The Practical Jazz Of Social Media Governance

Posted by Robert Rose on Jan 23, 2011

There are few things that I love as much, and do as poorly as play Jazz music.   I’ve been playing piano (casually) for 30 years – and to this day I consider myself an absolute beginner.   Part of it is technique and practice of the mechanics of course.  But a much more important factor – is truly being able to free yourself from the rules and the notes on the paper to improvise.  That’s true artistry.

There’s a wonderful story of the amazing Jazz drummer Max Roach – who when working on the Thelonious Monk tune “Bemsha Swing” said that Monk “encouraged him to emancipate the drums from their subservient role as just timekeepers”.  You gotta love that.

Carrots & Sticks

I’ve been speaking with a number of clients recently on Social Media Governance strategies.    In fact, Michael Weiss and I are teaching a half-day  workshop on it at this year’s Online Marketing Summit in a couple of weeks.

As more and more employees start talking, inevitably, companies want to establish rules, guidelines and processes for their Social Media strategy.    Governing social business has become a popular topic.  Jeremiah Owyang of the Altimeter Group just put out his Pragmatic Approach To Social Business.     Chris Boudreaux has been talking about Social Media Governance for some time.  And, last year, Gartner came out with their How To Govern Social Media.

Many of the conclusions start similarly:

…put somebody in charge of it

…“velvet gloves, not iron hammer” management

…guidelines and processes…

But interestingly what I’m seeing happen at the street level is something different.  As more and more companies apply the “if I can’t measure it, I can’t manage it” mantra to Social Media – the incentives are getting cloudier, and the Rules (with a capital ‘R’) are becoming longer and more draconian.  And, ironically, it seems the number of PR disasters associated with the Social Web is getting bigger and bigger.

Consider these three rules (of more than 50) that I took from the social media policy of a large company.

Do not access any of your personal social networks while you are working at COMPANY

In your privacy settings, especially LinkedIn – block your connections from viewing your network. Your connections should not be allowed to see COMPANY customers and/or partners that we do business with.

And my personal favorite…

You must obtain the E-Team’s approval before responding to any social media comment made on any COMPANY  Social Media channel.

Doesn’t that sound like an awesome place to work?   How many do you think actually comply with #2?

I think where many of the Social Media “processes”, “guidelines”, “policies” and “rules” are getting bogged down is that we are falling back on that most clichéd of all corporate trampolines.  “When in doubt – set a rule for it.”

Or, in general Dilbert vernacular it looks a little something like this: “At the end of the day, in today’s competitive landscape, the bottom line is we need actionable policies and guidelines to create more impactful, strategic, win-win scenarios for our teams – this new Six Sigma policy will identify and remove all causes of efforts and variability in our social media strategy”.

Now, I made that up with as much overused business gobbledygook as I could muster – but doesn’t it sound real!

Rule Benders Win

Lately I’ve been applying the lessons of Practical Wisdom to the idea of Social Media Policy and Governance.  And, I’m seeing it have real success in creating a culture of social web business practices.

If you’re not familiar with the idea of Practical Wisdom – it’s an idea that originally comes from Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics – or a concept known as Phronesis.   It’s what Aristotle called the “Master Virtue”.   Put simply – it’s the ability to use reason in situations that have a moral dimension to them.

There’s also a wonderful book by Barry Schwartz called Practical Wisdom that I can’t recommend highly enough.

But, basically the idea is that in any effective Social Media strategy – of course you need rules.  This is especially true of late – with new guidelines and compliance regulations starting emerge within finance, healthcare, government and other regulated industries.   You’ve got to have rules that deal with legalities, privacy etc.

But the real success is not in giving the team a set of rules – but the trust and power to reason, and act beyond them.   Sometimes we chalk this up to just letting the team use “common sense” but it’s really getting to the heart of making the business human.

We have to realize that there is no amount of rules that we can put in place that will prevent disaster from happening.   There is no governance plan that will be water tight enough to not allow savvy employees from ingeniously figuring out ways around them.  And, the tighter we hold – the greater the incentive to find those cracks.

So what to do instead?

Make Sweet Jazz

I’m a big believer in setting intentions with your Social Media policy.  Yes, make rules where necessary – but understanding (as in Jazz music) that the rules are meant to be bent.  They are meant to be reasoned and we assume that smart people will apply practical wisdom.  They will have the morality to do the right thing – and the skill to know what the right thing is.

If you’d like to know more – as I mentioned Michael Weiss and I will be teaching a half day workshop in San Diego on February 7 at the Online Marketing Summit.   That half-day workshop focuses on both Content Marketing (understanding your marketing strategy) as well as setting corporate intentions for managing your brand on the Social Web.   Then, also in February we’ll be at the Intelligent Content conference in Palm Springs talking purely about Setting The Intentions.    And, we’re planning a number of other events throughout the year.

Until then, I leave you with this - from a Barry Schwartz Ted Talk in New York late last year (which is really worth 23 minutes of your day).  Where he says “to love well and to work well you need wisdom.  Rules and incentives don’t tell you how to be a good friend, or a good parent or a good teacher.  Rules and incentives are no substitute for wisdom.  Indeed, there is no substitute for wisdom.  It not only gives us the ability to do right by others.  It gives us the ability to do right by ourselves.”