Social media is a key part of the communications mix and can deliver tangible results by increasing awareness, customer engagement and driving sales. It should also be considered as an integral part of an organisation’s business strategy because managed well it can make a difference to the bottom line, but handled badly it can be a real risk to corporate and brand reputation.

The following five steps outline a practical approach to managing social media successfully:

1. Who is using corporate social media accounts?

It’s important to be clear from the start just who in the organisation is responsible for posting and responding to posts on social media. Also what protocols and procedures are in place for responding to a customer enquiry – whether it’s the marketing or customer service team and what the response time should be?

Clear guidelines are required, and you may need the help of the legal department to outline processes and checks. When should the two sets of eyes policy be invoked? How strict should the rules be on retweeting? When should a particular query be escalated up the management chain?

In addition, well defined rules should be enforced (working with the HR department and IT team) for essentials like password sharing and storage procedures, to keep social media accounts secure.

2. What to post or not to post – the issue of content

Good content gets good results. There is a myth that social media doesn’t need to be planned and is totally reactive. However, while it is essential to respond to customer enquiries quickly, it is also vital to have the right checks in place to make sure any response meets the company guidelines. It is far better to take the time to check a reply, than for an instant response to end up going viral for the wrong reasons with the possible associated reputational risks.

The best approach is to produce a social media strategy and calendar to support and dovetail with the marketing plan. However, remaining flexible may present opportunities to maximise sales by reacting to seasonal change such as a heat wave or a significant event; for example selling sunhats in a heat wave or flags at the birth of a royal baby.

3. Why a clear goal is important?

No business should enter into social media lightly or without being clear as to the desired outcomes. Even with the best efforts plans will fail if there is not the resource or content to drive them forward.

In a B2B environment the focus might be on using social media to add value for existing customers, a way of drawing the supply chain together or being part of the sales process. In the B2C environment it may be to promote a particular product or launch a new venue in a local area, engaging local customers by offering preview tickets or a competition. The goal will influence the channel used, whether LinkedIn, Facebook or a digital news themed platform like Paper.li is the focus.

Objectives should be set and measured to ensure that the right channels are being evaluated. Examples might be to increase the number of followers, reach or engagement. Using a social media compliance platform that provides analytics can help to demonstrate the impact of online activity – what’s working and what’s not.

4. When automating social media can engage customers and boost marketing efforts

With a plan in place, social media activity can be scheduled and managed. Engagement is the ideal and the more people that “like” and share your content, the better for your brand and the impact of online marketing efforts.

Because of the 24 hour nature of social media (and who hasn’t checked their Facebook or email last thing at night?), engagement is a round-the-clock task. Automation tools are invaluable to help schedule content in advance, freeing the marketing and customer service teams to respond and interact with ‘live’ feeds.

Social media management tools can also help to categorise content in groups or campaigns, monitor trending or buzzwords and measure click through on links. But beware – social media is called social for a reason and always benefits from the human touch.

5. How to make it happen

Once the content plan is in place, the ‘owner’ agreed and guidelines set, there is one last thing to consider - the how?

While social media management platforms are freely available, to use them effectively involves time, resource and budget. It is important to ensure that you employ the right platform to manage social media channels, monitor content (possibly across multiple accounts and locations) and manage customer responses to maximise this investment.

Ultimately, planning, organisation and effective management processes will be the key to social media success.

 

By Michelle Leavesley, Marketing Director at CrowdControlHQ. 

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