“How experienced is my staff at using social media?”
I get this a lot from senior marketers and communication folks. They want to know how experienced the staff is at using social media tools.
It’s tough for senior staff to gauge this because they don’t use social media as much as the younger staff. So they just have to trust the staff when they say they know how to use it.
But do they really know how to use it?
I built this questionnaire after running into an issue with a communications person (previous job a long time ago) who swore they were experienced at using Facebook. They were adamant that they knew exactly what they were doing and didn’t need any training.
So I set up a Facebook page and gave them access to the admin.
Then the first question came almost immediately:
“I accidentally put up the wrong link in a post. How do I change it?”
“I can’t post anymore because I want to keep this post at the top of our page.” – This was before Facebook had pinned posts.
“How do I friend other people with our page?”
Needless to say, that was when I really checked out the new admin’s profile. She had less than 30 friends, she was very active but didn’t even understand how to write on another person’s wall to wish them a happy birthday. So that was when I decided I’m done “trusting” people when they say they understand how to use social media. Now I make sure to visit their digital profiles and read their posts.
I created these social media survey questions for employees. I would ask these questions in order to determine how strong an employee is at using social media and if they have any influence in the social media realm.
Now these are just base questions for generic social media. While some people may be very good and deep on one platform, they may not use or understand how another platform works. If that is the case, then I would not consider them to be at an advanced level.
I use these questions to also help with social media training – to see what level people are at so I can base the training by their needs. I normally drop the questions into a survey using surveymonkey.com and go through the results – one by one.
Here are some of the questions I use:
1. How comfortable are you using social media for personal use?
Very comfortable
Comfortable
OK
Not comfortable
Very uncomfortable
If they answer with “Not comfortable” or “Very uncomfortable”, I recommend that they don’t take the class. If their position requires it, (they are in communications or marketing) then they may want to think of a new career path because this social media stuff isn’t going away and if anything is becoming the way we all communicate both internal and external.
2. How comfortable would you be using social media for a business?
Very comfortable
Comfortable
OK
Not comfortable
Very uncomfortable
Any answer here is fine. You can teach people who are on the “uncomfortable” side of the equation as long as they are willing to learn (see question one). It just may take them longer. But you also need to be careful of the “very comfortable” people, because they may think they know everything and set in their ways.
3. Which social networks are you on?
YouTube
Quora
MySpace
Google+
Ning
Foursquare
Tumblr
Stumbleupon
Path
GetGlue
Other…
If they check:
– All 16 – whoa.
– 10-16 – they get it.
– 5-10 – much better than the average bear.
– 2-5 – they probably have the standard networks.
– Less than two – they are probably uncomfortable about the digital lifestyle.
4. If you have Facebook, how many friends do you have?
100 or less
101-400
401-700
701-1000
1001+
The average person has about 200 or so friends on Facebook. And recently I’ve noticed many people have been deleting “friends” that were just acquaintances (instead of using friend’s lists). I would say the more savvy people have between 500-1000 friends.
5. If you have Facebook, how often do you visit the site or mobile application?
Multiple times a day
Once a day
A couple of times a week
Once or twice a month
A couple of times a week or less is a pattern of someone who is not really engaged in social media. They can be trained and right now just don’t get the benefit of using social media for business.
6. If you have Facebook, how often do you post, share, comment or like?
Multiple times a day
Once a day
A couple of times a week
Once or twice a month
Again, less than once a day shows lack of engagement and that’s fine. More training will help move it along.
7. If you have Linkedin, how many connections do you have?
100 or less
101-400
401-700
701-1000
1001+
Most professionals still don’t understand the strength of a highly networked Linkedin profile so less than 400 is pretty normal. More training about the reasons to use it is needed but once they get it, they can usually add people quickly.
8. If you have Linkedin, how often do you update your profile/resume?
Once a month
Once in a while
Once a year
I don’t remember the last time I visited
Updating your profile once a month is someone that really gets the benefits of Linkedin. Most people are not like this. The answer “I don’t remember the last time I visited” means I’m going to have to work harder to convince them of the benefits – and see if it matches to the “uncomfortable” position from the first survey question.
9. If you have Twitter, how often do you visit the site or a mobile application for Twitter?
Multiple times a day
Once a day
A couple of times a week
Once or twice a month
Twitter really requires you to be engaged at a high level to get the most out of it so anything less shows me that they are beginners.
10. If you have Twitter, how often do you tweet?
Multiple times a day
Once a day
A couple of times a week
Once or twice a month
Again, less than once a day shows lack of engagement and that’s fine. More training will help move it along.
11. Are you a blogger?
Yes
No
I have a blog but I haven’t posted to it in a while.
If you answered yes, then please put in your website URL.
If you ask someone if they are a blogger and they say “yes” then I’m pretty certain they blog. Most bloggers are happy to let you know they blog and will give you their URL at the drop of a hat. That’s a good thing.
12. Have you read the social media policy that your company has in place? Do you understand what it says?
Yes
No
I did but I don’t remember the specifics.
This just lets me know if they even know about their being a social media policy with the company. Part of training should be going over the current social media policy.
If you don’t want to ask any questions, you can just level your employees yourself if you have access to their profiles.
With each person in training, check their digital profile or footprint for the following stats.
Social Media Beginner:
– 300 or less friends on Facebook
– 1000 or less tweets on Twitter
– 200 or less connections on Linkedin
Beginners might be on the network a lot but if you haven’t built a large network then you are probably not using it like an Intermediate and definitely not like a professional.
Intermediate:
– Have a blog or at least set one up at one time
– Manages at least one facebook page (not just a profile)
– More than 300 friends on Facebook (more like 800-1200 range)
– 500+ connections on Linkedin
– 1001-5000 tweets / 1000-5000 followers
– Google+ profile
– Is on other networks like Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, etc…
Intermediates are usually pretty social savvy but aren’t fully engaged all the time in social media. They are off and on the networks and don’t need a lot of assistance in setting up profiles or pages. They need more help when it comes to managing their professional brand and how to link the networks together. I would also use other tools like Klout and Peerindex to see if where they fall on the influence scale.
Professional:
– Weekly blogger
– Advanced applications to manage multiple social profiles
– Manages a community / comments regularly
– More than 1500 friends and probably have many subscribers
– More than 5000 tweets and 5000 followers
– Manages company pages and profiles on different networks
– Is hyper connected 24/7
So what questions do you ask your staff when it comes to understanding how well they know social media and how they use it?
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