8 ways to exploit social media while avoiding risk

The power of social media has taken corporate engagement to the next level.

This kind of engagement has lots of benefits, such as improving company performance across a number of key areas, including profitability, productivity, customer satisfaction, innovation, health and safety, and turnover. It’s also a huge opportunity to gain long-term commitment and discretionary effort from your team.

But social media doesn’t always have a positive impact. Take the example of the prayer group that wanted to enhance members’ engagement through a WhatsApp group, but ended up creating the infamous Brother Ocholla scandal.

Bro Ocholla mistakenly sent a rather detailed love message to his prayer group rather than the woman who had captured his affections.

To date, Bro Ocholla remains one of the most popular Kenyan topics on individual and corporate Twitter accounts. Firms like Safaricom, Durex and Kenya Airways jumped onto the bandwagon, posting hilarious tweets.

We also have scandals that have hit corporate groups. There is the story of the wife who found a naked picture of a woman on her husband’s phone, and proceeded to forward it to his work WhatsApp group. The gentleman worked for a mobile services firm, as did the woman in the photo.

So how can we use social media’s strategic significance while avoiding the risk of hurting corporate public relations?

Football clubs like Real Madrid and Arsenal are struggling with balancing the use of social media by their players and fans to engage with each other, while controlling the risks this might expose them to.

Media houses engage with viewers, but have disclaimers to ensure they are not exposed to lawsuits resulting from their fans’ comments.

Well-planned strategy

To strategically exploit social media, you first need a well-planned social media strategy — blindly posting marketing messages will get you nowhere.

Second, don’t focus on the quantity of social media followers, but on their quality. It’s great to have hundreds of followers, but they’re not very useful if they are not interested in corporate engagement.

Third, create and post engaging content on a regular basis by, for instance, using status updates to share something interesting.

Fourth, convert followers into paying customers, which is why it is important to create posts that are engaging and capture the attention of the people your products will benefit.

Fifth, do not use too many social media channels. Keep your focus narrow and branch out from there. When someone visits your Twitter page and sees just eight tweets from two years ago, it sends the message that you’re disorganised and don’t care.

Sixth, have a brand voice, which both embodies and expresses your brand’s personality and values. Make sure you publish content in a cohesive and consistent brand voice, or you risk confusing your loyal fans or deterring would-be customers.

Seventh, do not spam your audience. If you post too many updates that are about selling your products, people will get the impression you are spamming them and will stop following you.

Lastly, don’t publish the same message across all of your channels. Sure, you want to engage your stakeholders on all of your social media accounts, but many people follow you on multiple channels. This means they are receiving duplicate content and getting the impression you aren’t very original, which will decrease their willingness to engage with you.

To avoid risks, the key to success is to have a social media policy in place. The problem is that many brands think of this as a dry, unfriendly document that sternly lays down the law.

A social media policy is not about blocking Facebook at work. It’s about telling people what is important on social media and why, and putting the tools and tactics in place to help them use it in the right way. In other words, approach it strategically.