Long gone are the seasons of social media resistance by most organizations. For the most part, many organizations’ social media programs fall somewhere in the crawl, walk or run phase. Yet, a recent Altimeter Group study found that “most companies lack a formalized [social media] process –and even out of the advanced, only 76% had a process in place.”
Why is this the case? How can such a fundamental component of a social media program – essentially, management – be easily ignored or left out of the equation? Could this be a result of attention being focused elsewhere, say ROI? Whatever the reason, it’s essential a social media workflow be a key fixture in any digital program. At PAN, we use a Content Engagement Plan, a road map for community management that outlines roles and responsibilities, response scenarios and guidelines to ensure our programs fire on all cylinders.
Social media programs contain 4 areas which require equal parts commitment and attention: content creation, community management, monitoring and measurement. These areas support – not supplant – one another and if not equally managed, will ultimately detract from overall success.
A Content Engagement Plan helps drive all four of these areas. How so?
• Content Creation – Providing content of value on platforms where key influencers gather and search for news is how organizations can grow followers and build trust. Most, but not all content can be prepared ahead of time and rolled out over a given month. However, many opportunities for engagement are unpredictable. Did a key stakeholder just tweet a concern regarding performance issues with your product? Did a blogger just post information need correcting that’s getting picked up by analysts and media? A streamlined Content Engagement Plan will quickly enable your team to develop new proactive content of value and address the issue how and where it makes sense.
• Engagement – Engaging regularly with key influencers and growing the network is of vital importance for a brand grow its own network, generate leads and increase SEO performance. Without a streamlined Content Engagement Plan, roles on either side are ambiguous and opportunities will be missed because of a lack of a systematic approach or simply because it takes too long for the right people to respond. In this 24/7 news cycle, silence hurts an organization which can lead to negative – even financial – implications. It is critical roles are clear and responses created and delivered quickly in order to mitigate egregious reporting – or worse.
• Monitoring – Monitoring is the first port-of-call for community management programs so clarity of what should be looked out for is vital. A Content Engagment Plan clearly outlines what community managers are looking for and scenarios on whether or not to engage and how. Is your team clear on what topics or issues to look out for? If not, collaborate today to identify them today and create sample scenarios ahead of time to expedite engagement in the future.
• Measurement – Once you start using your Content Engagement Plan, build an archive of battle-tested engagement scenarios your team can rely on as a best-practice and augment whenever possible. Revisit. Revisit. Revisit.
Altimeter Group highlights a growing need for organizations to make a social media workflow a priority. So make it the subject of your next call or planning meeting to ensure you’re performing at optimal levels for the rest of 2012. Additionally, ask your client if they have an updated social media policy in place. If it doesn’t exist, create one, making sure it’s approved by their legal department. If one already exists, get a copy and ensure it’s updated, then distributed to staff regularly.
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