Best Practices for Building an Effective Social Media Center of Excellence

Key takeaways:

• Collaboration and trust are essential for building a successful Center of Excellence (CoE). It requires a collaborative effort involving various stakeholders to support the team throughout the process.
• Before establishing a social media CoE, it is crucial to add value and operate in the model of excellence. Focus on delivering value and addressing key areas of expertise, gradually building capabilities and evolving to meet new needs.
• Data governance and leveraging your team’s expertise are important for driving results. Proactively use data to demonstrate the value of social media platforms, and position your team as subject matter experts to overcome misconceptions about personal social media use equating to professional expertise.

A successful Center of Excellence (CoE) has proven to be excellent in providing guidance and best practices across an entire enterprise for managing social media. Whether organizations are just starting out or are in different stages of the process, establishing a CoE can bring significant benefits, particularly for business lines who may not be adept to social media best practices.

SocialMedia.org members recently shared insights into how they’re building successful CoEs in their organizations during a panel discussion on future-proofing social media team structures.

We explore their experiences and insights into standing up powerful social media CoEs across their organizations.

Building a Center of Excellence Requires Collaboration and Trust Across All Business Lines

Brandy Mann, Global Social Media Governance and Alignment Manager at Lenovo, discussed how a successful CoE is not a one-person show, but rather a collaborative effort.

She explained how Lenovo successfully stood their CoE up, and said they took time to recognize the significance of teamwork and how their approach involved various stakeholders to support her team throughout the process.

In her first year of her role, she said it was her responsibility to build trust with their social media team members across the company.

“There are social specialists sprinkled throughout different departments living on islands,” Brandy said, adding how she made sure to express how their efforts added to the company goals.

“My job for the first year was building trust and building value add for free,” she continued.

Brandy also highlighted the importance of creating documentation, guidebooks, and clear instructions as standard practices in a CoE. She emphasized the need to house these resources and provide them to individuals who may require guidance.

She also mentioned how social media leaders can actively promote the use of checklists to address any potential pushback when it comes to posting content.

My job for the first year was building trust and building value add for free.

Brandy Mann, Lenovo

Four Key Pillars Help Guide the Social Media Center of Excellence at Lenovo

Brandy explained how Lenovo’s CoE is built on four key pillars: content and brand engagement, education and advocacy, influencer strategy and governance, and paid media and analytics. She said each pillar addresses crucial aspects of social media management, ensuring a comprehensive approach.

Content and Brand Engagement

For content and brand engagement, they focus on crafting compelling content and fostering brand interactions. This involves meticulous planning, creating guidelines, and working collaboratively with executives and their admins or agencies.

Education and Advocacy

Education and advocacy play a vital role in equipping employees with the necessary knowledge and skills.

“Employee education and advocacy includes executive coaching in that area and guidelines around what we don’t do on social media for them,” Brandy said.

Their CoE acts as a resource hub, offering guidelines, checklists, and preventive measures to minimize mistakes and enhance social media literacy across the organization.

Influencer Strategy and Governance

Brandy said Lenovo does not hire every influencer that approaches them but provides a legal framework and best practices. This proactive approach safeguards against potential pitfalls and allows for strategic collaborations with influencers.

“We just recently added influencers into our team that weren’t there,” Brandy said. “It was a hole that we knew was there and we fought to expand to have that within our team.”

Paid Media and Analytics

This pillar ensures effective management of paid social media campaigns while standardizing analytics practices across Lenovo. By centralizing paid media activities, the CoE facilitates knowledge sharing and streamlines campaign execution, enabling insights-driven decision-making.

Brandy shared how their CoE is a product of continuous improvement and careful listening to the needs of the organization. They actively address pain points and expand their team accordingly.

We just recently added influencers into our team that weren’t there. It was a hole that we knew was there and we fought to expand to have that within our team.

Brandy Mann, Global Social Media Governance and Alignment Manager at Lenovo

Don’t Call It a Social Media Center of Excellence Until You Create Value

Temeka Easter Rice, Head of Social Media at Vanguard, emphasized the importance of adding value before establishing a social media CoE.

She added how it’s crucial to operate in the model of excellence before claiming the title.

“When I think about the social media Center of Excellence, we all want to establish one,” Temeka said. “But I think you have to add value in order for people to actually see you as a Center of Excellence. Let’s not name ourselves a Center of Excellence until we are actually operating in that model.”

While it may not be necessary to have everything perfected from the start, Temeka highlighted the significance of making plans and addressing key areas of expertise. She acknowledged that organizations can gradually build out their capabilities, just as Brandy mentioned how Lenovo is expanding into influencer marketing. The key is to identify new needs and evolve accordingly.

I think you have to add value in order for people to actually see you as a Center of Excellence. Let’s not name ourselves a Center of Excellence until we are actually operating in that model.

Temeka Easter Rice, Head of Social Media at Vanguard

Use Data and Your Team’s Expertise to Drive Results

April Virhuez, Director Social Media Strategy at Prudential Financial, emphasized the need to identify and calibrate specific needs while developing your CoE. She noted the importance of positioning your team as subject matter experts to overcome the misconception that personal social media use equates to expertise.

“I think being proactive with the data governance models and circling back with a scorecard to help them understand that even if they use platforms like Pinterest, there’s some data that can go behind the different platforms that we use,” April said. “Let’s use this to really drive results and business outcomes.”

By bringing excellence to the partners and demonstrating value, April said your team can foster understanding and support for the CoE.

I think being proactive with the data governance models and circling back with a scorecard to help them understand that even if they use platforms like Pinterest, there’s some data that can go behind the different platforms that we use.

April Virhuez, Director of Social Media Strategy at Prudential Financial

Gain more insights on how to build an effective social media Center of Excellence with your peers

During the panel discussion, Brandy, Temeka, and April shared best practices for optimizing social media budgets and team resources, adjusting your team to address new and evolving trends, and how to future-proof your social media team structure.

Every week, our SocialMedia.org members benchmark their strategies in our confidential, vendor-free community where they get actionable, unbiased peer insights to their most pressing topics.

If you lead social media at a large organization, you can apply to learn how a SocialMedia.org membership can help elevate your efforts and establish a successful CoE.