How to set up a social media department
Many businesses have come to accept the fact that their customers are spending billions of minutes on selected social networking sites. As a result, they have positioned themselves there to engage their customers and facilitate conversation around their brands in real time. It has been successful and effective to those who were able to follow simple instructions and managed their presence professionally.
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Social media has helped both small and big businesses to acquire new customers, increase brand visibility and create strong online experience for their brands. But much as social media has proven to be effective in achieving primary business objectives such as communication, advertising, marketing and selling, it has to be done according to best practices.
Though some businesses have outsourced their digital and social media marketing to agencies, others want to be able to manage their social media presence in-house. This requires the setting up and managing a social media department.
STEPS TO FOLLOW WHEN SETTING UP A SOCIAL MEDIA DEPARTMENT
Have a social media strategy
It is essential to note that before you set up a social media department to manage your social media presence, you must have definite objectives you want to achieve. It may include engaging with your customers consistently, sharing information about your business to them, socialising with them to build more intimacy, receiving feedback from customers in real time, facilitating the conversation around your brand, positioning your brand within their social context, or extending the word of mouth for your brand online.
With the strategy, you can monitor, manage and measure the return on investment in terms of time and money. Without the strategy, you will run your social media accounts without any guidance or sense of direction. Never run a social media department without a strategy.
Define your social media targets
You can only find what you define. If you know the target consumers you want to reach on social media platforms, you can achieve your set objectives. Knowing your target consumers on social media means you will know which platforms they use. This helps you to know the geography and demography of your target. You will know where they live physically either in urban or rural areas. You will also have some ideas about their gender, social behaviour, common interests, purchasing power and perceptions.
Interact with your customers who patronise your products or come to your shop to buy any product to know which social media they spend most of their time or socialise with their friends and other people in their social network. Strategy implementation will be effective if your consumers are clearly defined.
Select the best social media platform
There are so many social media platforms and applications you can use to reach your target consumers. But you must find out which ones hold the highest number of your target consumers as well as the ones they spend most of their time on. Different social media platforms come with varying features, functionalities, primary contents and target users.
Some businesses start with the most popular ones such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google Plus and LinkedIn. But be sure to talk to the right people and your customers to select the best platform which will deliver the right result for you. WhatsApp is also popular in Ghana and Africa because of the ease of use and its replacement of SMS (text messaging) so some businesses have started using it to reach out to their customers. Select the best platform for the best social media experience.
Choose the right mix of skills for your team
After having a strategy, defining your target consumers and selecting the right platforms, you must put together the team to manage your social media accounts and implement your strategy. Your team must comprise people skilled in research, marketing and visual communication. The research team members must be the pulse of your business and as such know how the customers feel about your products. They listen to your target consumers.
Your marketing team must sell your products to your target consumers. They understand the products and can sell the benefits to the target consumers professionally. They will respond to the enquiries and questions from your social media interactions. But they must work with the research team to know how the consumers feel about the products they buy
The creative team is crucial to having an endearing social media presence. They include content developer, graphic designer, photographer, video editor, art director and copywriter. They treat all your communication or messages into sticky contents which your fans or followers will love to interact with. They put visual appeal and representation to the messages you want to send to your social media fans or followers. Though social media contents are usually user-generated, you can run campaigns to allow your fans or followers to share their own contents.
Invest in software, devices and resources
You must invest in some social media software to manage and measure your effectiveness. Popular ones include HootSuite, SocialBakers AnalyticPro, Radiant 6 and xxx. They help your team to broadcast contents, measure the interactions on the content posted and rate of engagement from the consumers.
For your team to be able to manage your account, you must acquire some devices such as mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and cameras. These will help them to easily create content and readily post them in real time. Some can serve dual purpose of content development and broadcasting: the mobile phone and tablet can be used to capture images and post them as well while on the go.
You must also have resources such as industry reports, bulletins and books so your team can be abreast of best practices. The more they know about the new features, trends and consumer social media behaviour, the more they can fine-tune the strategies and contextualise them for the best results.
Have a budget to run the department
Definitely! You need to have a budget to run your social media department. You must pay the salaries of the team members, buy prizes for promotions or campaigns, produce brand items or souvenirs, pay for Internet connectivity, buy devices or repair them, boost your posts on various social media platforms and buy software or resources. It costs money. To have an effective team and get the highest return from the time you invest, there must also be budget to manage the accounts.
Train your team frequently
It is important that your social media team is in tune with the trends and new features of the various social media platforms. You must train them frequently by having them attend industry events, organise in-house training for them or pay for them to read some professional courses in digital or social media marketing. They will learn from industry experts and network with other social media managers as they share ideas and insights.
Various social media platforms keep updating their features and designs, so your team members must also be informed so they can easily adapt to its use. They must learn how to integrate their strategy into the new design or feature and must be up to task by way of training.
The writer - Technology Consultant, Digital/Social Media Strategist and Trainer.
Twitter.com/@maxihere
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