If You Only Do *Two Things in Social Media
As noted earlier, “Social Media Monitoring” is the ONE THING every company ought to be doing in Social Media.
What’s the next biggest priority?
Setting a Social Media Policy.
When I first set out to write this series, I have to admit, this was definitely NOT the #2 priority. But I got to thinking about the tremendous sea change that Social Media represents — it’s big, goddammit, it impacts everyone; everyone at every level of a company is often getting involved, PERSONALLY if not always PROFESSIONALLY.
And when you start to think along those lines, you quickly see the need to set up some guard rails early.
I wrote about this topic extensively in the past, and even offered up a template for Social Media Corporate Policies. I hope you’ll take a minute to review those posts – they are still relevant.
It comes down to this: whether you are a company of 10 employees or 10,000, your employees are Yelping, Facebooking, Tweeting, Blogging, Vlogging, etc. And what they do online can absolutely impact the company’s reputation and fortunes.
Imagine the owner of a delicatessen in the suburbs. She employs a cook, a dishwasher and a young cashier. She has NO social media policy. When an unhappy customer bleats on Yelp about how the deli skimped on the ## of meatballs on their grinder, that’s bad. But it’s even worse if the deli’s hot-headed cashier notes the bad review and proceeds to lace into the consumer, for all to see. Imagine how many Yelpers will then avoid that destination?
Maybe it sounded ridiculous at first blush to suggest that a small suburban deli have a Social Media Policy. But can you read that example above and deny that the actions of her young cashier might impact her business?
Next time: “If You Only Do *Three Things in Social Media …” Can you guess what I’ll recommend? Do you disagree with how I’ve been prioritizing this series? Let me know in the comments!
Posted on: June 24, 2010 at 7:43 am By Todd Defren
Subscribe by Email
Even smart people won’t get social media, and sometimes the highest up ones are the hardest to train. I’ve seen CEOs even jump at the chance to shill for their product and make a fool of themselves in forums, comments and Twitter. Control is needed. I don’t know if I’d always call it ‘policy’ in all organizations, but for sure some level of control and responsibility is needed.
On the flip side, I don’t think I’d work for a company that told me what, when or how to Tweet. I’ve been on it far longer than them surely, and I probably understand it better than them.
I completely agree. Monitoring is most important to a business. They must know what other companies, clients and professionals are saying about them.
It is also important to monitor social media to see what people are saying about a companies competitors. This will help the PR department to learn about things that need an action plan as well as what to do in advance so their company doesn’t end up like their competitors. Not only that, but monitoring shows that the company cares about what its clients think and want to do everything to improve.
I also agree with creating a social media policy. Social media is important for a company to update and will do a lot of good but it can also hurt more than help. The deli example is one of many examples. Not only that, but I have seen first hand where employees neglect their regular responsibilities because they spend all day on social media. It is important to find a balance. Also, social media updates should be balanced between employees so their are no conflicting posts.
I think the third most important thing to do in social media is to promote your company through building relationships. I’m interested to see if you feel the same.
I agree with your point, even for a small business. When we work with our clients, we help them implement an “escalation strategy” – that is, what types of social media activity should illicit a response and who in the company should respond.
As your post points out, the goal is not to control the conversation, but to have a plan in place to pick the appropriate response as needed.