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New Job as Social Media Manager -- Need Advice
Bamelin
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I was recently offered and accepted a position as the Canadian Social Media Manager for the Canadian arm of an international company. While I do have some experience with Twitter, Facebook and so forth, I'm going to be taking alot on my plate.
I'm wondering if you guys have any experience with forums. I'd like to start off creating a blog site for the company along with forums to go with it. I'm unsure how to go about this in terms of setting up the message board. It would be a community of anywhere between 1000 - 5000 people (not sure what sort of numbers we will hit ... the company is set up similar to Amway/MaryKay/Melaluca/Tupperware parties (direct marketing, selling product via distributors who invite their friends to parties in their homes)
My experience is USER end only ... I have no idea how to actually set up a message board although I'm assuming the companies IT department will be able to do this with direction from me. Was hoping I could get some advice here on the best path to go.
I'm wondering if you guys have any experience with forums. I'd like to start off creating a blog site for the company along with forums to go with it. I'm unsure how to go about this in terms of setting up the message board. It would be a community of anywhere between 1000 - 5000 people (not sure what sort of numbers we will hit ... the company is set up similar to Amway/MaryKay/Melaluca/Tupperware parties (direct marketing, selling product via distributors who invite their friends to parties in their homes)
My experience is USER end only ... I have no idea how to actually set up a message board although I'm assuming the companies IT department will be able to do this with direction from me. Was hoping I could get some advice here on the best path to go.
Bamelin on
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You should probably just start with a blog and communicate through twitter/facebook for the time being. A company - based forum for that many users is something that you should take several months to plan and custom build using something like what the PA forums use. It's not really something you want to just use right out of the box and then manage it while people are using it.
Did the company say what they hope to accomplish through social media?
Setting up a facebook group on the other hand... that's you! And it has message boards built in!
Also:
it could be worse
Unfortunately I don't have several months, I really wish I did. I've been hired on for a 3 month contract with the possibility of renewal. It's a situation where the position is in Canada and aimed at the Canadian distributers of their product but is being funded through the US head office. Based on the interview I'm not sure what they want to accomplish (I asked, they really don't have a good handle on social media at all aside from realizing it's important. They are literally "playing it by ear" which gives me alot of freedom but at the same time puts alot on my shoulders to make sure I don't screw up).
I did try to stress that social media isn't something that "just happens" ... but you know how some companies roll ... results immediately or bust. Combine that with management that don't understand social media at all aside from that it's needed and you have where I'm at.
They do have a "Canadian" Facebook page set up ... I'm already dreading trying to get them to understand that the internet doesn't understand or respect regional/country sales territories when pulling in an audience.
The plan is to set up a front page blog with forums similar to what PA does ... I'll still be using Twitter and Facebook of course, but I prefer to try to pull the audience to a corporate controlled site independent of those two where I can manage the message abit better.
Which brings me back to my original question ... I'm going to need to set up a front end blog with a message board forum. I don't know the technicalities behind setting this up (I'm strictly User end) and was expecting to have IT support, but based on what I've seen I have a feeling I'm going to have to take a much bigger role in making this happen. Any suggestions on where to start? Again I believe there will be an IT department at my disposal but I'm going to have to be telling them what to do exactly (software to use) etc.
It doesn't have to be super customized to start, I'm just looking to be pointed in the right direction as to where I should tell IT (which may only be a couple of people if that) they should be looking. I don't think it's going to be as simple as me saying to IT "I need a message board, please create", I think I'm going to need to tell them what they need to do .... And since I'm not exactly technically inclined myself I figured I'd ask here BEFORE my first day.
The way the company is set up is different from a normal company. You have corporate which sells the products to the distributers. The distributers buy from corporate and then set up parties/gatherings where they sell the product to their friends/family. Corporate awards different levels/titles/higher commissions to distributers based on their sales.
This is what I mean by saying it's a different set up. Normally a companies social media is designed for interaction with client's/customers. With a direct marketing company like this the commissioned employees ARE the clients/customers.
So essentially corporate's job is to be the cheerleaders for the distrubters so they keep buying corporate's product .... social media obviously will play a big role in that, at least with the younger generation (which they are trying to attract).
Your right, there is going to be alot of opportunity to take things however I want ... but on the same note I've been given a very short window to build up the analytics I'll need to justify the position.
for your more specific questions - i don't think a forum is necessarily a bad idea, but the maintenance>payoff ratio is pretty bad, and while you or i can start a forum easily enough for shits and giggles, it will be empty for a long time and empty forums don't look good when professionalism is involved, much less corporate / multinational level professionalism.
if you aim for a blog with a focus on community features you will get a lot more headway in three months. i would start with wordpress. it can take a bit of finessing to get looking good, but the results can be very slick. get your guys to install it and give you a url and start filling it up with good, informative content and attractive offers
also make sure you're directly communicating with your audience to try to find out what it is they want from your web presence
edit: if you're not going to be able to handle any of the webdesign / formatting and you don't have access to a department within your company who can make a blog look good, you're probably going to have to outsource it. find out if your guys have a budget for that kind of thing.
"Bronx Zoo: Had a great day today, see you all again next year for the Panda Celebration!"
Hate that so hard.
Furthermore, start monitoring for conversations around your brand and industry (full disclosure - I work for a monitoring company). You seem new so I say start with the free tools (Google Alerts, Twitter search, hootsuite or tweetdeck, etc). The concept here is that you can't start analyzing your conversations and engaging in conversations if you don't already know the current tone of the conversation out there. Over time, as your content grows, you'll want a paid solution that let's you really look at dynamics and reporting.
Finally, this isn't going to happen over night. You have to really push to provide value in your content. Being a social media-savvy company means that you're willing to take the walls down a bit and put a human face on the brand.
Drop me a PM if you'd like. I can likely point you to some valuable resources.
The ideal goal is to get people to push your products/company for you. Having some marketing droid pushing out press releases on FB is ok, and better than nothing, but if you can get people to friend it, and post pictures of them with your products (hopefully not from the burn ward), that counts for a lot more.
It sounds like you work for TasefullySimple or similar? While the distributors are buying the stuff, it's ultimately the consumer who's using it, right? Getting them connected to party organizers will help everyone.
Final comment, but keep an eye on your grammar, if you're going to be posting publicly. Also needs more, 'eh's :P .
- Should social media devices be used as a form of customer service?
- What do we want to achieve from a blog? Brand recognition? New product marketing? Existing product push?
- Do we want to hear a lot of feedback about our product(s)? What will we do with this feedback?
- What are the keywords the company wants associated with its presence on these online sites - professional? friendly? casual? open? serious? exciting? informative?
There's probably 50 or more questions of this nature you can get answered. Then, decide how these translate into goals such as:
"Our social media presence should always be viewed as professional and serious"
Then use those goals to translate into which outlets to use, and how.