In the beginning, this was understandable. When social media became “a thing,” companies had a lot of questions. It was unclear whether it was a fad. It was unclear whether it was something companies should even use. And it was really unclear how a company should go about standing up a social media operation. Unlike established departments like Law, HR or Accounting, there were no guidelines to go by and there was no previous infrastructure to model. There also was nowhere to look for benchmarking - everyone was trying to figure it out at the same time. So companies made it up. People from other parts of the organization were asked to “do social on the side.” And all of us who were in charge of social media programs at big companies became fast friends and leaned on each other as we figured it out together.

The beginning of corporate social media was all Wild West because it had to be. But now, it is still shocking how many companies (including some of the largest in the world) are still stuck there. Here are a couple of signs your company is still stuck in the Wild West:

-The org chart keeps changing and the social team keeps moving around.

-Your social team chronically tells you they are under-resourced. (I know all teams always say this, but the social team is not lying.)

-There is no process or oversight for people wanting to start a new official company social media account, or there is no centralized management of social media accounts across the company.

-There are no social media guidelines within your official company brand guidelines.

-There are lots of social media accounts that are related to your company but that are not controlled by anyone at your company.

-Your company has lost control of social media accounts with no way to reclaim them, or former employees have left and taken company social accounts with them.

-You don’t know whether your social media activity is compliant with data privacy regulations like GDPR in Europe and CCPA in California.

-You do not have security measures and processes in place for protecting your social media passwords and accounts from cyber criminals.

-And while we’re talking about processes, your company does not have documented standard operating procedures for all aspects of social (branding, community management, security, escalations, legal, compliance, etc.)

If you read that list and thought yep, yep, yep, uh oh, you are not alone. But it may be time for some straight talk.

The communications landscape for large companies has changed dramatically in the last 20-ish years – not entirely because of social media but certainly in large part. Gone are the days when a communications plan meant drafting a press release and pushing it out on PR Newswire. Gone are the days when you counted the number of media inquiries as your key indicator of whether something was a big deal.

In today’s digital, in-the-moment landscape, your social media channels are a primary form of communication. In some cases, they are your fastest path to communicating an important message with the world, tamping down a brewing crisis situation or quickly correcting harmful misinformation. It drives me bonkers when executives say things like, “Let’s just hire a kid to run the social media account.” That’s as crazy as deciding to hire a 17-year-old with no communications experience to run your media relations department.

So how do you get out of the Wild West?

1) Treat social media as an equally important communications channel.

2) Staff and resource it appropriately, including spending the money to hire someone with actual work experience to lead it – the same as you would with any other important department head.

3) Create a true governance model. I could write a book on this particular topic, but I’ll just say that a proper governance model includes three key components:

a. Infrastructure: Tools, recordkeeping, archiving, centralized branding standards, etc. Put the basics in place to ensure consistency and compliance across all social channels related to your company.

b. Processes & procedures: Make a playbook that outlines the proper way to do social for your company. Cover expectations for posting, community management, crisis situations, tool utilization, archiving, images, videos, GIFs, livestreaming and very importantly, legal and compliance.

c. Security: Keep your stuff as safe as possible. This is actually a really difficult thing to do well. But this includes rules and guidelines around password management, user access to accounts, third-party integrations, data, working with agency partners and preventing loss of access to accounts.

If this is a topic that is of interest to you, I invite you to visit the Governance portion of my website to learn more.

4) Trust your social media team. It’s a special type of person who can do corporate social media well. They have great instincts and have to exercise excellent judgement on the daily. Ask them what they need and work with them to figure it out.

At this point, there’s no need for companies to be stuck in the Wild West. If you are still there, I encourage you to think about these things and make a plan to navigate your way out of the Wild West. And if you need some help, you can probably find me at the chuckwagon.