Social Brand Management: Effectively Maintain Your Accounts

A strong social media presence is key for any brand that wants to grow their customer base. The average American sees thousands of branded ads every day. Research from social media managers found a 22% increase in Instagram post impressions from Q4 2019 to Q1 2020. Nearly half of the world’s population now has a mobile device, and our constantly changing world has revolutionized how we connect. Staying on top of your social media game is key to a boisterous online presence for your brand.

Here at Ruby Porter, we pride ourselves in managing a wide range of social media accounts for our clients, and we wanted to share a few tips, as we know how challenging it can be.

Account Maintenance

Nothing is worse than forgetting an account password, checking your email to reset it, and realizing the email was sent to Billy, your old coworker who moved to Sweden five years ago. We recommend either linking multiple emails to a social media account, or creating a universal email (e.g. socialmedia@yourcompany.com) so that the account is not tied to a single person.

Along with personal social media use, hacking attempts have also been on the rise in the past few months. To help protect your accounts from this threat, we recommend setting up Two Factor Authentication for all of your accounts. Often referred to as 2FA, setting up Two Factor Authentication adds an extra level of security to your account logins.

New log-in attempts will have to be verified twice, typically by sending you a unique code via email, text, call, or a verification app. This way, if a hacker gets access to your account credentials, 2FA can prevent them from logging in. Those who don’t have a phone number to use for a public account can set up a Google Voice account, which can accept text messages and phone calls from a desktop browser or mobile devices.

Two Factor Authentication is available for all mainstream social media platforms, including Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Snapchat, and YouTube, and can be accessed from the account’s security settings. Although setting up and using 2FA can be a hassle, its worth it to protect your social media assets and reputation from hackers.

Since I have our account secure with 2FA, I can just save my username and password as a note in my phone, right?

Wrong. We recommend using a password safe to store username and password information. There are many options to choose from, and sharing options so that multiple users can have access to a variety of accounts. When all of your credentials are safely stored in a safe, we recommend removing all records of those account passwords from wherever they were stored before.

Most social media platforms allow for multiple managers per account. Typically, new users will have to complete the 2FA process to gain access to the account. Some platforms, like Facebook and LinkedIn, allow personal users to manage public pages, while others, like Twitter and Instagram, allow users to easily switch between accounts with a simple tap.

Lay the Groundwork

Now that your social media accounts are accessible and secure, it’s time to start thinking about what exactly you want to accomplish on social media. Research your social media savvy competitors (what content do they use and what’s the most successful), browse through relevant hashtags, envision the habits of your target audience, and think about how to bring your company’s values to social media.

Once you have a good lay of the land, it’s time to set some goals and guidelines. How often do you want to be posting? Which platforms should you focus on? Do you want to post only about products, or include posts like PSAs, tips & tricks, and behind the scenes? Take your time to create an idea of what you want your social media presence to be. It will be an excellent resource and reference for years to come.

Brand Consistency

Consistency is key to a successful social media presence. Creating a brand voicing guide as well as brand visual guidelines will help maintain a professional level on your social media accounts (even if you are writing silly posts). Maintain consistency in the visual and written aspects, and in the scheduling of your posts. Obviously there can be exceptions to this rule – it’s okay to post multiple times about a new product you want to showcase – but make sure you’re not going weeks without posting. Some social platforms allow for post scheduling, so you can sit down and knock out a chunk of posts all at once, if you like. You can also use a tool such as Hootsuite, which aggregates all of your social media accounts into one place, and allows users to schedule the same post to multiple platforms.

Social media can seem like a daunting task to navigate, and there’s a lot of work that goes into a successful account. We encourage you to pay attention to your competitors and what works for them. Looking at your audience and what they like will help you boost your brand in the social atmosphere. Right now is the best time to increase your presence, and with security, consistency, and organization, you will become a social expert and your brand will be thriving in no time.