Does your company have a social media presence on more than one platform? - Are they managed by the same person?
- Do individuals within your company use Twitter to promote the business?
- Is everyone singing from the same song sheet?
In
order for your social media messages to be credible, you need to ensure
your company puts out a consistent message across all channels. And in
order to do that, you need to ensure someone in your company plays the
role of “social media spokesperson”. This person represents the public
face of your company and controls what is said on all the main channels.
Ideally,
that person should be from within company as they will be more in tune
with what is going on there. It comes without saying that they should be
social media literate.
A social media spokesperson has several responsibilities:
- Ensuring a consistent message is sent out across all main social media channels
- Monitoring
social media “chatter” to see what your target audience are saying
about your compan and responding where necessary. This is especially
important if it’s a negative message coming from a person of influence - Researching
your field of expertise to generate ideas for content and in particular
discussion posts which encourage your target audience to comment - Engage with your audience to gain their trust and ultimately interest in your company
- Find followers/new connections that can influence potential customers to buy from you
- Communicating
with your marketing team to ensure that your social media presence is
integrated and promoted with the rest of the company’s marketing
activities - Ensure that your social media activity and discussion posts are shared with all employees
- Encourage all employees to share and promote the company posts on their own social media accounts
- Setting
guidelines for employees on what should and shouldn’t be shared and
monitoring employee updates to ensure messages sent out are consistent
and fit with company policy
If
you’re managing a social media account for someone else, especially if
that person is the CEO, then you must ensure their account has
credibility. You need to sound like the person you’re representing.
Always make sure that you are in constant contact with the real account
holder (CEO) and that they approve and are aware of what is being said
on their behalf or in their name.
Below
are a few examples of Twitter accounts belonging to CEOs. Are they
tweeting in their own name, or is there a spokesperson ghost writing
their tweets?
What do you think?
- https://twitter.com/richardbranson at Virgin
- https://twitter.com/JeffImmelt at GE
- https://twitter.com/lazerow at Buddy Media
