This article originally appeared in the Adobo Magazine Digital Showcase 2014.
The Social Media Playbook is often considered an elusive “holy grail” by marketers. In fact, it is nothing more complicated than a Standard Operating Procedure for how your teams should be managing your brand’s social media assets.
Here is what you need to include:
1. OBJECTIVES, METRICS AND KPIS.
Choose 2-3 objectives that are clear, timebound, measurable and aligned with your overall business strategy. Then pick metrics to measure it, and set a KPI as the target.
Example:
Objective: Be the most talked about ‘vacuum cleaner’ brand on social media by end of 2015
Metric: % brand mentions vs. competitor mentions
KPI: 51%
2. CHANNEL STRATEGY
For each social channel (e.g. Twitter) choose the purpose of that channel (e.g. customer service), who the target audience is (e.g. Students), and what key messages and content you want to share via that channel.
3. ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES
Social requires a team of diverse skills, and requires complex interfaces with multiple departments. Because of this we need to have clear expectations on who is accountable for what.
Social media teams need to interact with customers, and create new content every single day. Having a lengthy approval process is going to slow you down. Create a clear set of guidelines around voice and style with lots of examples to minimize misinterpretation and ensure a consistent quality in your real-time communications.
5. CLASSIFICATION AND WORKFLOW
Customers expect brands to provide customer service on social media. If you receive questions or complaints you need to treat them with as much importance as a phone call. Defining exactly how you tag, classify and with whom you route each mention is critical in ensuring customer queries don’t get lost.
6. CRISIS MANAGEMENT
Social allows us to quickly identify a crisis unfolding, then act as a platform for monitoring, communication and mitigation. The Playbook should clearly align all stakeholders on the exact process to follow in the case of crisis.
7. REPORTING
Data is at the center of everything we do and should drive decisions and action. The Playbook includes all social listening and brand reporting requirements including report templates, frequency and audiences.
8. QUALITY ASSURANCE
You need to monitor the quality of work your team are doing on social media. Define a regular QA test (e.g. check 50 Tweets per day) and report. Ensure your team hit a 95% KPI and if they don’t give them training until they do.
Social media forces brands to communicate with customers across fragmented channels, with rich content and in real-time. Just like every other aspect of your business, to be successful, you need to align your people with clear guidelines.
This article was also on: https://www.afdigital.com/how-to-build-a-social-media-playbook-for-your-client-or-brand/
