Weapons of Mass Community Management

Social media is no longer just about pushing content out — it’s about pulling relevant audiences in, which is why social media community management is more vital than ever.

In 2015, community managers need to be masters of communication with people online in the communities they build and foster, which can require the aid of tools and tactics to ameliorate the amount of manual labor required to own the conversation when they need to. For an idea of what this looks like at its best, we can look to big brands that have built dedicated “command centers” — sleek, glass-enclosed rooms equipped with tools that aggregate social listening, engagement, publishing and analytics — that look as though they were taken straight from the Batcave of Wayne Enterprises.

According to a report published last year, Internet giant eBay receives over 80,000 social media brand mentions per day, a volume that requires a serious online-listening and response strategy. To handle this, Hootsuite™ has become the cornerstone of its’ command center based on the extensive monitoring and publishing capabilities it offers. According to CMSWire, eBay’s 24/7 center provides “a single source of truth” for both incoming social data and outgoing customer service management.

Global cloud computing company Salesforce presented the SMCC, their secret formula for community management, at CES in 2013. This command center, powered by Salesforce Marketing Cloud, uses tools that generates reports and produces visuals for insights on geographic and gender breakdown, trending topics, most mentioned brands and speakers, and conversation volume. It’s power lies in its ability to provide power information at a glance, while its beauty lies in its scalability.

While the approach of these Internet giants is ideal, it’s obviously a bank-breaker for smaller brands and companies. However, there is other affordable technology that can allow your brand or company to build a “command center” of its own that adapts a similar strategy to that of Salesforce and eBay.

It all starts with a good social media monitoring platform. There are tons of options to choose from based on the size of your brand or company, but a few of my favorites include:

• Hootsuite™: This one is awesome if you’re looking for an affordable and easy way to manage all of your social media feeds in a centralized location. It also includes some basic reporting and analytics.
• Sprout Social: This one does everything—monitoring/listening, publishing, analytics, and is great for team collaboration. Plus, the interface is clean and allows you to create snazzy customized client reports.
• Sysomos: Sysomos brings business intelligence to social media, providing instant and unlimited access to all social media conversations to quickly see what’s happening, why it’s happening, and who’s driving the conversations. When it comes to social listening, this tool is a favorite of mine!
• Radian6: This is the Cadillac of social media management tools and could even be categorized as an “enterprise tool.” If you’re a global brand looking for the easiest way to manage a large volume of customer service needs and brand reputation, this is the clear winner.

If you’re looking for a free method to monitor the social media space, you can also always look into Tweetdeck or Sumall!

(Photo: “Salesforce Social Media Command Center” by flickr user Robert Raines, via Attribution 2.0 License)