There have been 2 big social media stories regarding airlines this week. Firstly American Airlines for reporting a 14 year old girl over a terrorist threat hoax – she was then arrested. Full story here (for more on managing your child’s online reputation click here ). And then US Airlines because their social media manager “inadvertently“ tweeted a pornographic image .
This latter issue stirred up lots of debate in the social media world as to whether the normally very competent, 20 something social media manager should be sacked. There are a lot of knee jerk reactions to social media mistakes and there was obviously fear that this would not be handled well. See the full article here. ( For social media policy staff training click here ).
This month I launched a full range of social media support and coaching packages for this very reason.
Social media is so new and changes so fast that the majority of established SMEs and organisations remain quite fearful. Many that use it often do so in a very beige way or, as in this case, hand over the voice of their organisation to a very young member of staff because young people understand social media.
Of course young people are much more comfortable with online communication, but when handing over the voice of your organisation and the inevitable customer care issues , life experience is darn useful – as is good supervision. But all too often the social media manager’s line manager does not have a strong enough grasp of social media and so that support and guidance is missing.
I started off in this business as an outsourced social media manager and I know that, despite plans, contracts, agreements etc you are just left to it while your link person does something more important.
But I think the voice of your organisation and customer care come pretty high up the list of priorities.
If a skilled and experienced social media manager can make a mistake like the one above, what about all those who have just been given the job with no training?
That’s why I offer support and coaching packages that cover…
*strategy planning and reviews,
*coaching on your social media message,
*keeping you up to date,
*and putting all that in human speak.
As well as How To training.
So why don’t you do your organisation a favour and get some support and coaching in place for your social media bod, be it yourself or that 20 year old that you have tied to a computer in a dark room watching monitors all day long!
To see the packages that I offer click here. We can also create something bespoke to suit your particular needs.
What do you think? If you have any thoughts on these issues please drop me a message below. I always read them and reply.