A discussion came up during a session at Podcamp Boston (#pcb4) regarding corporate involvement in social media. The questioner was referring to a fictional company, where an employee might have set up a Facebook or Twitter account, without any thought as to how the new accounts were going to be managed.
Fast forward a few days later, and BOOM, the new accounts have followers and friends, as well as some negative feedback. What happens now?
Many major corporations have already embraced social media, some with much gusto. Two major airlines, Southwest, and Jet Blue, tweet daily info such as flights with wifi, links to flight policies, and business news. Jet Blue used Twitter to announce its $599 all-you-can-fly pass for September. The news flew (pardon the pun) across the Interwebs.
For many of the corporations, the job of managing the corporate brand on the web has fallen to a new type of employee, the community manager. This person sets up the accounts on the different services, and manages the flow of information. While this type of web presence brings a new level of branding to the fore, it has paid dividends in other ways as companies also use social media communications as a new customer service portal. Stories abound on the Internet of customer complaints on Twitter, that were resolved quickly, some within hours.
Because of the marketing nature of social media, many of these positions have fallen to marketing department types out of haste. But now that social media is sorting itself out, job descriptions are starting to tighten up. For example, look at this description from a recent posting for Community Product Manager from Boston’s Berklee School of Music:
The Community Product Manger will be responsible for developing a vibrant community of musicians from all over the world, working closely with the marketing and content groups to grow the member base and provide relevant programming such as webinars, podcasts and performances. The Community Product Manager will also work to seek out, secure and negotiate partnership deals both inside and outside the music industry. The manager will be responsible for the smooth operation of the community including member liaising and utilizing community leaders to form networks and add value.
A community manager or similar position at a major company or corporation may require a marketing background, but those of us who work in small business and troll the Interwebs would most likely have the skills to become one for our own employers. Try these tips:
- Set up a corporate Twitter account aside from your personal account. Use a tweet management application such as Tweetdeck to separate your personal and business tweets. Decide if you want to post a picture or the corporate logo in the profile section. Make this decision based on the culture of your brand.
- Learn the differences between user pages and fan pages for Facebook presence. If you decide to use a regular user account for your company’s presence, learn to navigate the privacy settings. (You should really do this for your personal Facebook account also.)
- Fan and follow a few corporations on both platforms. Figure out which posts and tweets work the best, and adopt similar themes for your use.
Remember, if the whole thing blows up in your face, you can always delete any account, regroup, and try again a few months down the road. Good luck!
