Social Media: Speed 2 Communicate

09/28/2019

Companies and agencies – how to work well with social media

An important aspect of social media communication is speed. Posts, responses, and dialogues should be quick, ideally in real time. How can this best be achieved? Also in the interaction between companies and agencies, dialogue partners, and specialists?

The requirements

The image that should emerge is that of a dialogue between partners who, in the best case scenario, understand each other well, respond to each other and thus build a positive relationship with each other – that would be ideal!

Responses must be competent. Expertise and accurate statements are important and must be verifiable at all times. This is the company's area of expertise.
Posts should surprise, please, inform, and bring a positive benefit to the reader. Preparing them in this way is the specialist's area of expertise. They have the resources for production, the training, and the technically qualified employees.
In the event of a conflict, it must be possible to respond appropriately when things get extreme: quickly, immediately, appropriately, and consistently.

It is like a stage, an arena in which a play is performed that should not only “appear” genuine and realistic, but also “be” genuine and realistic. In contrast to classic analog and digital communication, however, it does not follow a fixed script, but is more like improvisational theater, in which the unexpected can happen at any time, for example, because someone deviates from the script and does something other than what is expected. We prepare ourselves for this.

There are several possible models for this in our work, for example: 1. the trainer-coach-enabler model and 2. the symbiosis model.

1. The trainer-coach-enabler model

Train the agency

Agencies are no longer the sole decision-makers; clients no longer expect everything to run smoothly on its own – the good ones don't do that anymore anyway. They want to act themselves. The agency is a coach and enabler so that companies can do as much as possible themselves.

Agencies and clients plan the basic direction. What they want to achieve together. With whom they will build the community. What the basic beliefs of this community are, the common creed.
How they reach people. The channels through which companies communicate with their partners: Pinterest, LinkedIn, Xing, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and whatever else...
The images they use. The language they use. To this end, the agency and the company jointly define the syntax and semantics: which signs and sequences are used. When this happens. Which rituals are important for strengthening the community and reassuring oneself.
Agencies and companies practice doing things themselves together. Like coaches and their athletes, agencies work with companies to train processes and sequences: formulating texts, taking pictures, recording videos, giving answers, asking questions.
Finding the right attitude. So that language, images, films, and the entire conversation have the right foundation. Because you have to be able to react spontaneously. This is best done from within, and that takes learning. (And it's fun, we promise!)
Constant performance reviews. To ensure that everyone is always performing at their best, a) through internal self-monitoring, b) through external partners.

What to look out for here:

Fresh input from outside is always good. That's exactly why companies bring in external specialists: to constantly contribute new and good ideas, show surprising things, and drive communication forward.
Continuity, regularity in actions and posts.
Your own resources cost money – and are they being used to their full potential? Specialists use mixed costing and can also use their cameras, machines, software, and employees for other tasks.
The quality of your own posts should always be high. Do your own employees have the qualifications and experience to do this, in addition to good intentions? Do they get enough creative input from outside your company? Agencies and media companies are very outward-looking themselves and cultivate open cultures, without which they cannot exist. In many companies, it is exactly the opposite, and that is how it should be.

2. The symbiosis model

This model is more in line with traditional working models in client-agency relationships. The agency, as a specialist, takes care of the professional creation of content, posts, texts, images, videos, and responses. The company provides the basic guidelines. As usual, the concept and planning work is carried out jointly by both parties. The difference lies in the day-to-day work. In order to achieve the necessary consistency, the specialist must grow into the company, become one with it, and be able to use all the direct lines of communication that would otherwise converge centrally at one or a few contact persons. Processes must be established and practiced, a pool of questions and answers must be built up, and action and reaction patterns must be planned in advance so that actions and reactions are quick, correct, and effective.

This model of work goes far beyond the “workbench” model, in which the agency works as an extended workbench for the company. Here, the responder, i.e., the agency, needs a certain degree of autonomy in responding and taking action. At the same time, the company must be able to be sure that the specialist is responding exactly as it intends. The specialist thus increasingly becomes one with the company, merging with it. The company grows into the agency and becomes part of it.

What to look out for here:

Such a model requires stability – in terms of human and financial resources. Growing together takes time and requires reliability. Otherwise, it won't work well.
There must also be room for friction. For a partnership to work well, it is necessary to allow for different views, e.g., on how to respond in a critical individual case.
Good and fast processes – no long coordination and approval rounds.
Clarity and certainty in all statements, in language, images, and texts.
High quality, good error control, constant testing.