If you’ve set up an internal social media platform to eventually move to an external system, once you’re up for outside consumption, Jay Baer, president of social media consultancy Convince and Convert, recommends deploying a “Message of the Day” strategy. Here’s how it works:
1. A small cross-functional team within your organization should meet every day at 4:55 p.m. for five minutes to sift through the content collected via your internal social media system, and determine what might be interesting to your customers.
2. Out of that meeting should stem the Message of the Day for tomorrow. The Message of the Day isn’t necessarily about the company. Maybe it’s about your industry—maybe it’s a customer story.
3. Disseminate the Message of the Day to all social media–active employees first thing every morning. You can do this via the messaging option within your internal social media system or via a daily, dedicated e-mail or text message. The Message of the Day should be 125 characters or less to accommodate retweets on Twitter, including, if applicable, a shortened URL, preferably set up to be tracked via bit.ly or a similar service.
4. Once receiving the Message of the Day, employees should be free to modify it to fit their own style and social participation (you may want to provide Message of the Day visuals when appropriate for employees active in Flickr and Facebook).