Manage Social Media with a Capital "M" from CrowdControlHQ

March 10, 2015 - PRLog -- Five ways to manage social media with a capital “M”
By Michelle Leavesley, Marketing Manager of CrowdControlHQ

Mastering management issues around social media is fast becoming a priority for business leaders in all sectors.  Here are five ways to manage social media effectively with a capital “M”.

1)         Back to Basics

To understand the nature of social media it is important to find out how audiences respond to the content provided.  What do they like and what do they dislike about the content?  It is worth revisiting the trends associated with social media accounts and evaluating the ratio of outbound content versus inbound customer service queries.

2)         Choose the Right Channels

Organisations should check whether their social media channels are providing the right environment for the right audience.  For example, many business-to-business (B2B) companies report that their Facebook pages are less about customer engagement and more about supporting their websites through advertising and promotion.  Whereas at the opposite end of the scale business-to-consumer (B2C) brands are finding an increasing number of customer service enquiries being posted on platforms like Facebook, raising the issues of response times, transparency and in some cases, crisis PR.

There has been a drive in the UK to rename “customer call centres” to “customer experience centres” as more social media customer service representatives are appointed to manage the influx of inbound activity.  Many public service organisations, including the police,are responding to the public demand for contact via different channels with social media being integrated into emergency 999 centres.  Therefore, be sure to focus on the right channels for your audience.

3)         Stay Safe

The recent cyber attack on Sony was one of the biggest security breaches of the decade.  It followed “the snappening”, a security breach of Snapchat which left many teenagers too embarrassed or shy to seek help, as well as the webcam security breach, allowing hackers to see right into the heart of British homes.  It is not just big brands that are suffering unwanted attention.  Businesses need to review security to protect themselves not only against hackers but also from security blunders caused by well meaning, if misguided employees or brand advocates.

4)         Effective Collaboration

There are many ways to increase reach and improve social media effectiveness, with one of the most important being collaboration across internal teams.  As customer service enquiries increase, response teams can experience severe growing pains.  In one example, a customer service enquiry linked to a leisure centre swimming pool on a Sunday afternoon ended up taking nearly two weeks to resolve and generated 17 emails across 8 members of staff.

The problem arose because there was no clearly defined route for the query and the delay in response resulted in the customer turning to the press to vent their frustration.  The inbound query should have been automatically forwarded to someone who was on duty that weekend with a protocol in place to respond appropriately.

5)         Analysing Social Media

Too many social media managers are still being evaluated entirely on the number of followers or page likes rather than engagement and effective reach metrics.  Having a top end modern social media risk management and compliance platform in place enables teams to really sharpen the focus and impact of social media activity.  Analytics can provide strong return-on-investment (ROI) information, helping to secure additional investment and resources as well as highlighting what is working and what is not in the day-to-day delivery of social media.

Take back control and make social media an essential part of the education and innovation of your business during this year and remember to manage social media activity with a capital “M”.

Michelle would love to hear your views.  She can be contacted @crowdcontrolHQ, @leavesM or visit www.crowdcontrolHQ.com

Ends

About CrowdControlHQ

CrowdControlHQ is the UK’s leading social media risk management and compliance platform.  The online technology delivers social media control and compliance features, in parallel with social engagement and analytics, to provide a single dashboard for multichannel campaigns.  Supported by an award winning customer service team to help brands, organisations and enterprises protect their reputations online.

CrowdControlHQ was launched in 2009.  The product was born out of recognition that social media would one day be extensively adopted by UK organisations and tasked to deliver tremendous impact across marketing and customer service functions.  The business has received backing from angel investors including Midven and Finance Birmingham.

CrowdControlHQ services over 125 different clients across the public sector, finance and legal sectors plus many household brands including Experian, Serco and Taylor Wimpey.

For further information please visit www.crowdcontrolhq.com

Michelle Leavesley

Marketing Director

CrowdControlHQ

Email: michelle.leavesley@crowdcontrolhq.com

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Mary Phillips/Andreina West

PR Artistry Limited

Tel: +44 (0)1491 639500

Email: mary@pra-ltd.co.uk