The Social Media Command Center (SMCC) could be ready to capture the attention of “mainstream” corporate America, thanks to a new Forrester Research report detailing best practices around this ‘latest and greatest’ industry trend.
If you’re in the social media business, you’ll think the ‘shiny’ command center concept is old news based on past coverage of the ones created by Dell and Gatorade, to name a few. But trust me, most companies don’t have a grasp of what they really are or why they would even need one.
That, however, could change soon.
The report, authored by analyst Zach Hofer-Shall, reveals inside details about the operations of these command centers and is bound to generate a variety of questions from companies about whether they represent a huge future need or are a huge waste of corporate resources and money.
For the unaware, SMCCs are designed to be state-of-the-art venues where companies can track the ‘social pulse’ of their brand in real-time on glitzy, high-definition monitors usually staffed by a cross-functional team. And yes, there is a lot more that goes into the operation than just relocating your social listening from the desktop to a wall unit.
In fact, one of the most important recommendations in Zach’s report is “don’t build a social intelligence command center unless you’ve first defined clear business objectives,” and “a command center will greatly increase its value if marketers can tie social metrics to the business.” Easier said than done, but that’s where you start not end up later.
One of the keys to developing a SMCC lies in the back-end database and methodical business strategy for managing vast amounts of incoming data, and how to integrate that intelligence directly back into corporate operations. SMCCs also require social business design to make cross-team collaboration a reality. On face value, the SMCC demands the type of internal change management that can truly elevate social intelligence into an enterprise strategy.
The report does an excellent job of covering the operational basics for command centers, including staffing, metrics, and process. I can’t give away any more of Zach’s analysis because the report is really worth the subscription price.
SMCCs come at a hefty price though, normally at least a million dollars or more – but who doesn’t think major brands will be spending at least that much on social initiatives in the future? The report also includes a couple of self-diagnostic tools to help companies determine if they are a good candidate for a center.
If you’ve read this whole post than you’re probably way into this topic so you should also know that SMCCs are one of the discussion threads in the Social CRM pioneers Google newsgroup. Check that out for ongoing updates about this emerging area, and as as always let us know your thoughts.
