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Managing Social Media from the Outside
Sometimes an organization needs help managing social media channels. Someone to plan and post content to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other channels as well monitor conversations and lead the way when customers ask questions or need help.
In these situations, organizations might turn to outside channel managers. They might lack that skillset in their internal team. Perhaps the organization has shifted their marketing communications’ team priorities. Or they might want an outside organization to help in coaching to a new level of proficiency. An outside channel manager can look objectively at the current practice and help develop stronger social relationships, better content flow and engage audiences with a set of fresh eyes.
It doesn’t matter why the organization needs an outside channel manager. What’s really important is that you can step in and accomplish your clients’ goals as an outside counselor. So how do you do that successfully from OUTSIDE the organization? With a sound strategy, smart processes and good communication, you can manage social media channels from the outside.
Sound Strategy Is the Key
You may be taking over channel management in the “muddy middle” of a transition or after the channels have started to slip. It’s time to ask lots of questions. What were the goals and objectives for the networks? What’s working? What doesn’t seem to be hitting the mark? If there is a planning document or strategy that framed their previous practice (assuming it will be shared with you), use it to frame next steps. Set some interim goals and objectives. We had one client who had lots of great opportunities for storytelling and great content too, but their output was inconsistent and infrequent. By creating interim objectives for the level of output on each channel, we could see an immediate lift in the conversations on their Facebook and Twitter accounts.
The Right Tool for the Right Job
Finding the right tool to monitor, schedule and comment is necessary for efficient management from the outside. It’s important to match the size of the clients’ network needs and budget with a tool that will help you create efficiencies for them. And the tools change all the time! What you used for a project one year ago may not be the right choice. Make a decision on tools early, when your client has social media top of mind because in 2-3 months, they won’t be as eager to make the expenditure.
Communicating From the Outside
You have to be creative when communicating from the outside. Creating simple client touchpoints is important. One way to do that is to share wins as they happen– maybe that Twitter post got a huge number of retweets or you’ve never seen so many comments on a Facebook post or Instagram photo. Just as important is creating regular communication to report metrics and analyze the program. Depending on the size of the project and the clients’ needs, this could be weekly or monthly. A regular group email to the entire team goes a long way to keep everyone informed.
We’re Just Getting Started
There’s so much more to share about successfully managing social media channels from the outside. We’re going to break down the outside channel manager best practices over the next three weeks and look at how to onboard successfully, how to source and schedule content and how to look at the social channels with an objective eye.
We’ll start next week with “The Warm Handoff.”
What strategies do you use to manage client channels from the outside? We’d love to hear from you in the comments.
Blogger Compensation: What’s Right For You?
If your social media team is working with influencers locally, regionally or nationally, it’s likely that the topic of compensation has come up. As more and more brands work with influencers, the discussions are becoming more tangled. Some of the questions I’ve heard from PR practitioners at recent conferences go something like this. Should they be paid? Should you treat them like journalists? Can you offer unique or custom experiences in exchange for their social output? What can you require them to do? What should you be required to do? How do I explain this to my boss? Here are some typical blogger/brand models that we’ve seen and how they might work for brands and bloggers.
The Advertising Model
In this model, bloggers get revenue through paid ad words campaigns or affiliate marketing. Amazon is the best example of this model but there are many popular to bloggers including BlogHer, AdThrive,The Blogger Network and Ad Sense. This story from Elayna Fernandez, The Positive Mom, talks to bloggers specifically about making money from blogs. Below is an example of affiliate marketing from Tori Foster Johnson of The SToriBook.
Sponsor Model
In this type, bloggers (or other influencers) are approached by a brand with a request to create content for a blog post or other social network. The brand offers a fee based on the request and the exchange is not unlike a freelance writing agreement. It may include deadlines, word count, hashtags or links and may be on the brands’ networks or the individuals or both. Examples of this type are easy to find and are most popular with consumer products, particularly those appealing to families. Below is a sample of a sponsored post from Colleen Pence at San Antonio Mom Blogs.
Consultant Model
In this model, bloggers are approaching brands that they are interested in and offering or negotiating a contract or consultation which could include identifying and approaching other influencers and working as a go-between for the brand and the bloggers to a mutual end. Similar to hiring a subject matter expert or celebrity and usually involves a specific timeline or project. Many in this model have media or communications backgrounds so they can be quite sophisticated but others bring only enthusiasm for the project or the brand.
Fam Tour Model
This capitalizes on the brand’s need or requirement to NOT pay for coverage and the bloggers need to develop great content for their networks. It also plays into the bloggers desire to develop content for growing audiences to build their network. It is dependent on the individual passions of the bloggers and the reputation of the individual brands. There is also a certain amount of prestige to working with a specific brand. For this model to work, the value proposition needs to be high for the blogger – the brand must offer something great! This model is often used in the hospitality industry and by destination management organizations as it aligns with how they work with travel writers.
Scarcity Model
The brand in this model creates a competition to create alignment with bloggers and to build attendance. The brand identifies and approaches bloggers but creates a competitive environment to draw in the best candidates. And the brand often charges a nominal rate to recoup the expenses incurred from hosting them on the trip or experience. These usually have large WOW factors! The SeaWorld of Texas AdventureCon program is in this category and so is the Disney Moms program.
The Passion Model
In this model, the brand or cause reaches out to bloggers based on their personal convictions –bloggers participate because of their personal beliefs. Local causes leverage the fact that bloggers want to contribute in their communities and are vocal when doing so. The project that Step In Communication managed for Cardboard Kids falls in this category.
Using bloggers and other social influencers as part of overall marketing goals is evolving. And there is no ONE way for bloggers and brands to work together. With so many models out there, it’s no wonder that some marketing and PR teams are confused. What models have you seen? How are they working? Share your examples here.
The 6 Best Writing Tips You Will Ever Need
Elisha and Elyssa Share Their Secrets
Writing is part of my job. Every day. But I am always looking for ways to improve my writing skills, my writing habits and my writing product. So imagine my surprise when I attended the Adventure Con conference at SeaWorld and got the best writing advice I’ve had in awhile. From two pre-teens.
Elisha and Elyssa are the co-authors of the book I Love ME! Self Esteem in Seven Easy Steps which was inspired by what they’ve learned from their mom: love yourself and make wise choices. The girls wrote the book for kids and tweens as a guide for a positive life.
The conference, sponsored by SeaWorld of Texas, combines a successful blogger outreach program with a conference to help those same bloggers elevate their craft. I was there 
as a speaker and was grateful for the invitation to attend all the sessions with some of my favorite lifestyle bloggers from around the state.
At a lunchtime roundtable discussion called “Turn Your Blog Into a Book” led by Elayna Fernandez – and the mom to the two young authors – the group discussed the many ways to become a published author. Fernandez is also known as The Positive Mom. She focuses on the topics of motivation, particularly for mom-preneurs; the discussion overflowed with her genuine style and positive outlook on life. Plus she has self-published and traditionally published books.
But it was the tips which her two author-daughters shared which stuck in my mind. Both girls had prepared for this roundtable, and each shared their three tips to become successfully published.
Writing Tips from Elisha, 12, co-author “I Love Me!”
- It’s Your Book. Do it on Your Terms – they had an idea and they found a publisher that they wanted to work with. The girls even got an advance for their book.
- Jot down all your ideas – this is a nod to your own creativity. It’s easy to reject the germ of an idea too soon. Don’t do that!
- Do lots of research – The girls shared that they looked at more than 100 books on self-esteem in the process of creating their book.
Writing Tips from Elyssa, 11, co-author “I Love Me!”
- Set a deadline-Many writers benefit from the looming deadline. It’s what has fueled thousands of journalists and can be equally as powerful for longer works. The girls set a strict deadline for themselves. To finish writing their book in 60 days. If they finished on time, they could take a trip and attend a special conference. They did just that and landed a publisher for the book at that conference.
- Make an outline –It turns out that when our teachers encouraged us to create an outline before striking out on our written works, they were right!
- Set aside a specific time each day to write –We often correlate the discipline associated with professional writers as an adult skill. To hear an eleven year old talk about discipline and repetition is refreshing.
These six ideas perfectly distill what every writer needs to do to produce good work and be successful. If they can motivate two young girls to write and publish a book, they can certainly help anyone incorporate writing into their professional practice.
Destination Managers: Improve Internal Relationships Before Your Next Crisis
At a recent conference on crisis communications, a participant stopped me and asked this question: What do you do when your leadership is not communicating? WHAT? Her real question was this: during a recent crisis in her town, the city leaders were not communicating to the tourism pros in town, yet the reputation of that destination was at stake due to national media coverage and social media chatter.
Most of the conference participants were horrified to hear her story, but it is not uncommon. There are many organizations that, when faced with a crisis, go somewhere inside their heads and forget key stakeholders. They are so focused on what’s happening externally, that they don’t stop to consider key internal stakeholders.
She wanted a quick answer, but I honestly don’t think there is one. The answer is to improve those internal relationships before you need them the next time. Here are three things you can do to improve those relationships.
First, reach out to those who you will need in your next crisis. What does this mean? This could be the fire chief, the police chief, the city manager, the head of a particular city department or it could be the hotel across the street or your competitor down the road. Each one of those organizations or departments may be able to help you –either in front of the camera — or behind the scenes — in your next crisis. Buy them a coffee and find out how you can better work together.
Second, find out what kinds of internal communications systems might increase the speed and clarity of your internal communication. Can you launch a private channel like Yammer or a group text program to keep internal stakeholders posted during that time? Think about ways of working and test them out when things are quiet.
Finally, is it time for a drill? Once you’ve opened the lines of communication, maybe the only way to find out how you might work better together is to test it with a tabletop drill. Think of a likely scenario that would affect your destination’s reputation, but one that might not be managed by you. A weather crises is a likely scenario. You will no doubt learn about each other’s “ways of working” and know what you will need to do next time.
Internal miscommunication is a common problem for destination managers, especially because they may only be involved on the periphery of an actual crisis. Yet, the best way to communicate that a destination is open for business and ready to greet visitors is for all agencies to work together to improve their crisis response. It can be done. All good relationships take time, and better internal relationships are certainly worth it.
Why You Need ‘Everybody Writes’
I’ve been having lunch with Ann Handley several times a week for the last two months. Well, it feels like I’ve been having lunch with her. I’ve been reading her new-ish book Everybody Writes during my lunch hours. But now, I’m done with her. It was a sad day when I finished the last page of her book.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been excited about a writing book. I can’t get enough of Zinsser’s On Writing Well and I adore eats, shoots and leaves, but everybody needs Ann’s book. It focuses on writing for marketing and business, yet acknowledges the importance of the writing process. It is aptly subtitled “Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content.”
If you are doing any kind of business writing – traditional, digital, social, whatever form, this books takes you through the “must-knows” for audience, publication and outlet. It takes you through common projects that public relations practitioners and marketers are writing TODAY. She talks you through each one — like landing pages, infographics, blog posts. Plus Ann addresses content length, tone and style for many social networks. Everybody Writes also focuses on the writing rules which will make your work stronger.
I’d like to buy it for everyone I know, but since that’s unrealistic, instead I will share my favorite things from the book. Then you can buy it too and improve your writing.
My 8 Favorite Things from Everybody Writes:
- Why you should LOVE your first draft – page 41
- Rewriting web copy with better customer focus – page 49
- Looking critically at your opening paragraph – page 56
- Writing ledes and kickers – page 61.
- The hassles of writing by committee – page 76
- Using readability scores to improve your writing – page 82
- The art of the interview (because you forgot!) – page 152
- Breaking grammar rules (because someone will take a red pen using what they learned in 7th grade grammar) — page 107
Her book is proof that our language is fluid, that the writing environment has evolved since 7th grade grammar or high school journalism class. It’s time to refresh the knowledge and skills necessary to be a competent writer today. If it’s been awhile since you’ve read or polished your writing, now is the time to take Ann Handley to lunch, or at least her book. Put it on your summer reading list.
How To Handle Negative and Irrelevant Comments on Facebook
Should you ever hide Facebook posts?
When you are managing Facebook pages, it is likely you will have to answer this question. In the process of managing Facebook pages for numerous organizations, this is a common occurrence. Some comments should be ignored. Some comments deserve a response. Others should be hidden or deleted. What should you do? Here are four comment types from my channel management experience and potential actions you can take to handle on your company pages.
Comment Type Number 1: Negative
This type of comment is critical or negative but is relevant to the reputation of the organization. It may involve an unhappy customer or a comment about a policy or process of the company. For this type of comment, it’s important to do three things, verify, escalate, resolve.
First, verify that the comment comes from a real person or real organization by clicking through to the commenters’ Facebook profile. If it appears real, the next step would be to escalate to your client or internal management team to develop an answer. Finally, create and post the response.
Comment Type Number 2: Irrelevant
This type of comment is also critical of the organization but is different in that it is irrelevant to the post. This requires a more subtle answer. If you respond too quickly or with a formal statement, you might uncover a bully or troll waiting to engage. Monitoring additional comments for a few hours is the first line of defense. If you have loyal and engaged fans on that page, they might chime in and redirect the conversation.
If that doesn’t happen, hide the comment — only the commenter and their friends see it. We once hid a comment from somebody’s mom who made a favorable comment about her daughter’s photo appearing there and then kept asking where all the “other people” were coming from. She was clearly new to Facebook, so we hid it to keep the embarrassment to a minimum.
To consider deleting the post or comment takes a little more time and thought. If it’s a “drive-by” commenter that may or may not return, we sometimes wait 48-72 hours and if no further action comes from this type of commenter, we then consider deleting it.
Comment Type Number 3: Unreasonable
This type of comment is often rude and inflamed. It might go right up to the brink of Comment Type Number 4 below. In this scenario, we spend extra time monitoring the post and other comments on it to see the progression of the conversation. There are three different actions you can take: hide the comment, delete the post and ban the user. The strategy leading up to the actions on this type of comment are similar to that for irrelevant comments.
Comment Type Number 4: Violates Policy
Whether it’s a violation of Facebook’s terms of service or a violation of YOUR social media policy, this type of comment includes name-calling or swearing. It can also be a post in which another person or page tries to sell something on your page. This is unacceptable for many company pages and should be deleted. If the post or comment has gotten widespread views before it’s been deleted, it might merit an explanation about why it was removed. This will enhance the company’s engagement and integrity with fans, but if it’s disgusting or pornographic, no explanation should be necessary and deleting and banning the user makes the channel managers’ job easier as these types of posters tend to be repeat offenders.
Smart channel managers know that managing your Facebook community includes making judgement calls on how to respond to comments by a wide variety of fans. Next time you get a comment that is critical, irrelevant, unreasonable or is a clear violation of policy, try these ideas. Let us know how it worked by leaving a comment.
Why You Should Wait to Post To Your Social Media Channels
We get really excited when we have timely content for our social media channels. So excited that we often shoot ourselves in the foot by trying to get it all out there at once. As communicators, we are as trained to follow the news cycle as Pavlov’s dogs were trained to respond to the sound of the bell. The problem is-there’s more than one bell. The news cycle is less defined than it was ten years ago and is no longer confined to set appointment times.
We used to try to capitalize on the morning paper, the evening news, the late news and then the monthly magazine. Now we have 24 hours and we should take advantage of that extended time to spread out our social media messaging in our channels.
So why are we trying to time the press release, the in-person event and the social media posts all at the same time? Out of sheer habit?
With a little planning, your social media channels can have more frequent messages to cover that 24-hour cycle, only in smaller chunks. This way they can carry your news in different ways over a prolonged period of time.
What are the advantages of this approach? You have multiple opportunities to engage with your community and the repetition of the messages – or at least the repetition of the theme of the messages – will likely translate into higher engagement. You might also realize better retention by your fans and followers and your message has higher potential rise above the clutter in those channels.
There is a downside to this and it’s focused on the social media channel manager. This forces social media managers to plan content frequency and channel choice, so if you’re not a good planner, it won’t work for you.
Let’s say you have an event coming up. Here’s how you might extend the life of your content by waiting to post elements of the event.
| Date | Channel |
What To Post |
|
Day Before Event |
FB or TW |
We’re getting ready for X. Will we see you there? |
|
Day of Event |
FB TW or IG |
Photo of getting ready for the event; expression of excitement for festivities. |
|
During Event |
FB TW or IG |
Event coverage; frequency depends on size of event and fan base. |
|
Later that Day OR Next Day |
FB TW |
More scenes from event and/or photo collection |
|
Next 2-3 days |
FB TW |
Share media coverage of event; share what fans are saying/showing about event. Share what partners did during event |
|
One Week Later |
FB TW |
Share video produced from event? Positive community action that happened due to your event. |
Another advantage to this approach is that you will fight the time decay on your channels and most likely reach a larger cross section of your fans and followers. If your stories are spaced right and have a conversational tone, then the repetition will not be recognized as such and it will appear that you are telling the diverse elements of a bigger story.
This approach could become increasingly valuable for company page managers as Facebook continues to tweak its newsfeed toward personal pages and away from company updates. Twitter already favors repeating message themes.
So next time you have big news to share in your social channels, why not spread it out and see how it enhances engagement with your audience?
How to Find Content for Social Media
Finding content is a struggle for many of my clients. Even with a well-developed brand and strong marketing campaigns, many organizations have a tough time filling the spaces of their social media networks with content. Content is right under our noses if we know how to look for it.
“I just don’t know what to say,” is a phrase I hear repeatedly. That’s a sign that you’re overthinking the concept of content. It’s not like writing a brochure or a press release, although both are great sources of content for social networks. If it’s important enough to include in your organization’s brochure, you can bet some — or all of it — should find its way into your digital profiles too.
If the brochure provides the big picture, or the macro view of your company, then content is the micro view, or the small, up-close nuggets that bring the big picture to life.
There’s nothing more traditional and all-encompassing than the annual report. A good annual report gives a complete picture of a year in the life of an organization. It might be mailed, or shared online or both. It’s the macro view. And it’s the perfect place to start mining for those content nuggets for social media, or the micro view.
Here’s a brief example using elements from the annual report from ChildSafe, a Child Advocacy nonprofit in San Antonio, Texas. What could you pull from this annual report? Here’s a list:
- Statistics about children assisted by the organization
- Information about this community issue
- Event photos
- Volunteer recognition
- Call for new volunteers
- Donor recognition
- Call for new donors
- Ways for donors to give
- Highlight programs funded by donors
- Information about education and training
- Efforts of community partners
- Key staff and their roles
- Board Members and their roles
- Fundraising opportunities
Content is right under our noses if we know how to look for it. Just like the expression “can’t see the forest for the trees.” Lots of individual trees make up the forest, just like lots of pieces of content make up the story of an organization.
Is Improv the Latest PR Trend?
Communications professionals are geared to be planners. We do research, create plans, make road maps, all in the name of being thorough. Certainly our timelines are more condensed than they’ve ever been before. But what if we should be doing the opposite of planning? The nature of today’s communication environment makes planning more difficult, maybe even obsolete.
In a recent interview for The Strategist, editor John Elsasser interviewed Fred Cook of Golin, the recipient of PRSA’s Gold Anvil last fall. He believes that improvisation is the key to success. His comments about improvisation made me pause.
“Because things are happening so fast in all parts of our lives, we don’t have time to research and do focus groups and message testing on every single thing that a company says or does. You have to be much more improvisational in how you operate. You have to play it by ear, and be willing to say and do things when you don’t have all of the information at your fingertips.”
This is a huge challenge for uber-planners. What if you get it wrong? How fast can you recover? Or can you even recover? And while communications professionals have always espoused the need to be responsive – especially with the pace at which messages move through social channels — Cook’s thoughts are scary for the communications planner.
“It’s a much more instinctual kind of communication, and you have to be able to move quickly in order to be relevant to the conversation. The research that we’ve done shows that a company has about four hours to participate in a conversation and still be relevant.”
Later in the interview, he likens this preparation to that of stand-up comedians as opposed to the uber-preparation of movie actors.
It turns out that improvisation is being used in some business schools and companies. In 2010, CNN focused on how improvisation was being used in several business schools.
Slate Magazine subsequently covered how corporations were beginning to use improv groups and comedy troupes to improve internal dynamics, customer engagement and even energize new business pitches.
“At first glance, zany improv and the straight-laced corporate world might seem to be unlikely bedfellows. But the cross-pollination between comedy and business has led both to fruitful managerial skills development for executives and to fruitful employment for funny folks. Comedians have not only led training workshops, but have begun to infiltrate marketing departments and advertising agencies,”according to Seth Stevenson in the article.
As communicators, we want to stay on top of the story and we want to stay relevant. And we might actually be more prepared for this constant state of readiness than other professions because we’ve always been “think on your feet” kind of people. For others, though, using improvisation in a business setting will be a challenge. Think you’re ready for this trend? Wait, let me go get my joke book and costume box.
Add Crisis of Reputation to Your Crisis Planning Kit
Most companies planning for their crisis communications focus on physical types of crises like natural disasters and crime. Increasingly, however, it’s just as likely that an organization will face a crisis of reputation and the crisis will happen on social networks. This is a shocker to many traditional companies. You can just imagine the CEO saying: “Why should we put time and resources toward something that does not represent loss of life and limb?”
In short, if you don’t, you’ll be toast.
Online conflicts can be brutal as anyone who has weathered one will tell you, but you CAN survive one. The key is to be aware of what’s going on in the virtual world and to prepare for the next conflict.
“Your online privacy—the combination of what you and other share about you online and what you manage to keep off the Web – and reputation are inextricably intertwined,” says Andrea Weckerle, author of Civility in the Digital Age.
An online conflict can be completely manufactured. It can spring from erroneous information, a misunderstanding, or the widespread opinion of a key influencer. This is completely counterintuitive to how most companies prepare for real crisis communications. It is just as likely to spring from a genuine customer service issue or human resource matter which is advanced by a loud and influential person in your networks.
A traditional crisis usually has a beginning, middle and end, allowing the team to return to a normal state of affairs. This is not always true for an online conflict, which keeps coming back because of the social network convention of sharing and passing along links (false though they may be!) as well as the likely results from search engine queries.
There are things you can do to prepare for this type of crisis, but it does take a time commitment. First step: find out your current online reputation. Do this when things are normal, not when something’s brewing. One thing you can do is Google your company name once a week and see what you find. Then Google your company name with “stinks” or another bad word and now see what happens. Once you do that, it opens up additional opportunities to search networks like LinkedIn, Glass Door, Yelp and Trip Advisor to see results there, too. Second step: start fixing anything you find which is inaccurate or incomplete.
This only scratches the surface of monitoring your online reputation. Among the many gems in Weckerle’s book is a complete chapter on monitoring your online reputation with detailed instructions on how to do it. This book is a blueprint for managing all types of online disputes, based on Weckerle’s experience as an attorney and as the founder of CiviliNation, an organization dedicated to making the internet a more civil place. It is full of relevant case studies and numerous strategies for resolving every type of online conflict imaginable.
Even if your company is not in an all-out crisis of reputation online, learning to navigate negative reviews is part of managing civility online. The Journal of Consumer Research reported that negative reviews which were polite actually helped to sell the merchandise which was reviewed.
Our research raises the intriguing possibility that brands might benefit when polite customers write reviews of their products — even when those reviews include negative opinions.
The authors — researchers Ryan Hamilton, Kathleen D. Vohs, and Ann L. McGill — found that cultivating civility might make consumers feel better about a product.
So, why should you put time and resources toward something that does not represent loss of life and limb? Your reputation depends on it.
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