When I first dipped my toes into marketing, social media for businesses was like a newborn foal – wobbly on its long legs and just starting to find her way. The company I worked for had an abandoned Facebook profile (as this was before the days of business pages) with a whopping 75 friends, no Twitter account, and an established (yet unsegmented) email database. Instagram and Pinterest were just twinkles in their mothers’ eyes and the title of Social Media Manager not yet been coined.
I had fallen in love with how social media connected my friends and interests personally and saw the potential for how it would do the same for businesses and their customers. I proposed to the higher ups that I could take on the company’s social media management and was lucky enough to be given a ‘yes’. What this did for the company is it designated one person to concentrate on its digital presence. As the untitled social media manager, I was the hub for maintaining constant and relevant messaging, community and social interaction, and the biggest job I had was to make sure that what was seen on social media was exactly what we wanted to have seen.
Within three years, our company had expanded to two physical storefronts, each with their own social media presence including totaling over 14 accounts to manage. Social media accounted for the third highest referral traffic to our websites (behind organic and direct traffic), our SEO ranking climbed, people referenced our events and specials to our call center, and our social media presence was praised at industry events and conferences. While many of our local and industry competitors were just coming around to recognize what social media could do for them and scrambling to catch up, our companies were at the front of new platforms such as Instagram and the then-invite-only Pinterest while already having a fantastic footing in the established arenas of Facebook and Twitter.
So, what’s the moral of my reminiscing? While many businesses feel it’s not necessary to have their own social media manager designated to oversee their accounts and messaging, there are many reasons why they should have one.
The extra time your Executive Assistant/Receptionist/Office Manager has is not enough to ensure your social media presence is handled in the right way. Between learning new and emerging platforms, staying up-to-date with changes to already established platforms, checking for comments, questions, and taking the time to respond, an hour a day just isn’t enough. Either their original duties will be ignored and set aside or your social media presence will be. As the Bible says, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.” A social media manager should be a one-hat position.
Social Media requires knowledge, experience, and creativity both in the social media arenas and in your business/industry as well. Speaking in the voice of your company and delivering a carefully crafted message across multiple (and unique) platforms is a multi-faceted dance. When you don’t know the steps of the dance, you’re likely to not just step on toes but to trip and fall flat on your face. Social media for business is more than just a tweet, post update, or cat photos and funny GIFs – it’s knowing how to speak to your different audiences, when to post, and how many #hastags to use. (Hint: #More #Than #Three #Hastags #Is #Too #Many.)
The conversation between your company and your audience must be constant and consistent. Just popping in every once in a while to see how things are going isn’t enough. In order to succeed in this arena, time must be spent engaging with customers, creating and curating content, working together with your team to research and plan for future initiatives, and finally, analyzing your past performance to identify what has worked and what hasn’t. Would you walk away from a room full of customers in the middle of a sales pitch and then come back to the same room an hour, a day, even a week or month later and expect the audience to still be there listening? Social media is virtual customer service and whether your customers are in person, on the phone, or through the screen, your business must be respectful of them.
If your business is struggling with keeping up with social media or just doesn’t know where to begin, outsourcing your social media management may be a smart move to make. A third party company will be committed to your company’s success while ensuring that the messaging and conversation taking place is exactly what you want it to be.
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