Social Media Project Charter

Purpose

Use the Social Media Project Charter to establish a clear project scope, decision rights, and
executive sponsorship for the project.

Be sure to customize this template accordingly. When required, delete the sample text
provided and fill in the blanks with information that is directly related to the social marketing
project.

This template has been pre-populated with an example of what a mobile marketing project
charter might look like. Change, delete, or add to the example as required.

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 [Project Name]

Social Media Project Charter

By

[Enter Name Here]

For

[Enter Name Here]

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Effective Date: _______________________________________________________________

Document Owner: ____________________________________________________________

Version: ____________________________________________________________________

Version Date Revision / Description Author: ________________________________________

Approval: ___________________________________________________________________

Approver Title: _______________________________________________________________

Approval Date: _______________________________________________________________

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Table of Contents

1. Project Overview 5

2. Project Description 6

2.1. Project Purpose 6

2.2. Background 7

2.3. Project Scope 7

2.4. Project Deliverables 8

2.5. Project Timeframe 9

2.6. Project Resources and Responsibilities 9

3. Key Success Factors 11

4. Risk Identification 12

4.1. Risk Categories 12

4.2. Other Risks 15

5. Project Stakeholders 16

6. Communication Plan 18

7. Decision Rights 19

8. Approval 19

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1. Project Overview

The following table includes the basic information associated for the social media project.
Please contact the project manager with any additional questions or comments.

Project Title Social Media Initiatives

Project Sponsor Marketing/Sales Director

Project Manager Marketing Manager

Project Manager
1234-567-8901
Contact

Marketing Manager

IT Manager
Project Team
Sales Manager
Members
Customer Service Manager

Customer Service Representatives

Project Start Date October 1

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2. Project Description

2.1. Project Purpose

Social media is emerging as a key factor in the online opportunities available for sales,
marketing, and customer service. <Insert Organization Name> needs to develop an official
social media strategy to leverage these opportunities and achieve benefits in the following
areas:

1. Marketing

 Improving brand image

 Increasing mind share

 Gaining customer insights

2. Sales

 Increasing revenue

 Acquiring customers

 Gaining customer insights

3. Customer Service

 Increasing customer retention

 Increasing customer satisfaction

 Reducing cost of service

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This project will identify the opportunities available and realistically achievable, as well as
develop a plan to execute a social media strategy effectively across the major social media
channels.

2.2. Background
Consumers are rapidly adopting social media, yet adoption of social media by organizations
has lagged. <Insert Organization Name> must follow customers, prospects and partners into
the social media world.

Extended public social media services, such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, comprise
extensive networks of users who are self-organized into groups and communities. Users also
join groups and communities that are organized around attributes such as products, lifestyles,
entertainment, institutions, politics, and geographic locations.

Customers will interact via social media whether or not <Insert Organization Name> is
participating; <Insert Organization Name> can leverage the growth of social media to increase
customer engagement, gauge brand perception, and respond directly to customer service
issues.

<Insert Organization Name> has an opportunity to bring benefits to sales, marketing, and
service by engaging customers in conversation in the social media sphere.

2.3. Project Scope

The scope for the social media project includes:

 Establishing a presence on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn

 Developing a standard process for maintaining and updating social media sites

 Developing an acceptable use policy for employees engaged in social media on

behalf of <Insert Organization Name>

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  Integrating accounts to leverage content across multiple channels

 Implementing a strategy for acquiring fans and followers

 Executing a maintainable, scalable plan that is concentrated on achieving the

specific benefits outlined in the Project Purpose of this document

 Vendor selection and implementation of social media monitoring tools within our
CRM

It is understood that the project will unfold in three phases:

1. One-sided interactions while building a fan/followers base

2. Increased participation and diversification of social media presence

3. Multi-faceted conversations and CRM integration

2.4. Project Deliverables

1. Regular, consistent updates to Facebook page and Twitter account

 Updating Facebook status, responding to fans, posting photos and starting

discussions; responding to fan comments promptly and resolving their issues (offline
if required)

 Posting tweets that include company news, open-ended questions, re-tweets of

relevant content, links to our YouTube and Facebook accounts, and links to our blog

 Monitoring Twitter for mentions of our brand and industry and responding where
appropriate

2. Regular conversations and contributions on LinkedIn

 Establish a group for our customers and prospects and instigate discussions

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 3. Predictable production of videos

 Posting of product announcement, company news, product news,

informative/educational, and entertaining videos to our YouTube channel

4. Monthly reporting and analysis

 Report metrics as applicable to specific goals

 Examples include number of fans/followers, discussions started and participated in,

views, re-tweets, links clicked, brand mentions, sentiment of customer discussions,
anecdotal evidence of increased customer satisfaction through issue resolution

2.5. Project Timeframe

Start date: July 1

Estimated end date: This is an ongoing initiative which will be evaluated quarterly

2.6. Project Resources and Responsibilities

Include roles, responsibilities and estimated time allocation to the project:

1. Project Manager

 Oversee all social media efforts and resource allocation

 Collect and reporting project metrics

2. Project Sponsor

 Project approval and executive representation

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3. IT Support

 Establish corporate social media accounts

 Install monitoring and/or aggregating software

4. Customer Service Representative

 Establish customer service goals and processes to be used when interacting

with customers via social media

 Provide response mechanism and personnel to respond to customer requests

and issues

5. Marketing Representative

 Establish marketing objectives for social media

 Monitor channels for brand mentions and identify branding opportunities

 Develop strategies for cross-platform promotion

 Harvest customer insight

6. Sales Representative

 Establish sales strategy for social media (e.g. exclusive discounts, interaction
with online store, offline opportunities)

 Harvest customer insight

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 7. Staff responsible for manning social media channels

 Publish content via social media accounts

 Participate in online discussion

 Implement cross-platform marketing promotion

 Promote sales initiatives

 Respond to customer comments, questions and issues

 Grow fan/follower base by interacting with customers and prospects wherever

our organization or industry is mentioned

3. Key Success Factors

What are the key success factors for the project (i.e. the factors that are a necessary condition
for success of the project)?

 Committed team members

 Adequate resource allocation

 Adequate project time allowance

 Tolerance for intangible benefits

How will success be measured?

 Growth of follower/fan base

 Level of interaction with followers and group members

 Relevance of discussion as gauged by audience participation

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  Contact points for customer service opportunities

 Successful implementation and use of monitoring tools

 Adherence to acceptable use policy while attaining objectives

4. Risk Identification

What are some of the risks that may be encountered during the project? Indicate high level
mitigation strategies. (Note: A risk is defined as anything that could potentially affect the
success of the project).

The following are a few examples of some of the risks the project may experience during a
social media implementation. They may or may not be applicable depending on which social
media opportunities are driving your initiative (sales, marketing, and customer service).

Add and delete rows and examples as they fit to the organization.

4.1. Risk Categories

Risk Probability Risk Mitigation Strategy

Category

Security High Risk of employees  Implement policies that

downloading malware, indicate appropriate
viruses, etc. from social media conduct by employees.
services.

Privacy High Risk of inappropriate  Implement separate

exchange of information social network accounts
between personal and for business purposes.
business contacts.
 Train employees to never
use personal accounts to

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 Risk Probability Risk Mitigation Strategy
Category

interact with business

contacts and never use
their business account to
interact with personal
contacts.

Inappropriate High Employees representing the  Select your social media

Content organization on social media
channels may post something
inappropriate to the nature of
your business.
team carefully and
ensure they are fully
trained on both official
company policy and
social media etiquette.

 Ensure consistent
monitoring by business
units.

Time Medium Use of social media for  Process for accounting

Wastage by business purposes is linked
Employees intrinsically to personal use
and time spent may not be
optimized to meet
organization goals.
for time spent focused on
organization objectives
must be documented.

Control Over Medium Fully participating in social  Train every person

Brand Image media means relying on front-
line staff for dissemination of
positive branding.
charged with interacting
with customers and
prospects via social
media regarding what
constitutes acceptable
brand presentation.

Bandwidth Low An increase in bandwidth  Plan for any bandwidth

requirements to support social requirements with IT
media efforts, particularly network staff.

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 Risk Probability Risk Mitigation Strategy
Category

when using video social

media such as YouTube.

Competitors Low The ability for a competitor to  In a public social

Poaching view lists of clients that have
Client Lists joined your organization’s
social media groups.
network, you cannot
prevent this. Monitor your
own brand as well as
monitor competitors. If
client secrecy must be
maintained, then you
should use a private
social network, not a
public network.
(SocialText, Lithium,
private SharePoint site,
etc.]

Increased Low Additional resources may be  Augment existing

Cost of allocated to social media customer service
Servicing without seeing immediate responsibilities with
Customers ROI. social media requests.

 If a dedicated resource is
not available, dedicate a
specific amount of time
per employee to be spent
addressing customer
concerns via social
media.

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4.2. Other Risks

Other Risks Probability Risk Mitigation Strategy

Project Team High Competing resources  Ensure personnel have

Availability when implementing a clear directives and are
multi-department fully committed to the
project can jeopardize project before it gets
social media success. underway

Stability of High Evolving medium could  Clarify expectations with

Requirements mean rapid change to content owners (sales,
requirements and on- marketing, customer
the-fly adaptation. service) and social
media front-line staff

Lack of Medium Response time is  Ensure staff is equipped

Relevance, critical to achieving with adequate
Audience objectives, particularly monitoring tools and
Disinterest in customer service. know how to use them.

 Develop process for

issue escalation as
required.

 Empower social media

representatives to
resolve customer issues
with an adequate level of
autonomy.

Lost Medium Primary sales  Test offers and

Opportunities objectives cannot be integration with online
due to Dead met without a sales processes before
Ends functioning process for promoting.
conversion.
 Offer incentives to social
media staff relative to
conversions.

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5. Project Stakeholders

Project stakeholders are all of the people who have a vested interest in the project yet are not
involved in the day-to-day operations of the project.

Stakeholder Name Role Project Responsibilities

Defining and evaluating strategy,

communicating with other team members and
Project Manager stakeholders, obtaining metrics and compiling
weekly reports on project status, conducting
meetings.

Project approval, negotiating for resources,

Executive
reviewing reports, attending quarterly
Sponsor
meetings.

Ensuring adequate IT resources are available

for the duration of the project, providing
IT Manager technology support, managing security,
privacy, archival of content, attending quarterly
meetings.

Defining and promoting integrated sales

tactics, monitoring social media activities for
Sales Manager
acceptable use, reviewing reports, attending
monthly meetings.

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Stakeholder Name Role Project Responsibilities

Defining and enforcing marketing strategy,

Marketing monitoring social media activities for
Manager acceptable use, reviewing reports, attending
monthly meetings.

Defining and enforcing customer service

Customer Service strategy, monitoring social media activities for
Manager acceptable use, reviewing reports, attending
monthly meetings.

Posting social media content on official

Social Media channels, triaging comments and escalating as
Representative(s) required, maintaining a positive brand image at
all times, attending monthly meetings.

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6. Communication Plan

Provide an outline of the high-level communications plan. Specific dates are not required.

Stakeholder Frequency Method Purpose

Project Manager Weekly E-mail update  Discuss project progress,

issues, etc.

 Preliminary metrics and

evaluations.

 Rating relative
effectiveness.

Project Manager, Monthly Meeting  Provide complete project

Stakeholders update.

 Get feedback from the team.

 Adjust strategy as
necessary.

Project Manager, Quarterly Meeting  Outline wins and statistics

Stakeholders, from the previous quarter.
Executive Sponsor
 Review roadblocks and
workarounds.

 Evaluate resource
allocation.

 Plan for continued initiative.

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7. Decision Rights

To support the timeline of the social media project and respect executive time, the project
manager has decided on the following decision rights procedure:

1. Any e-mail or voicemail sent to executive sponsor or project sponsor that requires a go
or no-go decision will specify a decision date or time within reasonable limits.

2. A non-answer from the executive sponsor or project sponsor by the specified date or
time will imply approval and the project may continue.

3. If the executive sponsor or project sponsor does not agree or requires further
clarification, they must contact the project manager within the specified timeline

8. Approval

___________________________________ _______________________________

Project Approver Signature Date

___________________________________ _______________________________

Project Sponsor Signature Date

___________________________________ _______________________________

Project Manager Signature Date

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