Social Media B2B

Although social media managers, content creators and community managers may come and go, B2B social media efforts must be sustained over time to be an effective marketing and sales tool.

In a new space that changes by the hour, it’s easy to forget to plan for internal changes. When your B2B social media manager gets promoted, fired or changes jobs, it’s important to know how the next administrator will take over. Here are four things to update and consider when ownership changes hands:

1. Access

Updating changes to administrators can be more complicated than B2B marketers would assume, as every social media platform has its own way of adding and deleting administrators and contributors. On Facebook, current administrators can add and delete new administrators. In some cases, it might be easier to share the business log-in information for the page, which does not connect to any user’s personal page.

Twitter only allows an e-mail address to be connected to a Twitter account once. If the new administrator has already used his or her e-mail address with another personal or business account, consider setting up a twitter@yourdomain.com e-mail address that can be forwarded to the Twitter manager’s work e-mail. This way, updates about new followers and direct messages don’t go unnoticed.

Depending on the reasons for changing administrators, passwords may also need to be updates and recirculated to the team.

2. Consistency

Managing expectations – such as the time it takes to reply to Twitter @ messages, approve moderated blog comments and whether social media channels are monitored on nights and weekends – is a key part of the 24/7 world of social media. It’s important to stay consistent with previous social media efforts in terms of posting schedules, interaction and follow-up.

When social media management changes hands, do a mini-internal audit on current social media activities. In the areas that are doing well, inspect how the previous administrator made these things happen in terms of work flow, monitoring and reporting. Take this opportunity to also think about what can be improved.

3. Tone

On Facebook, blogs and Twitter, tone can make or break social media efforts. The most successful B2B pages often combine demonstrations of expertise with humor and personality, sounding more like a real conversation than stilted marketing and sales speak. Real connections (and, in turn, sales leads) are often forged as a result.

However, when a social media manager is very good at his or her job, business accounts can become connected more with the employee than the actual company. Be intentional about how personal an employee can be at the helm of a B2B social media account without sacrificing authenticity.

When choosing a new administrator, find someone with a similar writing and speaking style who can deliver the experience followers, customers and potential customers have come to expect. Also consider tapping into a range of contributors – this will represent a more complete picture of your company’s offerings and prevent a jarring change in personality and tone when employees come and go.

4. Introductions

Transparency is one of the most important qualities of a B2B social media campaign, as its very nature encourages personal, one-on-one interactions that can support customer service, media relations and brand awareness. Users often enjoy being on a first-name basis with a B2B company’s social media accounts manager, and get to know them on a more personal basis.

When social media accounts change hands internally, use the opportunity to introduce an employee with a different set of skills and knowledge that can make B2B social media interactions even more valuable for customers. Also remember to update bios on the blog and Twitter, so new users know who they’re interacting with.

What experiences have you had with changing managers of B2B social media efforts?

Karlie Justus is a Contributing Writer at SocialMediaB2B.com. Follow Karlie on Twitter at @KarlieJ.