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The Social Media Strategist: Build a Successful Program from the Inside Out
Conquer the unique challenges of driving social media success within a large company From the social media director who built successful programs at both GM and IBM, The Social Media Strategist provides the tools you need to meet all the challenges of building a social media strategy in a large company, which include corporate culture, legal barriers, and the kind of bureaucratic resistance that that are unique to large organizations. The Social Media Strategist explains how to get legal departments to say "yes" to social media programs; get employees engaged without exposing the organization to risk; build "buzz" that parallels business goals; and avoid the internal turf wars that can doom new initiatives. Christopher Barger is Senior Vice President of Global Programs at Voce Connect, a division of Porter Novelli, which assists clients around the world in developing social media programs and strategies. He spent four years as Director of Global Social Media at General Motors, and he served as IBM's "blogger-in-chief," playing a crucial role in developing IBM's online presence.
- GenresBusinessCommunication
306 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 14, 2011
8 people are currently reading
75 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 9, 2012
"Page turner." Not words you usually expect to associate with a social media book.
For anyone who is looking for a solid primer on social media within corporations, though, those two words perfectly describe Christopher Barger's book The Social Media Strategist: Build a Successful Program from the Inside Out.
In case you aren't familiar with Barger, he's headed-up social media at two of the world's largest companies - IBM and GM. While at the latter, he led their social media communications around GM's bankruptcy filing. Suffice to say, he has the chops to write a book about corporate social media. Nowadays he plies his trade at Voce Communications.
Despite the over-abundance of social media books nowadays, you can generally divide them into twocategories: the inspirational, philosophy-level books (Trust Agents, Six Pixels etc) and the practical, action-focused books (ok, there are probably many more, but work with me on this...). The Social Media Strategist falls firmly into the second category - one that I think is very thin on the ground right now - and immediately takes its place as my pick for one of the best in the category.
Barger writes in a pragmatic, realistic style - he doesn't pull any punches, but more importantly he doesn't focus on shiny objects and he doesn't bullshit you with visions of a social media-driven utopia. He's honest and to the point about challenges, and this book is all the better for it.
Barger gives a nod towards social media 101s, but this book is intended for people who have already bought-in to the potential of social media, and are looking for the "how", not the "why".
The vast majority of the book is taken up with chapters on critical pieces of the corporate social media puzzle - roles, responsibilities and key infrastructure. Barger leads with substance - early chapters on the executive champion, the social media lead, and the challenges they need to overcome are some of the best parts of the book. Later on he delves into aspects of social media training, policies, crisis management, blogger relations and more.
One key point to note is that this is not a tactical "how to" for social media programs, or a case study-focused book. You won't learn from detailed walk-throughs, and case studies are limited to comments from a few key individuals in the space (all of whom are highly credible, however). This book is focused at more of a strategic and structural level.
Equally, if you're already a long way down the road with your program then you may get relatively little from this (although there will certainly be nuggets and reminders throughout) - this is focused more on someone starting from close to scratch.
Neither of these things is a problem, though - Barger knows who he is writing for (he states it explicitly at the outset, in fact) and he caters to that audience with aplomb.
If there were one thing I could change, it would be the flow through the book. There's no narrative through the book - partially because Barger doesn't prescribe a set process to follow, but at times the leaps from topic to topic between chapters could use finessing (while chapter 9 focuses on social media training within the organization, chapter 10 focuses on blogger relations). Also, the crisis communications chapters have relatively little substance when it comes to how to prepare for those events (the GM-focused chapter, alone, could frankly be a book on its own).
Ultimately, if you're working on social media within an organization and need a handbook as you get started, I can hardly recommend The Social Media Strategist more strongly. I've already suggested that several people I know read it, and suspect that several others may find it in their stockings next time Christmas rolls around.
Two thumbs way up.
For anyone who is looking for a solid primer on social media within corporations, though, those two words perfectly describe Christopher Barger's book The Social Media Strategist: Build a Successful Program from the Inside Out.
In case you aren't familiar with Barger, he's headed-up social media at two of the world's largest companies - IBM and GM. While at the latter, he led their social media communications around GM's bankruptcy filing. Suffice to say, he has the chops to write a book about corporate social media. Nowadays he plies his trade at Voce Communications.
Despite the over-abundance of social media books nowadays, you can generally divide them into twocategories: the inspirational, philosophy-level books (Trust Agents, Six Pixels etc) and the practical, action-focused books (ok, there are probably many more, but work with me on this...). The Social Media Strategist falls firmly into the second category - one that I think is very thin on the ground right now - and immediately takes its place as my pick for one of the best in the category.
Barger writes in a pragmatic, realistic style - he doesn't pull any punches, but more importantly he doesn't focus on shiny objects and he doesn't bullshit you with visions of a social media-driven utopia. He's honest and to the point about challenges, and this book is all the better for it.
Barger gives a nod towards social media 101s, but this book is intended for people who have already bought-in to the potential of social media, and are looking for the "how", not the "why".
The vast majority of the book is taken up with chapters on critical pieces of the corporate social media puzzle - roles, responsibilities and key infrastructure. Barger leads with substance - early chapters on the executive champion, the social media lead, and the challenges they need to overcome are some of the best parts of the book. Later on he delves into aspects of social media training, policies, crisis management, blogger relations and more.
One key point to note is that this is not a tactical "how to" for social media programs, or a case study-focused book. You won't learn from detailed walk-throughs, and case studies are limited to comments from a few key individuals in the space (all of whom are highly credible, however). This book is focused at more of a strategic and structural level.
Equally, if you're already a long way down the road with your program then you may get relatively little from this (although there will certainly be nuggets and reminders throughout) - this is focused more on someone starting from close to scratch.
Neither of these things is a problem, though - Barger knows who he is writing for (he states it explicitly at the outset, in fact) and he caters to that audience with aplomb.
If there were one thing I could change, it would be the flow through the book. There's no narrative through the book - partially because Barger doesn't prescribe a set process to follow, but at times the leaps from topic to topic between chapters could use finessing (while chapter 9 focuses on social media training within the organization, chapter 10 focuses on blogger relations). Also, the crisis communications chapters have relatively little substance when it comes to how to prepare for those events (the GM-focused chapter, alone, could frankly be a book on its own).
Ultimately, if you're working on social media within an organization and need a handbook as you get started, I can hardly recommend The Social Media Strategist more strongly. I've already suggested that several people I know read it, and suspect that several others may find it in their stockings next time Christmas rolls around.
Two thumbs way up.
February 13, 2012
Useful. The chapters on training and on policy and on handling issues were among the best.
The contents are largely based on the author's experience running the social media program for GM. That's great for comms and marketing but less useful for other use cases. Also, while there is a chapter on ROI, there isn't much evidence of hard numbers at GM. (These are tough to get, but throughout the book the commercial benefit is largely anecdotal.)
In general, though, there is a paucity of good field experience and this book helps fill that void.
The contents are largely based on the author's experience running the social media program for GM. That's great for comms and marketing but less useful for other use cases. Also, while there is a chapter on ROI, there isn't much evidence of hard numbers at GM. (These are tough to get, but throughout the book the commercial benefit is largely anecdotal.)
In general, though, there is a paucity of good field experience and this book helps fill that void.
January 6, 2013
Thoroughly enjoyable. Sound advice from a guy who has been at the social media front lines and back rooms at big companies.
November 11, 2015
A very educational read that is easy to get through and leaves you with a greater understanding of how to approach social media on a professional scale. I would easily call this a must-read and essential for all who work in marketing and advertising (client services).
I particularly enjoyed the tips on how to get legal to be a supporting member of the team when launching a social media campaign (versus opposing, which often tends to happen in our business), as well as the detailed chapter on various social media #fails and how to deal with them, and sometimes even use them to your business' advantage.
The only tidbit missing for me was the topic of setting up expectations on what the team (or person) responsible for a client's social channel(s) is and isn't capable of doing based on the initial budget allocated and how best to mitigate implications of this.
Otherwise, kudos to Christopher Barger for tackling the ever-changing social media space and publishing a book that so eloquently teaches social media foundations. I imagine smart professors would incorporate this into ad/ marketing school curriculum immediately as well.
I particularly enjoyed the tips on how to get legal to be a supporting member of the team when launching a social media campaign (versus opposing, which often tends to happen in our business), as well as the detailed chapter on various social media #fails and how to deal with them, and sometimes even use them to your business' advantage.
The only tidbit missing for me was the topic of setting up expectations on what the team (or person) responsible for a client's social channel(s) is and isn't capable of doing based on the initial budget allocated and how best to mitigate implications of this.
Otherwise, kudos to Christopher Barger for tackling the ever-changing social media space and publishing a book that so eloquently teaches social media foundations. I imagine smart professors would incorporate this into ad/ marketing school curriculum immediately as well.
December 28, 2012
Surprisingly readable and useful book about how to run a social media program. Several useful examples plus plenty of good tips in a well structured sequence. Although there is a fair amount of repetition, along the lines of not forgetting to listen, be responsive, be transparent, and not treating social media as a marketing 'push' campaign, the stories and fluid wiring keep it engaging. A good primer on the subject.
June 19, 2012
Best book on social media that I've read. No obnoxious fluff or pretense. Christopher Barger knows his stuff and has the credentials to back it up, and it's obvious. Written for someone doing social media for a large company.
November 15, 2012
Good, sane advice and stories.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews