Managing employees role in the organization's voice

As far as managing an organization's social media voice is concerned, there are a number of best practices that would be better learned than by making public communication mistakes.

As mentioned in previous posts, behind every organizational voice across social media channels there are people (or a person) who represents the organization.

 These people have a critical responsibility because they must not only provide content across social media channels that will be valuable to readers, they often are called on to drive revenue, as well. Around both of these goals is the need to use a vocabulary and style that represent the tone and feel the organization wants to provide to its
readers.

If the people who manage the organization's social media voice get it right, they create a positive impact for the
organization.  At the same time, an employee can make a single comment and injure the organization’s relationship with everyone. Oft times, people seem to forget the volume and reach social media channels represent. If an organization has 100,000 followers, the actual reach is much greater because if something posted is really good or really bad, many followers will forward the information or comments to their contacts.

So potentially the number of people who could “hear” about it could be one million or more. Because the responsibility is so great on those who post on behalf of the organization, it makes sense to have rules and reviews in place so costly mistakes are avoided.

The first step is to make sure you’re aware of anyone who reports to you who creates content for one of the organizational voice channels. You should provide specific assistance for these folks. It makes
sense to review these concepts and provide training for all your people so that no one finds out the hard way the dangers of a misstep.

How often should you post on social media ?

If you’re in the situation where you’re managing some form of a social organizational voice across social media platforms be careful about how often you send or post content. The good side of “talking” to your followers daily via posts across your organizations social media platforms, is they think of you often.

 The downside can be that you annoy them because you don’t have interesting things to say each time. Don’t wear out your connections by inundating them with information they won’t value.

Media Accent Nigeria

10 rules social media management teams must observe

• Social media management teams should learn to  write like humans would speak. Corporate speak will bore people and they’ll dismiss your conversation stream as a waste of time.

• Deliver a recipe of information that’s valuable to the reader. If you spend too much time trying to sell people products, you’ll be regarded as spam.

• In the course of managing your organization's social media accounts be ready to interact with people who comment or reply to you. The worst thing you can do is connect with people and then not answer their comments or questions.

• Don’t be a lurker. Engage in conversations when people are talking about you and your products. But only if you have something meaningful to add.

• Have a sense of humor. Nothing makes information more interesting or seem more
human than having a little fun with things.

• Don’t whine or complain. Someone is going to say something negative about your
organization at some point. If you choose to engage them, do so professionally. Admit
you’re wrong if you are, then apologize. Or correct them if they’re mistaken.

• Don’t spin the truth, tell lies of omission, or flat out lie. This seems obvious, but do this in front of several million people, and someone will find out and tell the rest of the world.

• Stay consistent with the tone and style of the organizational voice. It confuses and
annoys people if it changes every week.

• Never engage in flame wars with competitors or angry constituents. This makes everyone look immature.

• If you don’t have anything valuable to say, don’t say anything at all. It’s better to be
silent than obviously filling space because you feel you should. By the way, go find
something valuable to say!

Social Media Management: 10 Rules for managing the organization's voice

• Write like a human would speak. Corporate speak will bore people and they’ll dismiss your conversation stream as a waste of time.

• Deliver a recipe of information that’s valuable to the reader. If you spend too much time trying to sell people products, you’ll be regarded as spam.

• Be ready to interact with people who comment or reply to you. The worst thing you can do is connect with people and then not answer their comments or questions.

• Don’t be a lurker. Engage in conversations when people are talking about you and your products. But only if you have something meaningful to add.

• Have a sense of humor. Nothing makes information more interesting or seem more
human than having a little fun with things.

• Don’t whine or complain. Someone is going to say something negative about your
organization at some point. If you choose to engage them, do so professionally. Admit
you’re wrong if you are, then apologize. Or correct them if they’re mistaken.

• Don’t spin the truth, tell lies of omission, or flat out lie. This seems obvious, but do this in front of several million people, and someone will find out and tell the rest of the world.

• Stay consistent with the tone and style of the organizational voice. It confuses and
annoys people if it changes every week.

• Never engage in flame wars with competitors or angry constituents. This makes everyone look immature.

• If you don’t have anything valuable to say, don’t say anything at all. It’s better to be
silent than obviously filling space because you feel you should. By the way, go find

something valuable to say!

CREATING SOCIAL MEDIA STARS

As with any skill, some people will excel at being a content provider and surrogate voice for the organization. These social stars will develop an innate sense for the recipe of information your constituents want to hear and the tone of voice that's perfect for representing your
organization.

This is a new and valuable skill that must be nurtured. It's a good idea to keep your
eyes open for the people who might have the right combination of skills to become social stars.
Typically, you’ll find that this person must have a combination of industry knowledge,
the ability to write well, empathy for your constituents, and a good sense of what content will be interesting and valuable. This person will combine all of this with a clear understanding of how
social tools work.

 This can result in a growing network of people connected to your information
channels.
Once you’ve found a social star, it’s important to leverage his or her talents quickly and deeply because every constituent he or she helps connect to the organization is a potential new
customer. The thing that excites social stars the most is being able to nurture online relationships with many people. What they want and what the organization needs are usually the same thing—a large audience participating in the conversation.

Media Accent Nigeria
Posted by Dominic Nwelih