Social media mistakes that even the biggest publishing companies are still making
Social media isn’t as easy as it sounds. Social networks are updating and upgrading their platforms faster than lightning, and as the managers of our social accounts, we stay on top of it all. The one thing that hasn’t changed since the social media river started flowing in, is how you interact with your new type of subscribers. Yet, many publishing companies are still hanging back on launching a full social media strategy. Here are some mistakes to avoid while doing just that.
1. Don’t hide your social media accounts: Sometimes when you try out new media, you might be embarrassed of “jumping on the bandwagon”. Especially when you’re starting out and you don’t have a big following yet. Well, don’t. You’re regular readers are your biggest fans, why not invite them to the party? They can serve as a great base to show your new audience that you have people out there who like you. Post the links to your social media accounts on your homepage, blog posts, in your email newsletters and even in your direct mail.
2. Don’t go corporate on everybody: It’s easy to stand still, publishing headlines and avoiding human interaction on an RSS feed. Fortunately, social media sites like Twitter and Facebook are social networks meant to provoke conversation and build relationships. A website is like your office, and your social media accounts are like the water cooler.
But even if you have fun, entertaining, and smart people behind your social media accounts, it’s still difficult to establish business transparency with a solid “personality”. I’ve worked with companies to identify their social media image, many who struggle with this identity. Many professional media companies don’t want to appear too laid back, or anything less than professional. I recommend using the same voice in social media as you do in your blogs and don’t be afraid to carry on a casual conversation with your followers. It will keep them subscribed to your social media lists, I promise.
3. Don’t wait: Josh Bernoff, Senior VP, Idea Development at Forrester Research said in his keynote at the SIPA 2011 Conference, that another mistake that companies make “is to sit and plan and plan and plan for everything that will happen. I’ve seen companies take two years to get ready to launch these things, and the reason that’s a mistake is because you don’t really understand what’s going to happen until you do it, and then what happens is usually something you never imagine. So it’s much better to start small, try something, see what happens and then be ready to respond to that as opposed to have some big budget and planning process and getting all ready to launch it.”
4. Don’t forget to establish a social media policy: Do you have a social media policy for your editors? Or, are you an editor that don’t have any type of guidelines to go by, when deciding what (and what not) to tweet? If you’re having trouble even trying to figure out what should be a part of your social media policy, take a look at a few very different examples.
5. Don’t wing it – develop a social schedule: Interacting on social media can take up half of your day if you let it, and you’d probably getting a much bigger return on your investment of time. However, unless you are the community manager of your publication, you probably need a workflow in order to get everything else done during the day. Read our 7 Everyday Tasks for Online Editors to discover a great, effective workflow.
Are there other roadblocks you’ve run into in your own social media campaigns? Let’s discuss in the comments!
