Social Media Marketing: What happens to your social media when the person who’s doing it is gone?
Lately I’ve noticed a problem that I thought was worth bringing up. That is; what happens to your social media when the person who’s doing it goes away?
This was brought to mind because it’s this time of year when organizations elect new leaders and volunteers change positions and move on. For many organizations that means that the person who was doing your social media has gone. Have you made provisions to replace them? Often times the answer is no. That means that any momentum you created through Twitter, Blogging, Facebook, etc. is soon lost. And often times, the new person taking over has to start from scratch all over again because the last person doing the social media had all the passwords. This also can be a problem in itself.
So what do you do? Here are three tips:
1. Before you ask volunteers or employees to step in and handle social media for you, create a social media policy for your organization. Outline the parameters of use, i.e., the goals of use, platforms used and what is considered appropriate for public sharing. Also outline the consequences of a breach of social media policy. Sounds like a small thing, but the fact is that your organization could be found libel for the comments or actions of one of your volunteers or employees who are using social media on your behalf. It happens all of the time. Remember whatever you put out on the Internet stays there forever. This is one of those cases where it’s not better to ask for forgiveness than permission. Make sure what employees are posting on social media is appropriate at all times. Here’s a link to Intel’s Social Media Guidelines as a sample.
2. If you’re going to have a presence on social media, make sure your accounts reflect the organization’s brand. Take the time to make sure your profiles are designed in accordance to your organization’s branding standards. Create a professional background that matches your website and clearly communicates that you are the “official” page of the organization. Here’s an example: http://www.twitter.com/southwestair
3. Keep a master list of passwords and change them regularly. This is recommended to help cut down on unwelcome hackers into your account. Also, it will allow you to keep up on your accounts in case of personnel changes.
Social media is not going away, so as you adopt this technology into your culture, it’s important to take a few extra steps to insure that the experience will be a successful one for you and your organization right from the start.
September 6th, 2010 at 12:36 am
Social Media Marketing is one of the tool of advertising
September 6th, 2010 at 3:16 am
Important post !
I guess Microsoft learned this the hard way when Robert Scoble left them. He became a kind of “Internet celebrity” as he was fronting most blogging/social media in the beginning for Microsoft.
And now ? I have no idea who the “new” Robert Scoble is, so I guess they learned their lesson; they have hundreds of people blogging and using social media, and now focus on the *company*, not the person.
September 6th, 2010 at 10:01 am
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September 6th, 2010 at 6:56 pm
I think the bigger question here is, why do you need someone to do your social media marketing for you? Does it really take up that much time that you need to bring on another person to your team? Sure, if it’s an unpaid intern it makes sense, but if its paid or they become a partner, maybe the position should be reconsidered.
September 6th, 2010 at 9:15 pm
Great post! So important for businesses to understand. Social Media is not going away so integration of policies that have provisions for these scenarios is key.
-Stephen, I find that social media needs constant interaction in order to be effective. Many businesses have employees with very full plates and to tack on another item like social media marketing is too much for them to handle…at least right away, so hiring someone to consult or maintain this branch of their marketing plan is often an effective way to put the message out there. Getting rid of the position all together seems counter intuitive since you are trying to build your brand/company presence not put it on the back burner to fizzle out.
September 7th, 2010 at 9:15 am
The tips outlined are valid and useful. However, it’s important to remember the community aspect of Social Media. A “revolving door” of individuals that represent your brand in various Social Media environments is likely to prove as harmful as no social media presence at all . . .
September 7th, 2010 at 3:00 pm
Hi, good article. In speaking of social media, we (www.beautyluxe.com) are currently outsourcing it and are looking to make a transition to another services firm (for facebook, and twitter). If you know of anyone interested, please email oolafsson@beautyluxe.com or customerservice@beautyluxe.com. We pay a monthly retainer.
thanks,
Oli
September 21st, 2010 at 2:21 pm
Part of the corporate social media policy should include all employees and not just certain individuals. This will help ensure your social media campaign isn’t relying on a sole individual and will be targeted from multiple angles.
Great post!
Joe
–
University of San Francisco - 110% online
Social Media Marketing Courses
September 24th, 2010 at 12:15 pm
Very VERY good post. At pricefalls.com we are about to launch a new online marketing campaign using a number of social media tools and its somewhat surrounded around an individual (@lasvegasintern on twitter) and his adventure working here. I hadn’t thought of the conseuqences of giving one person all the power and it’s downfalls.
October 1st, 2010 at 12:43 am
Thanks…Very timely post for me, I just transition the social media efforts to another person in the company that I work for. The individual is very knowledgeable when it comes to social media, but we have no policy or standards in place or guidelines as far as branding are concerned. Thanks to this post we can still change our strategy with no major problem.
November 4th, 2010 at 9:27 am
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