Texas Instruments deputizes employees for social media duty

In the past few months, Texas Instruments has trained more than 100 employees to be “conversation agents.” That is, they’ve gone through a certification process to represent the company on social media sites.

Eventually, says Aimee Kalnoskas, TI’s manager of community and social media, all 29,000 employees worldwide should be equipped to answer customer questions and gauge opinion online.

“We want to put this training in the hands of all TIers,” she says. “They’re all potential conversation agents.”

Kalnoskas and a core team from throughout the company have pulled together a unified social media effort out of what had been a hodgepodge of approaches.

From ad hoc to a common approach

When Kalnoskas started at TI about a year ago, each of the various units, which “tend to be like their own companies,” was approaching social media in its own way.

“Prior to my arrival, there were definitely social media efforts happening throughout TI, but that was also the challenge,” Kalnoskas says. “They were happening in a very ad hoc fashion.”