The Harder to Spill Your Secrets, My Dear

by Kim Niemi

What would possess a company increasing its social media workload to not also increase its staff? 
There are actually a few reasons. And they all revolve around how careless the typical worker is.

So yes, it's all YOUR fault. 

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Teams are increasing productivity and using the same number of staff to get the job done! http://buff.ly/2fyb0kj

​According to a report by ViralHeat, social media teams are increasing productivity, while using the same number of staff to get the job done.

Stewart Roger, in a piece for VentureBeat.com, suggests  the reasons for this are increased efficiency due to better social media tools, and a focus on keeping costs low. But there’s something else to consider.

The smaller the social media team, the less likely the chance of social sabotage. What is social sabotage? It’s an inadvertent – or sometimes intentional – social media post that causes damage to the public reputation of a company, its employees, its clients, or all three.

People lose their jobs due to social media mishaps all the time, so keeping the number of people responsible for sharing company news via social media channels to a minimum isn’t a bad idea. It’s also why enabling that small group to be even more efficient is a good idea. As long as they’re careful.

Careful about what? Well, there have been incidents of people using group account managers like Hootsuite, getting confused, and posting on business accounts items that were meant to be posted to their personal accounts. 

Yikes. Those kinds of mistakes can call for serious reputation management after the fact. 

How can social media teams help prevent unintentional social sabotage? Here’s how: 

·         Have separate devices – phones, laptops, tablets – for work and personal use

·         Do not sign into personal accounts during office hours, and vice versa (if you can avoid it)

·         Take a beat – life moves quickly these days, but no matter how urgent a post may seem, it’s worth taking the extra time to be sure you’re in the right account, and using the proper tone with a message that’s on point with the company’s values

With a few simple precautionary tactics, the smallest social media team can be productive and safe from social sabotage at the same time. 

Disagree? Share your stories below.