Social Media Roundup: Your Organizational Process Matters

Your staff is a team working together toward the same major goals. But when one person is doing one thing and another is doing something else, it can feel like nothing is going right.

Your process matters. Some advice on how not to screw it up in today’s Social Media Roundup:

Smooth Out the Kinks

https://twitter.com/ThadLurie/status/465920716530270208

What do your internal processes say about you? Even processes that aren’t front-facing, such as member data retrieval, can affect how well you serve your members. At Effective Database Management, Wes Trochlil writes about  (opens in a new tab) everyone’s least-favorite process ever—going though airport security—and how a miscommunication about whether travelers should take off their shoes led to an organizational disaster. Trochlil brings the experience back to the association world this way: “Now look at your organization, and how you process data. Do different staff process the same data differently? If so, not only is it going to slow down your data processing, it’s also going to lead to errors. You need to [keep] your processes consistent, and then you need to document those processes so everyone is doing it the same way.” (ht @ThadLurie  (opens in a new tab))

A Social Refresher

Great resource. JohnSegota: Great! How to Use Social Media for #Advocacy  (opens in a new tab) http://t.co/HYUMHiYpXh  (opens in a new tab) via @AAUW  (opens in a new tab) HT @Power_of_A  (opens in a new tab) #assnchat  (opens in a new tab)

— Stefanie Reeves, FASAE, CAE (@sjreeves) May 12, 2014  (opens in a new tab)

Speaking of building processes, social media is a major part of the advocacy diet these days, but if you’re not careful, things could go wrong—fast. That’s why it may be a good idea to check out the American Association of University Women’s (AAUW) resource page on social advocacy  (opens in a new tab). It includes several tips for developing a social media plan, as well as best practices for using each platform. There’s a ton of common sense throughout. “The people and organizations that follow you on social media have certain expectations about the type of content you post and the way in which you engage with them,” AAUW notes. “If you stray too far from your objectives, you will lose the trust and attention of your community.” Do you have a resource of your own or anything you’d add to AAUW’s advice? (ht @sjreeves  (opens in a new tab))

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