If the SEC and the Red Cross Can Do It

Dan Limbach

Can Life Sciences companies leverage social media like other organizations? Some say "Our industry is too regulated. We don't have the resources. Social media is for the younger folks. It's just a fad." Nonsense. But if the top brass is not on board, social media is indeed tough to make work for your copmpany.

I just read a great article by Merritt Colaizzi about how leaders at the SEC and the Red Cross are getting their organizations behind the social media phenomenon, and using it media to move the needle. And boy, does it ever move. Below is an excerpt from a July breakfast conference held in Washington D.C..

Have a vision. Instead of getting mired in platforms, tactics and details, Story suggests communicating what your big-picture goal is by using the language of the higher-ups in your organization. Think of this as a reverse engineering of your social-media strategy, he says.


Make sure everyone internally knows about it. Harman says the single thing that’s made the most difference in securing organizational buy-in and holding management’s attention at the Red Cross is a simple daily social-media update e-mail that includes 10 to 20 quotes of what people are saying about them — both positive and negative. Harman started this practice for her own discipline — to make sure she was listening to and reading everything folks were saying each day — and now the e-mail is read daily by 400 members of management, staff and volunteers each day.
This kind of “ambient awareness” is a way for everyone across the Red Cross to know what’s going on. (I don’t know about you, but we’re starting this practice at SmartBrief today!)


Renovate your top-down communications. Instead of laying down the law, offer positive guidance and encourage your employees to be out there on the social Web, saying the kids of things you hope they will say. Harman suggested messaging along the lines of, “We’d love it if you did these four things on a daily basis.”


Deal with naysayers up front. Levit suggested sitting down with skeptics for proactive conversations with them, emphasizing how social media can make their lives easier and asking what you can do to help get their jobs done. Sometimes it’s necessary to hold people’s hands a bit through the transformation period.


Host training sessions for your team. Our panelists delivered invaluable advice for educating your colleagues about social media.

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