From the course: B2B Foundations: Social Media Marketing

Managing the potential risks of B2B social media marketing

From the course: B2B Foundations: Social Media Marketing

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Managing the potential risks of B2B social media marketing

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- [Narrator] Managing the potential risks of B2B social media marketing. Despite the many positive vibes about social media, it's important to note that there are some risks involved and you need to know how to manage them. Legally, conversations on social media are no different to real life conversation. In the business world, there have been cases of employees criticizing their colleagues or employers online, leaking confidential information, or undermining their own credibility by sharing personal views that are just not compatible with their professional role. Possible damage to brand reputation is one of the biggest risks of social media. Sometimes people may post comments that are not positive about you or your business, so we need to make sure that we have notifications and alerts set up so that we can manage any issues. The ease of posting on social media, especially from a smartphone, can mean that sometimes things get posted when perhaps they shouldn't. Pictures from a work's party perhaps, or pictures of confidential documents that are open on a computer screen when taking a picture of the office to post. Other problems that can occur include defamation, discrimination, obscenity, harassment, data protection issues, trade description, intellectual property, and copyright breaches. None of these issues are unique to social media, but when posted online, they can spread quickly. But please, don't let a fear of getting it wrong prevent you from using social media for business and reaping all the benefits it can bring. Do some preparation, make a plan for when things might go wrong, drafts some template responses when you're thinking calmly rather than in the heat of the moment. Think ahead about what situations might arise that could cause any negativity for your business, your people, your products, your services. You might already have a PR crisis plan, but make sure that also includes social media. Create an internal social media policy. It doesn't need to be a super long document, a simple guideline with some do's and don'ts can work really well. And if you're not sure, have a Google search for database of social media policies. You can find lots of examples online from both public and private sector organizations. Have discussions internally about what feels right for you, and perhaps what doesn't. I've often facilitated discussions about what a business should and shouldn't do on social media. There is no rule book, so it's up to you to decide. We would use ideas from looking at what other people are posting, and stories in the news to have a conversation around, is this okay? Or is this not okay? For example, we might say yes to content from broadsheet publications and no to sharing content from other sources like red-top tabloids. We've said yes to using stop photography, but no to posting memes that feature certain celebrities. As part of your social media policy, it's also really good idea to include training. That way, you can answer any concerns and empower people within the business with examples of what they can do, and not just a list of what they can't. Don't let this be a one-off training, the world of social media changes all the time. So it's important to keep everyone up to date internally because their input and support from your colleagues is critical to your success as a social media marketer.

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