys advocates,

conversations from community

escalating issues to other

creating reports that show Share

of Conversation, Share of Voice,

When applied correctly, it can save

Copyright 2012 Salesforce Radian6

Community Ebook / September 2012