Social Media Governance has two main functions: the first is to protect your brand as a risk management practice. The second is to optimize your brand to strengthen brand reputation ensuring brand standards and keeping a clean digital footprint free of counterfeit sites).
Social media governance is an ongoing process with the primary goal of mitigating risks for your company. It’s important to note that social media governance is dynamic –– it should change based on the needs of the company.
Research shows that corporations consider reputation damage as one of their most crucial risk concerns –– with technological threats also in the top ten. Social media risks fall under both of these risk concerns.
There are a number of risks associated with managing a global web presence, because many factors can influence a company’s performance on social media. For many businesses, their priority in terms of risk management is brand reputation. Within the digital world, companies may experience hits to their brand reputation when any of the following occur:
- Dormant, rogue, or abandoned accounts
- Hacked accounts
- Counterfeit sites
- Counterfeit accounts on social media
- Phishing accounts
- Unknown points-of-presence where consumers are posting with no reply
Strong social media governance manages these threats in several ways. First, effective social media governance allows for professionals to identify points-of-presence related to their business online (both known and unknown). Second, the framework of social media governance promotes both the prevention and removal of potentially damaging information on company account pages. Centralized governance enables professionals at the corporate level to communicate quickly with employees operating at local branches. Because of this structure, businesses can manage multiple accounts effectively. Lastly, strong social media governance gives professionals the tools to neutralize harmful or dormant accounts.
Businesses that are able to protect their brand reputation on social media ensure that their customers only interact with their business –– and not nefarious counterfeiters. As reported by CIO Insight, many cyber criminals target victims through social media in order to steal consumer credentials or other sensitive data.
To be successful at managing social media risks, it is critical to have a social media governance plan in place and to institute the plan accurately. It is also critical to ensure the plan ties into a company’s overall corporate risk management program.
The other chief aspect of social media governance relates to strengthening a business’s brand. Eliminating risks on social media can indirectly lead to improved brand performance. Quality social media governance allows professionals to enhance their brand in several key ways. They include:
- Identifying positive points-of-presence (fan pages, influencers, partner accounts)
- Managing existing accounts
- Promoting brand consistency across platforms
- Ensuring brand compliance across platforms
- Improving internal audits, measurements, and metrics
- Developing brand and content strategies
Social media governance platforms help professionals uncover exciting opportunities online and make it possible to deliver brand consistency across multiple accounts. Seemingly small things –– like accounts using the same logos or the correct corporate information within profile pages –– have an effect on the way consumers perceive a brand as a whole. (Even how employees behave themselves online can impact a brand’s reputation, which is why social media compliance training is so important.) Social media governance looks to reduce the risks associated with social media activity and optimize brand reputation at the same time.
The key steps to strong corporate social media governance include:
- Gather the Corporate Stakeholders of Social Media Governance (across all lines of business and departments).
- Review Corporate Risk Management Priorities
- Review the Corporate Goals for Social Media Governance
- Analyze Previous Successes, Failures, and Changes
- Social Media, Employment, and Industry Law and Regulation Review
- Review Corporate Social Media Policy and NLRB Updates
- Social Network/Platform Review
- A Social Media Audit Process
- A Social Media Governance Process
- Procedures when Risk Events Occur
- Training Employees on Social Media Governance
- Monitoring Procedures to Ensure Governance
- Review Cycle Timeline for Governance Plan
The Social Media Governance Plan
This E-book by Brandle® guides you through the process of how to create a comprehensive and corporate-wide Social Media Governance Plan for a Social Enterprise.
Your Social Media Governance Team
In this whitepaper, we'll review the main roles every company should have on a social media governance team and how you can divide up the work to easily gain control of your social media footprint.
Social Media Governance Best Practices to Protect Your Brand
This presentation highlights the six phases of social media governance to protect your brand online. After reading these phases, you'll be on the right track to developing your own corporate social media governance program based on the best practices of global corporations.
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At Brandle, we help companies implement social media governance plans to gain a focused and controlled model of their digital presence. With the Brandle Presence Manager, global companies can gain better control over their social media presence, as well as improved oversight of other organizations and people who associate themselves with their brand. All of these online points-of-presence are customer touch points that add, or subtract, from brand reputation.
If you are interested in learning the steps to create a best-in-class governance program, contact us today to set up a demo and gain control of your brand presence!
Brandle®, Inc. is dedicated to providing a comprehensive system for companies to manage the properties of their brands, identities, and relationships across the web and on all major social networks including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, VK, and more. It is our mission to be the trusted source for social media governance and web presence management and to provide functionality that helps every enterprise manage, secure, and protect their brands.
Social Media Governance