Commentary

Avoid Social-Media Disasters During Award Season

Award season is upon us, and along with all the glitz and glam, there is an opportunity for brands to spread their message by participating in social chatter. Social media is now just as much a part of the "big event" as the award show itself.

However, with this opportunity comes an extreme amount of responsibility. There is inevitably a brand (or brand manager) that suffers an error in judgment with a Tweet, bringing unwanted attention to the company. Brands can – and should – do several things to prepare for major televised events to ensure they're promoting their brand in the best ways possible while also keeping accounts safe to protect the brand’s reputation.

Go in with a strategy. To take advantage of brand-boosting opportunities during televised awards, take time to prepare in advance for how you want to participate, which communities you want to participate in, and to clarify your company’s goals for participation. Do you plan to hold some sort of contest or utilize a hashtag? How do you plan to get your followers to engage with your accounts? Establishing guidelines and expectations will not only help you get the most out of the event, but will also help you stay aligned with the brand’s voice and community.

Have the right tools in place. Take advantage of social media tools that allow you to pre-schedule posts, such as Hootsuite, Buffer, Sprout Social or Tweetdeck. Be sure that your team knows which tools to use, who is monitoring what, and that all pre-drafted posts are ready. Pre-approved posts will leave less room for error and will help avoid an embarrassing situation like this post from Krispy Kreme.

Don’t link corporate and personal accounts to the same dashboard. Many social-media monitoring tools offer the ability to link several accounts to a single dashboard – but beware! Although linking your personal and corporate accounts to the same dashboard may seem convenient, all it takes is one accidental post to smear your brand like this social media manager for Red Cross did.

If you manage multiple accounts, be sure the “default” account is the one it should be. Many tools allow you to set a “default” Twitter profile. If managing several brands from a single dashboard, be aware of which brand or Twitter handle is set as your default before the big event.

Keep security in mind. We can’t stress this one enough! Make sure your team is using strong, unique passwords for each social-media account. For example, your community manager should not be using the same password for the corporate Twitter account as they do for their personal Twitter, Gmail and other online accounts. Twitter now makes this even easier with their new TweetDeck for Teams features. Also, turn on two-factor authentication wherever possible, so that even if your password is compromised, hackers still won’t be able to access the account. Share passwords only when necessary, and do so securely with a password manager.

Be engaged and actively monitor. Even if you’ve pre-scheduled your posts, you should be actively monitoring for feedback from those posts and responding. If something is happening in real-time that would impact your pre-scheduled posts, you want to be able to act quickly and modify the post as necessary. Staying nimble and responsive is critical for keeping your brand social media-savvy.

If you take the time to prepare properly and set your team up with the necessary tools, your social media award season is sure to be a smashing success!

 

Next story loading loading..