Everyone knows that social media is the place to go for transparency in business. Customers, clients, and other businesses expect a level of openness from the brands and companies they follow on Facebook and Twitter. But there’s another type of transparency that many businesses overlook – being open with your social media manager.
Social media managers are the people who run a business’s Facebook page, Twitter account, YouTube channel and so on. As more and more small businesses flock to the social media networks to get their brand out there many of their social media managers are facing a common problem. All too often, these managers are not kept in the communication loop as they should be and the result can lead to endless amounts of frustration. In some cases, business owners can begin to complain about not seeing enough buzz generated about their company and therefore fail to see the value in their social media outreach. The problem isn’t that social media doesn’t work, it’s that by not including your social media manager in on upcoming news, events, and branding strategy meetings you’re basically shooting yourself in the proverbial foot.
The good news is this issue is completely avoidable. It’s important to keep two things in mind when bringing a social media manager onto your team.
First, social media IS marketing. No matter how you slice it, marketing is becoming one of the top ways social media is being utilized. Yes, it can be used for customer service or just to give your company or brand a more hip and customer friendly appeal. But are you including your social media manager in every marketing meeting? Are you CCing them on the status of big clients or projects you have in the works? You should be. They are your first and instantaneous line of communication to your audience. They should be in on every conversation where strategies on branding, marketing, public relations , promotions and customer relations are discussed.
Second, social media can and should be proactive. All too often, small businesses post photos and announcements to their pages and Twitter feeds after the event has already occurred. In the world where we can get our news in under 2 seconds and an audience’s attention span is shorter than 140 characters those amazing photos of a store opening is old news. Sure, it should still be posted, people do love photos. But that’s not generating buzz about your business. The 3 weeks leading up to the opening are where the value in social media lies. Including your social media manager in all project management meetings allows them to craft a strategy and reach your fan base, and hopefully beyond, to get the word out.
When crafting marketing campaigns social media managers can also be extremely helpful. They have their eyes and ears on your clients and customers on a consistent basis. Who better to help you craft that digital ad or to tell you what share incentive will best resonate with your target audience?
By remaining open with your social media manager you can better hone your marketing campaigns and strategies as well as increase the exposure of press and news about your company and its services or products. So the next time you go to send that email on the status of that big event you have coming up be sure you CC your friendly neighborhood social media manager on it. They could be the key to boosting your marketing’s success.
