Why bother with standard procedures for social media?
Many businesses still think of social media as a passing craze that they’ve been obliged to jump on; some stick the intern on the job, hoping they’ll come up with enough content to keep its Facebook page ticking over until social media’s ‘inevitable demise’.
We’ve got bad news – social media isn’t going anywhere. Statistics compiled by Statista show that Facebook continues to dominate the social landscape with over 1 billion registered accounts and 1.97 billion monthly active users. Whilst Twitter benefit from 328 million monthly users and Instagram celebrated a milestone 600 million monthly active users earlier this year.
If your customers are part of this enormous audience then you need to treat your social media activity as you would your overall marketing – with a structured campaign strategy, and a relevant policy in place to advise your employees and protect your brand.
For these reasons we have outlined the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of implementing social media policy and strategy below:
Cast your mind back to HMV’s PR disaster in 2013, when a vengeful soon to be ex-employee shamed the struggling retailer online. Where did it start? The employee had admin access to HMV’s Twitter account, and upon learning of her impending redundancy, logged in to air her grievances for the world to see. This could have been discouraged or prevented by a solid social media policy, which controlled who had access to the company social media accounts, and clearly outlined what was permissible to post.
Don’t make the same mistakes as HMV – write a social media policy into your employees’ contracts to ensure they’re aware of your company policy from an early point in proceedings, and to provide you with some legal grounds for action if someone does breach the policy.
Why do you plan anything? To give yourself the best chance of success. So why would you leave your interactions with your audience on social media to chance? Make sure your social media posts are planned and relevant to each audience, and make sure you’re getting return on investment from your activities.
Still unsure what to include in your social media policy or strategy? Give us a call, we’d be happy to arrange a meeting to discuss your needs.