Social Media in Ottawa by Pilot Projects, an NCC 'How to'

  

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Who Knew Just How Social The NCC Could Be!

Yesterday evening at the Exchange Pub in Ottawa's Rideau Centre, Daniel Feeny, Director of Digital Communications, Outreach and Youth Programs, National Capital Commission, (whew that's long!) shared with some of the local Ottawa social media enthusiasts a presentation on how the NCC has engaged a social media program in a stepped fashion using small pilot projects. Many of us who have lived in the National Capital region for many years might think that the NCC using social media has a certain irony, but all that aside, Daniel made a great presentation, and this attendee for one was certainly engaged. This was another example of how social media can be effectively leveraged by any organization or company to as Richard Binhammer put it..."Do business better."

This was the third gathering organized by the Third Tuesday Meetup group led by Joe Thornley of Thornley Fallis a locally based marketing agency and an arguable leader in their space. What I thought was particularly interesting was how there is a consistent pattern emerging among the companies and organizations that we've heard from this year in regards to the "HOW to" of a social media campaign and so I'd like to offer these observations to you. Hopefully you'll be able to take them forward and use them to begin your company's social media project. Without further delay...

7 Common Steps to Starting a Social Media Campaign Shared by Dell, RIM and the NCC

1. Identify and assemble a key core group of social media enthusiasts;
2. Get executive buy in to the concept, sometimes this is where the leadership comes from (best scenario) other times you need to create some sound reasoning and compelling reasons to move forward;
3. Chose one platform to begin, starting with too many can be overwhelming particularly if you're not a company with large internal management resources;
4. Create an idea for an initial small project including what would constitute some measure of success;
5. Execute;
6. Analyze;
7. Build from there and activate more of the internal workforce to participate at some level.

While these are steps that were shared among the presenters, they also had some common wisdom to offer. I think these considerations come from the fact that social media is still in it's infancy and evolving rapidly so there's not much that is carved in stone. Two observations in this regard. First don't set the bar too high initially, you're only setting yourself up for failure in an environment where there's likely to be some challenges along the way. (see the second point!) When you establish your first project, be realistic about what might be accomplished...you may get lucky and hit a home run with your first at bat. All I can say to that is that if I were put in to bat in a major league ball game tomorrow, I would strike out...unless I was really lucky. What's important? Go to the plate and swing! That is success. Second be prepared for apparent failures along the way. It seems that this is a pretty common experience, while some of your initial projects will hold their own, others won't, don't dwell on it...next! 

In the previous paragraph I said nothings carved in stone but here I've identified some of the common factors and experiences of three different organizations. What to draw from this? OK, so the stone is not fully sculpted, but a few chisel chinks have been made and if you duplicate these chisel chinks you're likely to experience similar results on some sort of scaled basis. Is it important? That's something you have to decide for yourself but research groups like Aberdeen, Marketing Sherpa, Serius Decisions and the list goes on, all suggest that social media in Ottawa and around the world, is quickly evlolving as a powerful tool whether you're a B2B or B2C business, or a social/charitable organization, or a government body that will allow you to do business better. What are you waiting for? Afterall...

We're at the edge of the future!

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