Debbie Mayo-Smith: Baby steps start growing your media presence

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For business, the current conundrum about social media is "should we or shouldn't we?" That is the question many are asking - from the large corporate to the self-employed professional.

As you know, there's always the yin with the yang. Along with the many benefits it offers, I equate social media with modern-day youth: no respect and it talks back.

With smartphones giving instant internet access, and video and photo-taking ability, no business is immune from the risks of having its weaknesses broadcast: tetchy waitress, line too long, product that didn't live up to expectations ...

Conversations are being held on the web with or without your consent. They travel fast and can wreak havoc. How do you manage this risk?

Here's a five-step plan, using the analogy of parenthood.

* Learn: As a first-time parent, you start from scratch learning what is necessary to ensure the best outcome of the pregnancy, the birth, then helping your child grow up.

It's the same with social media. You start by educating yourself. What does it mean? What are the different avenues? What are the benefits as well as the pitfalls?

Three great websites to learn more are:

mashable.com

socialmediaexaminer.com

marketingsherpa.com

* Establish boundaries: As your child starts to crawl, you have to establish boundaries to keep them out of danger and mischief.

How will your staff know what is and isn't acceptable on social media if they haven't been told? So the second step is to set up a company policy and procedures (and have staff sign it).

I think the easiest and clearest one is summed up by Telstra Australia, with its "Three Rs" policy:

1) Be clear about who you are Representing.

2) Take Responsibility for ensuring any references to Telstra are factually correct and accurate and do not breach confidentiality requirements.

3) Show Respect for individuals and communities with which you interact.

The policy does not apply to personal use of social media platforms where the employee makes no reference to Telstra-related issues.

To get you going, here are two links to help create your own policy:

ibm.com/blogs/zz/en/guidelines.html

socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php

* Educate: Just as you start educating your child, you need to educate your staff about social media. I would advise you to try to engage them on an emotional level by following these steps:

1) Explain what social media is and which ones you'll be using.

2) Explain the company benefits.

3) Discuss potential pitfalls and risk.

4) Give examples through stories.

5) Ask for their help - in monitoring and providing excellent customer service so a problem doesn't develop.

* Watch: Just as you always keep a watchful eye on your child, you have to continually monitor social media.

Like trying to get your infant into a regular routine, you need to be disciplined and allocate a specific time to do your social media reputation checks (and your interaction). This needn't be onerous, for two reasons.

First, as noted below, you can set up email alerts - then you just set a time to look at these alerts. Second, if you have a smartphone, it enables you to check at any time, from any place.

Monitor staff by searching for social media they are a member of, and ask to be a friend, connection or follower. If they blog, subscribe through a RSS feed.

Monitor the web too. With Google, you can either do a regular search looking for words or phrases that pertain to your business or set up a Googlealert or a Gigaalert (gigaalert.com) which searches Yahoo and sends search results straight to your email inbox. You can also search Twitter.

* React: If your child gets hurt or is in trouble, you don't just sit there.

The most important way to fight criticism, negative feedback and unwanted comments is: immediately respond with a thankful tone if it's someone who has a problem and laid out what went wrong, or they suggested how to fix things, or if it's valid criticism. Respond in the same medium. If it's a Tweet, use Twitter to respond. If it's just a random or spammy attack, it's best to ignore it.

So, there we are. To mitigate the social risk to your business, just follow this five-step plan: Learn, establish boundaries, educate, watch and react.

Debbie Mayo-Smith is a bestselling author and international speaker. Twitter mseffective

www.debbiespeaks.co.nz