Ten principles to help you standout on social media

What do outstanding social communications look like today? How can you gain tangible value from your company’s social presence?

The secret is focus. Focusing on the content, messaging and objectives that are strategically aligned to your wider communications strategy and corporate ambition, will help you create real connections with the people who matter to the future of your business.

Standout starts with understanding

01 Concentrate on what matters

06Make your stories snappy

02Identify who’s influencing the important topics

07Burst the social bubble

03Select advocates on the topics that matter

08Govern, govern, govern

04Humanise your content

09Measure the basics

05Live in the moment

10Put quality first

Concentrate on what mattersIt’s so easy to go after the latest shiny thing in social. By all means experiment if you have the budget, but concentrating on what matters to your business is the trick to creating success through social media: • What messages does your business need

to communicate? • What issues are important to your business

and your audiences? • What are your customers and audiences

asking for? What do they expect from you?• What social situations do you need to

focus on?

Focus on: How to communicate: Crisis, news, industry issues and thought leadership.

Identify who’s influencing the important topicsPart of achieving focus in social media is about understanding who’s who in your network. You need to identify who’s influencing your community and where else they have influence too. Then you need to communicate with them, showing them the value you can bring to their world and challenges.

Focus on: Analysing the networks of people that exist around the topics that matter to your business.

Select advocates on the topics that matter Your content is much more persuasive if someone else posts it to their network.If you know who’s behind you, you’ll be able to amplify your content and gain a critical mass for your position.

Focus on: Building internal advocates on the topics that matter to you.

Humanise your contentNo one cares much what a faceless organisation has to say.Get your experts and leaders talking – and not just on the official channels. Encourage them to post content to their networks too.

Focus on: Creating a video of an expert instead of a link to a press release.

Live in the momentTiming today is crucial. Social media operates in real time. Agile content creation allows you to have all of your content assets ready to go when you need them. The benefit? You can focus on making your message relevant for that particular day, not worrying whether an image is RGB or not.

Focus on: Creating content from a core kit of parts so each and every post is on message and of high quality.

Make your stories snappyWhen time is at a premium, you’re competing against reams of compelling content constantly. You have nano seconds to engage someone’s attention and encourage them to read on and click-through. A story can be told in a moment. Just frame with a context that’s relevant to your audience, introduce a character and focus on their challenge.

Focus on: Asking the right questions: What’s the challenge, what’s the context and who are the core characters?

Burst the social bubbleSocial media has been put on a pedestal. It’s treated as something new, something different, something strange and risky. But that’s not the case and you don’t need to be a social guru to get involved and make it work effectively for you.Think of it as another channel of communication. A place for you to share your content, key messages and join in on the daily conversations that your audience are having. A chance for you to engage with them and show them the value you can add.

Focus on: Integrating social into your content and digital strategies so it becomes business as usual to deliver outstanding social communications.

Govern, govern, governManage the content that you post to your networks! Good governance that enables agile content creation is the goal.Speak to the people who matter in your organisation and agree the best process that meets everyone’s needs. And don’t forget to speak to the lawyers too. Without a clear governance model in place you will be focusing your effort internally not externally.

Focus on: Try out different governance models to see which one fits.

Measure the basicsBe clear about what you want to get out of social and stick to it. There should be a line of logic from your corporate objectives, through your communication and digital strategy to social. Don’t get trapped in measuring ‘likes’ and so forth. Focus on what you want from your social presence. Is engagement (shares, click-throughs, direct comments and responses) most important to you? Or perhaps it’s spreading the reach of your content or changing the minds of your influencers.

Focus on: Inputs, outputs and outcomes so you can identify what really matters to your business.

Put quality first When there is so much content being produced it helps to have a collective view on what ‘good’ looks like. Like George Orwell’s tips for writing, these need to be aspirational but also practical. What are your competitors saying? What kinds of social content are your key audiences engaging with the most – how can you replicate that style and make it work for you?

Focus on: Meeting up weekly with key content creators across the business to establish what good looks like.

Here’s how we can help you:Social excellenceWe can help you master the craft of social – every day:• Analysing your social situation • Understanding who is influencing your

networks and who your advocates are• Establishing core content themes and

your position for each of them

Social disruptionWe can help you create great content:• Running workshops to plan your

social content• Delivering creative for content sprints• Training your teams to get the most

out of your social channels

Social leadershipWe can help your business understand the value of social media:• Developing social content vision and

principles• Training internal influencers so they can get

the most from social• Developing a governance model that works

for agile content creation and curation• Measuring the effectiveness of your social

communications

We’re a creative consultancy that helps our clients tell their story simply, by whichever means works best. With a focus on making a positive and meaningful difference to your organisation, we can help it succeed.

Together, we help unlock the toughest challenges and capitalise on the biggest opportunities. These include how to build brand reputation, make the most of our digital world and deliver sustainable change.

Coupled with deep audience insight, we help clients build more rewarding relationships with the people that matter most: customers, employees and investors.

Our experience with the brightest, bravest and best means that whether you’re a multinational business, a public institution or a young, ambitious enterprise, we can help you go further.

We’re Radley Yeldar.

If you would like to find out more:

London office Birmingham office 24 Charlotte Road 108 Northwood StreetLondon EC2 3PB Birmingham B3 1TH +44 (0)20 7033 0700 +44 (0)121 200 3890

hello@ry.com

@RadleyYeldar

/RadleyYeldar

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