A few large projects I've been working on recently have involved quite a bit of documentation and what's usually referred to as 'process'. A number of years ago when I was doing solo-consulting work on social media I'd look at process and say, ack....forget process, just do it. However, when working with large brands, process becomes part of the daily routine. I'm still a firm believer in learn-by-doing, but sometime process is necessary, and a good idea.

The documentation and process I'm referring to goes well beyond your standard strategy document. It's the strategy, the playbook, the scenarios and the rules all wrapped into one.

If you're a small company and you control the shots, then sure, go ahead and do what you want, when you want...and perhaps think about measurement later on. In large organizations when a social media program spans business units and countries you need to have process in place. Why? Well here are a few basic reasons:

Internal Education: Yep, it's the standard line of, 'making sure everybody's on the same page'. It seems that weekly a new division within an organization says they want to start up a social aspect to their pr/marketing/customer service, etc. They all want to know the same thing, "How are you currently doing it?" They want documentation, best practices, cheat sheets. By documenting all aspects of the existing programs it allows you to quickly hand that off. Otherwise you'll be on countless calls each week reviewing this information verbally, and losing focus on your current programs.

Management Education: This is related to the first one. Basically, one day management a few rungs above you calls down and says, "Hey, what are you doing?" Being able to quickly send off that detailed documentation lets management know you're on it, and once again allows you to quickly get back to work.

Internal Detractors: In any corporation there are always people that don't think the organization should be involved with social media. Typically they have one or two objections, it might be legal, it might be image, it could be cost. Having documentation on how you specifically plan to address these issues helps to diffuse those discussions.

Consistent Experience: As users visit the various forums and blogs run by your organization are things like the sign-in and account admin process uniform? Do they need a separate login or avatar for each site or can they use a single-sign-on? Are the moderation guidelines consistent? For example is one blog a bit more lax in banning certain language than another? If so, you'll find the trolls gravitating there.

Measurement: This is usually one of the first questions management that is outside your program will ask. Don't stumble on this answer, simply say you've thought that through and provide all the methodology on how you'll measure the program and provide some sample reports. You can also look to established processes for measurement to integrate into your program, or provide a baseline for comparison.

Enforcement: An employee is doing something improper on a social network. What? You name it: Tweeting sensitive information, pretending to be somebody else, etc. They need to be disciplined in some way, but why and how? Does the organization have a social networking policy for employees? Besides the piece of paper, have they been trained on what is right and what is wrong? In the majority of cases I've seen, employees aren't doing things out of malice, they simply didn't know that what they were doing was wrong. In any large organization if you mention discipline or termination to any HR department the first things they'll ask for is the rules or policies that have been broken and then documentation of the offenses. Do you have that?

These are just a few major reasons, but there are others.