Let me warn you now in the interest of Great Expectations:

• If you came here looking for an easy answer you’re going to be disappointed
• If you’re here doing research for your boss, you won’t be finished at the conclusion of this article
• If you’re a boss, want to be a boss, think and act like a boss….well, you’ll get more bang for your  entertainment buck here
• But, if you’re genuinely concerned about who’s answering the digital and social mail in your enterprise, you’ve landed in the right spot

You have but three simple questions to answer first:

1. Are you, yourself (not your Executive Assistant, ghost writer or Intern) Social?
2. Is there someone in your organization devoted to strategic and mid-level tactical thought about customer experience, engagement and/or response?
3. Do you as a C-suite executive, factor customer feedback and purchase decisions into your product and service releases?

If you didn’t answer, “yes” to all three questions then you need to seriously rethink why your enterprise claims to have a social strategy in the first place. That’s right, because an effective enterprise social media strategy has to, (a) start with you, (b) have decision making and budget authority behind it, and (c) embrace a love of customer that’s just downright near Romeo and Juliet-esque.

First, let’s start with you.

It really is as simple as, “Lead by Example.” If the organization knows you actively engage in conversations with suppliers, vendors, partners, providers, customers, brand advocates and employees, the organization will follow suit. And herein you get to start defining your own Enterprise Social Media Strategy – because you’ve just taken the first step toward actually having one.

Consider these facts shared by Inbound Marketing leader Hubspot:

• In 2011, the average budget spent on company blogs and social media and nearly tripled from 2009
• The average cost per lead in Inbound Marketing models cost 61% LESS than traditional, outbound lead generating models
• In March of this year (2012), it was reported that over 50% of companies on Facebook had acquired a customer through that channel alone – blogging and Linkedin were even higher percentages (57% & 62% respectively)

Second, this is precisely why you must have someone in the organization looking inward and outward across the digital and social landscape.

And I’ll make one more bold step forward and declare that whomever that person is – they need to be right across the hall, or next door to guess who? You.

You’ve got an awful lot to do, even more folks to answer to and unless you’re considered just as super a human being to others as you are to yourself….you can’t do it alone. Consider how important social is to your customers and other businesses who rely upon you, and you really can’t justify not having help creating your organizational strategy for this explosive new market research channel.

Social media use by US consumers has increased by more than 356% since 2006 – over 300%!

Which is precisely why as my last point, social media is where your customers are sharing what they like, dislike, love and hate about your products and services via pictures, videos and text updates. It’s also getting easier every day for your brand to go from hero to zero because there’s no place left for you to hide.

NOTE: your customers aren’t making your phone ring anymore. They’re not responding to your direct mail, TV and radio spots. They’re probably not even noticing that digital billboard you just paid for out by the Interstate.

Similarly, they’re not waiting in line to complain directly to you when things go wrong or they have a question. They’re searching for their own answers online and through world-of-mouth platforms (social).

Who in your organization is listening?

Who in your organization is responding?

Who in your organization is tracking, logging and quantifying all this conversation so readily available?

And this is where you begin to answer the question about who owns your Enterprise Social Media Strategy – assuming you haven’t already.

Your customers own it. You facilitate it. Your enterprise has to embrace it all.

AUTHOR NOTE: Over the next few months, we’ll be digging into this and other enterprise level topics more and more – addressing components such as: HR, Marketing, Customer Service, etc.