Most SocMed efforts begin in support where a support team looking to improve its reputation engages a SocMed marketer. Once the program is implemented, the business gets a big surprise when customers start using the same open system to bash sales and marketing. As Owyang points out, SocMed can be implemented across the enterprise to great benefit. But it must be managed the the CEO. Companies are full of Stovepipe thinking and a CIO who is pushing SocMed does not have the juice to get waring departments to play nice in the sandbox. Those deep-seated issues are associated with compensation and other personnel challenges. A business needs to look at Social Media from an enterprise operations perspective and prepare for it. Failing to do so may undermine what little strategic planning the economy will allow these days and lead to one department altering the forecast of another.

Imagine an outsourced offshore sales center trying to live up to the expectation set by an onshore support team using social media. The cost to close the customer expectation gap will put pressure on the bottom line of any business. In other words, as a business owner you or your consultant needs a complete understanding of the complexities surrounding cost containment and cost to capture customers at an enterprise level and the interpersonal issues of aligning an enterprise. If you lack those skills, put down the device and back away slowly until you have what you need to implement the breadth of change required to launch a real SocMed strategy.