Everything I’ve learned in 10 years of managing social media, in 10 points: Part II

by markus6464 · Published January 17, 2021 · Updated January 18, 2021

Points #6-10, as promised. See last week’s post for points #1-5.

Listen.
If you’re serious about social media, you should be serious about listening to what’s being said about you on social media. Nobody wants a surprise call from the boss, asking “Have you seen what’s happening on Twitter?!” If you’re serious about listening, you should pony up for social media monitoring software, Hootsuite or something like it at a minimum, and commercial software such as Meltwater, Social Studio or something like them for larger outfits.
Converse.
Nobody wants to chat with a megaphone. In spite of this, too many corporate social media accounts are megaphones. Remember when social media were social? Yes, there was just such a golden age. Try to harken back to those days, and have two-way conversations; they actually help you achieve your marketing and communications goals a lot better than a megaphone ever will.
Know your audience.
Do you work for an accounting firm? Maybe Instagram isn’t for you: a photo album designed for cats, baking and family photos may not be the right venue for sharing accounting best practices. Similarly, TikTok is probably not where corporate videos should live. On the flip side, LinkedIn is a professional network, not where you should be posting personal workout pics. Figure out where you should and shouldn’t be.
Lay down the law.
Transparency is important: the point at which you delete a comment or ban somebody isn’t the point at which you should start signaling what will get comments deleted or people banned. Post acceptable use guidelines for your social media on your website, and link them from your social media bios.
Learn.
Few fields have changed as much over the last ten years as social media. Anyone remember when Facebook updates had to begin with “<your name> is…”? It seems like ancient history, but that was last decade. The only way to avoid atrophy is to keep trying new things and keep learning.