Without water or care, even without small conversations in privacy, a plant will not grow as you wish. So we can understand the dynamization of social environments, or how to treat the communities that you manage. Taking care of them That’s why I do not believe too much in express formulas, basic or simply marketed in standardized packages.

There are several offers that I have come across in pack format to carry out the Community Management of a company or brand. Even if it is an SME, I do not think that the ‘pack’ format is the right one for a job of this caliber. Okay, let’s clarify.

The basic pack can underestimate the sector

The ‘pack’ has always been an element closely linked to promotion, opportunity and savings, that is, a low price that makes up the commercial action to increase, normally, sales volume or penetration in the market. But beware, we will not undervalue the discipline please, because promoting this way the Community Management can involve unfavorable reactionsin a scenario where three key actors participate: the social media marketer (either agency or freelancer), the client and, of course, the user . But what reactions can it cause? In my opinion, ‘package’ with a basic model an action in Community Management or invigoration of social environments can cause:

Unawareness . The client distorts what the management of communities in social environments really is. After all, on-line reputation management. In other words, we will continue to feed the ignorance on the client side, something that we have been dragging since we know how to program in database and html, almost nothing.

Disillusion . The client is disappointed with ‘the Facebook’ before the more than possible results of low participation. Then, we gain an additional infidel in the social media cause.

An Out of Play . Whoever elaborates a plan that contemplates a good part of the possible links of the reputation management on-line, can be found with the doors closed for their higher prices in relation to a basic standardized package.

(Des) Linkage. The user perceives little value in the communication through social media of the brand that contracts a basic package, because simply and simply, it can only cover a number of posts determined per month.

The value of Social Media training

From my point of view, and with which it falls, for me there is a factor that takes a very important value in the whole Social Media framework . We’ll see. It is logical that with the budgets that today we have to handle all, the cost of a fee in Social Media should try to reduce, like all fees. That’s why I see in customer traininga key and positive factor before undertaking an adventure with him on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube or whatever suits him best. But why? Basically because I am convinced that we will find more advantages than disadvantages, such as:

Knowledge . If I tell the client what Social Media is about, he will be aware of two very important things:

1) to what extent can you assume within your structure the task of Community Management and 2) assess whether the prices that are proposed are fair and adequate, so if you accept them, you will know exactly what your budget is investing in and, in addition, will have tools to be able to demand if appropriate.

Mixed formulas . Training the client before an adventure in social media will allow us to establish possible patterns of mixed collaboration. For example, assuming dynamisation and delegating monitoring and strategy by the agency or external collaborator.

Continuing Education. If you arrive at a formula of mixed collaboration, the client will learn with you the day to day of community management and from my point of view – although this is already very personal – that a client learns with me is what gives me the greatest satisfaction.

Linking : when working on training bases, the sensations are transmitted beyond the communities, the user perceives it and, little by little, the user-brand relationship grows.

Social Media is more than Community Management?

Well, I would say yes. Maybe I overdo thinking that Community Management , Social Media Strategy , Monitoring and Reputation Management On-Linethey must go hand in hand. My opinion is that all traces in the network depend on all these variables, not to mention SEOamong others. But I do not believe that, nor separating them, we do well to establish standards in advance before a service as complicated as the management of social communities that, as we have already read in numerous posts by other colleagues, should not be the scholarship’s task (without obviously despise it, we want to protect it).

The To-Do-List of Community Management

Without going any further, only as far as Community Management is concerned, I am writing here, and for those who still have patience and continue reading this post, some basic routines of the community that must be done daily if you want to obtain a certain return of presence in social media:

1.Develop a plan to monitor your presence, look for tools.

2. Base your communication on coherence : according to your brand, your goals and your values. Adapt it to the needs of each social environment.

3. It generates valuable content and creates strategic alliances in this sense.

4. Be truly empathetic , without forcing, because it will be the most effective way to connect with the users with whom you speak.

5. Show your values ​​as a copywriter of both short copys for Facebook or Twitter and posts for a blog.

6. If you dominate Photoshop, better, many times a picture is worth a thousand words and more if you edit it digitally with taste and sensitivity.

7. Develop your participatory sense so that the community also does it in your surroundings.

8. Carry out an active and attentive listening to your community. Knowing what they want is a triumph because you will surely know what to give them.

9. Think about each post you cast, and review it 3 times before publishing it.

10. Participate with people, mention and get mentions.

11. FollowTwitter and Facebook daily globally, around other communities, brands or institutions to breathe the environment, detect users of interest, listen to conversations, locate recommended content …

12. Find new tools that can help you in your day to day life: of account management, as monitoring …

13. Publish and schedule content to have periods of time covered, but without going over.

14. Measure how long your posts on Facebook last to calibrate a more or less constant rhythm and try to keep the attention of your audience alive.
Identify the best moments to post, tweet or write on your blog. Be careful, they are not constant!

15. Record the actions taken to be able to carry out a follow-up at any time.
Work possible campaigns in relation to your service. Discuss them with the rest of the company, plan them and study their possible execution.

16. Locate partners in design and programming of Apps to be able to carry out the chosen campaigns. To lighten your budget, combine original Apps with more standardized models such as those offered by EasyPromos or CoolTabs.

17. Communicate the campaigns programmed before being published to users or blogs of interest that you already have located. Award for advancement.

18. Supervises the channels to moderate conversations that have arisen. Eliminate spammers, connect with the audience.

19. Locate content of interest . A few minutes of reading and documentation are key to finding good content, inspiring others and even detecting new trends.

20. Look at what the competition does . Key!

21. Take a daily management of links of interest.

22. Measure the presence in your social media with both free and paid tools. Monitor yourself!

23. Consider advertising in social media with Facebook Ads for example, start with small investments and as you can improve your optimizations, increase your investment depending on budget possibilities and objectives. But do not forget that it is not the only or the most effective advertising formula on the Internet.

24. Et-Cé-Te-Ra …

In my opinion, this is the To Do List of a daily action in social media, to obtain positive results in the medium-long term if what you want are lasting relationships . Of course, we will not think that with this we will sell all our stock, let’s face it, it is not like that and less on Facebook.

Obviously, this routine involves a lot of time, skills, knowledge and dedication to polish and update them.

And if all this can be standardized, sorry, I’m sorry, but I do not see it clearly and, moreover, we only talk about invigorating environments (Community Management). What happens with the rest? All this post comes because basically I do not recommend creating social media packs before selling them. ‘Packs’ that simply include a number of posts that are included per month or a number of tweets that fit in the basic rate. Because, after all, what we will do is distort the reality of the revitalization of social environments, which we understand is much more.

Why not train before collaborating?

I understand that it may cost more to sell a fee than a ‘pack’. I even understand that it can be more attractive and easier to buy a ‘pack’. But as much for the sector, as for the client, as for the user; I think that it is more fruitful to form beforehand, understand the environment and then work together. All are advantages.

And you, do you think it can be positive that the client knows in more depth what it means to enter social media before starting with them?