Social Media Manager Fatigue

Everyone knows being a social media manager is the funnest job in the world, right? I mean, what's NOT to like about being paid to be on Facebook and Twitter all day?

If that's true why am I spending more and more time thinking maybe getting into this line of work was a terrible idea and maybe editing articles about enteral and parenteral nutrition was actually not boring or tedious? Depending on what people call my job, it's supposed to be the hottest job of all time. What's not to like?

I just read a post about social media and the stages of grief and it really resonated with me and, frankly, also depressed the crap out of me. If you're thinking about making a career of social media, you need to read that post. I think it's important to know that a) the phases (denial, bargaining, anger, and despair) Amber describes in the post are totally accurate and b) when you're a social media manager, all the emotions and upheaval during each of those phases are directed towards YOU. Are you down with that? You sure?

The important thing to know, I think, is that working through these phases takes time...a LONG time. Moving an organization from being "1.0" to social is incredibly hard and can take years.  Being the person on staff who's responsible for instigating these uncomfortable phases is really hard. I suspect it's probably easier if there are other people on staff to share in your misery--other members of a social media team, for instance--but especially in the association or nonprofit world, organizations are lucky to have budget to dedicate ONE hire to social media and I don't imagine that will be changing anytime soon.

Not to be a Debbie Downer, but I've been at it for 3 years now and I'm about worn out. And I know from talking to others in similar roles that they're just as beaten down and burnt out as I am. And the thing is that social media is still so new that it's not like organizations are going to be doing any forward thinking about avoiding burnout and retaining talented employees in this role; they're still mostly stuck in the phase where they see social media spending as experimental, and just possibly (fingers crossed), something that they won't need to worry about in a few years.

Anyone care to share tips on how they're avoiding burnout in a social media role? Anonymous comments are fine, btw.

Upcoming Facebook Page Commenting Changes

Facebook recently gave Page admins some cool tools and abilities. So of course, just as Big Brother giveth, he also taketh away....and apparently Facebook is getting ready to take something potentially major away from Page admins: the ability to disable the comment feature on Pages.

Apparently, in the next few weeks Facebook will be announcing that they're taking away this power--or, at least, all Pages other than those for prescription drugs and devices, according to this presentation from WCG.

Facebook to Open Page Commenting

My favorite part of that presentation is the one that addresses "Why is this policy happening." (slide 4). It cites four reasons:

• "In the best interest of patients' health, Facebook wants to allow adverse events to be mentioned openly." Since when is Facebook all pro-patient rights? Or a pharma watchdog agency?
• "They were being inundated with requests for Page comments to be disabled." Since when does Facebook give a shit about what users want? Facebook does what is best for Facebook. See the next two points...
• "Having an open forum is Facebook's Way"--that's why they don't respond to user comments or complaints and only communicate changes like this comment policy to agencies or brands spending big money. If you're a regular person, you're invisible to Facebook--they care about one thing and one thing only: DOLLARS. As evidenced by the next point....
• "Facebook makes money when people interact with Facebook. Blocking comments prevents additional ad views and gleaning information about users' likes/dislikes." Finally--the true answer to the question! So all that shit about "in the best interest of patients's health" and the rest of it...please. It's all about the Benjamins. And that's fine--but then at least be honest about it.

Sooo...what does this impending change mean for you if you're the admin of a Page for an organization that, while not in a regulated industry, has chosen for one reason or another not to enable comments on their Facebook Page? I'd suggest that now might be a good time to review your social media strategy and/or whatever internal policies that led to disabling comments in the first place. Can you get your org's leaders on board with enabling comments? If not, assuming this change does happen in the next few months, I'd suggest making some contingency plans. Will you shut down the Page once comments are enabled? If so, how will you communicate this to "likers" of the Page? Do you want to direct those people somewhere else instead--say, a private social networking platform or somewhere on your org's website? Will deleting the Page cause a stir among your members and generate bad WOM about your org--that you're controlling and deleted the Page because you coudln't control the conversation? If so, do your org's leaders care and are they prepared to respond to a potential outcry from members, assuming you do delete the Page? Or, other side of the coin, they decide to keep the Page once comments are enabled--what will the process/procedure be for montioring the comments? What is the plan if someone leaves a nasty comment or asks a question on the Page on a Saturday morning, or on a holiday? Are you familiar with the options for monitoring/moderating comments? If not, now might be a good time to get familiar with them--you can see what kinds of controls you have by going to "edit profile" on the Page you admin, then clicking the "manage permissions" tab under settings.

WTF is Social CRM?

I admit it--I'm totally drinking the social CRM Kool-Aid. Sure, plenty of people see it as the latest in the never-ending series of buzz words or "hot topics." But as someone who has spent the last 3 years "doing" social media and buried in data, to me, social CRM means being able to provide a home for the results of the laborious process of social media listening, and for information gathered from countless interactions on Facebook or Twitter or Linkedin. It means being able to connect the dots between the way we've always done it and the way we will be able to do it in the future.

If social media is not a fad and is, indeed, something most--if not all--businesses will eventually incorporate into their communications mix in one way or another, social CRM is just as inevitable. It's one of the huge components of "what's the ROI of social media?" because one of the biggest "R"s in social media is, as far as I'm concerned, information.

Do you have no idea what I'm even talking about? Here are three resources to check out to help you understand:

• Socialfish whitepaper--will totally help you understand what the hell social CRM means.
• The Social Customer--once you have a basic understanding of the concept, this is a great source of more in-depth reflections on different facets of the issues around social CRM.
• Small Act Thrive--I swear they are not paying me to write this or anything; I'm just obsessed with Small Act's Thrive software. I love it because it's a social media management system specifically for nonprofits and associations. And even if you're not ready to start plugging social data into your database, Thrive takes social media posting and listening and makes it so you can start gathering and analyzing data and making connections even if you (or your IT people) are not ready to accommodate that information in the database.

Did You Know Online Community is a Priority for ASAE? Neither Did I

I've spent the past day and a half at ASAE's Future Leaders conference. On one hand, it's been great--I've learned some leadership stuff (I'm an "i"--who knew?), met some cool people, and gotten to hang out with my friend Lauren Wolfe. On the other, it's made me wonder how, when almost 10% of kids today are being diagnosed with ADHD--and, presumably either being medicated or getting special learning plans in school--every post-graduate learning experience I've ever had seems to assume that all adults learn the same way and can sit for 8 hours at a clip, minus a few breaks. My brain doesn't work that way and I know I'm not the only one who feels this way.

But I digress. One of the most interesting things I've learned at this conference was from John Graham, CEO of ASAE. He spoke at lunch today about his career and also about ASAE and what they consider to be the four "pillars" of the association. He didn't use those exact words, but that was the gist--the four most important areas of focus for ASAE. He said those areas are knowledge, learning, advocacy and community. With the community part being online community and social media. He actually said social media.

Really? I was honestly shocked to hear him say that because nothing I've seen at ASAE seems to reflect that online community and social media are important. Their listserv technology is terrible. Their online community is terrible and something they've barely--if ever--mentioned or promoted to members. You'd think if online community and social media were core areas the association were interested in promoting/supporting, they'd staff that area accordingly. I mean, knowledge, learning and advocacy--they're certainly staffed up for those things. But social media and online community? ONE lower level management position? That is benchmarked lower than average, salary-wise?

I was actually impressed by John Graham's address today. He was likable, humble, and came across as intelligent and committed to the association industry. I wanted to ask him about the discrepancy between declaring online community to be important to ASAE yet there being no discernible signs of that to members like me, but didn't want to come across as confrontational. But think about it--if online community is to be one of the core components of future associations, doesn't it also mean that one of the core competencies for association excecs should be the ability to interact online? Knowledge of stuff like social media monitoring, blogging or commenting on blogs, tweeting from a conference, etc? And that ASAE, as they are, ostensibly, the association all associations look to to see how an association is supposed to be run, should be leading the charge and staffing in a way that shows their alleged commitment to online community?

I just don't get it. Knowledge, learning, advocacy--ASAE doesn't pay lip service to those areas--why are they doing it for online community? And when are they going to put their money where their mouth is and devote the resources to fleshing out that aspect of the member experience? This conference was great in some respects, but for those of us who learn and interact online, there was ZERO in that regard--not a hashtag, not an online list of attendees and their affiliations so we might be able to keep in touch after the event--even the DISC assessment was sent as an email attachment. Nothing. So if associations are changing and "future leaders" need to be agile online, you'd think this conference would at least have some elements of that dynamic...but alas, no.