Social Media Marketing as a whole can be challenging to any team manager as such. The word challenging could be subtle in the terms of the stress any team coordinator would have to go under to run several social media accounts successfully. Since we at Urbansoft have experienced the same at first hand, we would like to share a few inputs on the same to make things easier for you.
The Issue:
For big brands, one often resorts to having more than one person on the team attending to a platform. They could be working in shifts or at the very same time. This does become disastrous at times, damaging more than promoting a brand.
The Common Flaws are:
- Change of Tone & Inconsistency: Many hands and many voices and personalities send out varied messages with varied tones of voice.
- Collaboration Failure: Delays in approvals, postings, and replies.
- Chaos in Handling: Password mix-ups, mix up or delays in finding of content such as GIFs, Images, and textual content to be displayed.
- Poor Reporting: Work getting done, with no one to follow-up on the same.
Cheat Sheet:
Change of Tone & Inconsistency:
As mentioned, tone and inconsistency of the tone can play havoc when it comes to managing and building a brand on Social Media. Most companies have policies by which they put into practice to help resolve the problem when many hands are put to the same work. A simple solution to the problem would be having a training session with a simple document that contains all the basics to be followed while handling a social media account. The areas to be focussed on are the:
- Spellings (UK or US)
- The Tag Lines to be used
- Catering to Customer Demographics
- Brand Voice
- Color Code
- Company Values
This is just a drop in the ocean, a better way would be having a set of pre-approved replies that your team could use in answering regular, basic questions that customers frequently ask.
Collaboration Failure:
As most teams in the category of social media don’t work in the same room at all times, and mostly find themselves stretched out around the globe working in different time zones, it’s always quite possible that there could be repeated replies to the same question, posts being repeatedly posted, or not being posted at all, and many such confusions may occur.
Cheat Sheet:
Here, sending out an email for every single post on every platform would not be easy and is definitely not the right option to go by. In this case the best way to handle the same is by having an SMM tool that permits you to position responsibilities to individuals on the team, such as admin, guest, editor, and moderator, this will provide each role certain jurisdiction on the activities that can be carried out by the same in each case on every platform. This will also reduce the conversation of pointing fingers on who should have completed the job, and who failed to provide the right response.
Organization Failure:
This is what most teams are guilty of including me, and it could happen very easily and quickly in any team. Well not judging, but with the many things that are going on at the same time, most individuals are bound to forget something. In my case, ‘A’ would discuss a new idea with the client and forget to pass it on to the team, ‘B’ sets the budget spending on a particular platform and forgets to monitor with the advancement in ad postings, ‘C’ collects images from the design team and saves it on His/her desktop and forgets to share it with the team. If you have been there, I am sure you know what I mean.
Cheat Sheet:
As I said, these are bound to happen when you work with several members on a single project. One way to get around the matter would be using tools such as Basecamp, or a Dropbox. By doing so, you can make sure that all the details are stored in a single place and if any info is to be shared, all have the privilege of getting updated with the same at a single go when information is dropped on a single platform.
Poor Reporting:
As we all know, the only way we identify that we are on or off a track to success is by carefully reporting what we do and when we do it, also including the targets achieved or missed. Careful and collective reporting of the above-mentioned aspects to a brand owner is what will help them see where they are heading. But, how do you do the same when an account is managed by many heads and hands?
Cheat Sheet:
The easy way to get around this is by creating a Social Media report and a budget sheet. Again, this is to be shared on a common platform where everyone knows what’s happening. The budget sheet should also include the limit to be spent on a month and all the campaigns and ads run by any member of the team are to be noted helping them understand when to stop.
These are few but major areas where any team fails, so if you have these few situations in control, and are aware of how to set these issues right, the rest is just a walk in the park. We at Urbansoft deal with Social Media Management and would love to lend a helping hand if you are looking for any assistance in the same. Click here for our services