Many companies have a highly detailed brand reference manual, which governs everything from the color of marketing materials to the behavior of customer facing personnel.  Social media guides are also coming into frequent use by companies, to guide marketing departments in their efforts to improve brand recognition and product awareness through online channels. 

All online communication begins with content development.  While the form and style of communication receives a bulk of the attention from marketing departments, often times the content development process is left to the creative inspiration of the department employees – and for many businesses, that “department” is one person, churning out content day after day.  Content Savants is well-positioned to help companies in this effort, having creative processes in place with a well-experienced team of developers to provide content that fits with not only the business objectives of our clients, but also matches the personality of the business.

We also provide support in the development of social media strategy and style guides.  While we remain ready to support businesses in their social media objectives, we also would like to encourage businesses (both small and large) to put in writing for themselves what they see as their optimal social media strategy.  A highly detailed plan is not necessary to give the social media team (or employee) a practical direction on the development of postings, memes and blogs.  The content developer need only take a page out of the traditional marketing books to carry out the task. 

Floor Staff Policy	Social Media Policy
Floor staff are required to be in uniform, which is functionally designed according to the employee’s role, and with colors that are reflective of the company’s brand identity and logo	Social media team must use templates provided, which are made consistent with the business branding, its colors and media layout, with the logo overlaid onto the media in a way that does not distract from the main message but conveys positive association with the brand and logo
Floor staff must be appropriately groomed (for restaurants, this point is key, and includes covering of head and facial hair, as well as washing hands and general hygiene requirements)	Social media must be proof-read, colloquial expressions must be reflective of the target audience and used with limitations, grammar and spelling must be correct, as well as alignment of graphics and text to portray a positively-remembered aesthetic
Floor staff must greet customers with a smile, initiate and advance orders according to standard phrases (“would you like fries with that?”), and must treat both customers and fellow employees with respect and courtesy	Social media must be respectful of its audience, without negative implications for any groups of people, and for purposes of brand development, may frequently use pre-approved promotional phrases, content patterns and messaging according to a pre-determined template
Floor staff must arrive 5 minutes before their shift begins, may take breaks at designated times, and must be attentive during the work day to meet and fulfill the requirements of their roles and according to procedures in the employee manual	Social media must be published on a regular basis, and must be developed according to the objectives of the social media campaign for which they are designed – internal approval of content must be followed to ensure policies have been followed with respect to content and messaging
Floor staff are subject to disciplinary procedures for non-compliance with the rules and processes as outlined in the employee manual.	Businesses may suffer consequences in reduced customers or customer loyalty through a lack of effectiveness in their social media strategy, or worse, a backfiring of sentiment against the brand for social media that is posted irresponsibly and without compliance to company policies

From our view, social media platforms are a parallel to the natural communication that we have with other people on a daily, even hourly basis.  Planning for a social media can therefore match its real-world equivalent:  floor staff.  Here are some key areas of consideration, for comparison:

For all businesses, taking the time to write down key themes to be developed in their social media campaigns – no matter how simple or small in scale – to ensure that the content developed for social media is aligned to and fits with the business’s overall goals with respect to customer engagement and business development.  While development of social media presence is an iterative process that improves over time, taking the time to write down some key principles and templates can enable step-sized improvements in a shorter amount of time.