CENTENNIAL.retailer webinar // 2020.

WHAT WE’LL COVER TODAY:

• Social Media Practices –

• Community Management

• Reputation Management

• Content Recommendations

• Giveaways

• Crisis Management –

• General Best Practices & COVID-19 Response

• COVID-19 Content Strategy –

• Best Practices & Recommendations

• Post COVID-19 Content Strategy –

• Returning to Social Media

• Posting Frequency

• Questions & Answers

BEST PRACTICES

COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT best practices.

WHAT IS COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT?

• Community management is the process of building an authentic community among

a business’ customers, employees, & partners through various types of interaction.

It’s how a brand uses opportunities [in-person & online] to interact with their

audience to create a network in which they can connect, share, & grow.

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE?

• Obtain feedback & gather ideas from your audience through real conversations.

• Provide support for audience fans & customers when they need it.

• Increase brand & product awareness among your target audience.

• Learn about your customers & what they want, expect, & need in terms of content,

products, services, & support.

• Build one-on-one & one-to-many relationships between audience members & your

brand.

• Boost customer interactions, conversions, & sales.

BEST PRACTICES

• Community: Set guidelines & check-in.

• Engage: Explore new ways to engage.

• Listen: Listen & be authentic.

Photo by Tracy Le Blanc from Pexels

REPUTATION MANAGEMENTbest practices.PLATFORMS:

• Yelp, TripAdvisor, & Google: reviews [positive, negative, & general].

• Instagram & Twitter: comments on organic & paid posts, & direct messages.

• Facebook: comments on organic & paid posts, direct messages, & reviews.

BEST PRACTICES

1. Check platforms daily to ensure the ability to identify & escalate any issues.

2. Respond to all reviews in a timely manner: negative, positive, or indifferent.

3. Keep responses professional, empathetic, & diplomatic - do not let emotions take over

responses. If a negative review comes about don’t only apologize, take next steps to

rectify the situation.

4. Immediately flag reviews that have inappropriate or sensitive material in them. This can

be done by using the “report post” or “report comment” feature. Platforms will review

posts/comments on a case-by-case basis.

5. Generate brand loyalty, customer satisfaction, & improve brand reputation management

efforts by personalizing customer interactions whenever possible.

#PROTIPS:

• Don’t be afraid to respond to all user queries. Customers feel appreciated & trust

your brand more when they know someone is making the effort to help resolve

their issue. It’s easy to respond to all the positive comments & reviews, but

negative reviews need a response too.

• #FUNFACT: 90% of consumers use social media to communicate with brands.

Listen & leverage consumer feedback.

CONTENT WRITING & SCHEDULEbest practices.

NON-CRISIS CONTENT

• Posting frequency:

• Facebook: Post no more than one time per day and a minimum of three times per

week. Fewer posts throughout the week allows an opportunity for increased

engagement per post, which can be lost through over-posting.

• Instagram: As a leader in active users, posting at least one time daily, per week

provides the best results and stimulates engagement and account growth. Be

mindful of over-posting on this channel as it can result in follower loss. Incorporate

an Instagram story once a week .

• Twitter: Drive engagement by posting a minimum of once per day, each week.

• Content writing:

• Focus on creating relatable, simple content with the brand’s voice and review your

content as a potential consumer.

• Take a step back and look at the overall daily and weekly content mix. Avoid using the

same content types on consecutive days.

• Use bit.ly to shorten links and create trackability, use #linkinbio on Instagram.

• Hashtags are a great way to increase content discoverability and build a community on

Instagram & Twitter.

GIVEAWAYSbest practices.

WHY HOST A GIVEAWAY?

• Giveaways are important to retailers because they engage existing followers, bring in

new followers, assist in organic visibility, & can generate buzz around events/services.

• Brands that run Instagram giveaways grow their following 70% faster than those who

don’t.

• Instagram giveaways get 3.5x as many likes & 64x more comments on average than

regular posts.

HOW LONG SHOULD MY GIVEAWAY BE?

• Varies depending on your target audience, niche, social media platform[s] you will be

using, product you offer, your goal[s], how much time & which resources you can

afford.

• Recommended flight time: up to 1 week

• Each brand is different. Start with a shorter window & test various time periods until

you find what works for you & your followers!

WHERE SHOULD I BE PROMOTING MY GIVEAWAY?

• It’s not enough to post & boost your promotion. You should be actively cross-

promoting to continue to encourage followers to enter!

• Cross-promoting on all channels throughout the length of the giveaway is important to

increase organic visibility & drive more entries.

• Share the giveaway on your Instagram story at least twice throughout the length of the

giveaway. Add GIFs, polls, or a countdown to make it interactive for followers.

COVID-19 Crisis Management

BEST PRACTICESgeneral.

GENERAL BEST PRACTICES

• Determine the situation’s level of severity.

• Do research – take time to work with your team to find out all facts before

responding to the situation.

• Pause all scheduled social media posts, ads, & community management until all

facts have been gathered.

• Notify corporate [if needed] any partners, sponsors, or vital personnel.

• Create a statement with facts while being empathetic to all parties involved &

route for approval.

• Keep pages free of anything damaging to the brand by hiding comments or

flagging them to the platform as “offensive’ [if necessary].

• “Hide” inappropriate comments instead of deleting them. Deleting posts creates a

sense that the brand is trying to hide something.

• Closely monitor all accounts & local blogs/publications for mention of the

incident.

• Once a response/statement has been approved, share to your social media

channels & “pin” to the top of your page as opposed to responding to individual

users so it doesn’t sound repetitive.

• When possible, include a direct contact for questions/concerns about the

statement.

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

BEST PRACTICES COVID-19.

Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash

COVID-19 CRISIS MANAGEMENT

• Create a statement with information while being empathetic to shoppers & route

internally for approval.

• Include details about reduced hours, closures, tentative re-opening date,

online orders [pick-up] & return/exchange policy changes.

• To better assist with user questions, take this time to develop potential

FAQs related to the noted business areas.

• Once a statement has been approved, share to your social media channels &

“pin” to the top of your page for maximum visibility.

• Pause all previously scheduled social media posts, ads, & community

management.

• When sharing posts/ads during this time, make sure it is informative to

consumers & continues to be sensitive to the ongoing situation. If not, remove or

modify language.

• “Hide” inappropriate comments instead of deleting them. Deleting posts creates a

sense that the brand is trying to hide something.

• When possible, include a direct contact for questions/concerns about the

statement.

COVID-19 CONTENT

CONTENTCOVID-19.

WHAT TYPES OF CONTENT SHOULD I BE POSTING?

• Retailer Updates: openings/closures, offers [i.e. curbside pick-up for dining]

• Community News: how you’re supporting the community, volunteer efforts/opportunities

• Inspirational Posts: messages to lift users’ spirits

• Branded Content: promoting retailer, link to website to purchase, online sales/promo codes

• Giveaways: follower acquisitions, brand awareness

WHERE SHOULD I BE POSTING?

• Important announcements & updates should be made across all platforms as a static post.

• Pin most recent posts on Facebook & Twitter.

• Community news & inspirational posts can be shared via a static post or a story.

• Big updates/promotions can also be shared via Instagram Stories.

BEST PRACTICES

• Quality over quantity: Reduce amount of posts, information can also be mentioned in

stories [‘COVID-19 Updates’ Instagram highlight].

• Sensitivity: Be sensitive to users’ feelings regarding this crisis, do not share memes or similar

content.

• Engagement: Frequently check-in on post comments to see how the community is

reacting. This will quickly allow you to address user questions/concerns – remember,

community management may be light when content is reduced, but maintaining routine

account checks is important.

Photo by Georgia de Lotz on Unsplash

POST COVID-19

TYPES OF CONTENTpost COVID-19.

POST COVID-19 CONTENT

• The first pieces of content should consist of new information that you have re-opened.

Highlight the safety of the workers & customers, new store hours, etc. Keep the

language light & show excitement to be back up & running.

• Be prepared to answer consumers questions. A lot of normalcy has been lost & people

will have questions about how things are currently running.

#PROTIP: Create a FAQ sheet with common questions like, "What are your store

hours?,” “are all stores open?,” “is it safe to return to shopping?,” “can I make a

return/exchange?” etc.

• Since content has been reduced immensely, ease back into your normal posting

schedule.

• Do not spam or over-post. Gradually get back up to the recommended posts

per week by adding a few more posts per week. Instagram & Facebook stories

can help if you need to post more information without pushing out too many

posts on your grid/feed.

Photo by Kaboompics .com from Pexels

Posting frequency:

• Facebook: Post no more than one time per day & a minimum of two times per week.

• Instagram: Post two to three times per week & increase each week.

• Twitter: Like other platforms, post fewer posts to start & increase each week.