Social media training trumps tools

And we humans claim to be advanced mammals.

Social Media Screw-ups

Will we ever learn from the mistakes of others? Why do we continue to nod our heads and mutter “I know that’s right, um-hmm” while bashing stupid people tricks without ever holding up a mirror to our own company <waves hi to reflection>? Check your own house, people. Yes, slip-ups and gross errors in judgment can happen to you. And to your team. Admit you’re fallible, then figure out what can be done to mitigate future risk.

Crisis plans are an absolute necessity. A well-planned protocol created by cool heads with the luxury of time and the foresight to plan appropriate responses and contingency actions can mean the difference between getting singed and flaming out. But I think real due diligence begins way before a social media manager gets active in the field, and certainly before a crisis ever hits the Twitter stream.

It happens long before a new hire gets plugged into the social media manager slot.

After your company spends several hundred dollars in advertising (or thousands if there’s a headhunter in the mix), and six weeks evaluating resumes and interviewing candidates to select the perfect social media manager, it should keep investing in the Chosen One in the form of training before she’s ever given the user names and passwords to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, WordPress, YouTube, and the like (go ahead, give her the keys to MySpace. Who cares?).

Readiness to handle the social media reigns

The fact that she has 742 Facebook friends, a 6-month old blog and wracks up 2,000 texts a month does not constitute readiness to take over the brand reigns in a very public (and often volatile) channel.

What does constitute readiness in my book is deliberate employee onboarding that layers the technical with the cultural, the experiential with expectations, and the external with the internal for a holistic view of the brand and its stakeholders.

Prepare the Social Media Manager for success

Pros train and run drills

Every company is different; different culture, organizational dynamics, products, process, resources, and certainly different levels of concern regarding risk in social media. The items listed below should serve asthought-starters to setting up your company’s own framework for onboarding and preparing employees on the front line of social media.

Brand bible:   Should have full knowledge of guidelines involving identity/logo use, typography, approved lifestyle and product photography and illustration styles, content tone and voice, primary brand messages, and current published assets like reports or papers.

Brand immersion:   Actual classroom-style training discussing: founding pillars, values, mission, vision, history, executive bios, organizational chart, annual strategic plans, investors reports, press center, reviews of recent failures, reviews of recent successes, tour of factory, call center, warehouse, introductory meetings with cross-functional department heads, staff or status meetings, testing products/services, reviewing customer feedback from surveys, observing inbound customer care calls, overviews of prior and current marketing and advertising campaigns, details about any strategic partnerships or alliances.

FAQ:   Reference documents outlining essential policies and procedures, standard language glossary, contact information, mock scenarios and appropriate resolutions, escalation procedures, methods for documenting or reporting issues, product specifications or data sheets, etc.

Product or service training: Hands-on, in-depth instructional training on the company’s salable products or services.

Social media guidelines:    Pam Sahota gave some great examples of social media policies in a recent oneforty post.

Crisis plan: Mock scenario run-throughs, putting elements of the crisis communications plan in place in a controlled environment. Drew McLellan recently wrote a good post reviewing some basics to remember.

A good social media manager lives the brand through word, tweet, and deed. How well prepared is your company’s social media staff?

Author’s note:  I first published this post, titled “Social media training is about preparation, not tools,” on the Oneforty blog June 10, 2011 as a contributing author. I’m cross-posting here so that Insights & Ingenuity readers might also learn and enjoy.