- Enthusiastic stakeholders
There is nothing more useless or telling than a dormant Twitter or Facebook Page last updated six months earlier. If your company is going to benefit from social media then it will have to tend to it regularly.
Enthusing newbies to social media is harder than encouraging veterans amongst your rank. If there are any keen private tweeters or bloggers already working in your company make them part of the social media editorial board
If there are too few natural social media fans to cover your social media strategy needs then incentivise others in your staff (ideally from each different department/sector) with the promise of
- Developing transferable skills
- Exercising creativity
- Reward (monetary or other) for measurable development of online communities (more followers on Twitter, more likes on Facebook Page)
Only once you have a keen bunch of contributors can you hope to implement a robust social media strategy
- Focussed publishing
Activity on social media for activities sake is as useless as no activity at all. No one cares if you brought donuts in for your co-workers! Through social media you want to project a good image of your company, its product and its service. Looking at the aims of your company consider the following
- What kind of audience do you want to approach? Who do you want following your tweets, liking your Facebook page or recognising your position in your industry on LinkedIn?
- What kind of information will you tweet?
- What will you blog?
- What shall you put on Facebook?
- What discussions might you start on LinkedIn groups?
Answering these questions like these will help you and your colleagues identify key editorial headings covering the main aspects of your business activity and, more specifically, create lists of concrete content ideas for the various social media.
If your editorial targets are clear enough you and your colleagues will become adept at recognising and grasping communication opportunities as they arise out of events and developments in your market
- Focussed engagement
Social media publishing is about creating your own content. Social media engagement is all about responding to the social media of others.
Listening is a key part of any meeting both in a conventional meeting face to face or online. If you and your colleagues have connected online with the audiences relevant to your business you can learn a lot about what makes them tick and what they are looking for by watching their tweets, Facebook updates or LinkedIn feeds.
Monitoring and responding to questions or offering your insight into subjects that come up your company can begin to develop its reputation as an authority in your field and the profile of a future client, supplier or employer.
- Social media policy
As an individual on Facebook you will have no problems always singing from the same song sheet. There is only one singer and that singer is you. Working with company social media accounts you will be just one of several contributors and there has to be a way of maintaining a robust level of activity and staying on message. This must be set down in writing in a social media policy
A social media policy determines
- Who tweets, blogs or Facebooks
- The content published – style, tone and subject
- The engagement with entities outside the company
A social media policy also defines
- Division of responsibilities – assigns spokesman status to specific areas of expertise and or departments
- Gatekeeping – sovereignty over access to social media accounts. (Ex-employees have to have access blocked immediately they leave the company)
- Integration
A company can gather significant attention for social media streams online but it is also important to advertise social media streams on conventional marketing literature and other company paper. Fifteen years ago it wasn’t the norm to include an e-mail address on business cards but no one would dream of leaving it out now. The same should now apply to the company Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts.
Provide link info to your social media on all company literature including
- Business cards
- Brochures
- Letters and cards
- e-mails
- trade show posters, displays
- press adverts
- presentation slides
For more advice on effective company social media take a look at successful Facebook marketing and 50 case studies
I also offer more here on social media policy
If you want advice and training in social media why not contact us.
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