Categories and Questions that Help Assess Readiness for Social Media

Political

- Is the CEO is OK with the idea (OK, this is sort of a meatball...but an important one)?

- What percentage of managers have a favorable impression of social media tools?

- What percentage of employees speak directly, unmoderated, to external audiences?

- Does the company have regular open-format discussions with employees?

- How often do employees get updates about corporate performance and events?

- Can management articulate why community is important to the company?

Resources

- Are there identified community managers?

- Is there one executive responsible for community?

- Is there budget for offline community events?

- Has the business modeled out community development and its benefits - i.e. is there a community business plan?

- Are there resources assigned to proactively engage with people discussing its products and services online?

Awareness

- Does the company track the number of online mentions for the company, its products, and its executives?

- Does the company track the number of positive and negative online mentions?

Process

- Is there a articulated process for taking ideas from communities and incorporating back into products, services, or processes?

- Which corporate functions pro-actively solicit feedback from employees, partners, and customers already?

Participation

- What percentage of employees participate in corporate activities not directly related to their work responsibilities?

- What percentage of employees blog - either personally or professionally?

- What percentage of  employees are members of a consumer social network?