Whether you’re a social media agency or a brand, there’s no doubt about one thing– coordinating multiple team members to work on a social media account is challenging. And when I say challenging, I mean hugely stressful. As the creative director at Contentworks, I’ve experienced the struggles first hand, so in this article, I’m going to show you how your team can ace social media collaboration.
The Problems
Large social media accounts will require more than one team member to work on them. You may be working on the account in shifts or simultaneously. Having multiple team members working on the same account can be fraught with problems which can damage, or even sink, the brand. Here’s just a few of them:
- Tone Inconsistency: Different personalities posting and replying in different ways
- Failure to Collaborate: Duplication or delays in replying, posting, approving
- Organization Chaos: Delays in finding brand assets like images, GIFs, and passwords
- Poor Reporting: You’re doing the work, but nobody is gathering information
Notice a common thread in all these problems? The main problem is communication.
1. Tone Inconsistency
Managing social media in a complex organization isn’t easy. There are multiple departments, leaders, and policies, all of which can lead to confusion. Having different employees answering and posting differently on the same account can also reflect badly on the brand. Perhaps John answers in a formal way while Sarah is playful and fun. The tone of each person’s posts will reflect the brand, influence the customer experience, and affect the outcome.
The Solution
Your brand needs a clear set of guidelines that manage tone, spelling, style, and brand personality. I’m not talking about a huge PowerPoint presentation. I’m talking about a basic one-page doc that acts as a referral point for staff. The document should include basics like:
- The tagline
- The brand voice
- UK or US spelling
- Hex color codes
- The company values
- The customer demographics
Before new staff members begin working on a social media account, be sure that they understand the brand and how to effectively represent it as a team. You can also create saved replies using the Agorapulse dashboard. That means that employees can choose from a list of pre-approved and on brand answers saving time and maintaining consistency.
2. Failure To Collaborate
Failure to effectively collaborate as a team can cause numerous problems. It may mean duplicate replies to the same message or a failure to reply at all. It may also mean too many posts being published or none at all. Worse still, it could cause you to contradict yourself and confuse page fans.
Remember not all social media teams are based in the same physical working space. In my case, I have a team in China and Europe so I can’t just walk into the office and make an announcement. Different time zones, different departments, and different perceptions of what needs to be done can cause huge confusion.
The Solution
Sending out emails to your colleagues for every action is not a viable solution. The answer is a social media dashboard where team members are assigned different actions and roles. Look at this screenshot from the Agorapulse platform. Here you can assign one of four roles to each user with varying levels of posting, replying, and reporting access.
Choose from:
- Admin
- Editor
- Moderator
- Guest
So immediately you have some clarity over who is authorised to take actions on the social media accounts. Next, you have the option to schedule, queue, and assign actions to others on the team. For example, my junior copywriter may assign…
