Online Reputation Management For Dummies

Motivating Your Team

Social media teams are particularly prone to burnout, especially during exciting online events or during stressful, such as when one of your monitoring tools just changed how it works. Keep in mind that you need to take every opportunity to reinforce a sense of camaraderie and purpose within the team. That’s why goals are important. These people aren’t just babysitting a brand online. They’re contributing to something larger than themselves that improves your world in some way.

Defining guidelines for behavior

You may want to reach out to the PR department for more help in communicating what kinds of messages are okay (and not so okay) in keeping with your brand. I tell you more about working with your PR department (if you have one) in Chapter 4. If you are part of a smaller organization, please consider the following:

People have a tendency to say and do things online that they would never say or do in person. Your team needs to be aware of this, and understand that rude language, harsh remarks, angry criticisms, or even threats usually aren’t personal and shouldn’t be taken that way.

Some social media hangouts, blogs, and forums foster a “keeping it real” sort of tone that can quickly degrade into just being rude in the name of “authenticity.” Don’t be snowed ...