Social Media: The Importance of Your Online Presence

This weekend I have the opportunity to deliver a presentation to the Alabama Business Education Association at its 2016 conference at Samford University. My presentation is titled “Social Media: The Importance of Your Online Presence” and is geared toward business educators and individuals who manage social media in education. The post below summarizes my presentation:

Social media has become an area of major focus for schools and school districts over the past two to four years. Essentially, the education world is catching up to business as some 78 percent of companies now report that they have dedicated social media teams (source). The Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that more than 531,000 jobs now involve some level of social media management, and while it is difficult to track an exact number because there is no standardization of titles for social media workers, jobs that mention “social media” in the description have increased by 89 percent since 2012 (source).

This change is due in large part to changing perceptions on the value of social media. More than 1 in 4 Millennials say social media platforms are their primary source of news, rivaling television for the first time (source). 46 percent of Web users rely on social media when making a purchase online (source). Clearly, there is a trend here indicating that brands that are active on social media tend to be the most relevant brands.

None of this would be possible without the decision by Facebook in 2007 to launch what it then called “Fan Pages.” These pages were geared toward the most popular brands, celebrities, and media and allowed these companies to establish a public presence on social media. This move, however, leveled the playing field between brands and consumers: for the first time, two-way communication became a reality as brands and consumers utilized the same networks and tools for communication.

This has resulted in what I and others call the “social media multiplier effect:” the idea that public perception of a brand is amplified through chatter about said brand on social media. Posts on social networks are amplified through the process of viewing and sharing by multiple audiences: a user’s friends/followers and their friends/followers; media outlets including TV, radio, newspapers, websites, and blogs; and the brand itself as well as its allies and competitors.

This amplification can have dire consequences for companies that are not prepared to handle the multiplier effect, as was seen in the case of Domino’s Pizza. On Easter Sunday in April, 2009, two Domino’s employees posted a video to YouTube which showed them — shall we say, mishandling — food ingredients in the store. Within hours, the video had received more than one million views. One viewer that hadn’t seen the video yet: Domino’s. The company’s headquarters had no idea that the video existed for 24 hours after it was posted. It first learned of the video when it was contacted by a consumer watchdog news site.

Though Domino’s has since been lauded for its response, there were several initial problems with its response. First, the company appeared to have no social media strategy of any kind, as it had hired a social media team just one month earlier. It also had no presence on Twitter prior to the incident. The company issued to response until Wednesday, and its first response was only on its corporate website which drastically limited its audience. (source)

There were many lessons to be learned from this and the numerous other social media crises that have occurred to major brands over the past few years. This has led me to construct a list: what I call the “Habits of Social-Savvy People.” These are things that smart social media managers do, intentionally, every day, to maintain control over their presence on social media and ensure that their brand is represented fairly and effectively.

First, social-savvy people own their social presence. This means simply creating a profile on every major social network, even if you have no plans to immediately use each and every social network. Why do this? Because impersonators and Internet “trolls” are always on the lookout for opportunities to disparage or misrepresent a brand; this becomes an even greater issue during a crisis situation. Owning your brand’s name across the social media world means, simply, that someone else won’t get the chance. It also means posting with enough regularity to let people know that you're out there. I have seen so many brands create Twitter accounts and then do nothing with them; data backs this up (source). While there are arguments as to how often someone should post, my general guidance is that you should post enough so that your social media accounts are a top-of-mind priority for you every day.

Social-savvy people monitor their brands. This is absolutely essential for all brands, schools and organizations regardless of size. The ability to listen to what others other saying about your brand is critical to maintaining a grasp on perception of your brand. Google Alerts as well as TweetDeck and HootSuite are simple, free ways to get started.

Social-savvy people are ready to pivot. This means having a means of monitoring and providing a response to something on social media anytime, anywhere. I have never taken a day off from my job as a social media manager. Sure, I’ve been to the beach, and to family gatherings at the holidays, but I was not off the job on those days. Social networks don’t take a day off, so neither do I.

Social-savvy people practice digital etiquette. This means reacting with compassion, writing in a natural/conversational tone, and double-checking messages and replies before hitting “Send.” With abuse on social media raising the question of which networks are sustainable (source), social media managers must remember to remain above the fray.

Social media managers fill your “trust bucket.” We should always seek to provide honest, timely information to our followers and never obfuscate the truth — something that the public sector in particular seems to grapple with. We cannot ignore negative feedback, either.

Finally, social-savvy users think mobile. Would it surprise you to learn that 47 percent of Facebook’s users in 2015 accessed the service only on mobile devices? It’s true (source), and it’s a number that only stands to increase. As a result, content that we push to social networks should be designed around a mobile device. For me, that means posts that are text-light and to the point, with embedded rich content (photos and videos) whenever possible.

Armed with these social-savvy strategies, the future looks promising for brands, schools and organizations on social media. Our job, for those of us in the educational sphere, is not only to impart these principles to students but to listen and work collaboratively with them as they lead the charge to a world that leans more on the power of social networks than ever before.