Succession planning is a term perhaps more familiar to royal families, heads of state and top level executives. However, it is something that should be very familiar to who anyone that has oversight for an organizations Social Media effort.

In recent years there have been a few high profile Social Media “faces” moving from one company to another or going out on their own – whether it is Robert Scoble leaving Microsoft, Chris Brogan branching out from Cross Tech Media or more recently Julia Roy leaving Undercurrent to go to Coach. Each of these people were the high profile “face” of Social Media at their respective companies, when they left, that face went with them.

What Will Alan Do?

I have no doubt that there are companies and agencies drawing up wish lists of “faces” that they would like to hire away from their existing companies. Scott Monty at Ford I am sure is at the top of a lot of peoples lists. What will Alan Mulally, Ford’s cEO, do if Scott does leave? Considering that, according to those who say they know, Scott pretty much runs most of Ford’s Social Media effort single-handed, I would think he is going to panic! This is where succession planning comes in.

Having more than one person, even if one of them is only part-time, not only helps spread the burden, but helps the audience identify with more than one “face”. The downside of this strategy is that if the two people behind the “faces” are not in sync it can confuse the audience and muddy the message. Having only one person makes controlling the message easier but it comes with the higher risk of not having a ready replacement. So what is the best strategy? I recommend having more than one person behind the brand. This is a serious investment for most organizations, but it also reflects the seriousness of their intent to take part in Social Media. Having just one person try and manage all the communication that can result in engaging correctly in Social Media can actually lead to damage to the brand. After all, if only one person responds to the tweets/facebook posts/blog comments etc. someone somewhere is going to end up disappointed because they weren’t responded to.

Plan for “cewebrity status”

Succession planning has always been important for senior executives in any organization, but now it has become more important for the face behind the brand than it ever was. I believe it is mostly ignored because for some organizations the person chosen (whether self appointed or appointed by the organization) to take part in Social Media is rarely an executive. Often part of the communication team it is something else they do as a part of their normal role. The prospect that they might not only succeed in attracting attention to the brand but might become a “cewebrity” in their own right has not been given much thought.

Which “cewebrities” move do you think would impact a brand?