Friday, April 18, 2008

Care and Feeding of 2.0 Development

Yesterday was very busy. It started with video shoots and ended with a podcast meeting. Somewhere in between that I landed myself on an web steering sub sub committee, and attended a networking luncheon. I was at my desk for about 1 hour and 30 min of my 9 hour day.

While at that luncheon I stopped to speak with a guy who is hoping to travel down this 2.0 rabbit hole with his organization. We got onto the topic of how hard it is too start and keep these social media projects going once you get them started. This is something that I have been thinking quite a bit about lately. As we get closer to the end of the fiscal year, and my project plan is rolling out I am realizing that in the not so distant future, I will have to maintain all of the FY08 projects while implementing the FY09 projects.

How AM I going to do that?

1- I am going to stick to the plan
Back in January I was required to write a strategic plan for implementation of social and digital media for the institution. It identified the projects, and tied them to the strategic goals of the institution, and the department. It was the best thing I could have ever done for helping me to focus on the task at hand. I still use it as my roadmap for what I am doing, and why. I am going to write another one in September.

2 - I am going pick my battles
Even with the plan in place new opportunities present themselves often. We have recently been approached by a few social media sites, and a couple of video content sites to help them develop with content from our experts. These are potentially great partnerships, that would develop the brand and provide the guarantee of quality in this online healthcare content. HOWEVER...They all want original content, and exclusive rights to it. So with every request a writer, or videographer has to be pulled to produce this stuff, and I have to stop what I am doing to shepherd these projects. If it does not match my road map for the year, and it is more time intensive than it is beneficial I would rather not do it. We just can't do everything...right now.

This journey into 2.0 has been paved with planning, and policy writing, and watching and testing, and training. This is a new area of content development for the institution, so I cannot say for sure how we are going to juggle all of this? I imagine it will be like any other communications initiative, it will take constant care and feeding, and will require support to help it grow.

Wish me luck!

2 comments:

Darcy De Leon said...

Great post! An issue I'm sure a lot of organizations can relate to out there.

You've got a really good foundation in place, and it is guiding everyone involved in social media within the institution. You're right too about how not every project will be beneficial.

You're doing a great job. Keep up the good work.

Darcy De Leon said...

I agree with having to be "all up in it" to understand social media.

Understanding social media is a process, not an event.