Question: Brands continue to make major missteps on social media. What's one best practice you've adopted to avoid these kinds of embarrassments?
Get a Second Opinion
"Most brands don't just want to be vanilla. They want to express an opinion and pick a side, creating discussion around a topic. This can get tricky when you're a brand since you still have an image to uphold. Many forget to stop and think before posting. If you have a lot of doubt and are questioning your motives for the post, get a second opinion and ask another member on your team."
@gurrieri
Post Primarily Only Your Content
"We work hard to be a leader on topics in being healthy in mind, body and soul. We encourage members to have fulfilling relationships of all kinds. With that, there's a plethora of interesting topics we could post/share from other sources. However, we like to primarily share only our content because it is vetted and researched to maintain our credibility with our followers."
@ALIGNEDSIGNS
Proofread Your Content
"Nothing is more embarrassing than spelling errors, misuses of grammar and just plain lack of clear-cut communications. Make sure when executing on your social media strategy that you proofread your copy, ensure your images are optimized and that you're tagging the right accounts. If you're afraid of remembering all of this, make yourself a cheat-sheet and stick it on your wall."
@picanza
Create Brand Guidelines and Use Them
"Trusting employees with your social media platforms, especially new ones, is often left to a leap of faith. They may not fully understand your brand messaging or care enough to make sure everything they post is up to quality standards. I recommend creating guidelines and familiarizing new comers (even the most experienced) with them. Lastly, monitor and approve new posts, especially when beginning new campaigns."
@rgerov
Map Content to Customers
"You must know your customer and cater to them. Brands too often use social media as a blasting tool instead of a way to add value up front for their target audience. The two puzzle pieces brands need to put together include the customer's journey from stranger to customer and their communication efforts to connect with them along the way so they want to return."
@growthsuite
Use It or Lose It
"We come across businesses all the time that have an account with every social media channel. Many of them open them up, post a profile picture and that's it. Having a clear strategy of what you're going to communicate is just as important as where you communicate it. Having no presence on a social media channel is far better than having no content."
