Utility Social Media Cross-Functional Teams

I have been impressed with the increased sophistication of utility social media strategy teams. Although obvious to utility professionals, social media is a different animal for utilities, as compared to a small business or even a large consumer products company, so we need to take a more coordinated and planned approach.

One trend I see more and more across North America is the creation of cross-functional teams to outline social media goals, strategy and work flow. Communications has been the traditional home for social media in most utilities; however, these newer teams often include communications, marketing, customer care, legal, IT and sometimes even HR and investor relations.The purpose and focus of each team changes from organization to organization, but the issues I see them tackling include things like:

• Organizational goals, within the context of departmental goals
• Channel selection
• Departmental responsibilities/boundaries
• Use case planning and associated work flows
• Governance
• High-level metrics
• Strategy
• IT requirements
• Legal exposure
• Management case development
• and much, much more…

The bottom line is that social media potentially touches on so many different aspects of a utility’s operations that these cross-functional teams are not only a critical vehicle for the initial planning and implementation phases, but the ongoing evolution of the organization’s social media strategy.