Digital Doughnut recently made the claim that all departments ‘must’ be engaging on social media. Mattias Drefs argued that “to become truly socially enabled”, businesses should employ "social media listening techniques" across the whole enterprise.

Is social listening really enough? Should the whole business be actively engaging on social media, or could it spell danger to let all departments and employees have access to social media?

We took to Twitter to ask Digital Marketing Show 2014 expert speakers, Andrew Grill, Global Partner, IBM and Gideon Lask, Founder and CEO, Buyapowa, whether all departments should be engaging on social media.


Digital Marketing Show: Is it solely the marketing team’s responsibility to engage on social media?

Andrew Grill: Imagine if all phone calls were handled just by the marketing team? So why do this with social?

Gideon Lask: Absolutely not. That’s a wee bit like saying it’s only IT’s job to engage on the internet.

Jonathan Davies: Do you think local store accounts (supermarkets, restaurants etc) create better relationships with customers?

Grill: The main thing is make your twitter handle visible at your store - on signage/menus/entry & exit.

Lask: Great question. Yes… and no. There’s no reason why national identities can’t aspire to intimacy, too. The assumption you need a physical relationship with brands distorts one of the aims of social: breaking down old barriers.

International Trade: Does social media listening bring more clarity or make more noise for businesses?

Grill: Social media is the best piece of market research you never commissioned. Use social for insights.

Lask: More clarity, for sure. But you need to be sure what you’re listening for. Simple brand mentions are often the weakest terms.

Journo Link: How do you monitor competition in the social space?

Grill: Follow them on social and also put their keywords in your monitoring tools.

Lask: Trad[itional] metrics (mentions, engagement) are fine but what you should REALLY measure is what kind of thing they’re doing. Are they using social in cutting-edge ways? Driving real sales? Segmenting their messages? Mentioning YOU directly? etc.

Lauren Morris: Is it enough for the departments to ‘watch’ social or should they be engaging?

Grill: Listening is the start - taking action on what they see is key - and engage if appropriate.

Lask: The term ‘departments’ in the question is really telling. Social’s not just an after-thought for marketing teams. With that in mind, everyone needs to engage, not simply listen - from marketing to sales to HR to corporate.

Want to learn more from Andrew and Gideon?

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