Social Media Guidelines
(According to Kaplan and
Haenlein, opinions by Lucy)

Five Media Guidelines

Choose carefully:
To me this is true to an extent. I think it would be more appropriate to
say 'refine carefully'. When you're new to social media I think it's
actually wise to try everything you think might be relevant, maybe try
some things that you don't think are relevant at all! Just because you
start something, it doesn't mean you are committed forever. Give it a
few weeks, monitor engagement, see if the features work for you. If
they do, great! If not, simply pause your efforts, or move on.
It's too easy and safe to stick with the big four (Facebook, Twitter, Google
+ and LinkedIn), but you could be missing out on niche communities
that are interested in you, what you do and most importantly, what you
can do for them! Within this point I would also like to quickly discuss
how many social media channels is the correct amount. The answer;
there is no correct amount. Some companies may find a single Twitter
account suitable, others could have about 10 different channels on the
go, you have to go with what your company is comfortable with. Find
your level, and be confident in what you are doing.

Pick the application (community), or make your
own:
(whether to join pre-made social media application or invent a new one)
The majority of companies will find that joining
an existing community, or multiple
communities, is the most relevant. The only
reason I can see for a company to invent their own
social media channel is for internal purposes, and
even then a company would have to be pretty large in
order to require an internal social network.

Ensure activity alignment:(consistent corporate image throughout media activities)
Again, this is true to an extent. Copying and pasting a status
straight from Facebook, to Twitter, to LinkedIn, to Google + is a
no no, for one, it's likely your followers are present on more than
one of your social channels, so at least re-word it for their sakes!
Also, people use different social media channels for different
reasons, so your tone of voice, although still consistent with your
company, has to adapt slightly in order to make the best
impression possible. For example, Twitter is always short, sharp
bursts of information, and can take a bit of humour. LinkedIn is
more professional, slightly more reserved, but by no means
boring! Google + has no word limits on their statuses, so
snippets from your latest blog post can work better than a one-
liner. Learn what your audience react to best and work with that.

Media plan integration:(how to integrate traditional and social media)
Having a good mix of media outlets is important,
but here at UbD we mostly focus our efforts
online. Of course we do our press releases, but then the
quickest, easiest and cheapest way to get these to the
masses is to share them through our social media outlets.
Social media has opened marketing up to businesses who
previously lacked the budget to undertake such activities
on a scale large enough to make an impact. I am not
knocking traditional media, it has it's place and is suitable
for certain types of industry. However, I believe, in the fast-
paced creative industry, social media and online marketing
take precedence.

Access for all:(how to control employee use of social networking whilst at the same time allowing them to use it as a
promotional tool)
The reality of this point is that you can't really
control your employees use of social media,
there have been several high profile Twitter
scandals that can illustrate this. Trust is such a
huge issue here! In my opinion the best thing to do is keep
personal profiles separate, but allow your colleagues the
prerogative to share company news with their personal
followers, if relevant.
The way we handle this at United by Design is through
shared accounts. All team members have access to the
'hub' accounts, and each account has guidelines as to how
it should be used, hence our post-it wall (next slide). This
way our followers get to know our personalities, without
having to sift through our personal messages.

Post-it wall illustrating our social media hubs and a code
of conduct for each.

Five Social Guidelines

Be active:
This cannot be stressed enough! But
there are far too many opinions on how active
to be, so this is something you will have to
experiment with, each social media channel
requires a different level of activity. But once
you find your rhythm try your best to be
consistent, and be realistic! And probably
most importantly, don't annoy your followers!

Be interesting:
Definitely something you should always
thinking about. Be interesting to your
current followers, be interesting to potential
followers (leads), be interesting to your
colleagues, basically, be interesting to
everyone! Don't post things that you don't find
interesting, because most of the time people
can tell. I am sure you are an interesting
person, so be yourself!

Be humble:
In my opinion, yes, be humble, most of the time. It is ok to sing
your own praises every now and again, as long as you do it in the right
way. But your social media channels are predominantly to share
information with your followers (see 'Be interesting'), and your followers
probably already have a good idea how wonderful your company is,
otherwise they wouldn't be following you! It's ok to praise others too,
this is how you build networks and friendships, both personally and
professionally.
People interact with your social media because you give them something,
be it your opinion on social media (in this case), or a picture of your
office, or something that you have found elsewhere on the internet, the
point being that there is an exchange of information in their favour.
Telling everyone how great you are is only giving yourself a pat on the
back. I don't know about you, but people who talk about nothing but
how great they are start to annoy me, and I tune out of the
conversation, how your company behaves on social media is exactly
the same, talk about yourself too much and people will ignore you.

Panoramic of the office

Be unprofessional:(don’t be afraid to make mistakes, try to be like others in the social media setting)
I don't think 'unprofessional' is the
correct word here, 'lighthearted' would
be more appropriate. It's ok to make
mistakes, as long as you rectify them quickly
and effectively. More importantly, it's ok to
have a bit of a laugh on social media, perhaps
not on more professional networks such as
LinkedIn, but Facebook and Twitter can
definitely take some humour.

Be honest:
If there is one thing you take away from this,
then let this be it. No matter how clever you think
you are being, telling people what you think they want
to hear, at some point they will see right through you,
and this could tarnish the reputation of the company
you represent, as well as your own personal
credibility.
'Honesty is the best policy' is a well known saying for a
reason. This is particularly important if you or your
company make a mistake; be honest, take ownership
and put it right.