Social Media Community Management Notes

Technical Failure- Impact: Loss of sales due to downtime.
- Cost incurred to resolve technical glitches.
Negative User Response- Negative comments/reviews.
- Need to address & resolve negative responses with timeliness & professionalism.
- Poor response time leads to escalated negative user experience.
Poor Engagement of User- Planned posts way ahead of time.
- Adopted a “set and forget” style.
- Failing to schedule “real-time” budgets.
Unable to Control Content (User-Generated Content – UGC)- Risk of not being able to control content & supervision.
- Users control writing, posting & tagging content; may not be positive.
- Reputational risks & tamper the brand image.
- UGC belongs to the user; need permission to share.
- Confronting Fake/Spam Sources
- Invite consumers to provide a verified review.
Digression to Non-related Topics- Untruths of information are categorized as mis-information, dis-information & mal-information.
- Mis-Information: Incorrect/misleading information, rumours.
- Dis-Information: False information deliberately spread to deceive people, fake news, POFMA.
- Mal-Information: Based on reality but used to inflict harm, phishing, cyberbullying, doxing, swatting.
Errors in Communication Going Viral- Lead to negative impact on customers’ perception of the brand.

Create a Social Media Policy- Guidelines & expectations on appropriate use of social media accounts.
- Include copyright, privacy, confidentiality, brand voice guidelines.
Secure Social Media Accounts- With strong passwords.
- Limit employees knowing passwords.
- Use a centralized access control system.
Use Social Listening to Identify Potential Issues- Monitor brand mentions & social sentiment.
- Surge of brand mentions is an advanced warning.
Establish a Crisis Communication Plan- Guidelines to identify crisis type & magnitude.
- Roles & responsibilities of each department.
- Pre-approved external messages, link to social media policy.
Pause Scheduled Posts- All communication has to be planned & consistent in tone.
- All pre-scheduled posts ought to be paused until the issues are resolved & under control.
Acknowledge & Engage- Twitter: effective for quick responses.
- Business websites: most formal.
- YouTube, video on Twitter, LinkedIn & Facebook: spokesperson to respond directly.
- Facebook/LinkedIn posts: longer form of responses.

Degree of Customer Engagement- Ability to build customer base & audience, boost reputation.
- Speedy & cost-effective marketing, save time & money on communication.
Nature of Customer Sentiment- Measure the tone of comments & mentions.
- Data can be misleading without sentiment.
- Overall social sentiment will be positive if the majority of customers have neutral to positive feelings.
Brand Reputation on a Social Network- Good online reputation impacts sales & profit.
- Buying decisions are influenced by positive/negative online reviews.
Quality of Relationships with Your Target Market- Judged by how it responds to online customer feedback.
- Develop & maintain a likeable & well-respected online personality.
Extent of Participation in Online Conversations- Maximise the amount of participation it prompts among followers.

How to increase market share using social media intelligence?
Understand your target audience through customer profiling- Use social listening to create & maintain consumer profiles
Detect your competitors’ strategies:- Track your competitors’ events
- Stay up-to-date on trends & innovations in the sector
Identify key trends & issues to tailor your strategy- Capture insights about its competitors to differentiate its contents
Analyse UGC to understand your customer- Powerful lever for brands in earned & owned media
Identify the right influencer to increase your authenticity & reach

Query, Complaint, Compliment, Comments, Feedback, Review- Gist: do not ignore/delete comments, respond positively