Guide 

Beyond Likes and Shares

Leveraging Social Media Collaboration for Strategic Advantage

 

 Download PDF version 

 

bls-bookcover

Social media, when strategically applied, transforms from a simple communication tool to a powerful driver of corporate objectives and growth. We’ve put together "Beyond Likes and Shares: A Guide to Leveraging Social Media Collaboration for Strategic Advantage" to help leaders bridge the gap between their traditional need for metrics, and the strategic application of social media.

 

This guide focuses on harnessing social media as a strategic business asset, just like other web content, and emphasizing the integral role of collaboration in achieving organization-wide business objectives. At the core of this strategic shift is the recognition that social media is not a solo endeavor, but a collective of voices, insights, and talents – a team effort built across departments, offices, and even countries. When every post, tweet, or update can shape your brand's narrative, the ability to efficiently collaborate across teams, departments, and geographies is not just beneficial; it’s foundational to strategic communication and social media orchestration.

 

We will explore how the strategic application of social media and robust collaboration can influence corporate strategy, stakeholder engagement, and brand reputation. We will provide actionable insights and best practices to participate strategically in social media and lead the conversation. 

 

So, let's move beyond vanity metrics and see where social media becomes a powerhouse for strategic advancement and collaborative success, then talk about how you can experience a high level of social media orchestration at your organization. 

bls-img3

Social media: evolving in the corporate world 

 

Initially adopted by businesses as a tool for marketing and customer engagement, the role of social media has expanded to include and support a wide range of business functions that include brand building, customer service, market research, corporate networking, and even internal communications, among others. 

 

Social media has long been seen as a great channel for corporations to communicate their values, respond to market trends, and engage with a range of stakeholders, from customers to investors. However, communication itself doesn’t translate to actionable outcomes unless further steps are taken. 

 

Most of the time, when we focus on social media as a corporate communications tool, we’re only looking at the surface – how is engagement up or down? Do we have more followers than yesterday, and are they converting?  

 

But what does engagement really mean for your strategic communication? What do you actually do with this engagement once you have it?  

 

It’s time to evolve from simply observing and boosting basic metrics, to acting upon them. 

This evolution has also shifted the focus from mere content dissemination to strategic interaction. Companies now use social media to gather real-time data, gain insights into consumer behavior, and foster direct conversations with their users.  

 

Embracing evolution: The strategic application of social media

 

Facelift has created many pieces about engagement, likes, shares, and other KPIs that social media managers need to track, before. They're incredibly important, but the strategic application of social media in the corporate world goes way beyond these traditional metrics alone.

 

Instead, it’s about taking advantage of social media platforms as vital tools that help your organization achieve its broader business goals. Contextually, it becomes a means to gather insights, build relationships with stakeholders, and enhance brand positioning. 

 

This shift requires a nuanced approach where the focus is on the quality of engagement rather than the quantity of interactions (likes, shares, etc.). By analyzing patterns in user behavior, feedback, and sentiment, we can refine our strategies to better align with customer needs and market trends.

 

We call this shift "Social Media Orchestration". Social media orchestration describes the way organizations conduct their communication strategy and measures across different social media channels, and throughout their entire operation - not simply within marketing. With orchestration, we now aspire to go beyond social media, and incorporate elements of omnichannel content for other platforms like blogs, websites, intranets, and 3rd party applications such as SharePoint, MS Teams, Slack, and more. This shift enables organizations to orchestrate their entire communication via platforms such as Facelift into what we refer to as Communication Orchestration.

 

Social media, thus, evolved from a platform for broadcasting messages to a rich source of market intelligence and a channel for two-way communication, deeply influencing product development, customer service, and overall corporate strategy. This is what your company can capitalize on to drive meaningful change. 

 

Adopting this change requires a holistic approach to social media applications that involves a larger spread of people and voices throughout your company. 

 

It requires collaboration on a whole new level! 

 

Collaboration in social media strategy 

 

The power of team collaboration in social media management 

Effective social media management in the corporate sector is a multifaceted endeavor that thrives on team collaboration. In fact, it necessitates it as most large organizations require multiple individuals working on a social media or content team, as well as multiple offices or teams within a single office.

 

In this space, collaboration means combining the creativity of marketing, the insights of sales, the responsiveness of customer service, as well as the perspectives of human resources to bring a company together to use social media tools to their fullest extent.

 

The strategic application of collaborative social media management also includes individuals working throughout the company. Leveraging employees on a personal level is valuable because they can serve as brand evangelists, experts in their industries, and representatives of your organization – helping it to put a human face on your business.

For example:

A cosmetics company promoting a new hair gel wants to make a bold statement on Instagram about the effects of their latest product for skin health. The bold claim needs to: 

 

  • Be approved by legal and medical – it's a sensitive topic that requires perfectly accurate information. This could involve at least two additional people. 
  •  
  • Go through design, which in this company’s case means a photoshoot and editing, a role for two more people. Perhaps there is also an art director involved in final proofing.
  •  
  • Texts need to be proofread and approved, requiring at least one more pair of eyes in addition to the social media manager responsible for the project. That’s two more.
  •  
  • Finally, the head of marketing may want to ensure that this post is set up perfectly if it is deemed important enough.

For most social media posts, you probably don't need seven or more people to contribute to and sign off on a single Instagram post, but it does happen, especially with companies with high regulatory requirements such as those in health and skincare or high-stakes industries like insurance.

 

Companies like this need to have a close collaboration that is fast and fluid, because there are so many parts in motion, and a lot, can be riding on their social media content quality and messaging. 

 

Regular cross-functional meetings: 

  1.  

Holding regular meetings with representatives from all teams involved in social media ensures alignment on goals, strategies, and messaging. These sessions can be invaluable for brainstorming, reviewing campaign performance, and planning future initiatives.

 

In the wake of COVID, we’re all trying to reconcile with how we want to do meetings, at what times, and how often. With many employees working online, these needs are being constantly assessed by companies and the “sweet spot” will depend on your organization’s needs and team structure.  

 

Online or off, we still suggest regular group communication between all usual stakeholders. If you have a social media team, they should meet regularly, perhaps once per week, to discuss their open projects. They can invite guests to their meetings as needed for a given project or task. 

 

You don’t want to overdo it with meetings, but regular connection between people will greatly simplify social media collaboration, and contribute to growth more rapidly than with a disjointed system that lacks solid communication. 

  

  1. Leveraging diverse perspectives: 

Encourage the participation of various departments in brainstorming sessions. For example, the HR team might offer insights into employee engagement strategies that can humanize the brand on social media. 

 

Every department has different needs and objectives within a company and while this can at times cause frustration and siloing, it really doesn’t need to in social media. By collaborating across teams, your social media messaging can remain on target at all times and adhere to your regulatory requirements and message architecture. 

  

  1. Data-driven strategies

A unified approach to analyzing social media metrics and KPIs can significantly enhance campaign performance. When teams collaborate to interpret data, they can make informed decisions that resonate with the target audience and align with business objectives. 

 

Your team can do this by ensuring that your social media managers, performance marketing managers, or other data experts can access accurate, up-to-date data and share it among themselves in a comprehensive and useful way. 

  

  1. Feedback loops:

Establishing feedback mechanisms where teams can share insights from social media interactions helps in refining strategies and tactics continuously.

 

However, be careful to make these loops straightforward and transparent. Returning to roles and responsibilities, it’s essential that your team ensure that there are dedicated personnel able to handle the feedback roles, and that everyone is clear on those roles and when they need to happen.

 

Without this assurance, it again becomes easy for productivity to break down as confusion arises within the workflows and bottlenecks arise.

 

Feedback loops are essential but need to be kept limited, and those involved in them need to be kept to a minimum necessary number of people. Otherwise, these loops can take ages and surpass deadlines quite easily. 

Case study HDI: successful collaborative social media campaigns 

  

Haftpflichtverband der Deutschen Industrie - HDI, a leading German insurance company, strategically harnessed the power of its sales team to amplify its reach on LinkedIn, leveraging Facelift's Social Share feature. By equipping its sales force with a curated selection of brand-aligned content, HDI enabled them to effortlessly share engaging posts on their personal LinkedIn profiles.

 

This initiative not only magnified HDI's visibility on a crucial professional networking platform but also transformed its sales team into active brand ambassadors. The approach proved highly effective, leading to a marked increase in HDI's digital footprint on LinkedIn, showcasing the potential of internal collaboration in enhancing external communication strategies.

 

You can read all about HDI's story and how they used Social Share to increase sales by following this link to the free success story.

hdi-download-image

  

 

 

Best practices for collaborative planning and execution 

  

  1. Role clarity and communication:

Assigning clear roles and establishing effective communication channels is crucial for ensuring that tasks are completed on time.

 

For instance, while the marketing team leads content creation, the customer service team can provide insights into customer queries and trends, and the PR team can guide message framing, especially in sensitive situations, such as a crisis or scandal.

 

This ensures that message architecture is adhered to throughout the company, reduces negative siloing, and can even benefit the morale of employees who see themselves as members of a company rather than a department or team.

 

Executives also have a role to play in this process as overseers and supervisors of creative projects and as individual influencers in their space, utilizing their own connections and clout on social media to spread their brand awareness and expertise.

 

Without clarity in assignments, workflows tend to get clogged. When it’s not clear who is supposed to take over the next part of a series of tasks, that part often goes unfinished and can even breed frustration. Especially in larger organizations, many roles may be involved in creating a single piece of social media content. 

bls-img1

Social media as a strategic corporate tool 

  

Redefining traditional business strategies with social media 

With new avenues for growth, customer engagement, and brand building, companies are now rethinking their approach to market research, advertising, and customer service, and how they integrate social media as a core element of their strategies.

 

For instance, businesses traditionally reliant on outbound marketing techniques like TV ads and billboards have learned to embrace social media for targeted, interactive, and cost-effective campaigns. This shift not only enhances reach and engagement but also provides richer data for campaign refinement. 

 

Social media and its impact aren’t new, but it’s still not common for businesses to think about its implementation strategically and at higher levels – it is still a "necessary evil" that we "must do" because everyone else is doing it. 

 

  

Integrating social media into corporate strategies: Real-world examples 

  1. 1. Customer service reimagined: 

French cosmetics giant Caudalie integrated social media into its customer service strategy, using WhatsApp and Instagram for real-time responses to customer queries and complaints. 

 

Caudalie maintains dozens of social media pages across most major platforms, which made strategic collaboration essential for the brand as it managed such customer service across all of them. Due to their strategic approach, over 80% of Caudalie’s incoming customer service requests are handled in real-time.

 

This improved customer satisfaction rates and showcased their commitment to service excellence publicly. Customers today expect same-day responses and, in many cases, same-hour responses. You can read more details about the success on social that Caudalie discovered when they worked with Facelift. 

   

  1. 2. Employee engagement and advocacy

HDI is one of Germany’s oldest and largest insurance groups and one of Facelift’s top customers. They discovered that they could leverage individual members of their sales team on LinkedIn and other platforms, such as Instagram, to drive sales and build the company profile on an individual level.

 

People simply prefer interfacing with other humans rather than bots or faceless corporations. HDI uses LinkedIn as a source of outreach and upkeep for their sales team, who take advantage of Facelift’s Social Share app to present relevant content that they like to their personal networks with just a few clicks.

 

HDI saw this increase their overall sales, helped with company branding, and the social media involvement of their employees led to employer branding as well, a great way to attract talent! 

 

  1. 3. International growth with inter-office social media management

For businesses operating at scale, across teams, offices, or even countries, collaboration and a single strategy for social media become essential on an even greater scale.  

 

Because this is one of Facelift’s top strengths as a social media tool, we even wrote a separate guide for companies looking to scale their efforts around the world, which you can find right here for free. 

 

Carrefour is a multinational grocery chain and wholesaler operating over 12,000 stores in more than 30 countries. Carrefour taps into its local markets by using individual social media pages, namely Facebook, to reach people near its store locations. This, plus the company’s need to operate multilingual social profiles for their international pages, meant they needed to do some serious scaling.  

 

By creating a single, unified editorial plan and synchronizing its many social media operators, Carrefour was able to use social media as a significant driver of online success. You can read their story right here and learn how they used Facelift to help manage all of these profiles in a single place. 

banner-response-templates-1

Aligning social media objectives with business goals 

  

A strategic approach to social media involves aligning objectives with the broader business goals of the company. This alignment ensures that social media initiatives contribute directly to the growth and success of the business.  

 

For example, if a business goal is to increase market share, the social media strategy should focus on reaching new audience segments that represent the desired market, showcasing unique selling propositions (USPs), and driving conversion-oriented campaigns.  

 

Similarly, for goals related to customer retention and preserving revenue, the focus could be on community building, customer service, and engagement through value-driven content. 

  

To effectively align these objectives, companies need to: 

  

  1. Set clear KPIs:

Establish social media key performance indicators (KPIs) that correlate with business goals, whether it’s increasing brand awareness, generating leads, or improving customer satisfaction. These can be as simple as watching follower growth over time, to assessing attribution modeling via social media touchpoints. 

  

  1. Regular review and adaptation: 

Continuously monitor the performance of social media activities against these KPIs and adapt strategies as needed. This dynamic approach ensures that social media efforts remain relevant and impactful. We suggest monthly reporting and reviews by relevant stakeholders. More often than that is burdensome to the team, but waiting more than one month may cause it to slip from stakeholder attention.

  

  1. Cross-departmental collaboration

Encourage collaboration between departments (marketing, sales, customer service, etc.) to ensure that social media strategies are comprehensive and encompass various aspects of the business. Regularly inform stakeholders within these departments of important developments and results and invite them to contribute their thoughts.

 

But, be careful not to incorporate too many voices into content or you may find the message become diluted or convoluted. 

  

  1. Innovative content strategies: 

Develop content strategies that reflect and enhance the brand's message, positioning social media not just as a broadcasting channel but as a medium for storytelling and customer connection. This could mean not simply reposting blog articles but taking advantage of the wide range of social media posting types, such as carousels, short video such as Stories or YouTube Shorts, or experimenting with newer products such as Instagram's Threads. 

 

Engaging stakeholders through collaborative social media efforts 

  

Identifying and targeting key stakeholders  

The first step in engaging stakeholders through social media is to identify who they are. Stakeholders can include customers, potential customers, employees, industry influencers, and even competitors. Companies can segment their audience based on demographics, interests, engagement patterns, and more. This segmentation allows for a more targeted approach, ensuring that the messaging resonates with each group.  

 

For instance, LinkedIn may be more suitable for engaging with industry professionals, while Instagram could be more effective for reaching a consumer audience. Most people aren't on LinkedIn to go shopping. 

  

Crafting and delivering tailored messages   

Once key stakeholders are identified, the next step is to craft messages that appeal to these groups. This involves understanding their needs, preferences, and pain points. Collaborative efforts across departments can provide a 360-degree view of what each stakeholder segment values.

 

For example, marketing teams can work with sales and customer service departments to understand customer feedback or FAQs, and incorporate it into the messaging. Personalized content, whether in the form of direct messages, tailored posts, or targeted ads, can significantly increase engagement and brand loyalty. 

  

Building and nurturing online communities 

Social media offers an unparalleled platform for building online communities. Regular engagement through Q&A sessions, live videos, webinars, and interactive posts keeps the community active and engaged. For example, creating a Facebook group for users of a particular product can provide valuable insights into user experiences simply by observing them create their own user-generated content and how they interact with one another while also offering a platform for peer-to-peer support and advocacy. 

  

Tools and metrics for stakeholder engagement  

Engaging stakeholders effectively on social media also requires the right tools and metrics. Tools like social listening platforms, analytics dashboards, and customer relationship management (CRM) integrations can provide valuable data on stakeholder engagement. Metrics such as engagement rate, sentiment analysis, and conversion rate offer insights into the effectiveness of social media efforts.

 

Several tools can help your business analyze its top KPIs and build high-quality reports that fulfill stakeholder requirements. 

 

  1. 1. quintly is the market leader in advanced social media data collection and analysis. It's also the perfect way to build exceptional, detailed reports suitable for companies or campaigns of any size. Furthermore, it integrates with Facelift. 
  2.  
  3. 2. Facelift is your all-in-one social media management platform. In addition to simplifying day-to-day social media functions, helping with campaigns, and bringing large teams together for collaborative purposes, it also provides state-of-the-art analytics and reporting driven by quintly. 
  4.  
  5. 3. Digimind is another industry leader in social listening and media intelligence monitoring. It provides advanced consumer intelligence that can help fuel more informed social media decisions.

  

Take advantage of top tools to regularly review the most important metrics to your campaigns and stakeholders. This helps refine strategies and improve engagement across the platforms you use.  

 

 

 

bls-img2

Managing brand reputation via social media 

  

Impact of social media on brand perception   

In 2024, social media is no longer optional, and larger organizations with broad audiences will likely be present across all of the major industry names. 


Consumers and even other businesses and organizations expect your brand to be visible and active on their favorite social media platforms. In fact, the absence of your brand from any social platform sends a message that you do not wish to be present or engage with users. This can be a significant factor for B2C companies, as this Nov. 2023 study explains: 43% of consumers now use social media when buying to research products.

 

Standing out online is hard, even for massive companies, and those with no large, bold, and holistic social media presence will be able to compete for brand visibility. Every post, tweet, or comment made by a brand contributes to its overall image. Positive engagements can bolster a brand's reputation, while negative interactions can do damage surprisingly quickly.

.   

 

Crisis management in the digital age 

The real-time nature of social media demands quick and effective responses during a crisis. These responses need to be laser-focused on preventing viral negativity from spreading and acting upon it very quickly. 

 

Whether it’s addressing a product issue, a natural disaster, or responding to a PR mishap, how a company handles crises on social media can significantly impact its reputation. Effective crisis management involves acknowledging the issue, responding promptly and appropriately, and taking steps to resolve the situation. Transparency and empathy in communications are key to maintaining trust with the audience.

 

We wrote a lengthier guide to social media management in a crisis that you can download for free here. 

 

A good PR team or external agency helps as well. Facelift helps your social media team collaborate on content and reactions with your PR team, either internally or externally, due to unlimited user access, role customization, and a focus on team collaboration. 

  

Proactive reputation-building strategies 

Proactive reputation management on social media involves regularly creating and sharing content that positively reflects the brand's values and message architecture.

This includes engaging stories, customer testimonials, and content that showcases the company’s contributions to the community or industry. It’s about creating a narrative that resonates with the audience and positions the brand positively in their minds. 

  

Real-time brand reputation monitoring and response tactics 

Monitoring what is being said about your brand online is crucial for managing your reputation, and there aren't many clearer places to see that conversation than on social media. Tools that track mentions, keywords, and sentiment help gauge public perception and identify potential issues before they escalate. Responding promptly to both positive and negative feedback shows that a brand is attentive and cares about its customers.

 

What's the best way to do this? 
 

    • Analyze sentiment: Regularly use tools to analyze the sentiment of posts and comments about your brand. One tool for this is Digimind.

 

    • Categorize feedback: Quickly categorize social media feedback into complaints, inquiries, and positive comments. Facelift's unified inbox helps your team do this. 
    • Prepare response templates: Develop adaptable templates for common types of social media interactions. We have created a series of templates in native English that you can download free here. Facelift also provides response templates to users.
    • Assign a response team: Designate a team specifically for monitoring and responding to social media activity. Unlimited Facelift users facilitates dedicated community management and/or PR collaboration. 
    • Review analytics weekly: Schedule weekly reviews of social media analytics to identify trends and adjust strategies. Facelift's reporting and analytics dashboards, powered by quintly, are always available to your teams.
    • Engage regularly: Ensure consistent engagement with your audience, responding to both positive and negative feedback. Be sure to find a comfortable, sustainable content publishing rhythm and address engagement as quickly as possible. 

 

About our response templates 

Facelift recognizes the importance of efficient and effective communication in maintaining brand reputation. To assist businesses in this endeavor, Facelift has created a suite of pre-made social media customer service response templates. These templates, available for free download, are designed to help businesses respond quickly and appropriately to various customer interactions on social media, ensuring consistent and professional communication. Download customizable customer service response templates for free here.

  

Future trends in social media collaboration 

  

AI and VR trends and their impact on collaboration 

The future of social media and collaboration is poised to be shaped by technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR). 

 

AI is expected to revolutionize social media management by offering advanced analytics, enhanced content personalization, and more efficient customer service through chatbots and automated responses. In fact, it's already doing so. Facelift itself features our own AI assistant, Lifty, who helps provide content concepts and is powered by GPT4.  

 

Imagine AI tools that can predict content performance or suggest optimal posting times based on advanced analytics. This isn't some distant fantasy in the slightest, it's a reality and it's likely here to stay!

 

Changes in AI for social media  

AI-Powered personalization: Artificial intelligence can enhance collaborative efforts by providing teams with advanced analytics and insights into user behavior. This data-driven approach enables more strategic content creation and campaign planning. You can already do this with quintly and Facelift! 


Growth of voice and conversational platforms:

The rise in voice search and conversational AI opens up new avenues for collaborative social media strategies. Teams can work together to optimize content for voice search and drive further engagement in a way that modern customers wish.


Predictive analytics for proactive engagement:

Utilizing predictive analytics can be a game-changer in strategizing social media efforts. It allows teams to collaboratively anticipate and plan for future trends, customer needs, and engagement opportunities. 
 

VR and AR are also powerful technologies that have been gradually making their way into the mainstream over the past decade.

 

Here are two implications for these pertaining to strategic social media management:

 

Enhanced interactive campaigns:

AR and VR technologies enable the creation of highly engaging and interactive social media campaigns. This opens up creative avenues for collaboration among marketing, design, and technology teams to produce immersive brand experiences, product demonstrations, or interactive storytelling that can captivate the audience in novel ways. 

 

Cross-department collaboration for immersive experiences:

Implementing AR and VR in social media strategies requires close collaboration between different departments. For example, the IT and tech teams might need to work with creative and marketing teams to ensure that the technological aspects of AR/VR content are seamlessly integrated with the creative vision and marketing goals. 

 

The possibilities for VR and AR are limitless, and many ideas that we cannot currently conceive of will likely come forth in the coming years. These technologies can still be quite expensive and/or resource-intensive to create, but larger, scaling companies looking for an additional competitive edge on social media will need to embrace bolder, more innovative technologies and techniques to reach their audiences where they are and the way they wish to be reached. 

   

Predictive analysis for future planning 

Predictive analysis is set to become a cornerstone of social media strategy. By leveraging data on past performance and current trends, brands will be able to anticipate future developments more accurately. This can lead to more effective content strategies, better-targeted advertising campaigns, and improved customer engagement.

 

Predictive analytics could help identify emerging trends within specific demographics early, allowing brands to tailor their content to these preferences before they become mainstream. For example, fashion brands can analyze TikTok influencers' content early to identify growing names and styles before these figures and their personas really blow up. They can then pre-emptively create content that promotes their wares earlier than their competitors and even collaborate with the influencers in a faster, more streamlined way. 

  

Predictive analysis easily extends itself to collaboration within your own organization, where insights from various departments can be integrated to forecast and plan more effectively. This holistic internal approach can lead to more coherent and successful social media strategies, fully aligned with overall business objectives and understood by all. 

 

Collaborative social media strategy at the executive level 

  

Fostering a culture of collaboration in social media 

Creating a culture that values collaboration and integrates social media at its core is essential for modern businesses. This requires executive-level commitment to model and drive these values. Leaders can foster this culture by encouraging open communication, sharing of ideas, and cross-departmental projects that utilize social media tools.

 

For example, internal campaigns or competitions that encourage teams to collaborate on social media projects can be a great way to start. It's about building an environment where social media is not seen as a siloed marketing tool but as a collaborative platform that can benefit various aspects of the business.  

 

One solution to this is Social Share, an unlimited Facelift feature included in all plans that allows social media teams to "seed" pre-curated content to their own organization for easy sharing. It can be used at any level, including for executives who may be too busy to prepare their own publications, or who wish to spread the company's other content to their large professional networks.

It is the ideal solution for: 

 

    • Busy executives looking to not just participate in their organization's social media, but to lead it.

 

    • A unified, high-quality content strategy that is synchronized throughout the company that sends a single message. 
    • Employee brand evangelism providing a high level of internal social proof  
    • Quick and easy employer branding

Training teams for effective social media collaboration  

To ensure the success of a collaborative social media strategy, teams across the organization need to be equipped with the right skills. This involves training not only on the technical aspects of social media platforms but also on how to communicate effectively, align social media activities with business goals, and analyze and act on social data.

 

Customized training programs catering to different organizational roles can be highly effective. These could range from workshops on content creation for marketing teams to sessions on social listening for customer service teams.

 

Policy and governance for corporate social media use 

 

 The vast majority of companies of any size do not strictly police their employees' social media pages, and that's probably for the best. While there are famous, high-profile examples of employees losing their jobs over extreme views or behavior, for the most part, it is best for employers to stay out of it, and we do not advocate for strong policing of private profiles under most circumstances.

 

However, there are still things that do concern an organization, and many employees, perhaps through no real fault of their own, may not have a prior understanding of social media operations in a corporate environment. 

 

Establishing clear policies and governance structures is critical to ensuring that social media activities align with the company’s ethos and regulatory requirements. This involves setting guidelines on the type of company-related content that can be posted, the tone of voice to be used, how to handle customer data, and how to respond to crises. Your company's social media needs must reflect its message architecture. Message architecture is how your organization decides how it identifies itself to stakeholders, customers, employees, and society in general.

 

It's also important to have a system in place to monitor compliance with these policies. Regular audits and reviews of social media activities across offices or teams can help identify areas for improvement and ensure that the company’s social media presence is both effective and responsible.

 

To be clear, we are not referring to most private profiles, such as an employee's personal TikTok or Facebook page. These guidelines are focused on company pages operated by different teams throughout an organization, such as international offices working together or multiple departments. For example, it is just as important for your HR department's job listings to be properly branded and follow tonality and design requirements as it is for your product advertisements. Your Italian office shouldn't be branding itself differently from your Japanese office, barring special circumstances.

 

LinkedIn is a gray area as well, because many, if not most, LinkedIn users are there specifically for professional networking and are likely to be publishing company- or industry-related content. This isn't a bad thing, and you should still be tolerant of your employees' views and self-expression, but it does make sense to monitor higher-profile individuals, particularly at the executive level, simply to ensure that everyone has the same understanding of how their voices matter.

 

Facelift now synchronizes with private LinkedIn profiles, which allows dedicated social media teams to pre-write properly branded materials for executives or others whose accounts are linked. This means that you, as a CMO, for instance, can have content published non-invasively and securely to your own LinkedIn account by your own content team without lifting a finger. This is particularly useful for executives who may not be social media experts themselves, but still wish to capitalize on their extensive networks or build a personal or brand reputation.

 

Social media as an orchestra 

Everything we've explored in this guide, from redefining traditional business strategies with social media to leveraging cutting-edge trends like AI, AR, and VR, underscores a pivotal shift. Social media is no longer a standalone tool but a critical component in the tapestry of modern business strategy, demanding creativity, agility, and collaboration.

 

The significance of a strategic and collaborative approach to social media has never been more pronounced, and we at Facelift want to herald a shift away from basic social media management to social media orchestration. We've adopted this term to define our mission and support our customers in their collaborative efforts on social.

 

The future is jam-packed with immense possibilities that go well beyond likes and shares, where predictive analytics inform proactive engagement, where immersive technologies like AR and VR redefine user interaction, and where AI-driven personalization transforms how we connect with our audiences wherever they are and however they need, and turning social media into a formidable ally in achieving their strategic goals. 

 

 

Facelift is your conductor's baton for social media orchestration 

Designed specifically to help businesses ready to break down silos and enhance cross-functional teamwork, Facelift offers an all-in-one social media management solution that caters to your evolving needs, including: 

 

  • Unlimited user access: Foster limitless collaboration across teams, departments, and international borders with unlimited users, ideal for scaling businesses. 
  • Social Share: Capitalize on your greatest resource – your people! Curate and properly brand company content, then push it to your employees so they can share it on their own networks. Perfect for brand ambassadors or influencers!
  • Cross-team collaboration: Encourage seamless interaction and idea sharing among marketing, sales, customer service, external partners, and others, and utilize custom user roles and permissions.
  • Cutting-edge analytics and reports: Leverage real-time data and predictive analytics for informed decision-making and strategic planning with quintly, our industry-leading data tool.
  • Comprehensive editorial calendar and scheduler: Use Facelift's publisher to plan and create content, then publish it across as many platforms as you like with a single click.
  • Powerful engagement tools: Effectively engage your audience with a unified, customizable inbox that can be synchronized with specific users.

  • Expert support and training: Gain access to our dedicated support and tailored training programs to maximize your social media efforts.

    If you'd like to learn more about what these features can do for your social media orchestration, follow this link to schedule a demo with one of our product experts. We'd be happy to walk you through all the benefits and offerings that Facelift has to offer. It's free, non-committal, and easy to schedule!
  • banner-free-demo-2

 

Subscribe to our newsletter.
Subscribe to our newsletter to receive all the latest news around marketing and social networks.