Every organization regardless of size, industry, or sector should have a minimum of 3 social media strategies in order to have robust and comprehensive social media communications. The below strategies will keep your social media audience engaged, informed and brand loyal while managing your org’s communication and brand reputation goals.
The 3 social media strategies every organization should have are:
A Brand Social Media Strategy – Your overall social media strategy should outline your social media strategy statement, tactics, posting cadence, content pillars, types and themes, community management, social media advertising plan and key performance indicators for each of your organization’s social media channels.
A Social Media Crisis Communications Strategy – Your crisis communications strategy should consist of a strategy/plan for two types of crises: (1) a communications/public relations crisis and/or (2) a natural disaster/emergency crisis. A communications/public relations crisis can be defined as an instance where there is a scandal, regulation or policy, an unsavory/unfavorable comment that has happened on or offline line that is now causing a public backlash on your social media channels. A natural disaster/emergency crisis can be defined as an Act of God like a hurricane, tornado or flood or an active shooter or terrorist attack where emergency information and instructions need to be disseminated to the public via your social media channels.
These strategies should outline the method of contact for key internal and external stakeholders during emergencies, approval processes for messaging, where social media or emergency content for online distribution is held both off and online, the frequency of how and on what channels to communicate, what to do in the event there is no power/wi-fi and how to engage pre and post-crisis on social media.
A Social Media Community Management/Customer Service Strategy – Your social media Customer Service/Community Management strategy outlines how you handle comments, questions, reviews and customer service complaints on your social media channels. Whether you view yourself as an organization that has “customer service” or not, chances are you receive feedback from your social media audience. Every organization should have a strategy that outlines how you will respond to audiences online, the time frame in which you will respond and how quickly, an internal approval protocol for responses and feedback to the public, what software you’ll use for customer service (does it require integration with your CRM?), how will you escalate complaints and lastly how you will measure success.
#TipFromOctober: Remember that all social media strategies should ladder up to the organization’s overall applicable business, sales, and communications goals.