Imagine watching the following scene unfold on an organization's Twitter feed: Several staff members have been pulled into a meeting and fired. One of them is the brand's social media manager, and she's holding her mobile device. She begins live-tweeting—and not from her personal account: "Just overheard our marketing director (he's staying, folks) ask, ‘How do we shut down Twitter?'"
Too late.
This really happened. Not on a college campus, but it could have. The 2013 debacle occurred at the London-based entertainment retail chain HMV, and while malice of this magnitude is not common, it illustrates the need for proper social media transition planning.
An institution's communications strategy should include social media management, but too often the protocols, processes, and permissions essential for overseeing social channels aren't well documented or communicated, particularly in smaller shops. During a staff turnover, such a lack of forethought can harm an institution's brand and reputation, compromise data security, and, in extreme cases like HMV's, attract unwanted attention and headlines. Organizations can't afford the irony of being without social media expertise when they need it most. But with proper planning and governance, you can provide a smooth changing of the social guard, whether during planned departures, re-assignments, extended leaves, or, yes, even dismissals.
No room for awkward (social) silence
Social media is no longer novel, but it's still a relatively new career focus in higher education. That means the person who built an institution's social presence and developed its personality on various channels might still be managing them with gusto.
It can be hard for someone to let that baby go. I know. In 2015 when I resigned from my position as director of integrated communications at Pennsylvania's Elizabethtown College, I gave more than three months' notice. I imagined that I'd help find and train my replacement and infuse the person with my enthusiasm. When that didn't happen, I did the next best thing: I created binders full of documentation. (What was in those binders? See the sidebar on page 45 to find out.)
Finding someone new to sit in the social media seat can be tough—and higher education is not known for swift hires—but a few weeks without someone sailing the social media ship is OK, right? Not quite.
"Your audience doesn't care who got hired or fired," says Georgy Cohen, associate creative director at Boston-based OHO Interactive and a former manager of web content and strategy at two area universities. Radio silence can diminish the effectiveness of what's already in place: Your audience is there, they want information, they want you to listen, she says. "If you're not responsive to inquiries, you're going to damage relationships."
But inaction is not just about skipping a few days (or weeks) of posting; it's also about missing chances to engage. If your Twitter account is known for acknowledging every "at mention," it can't grind to a halt when someone leaves.
Consistency is essential during a social media transition. The presence or audience interaction might not be as strong, but you can't leave your audience hanging. Otherwise, "you're throwing away that [time and resource] investment," says Amy Grace Wells, content strategist at the University of South Carolina.
"The reality is, we are a business, and our customers are looking for us," says Christopher Barrows, social media and mobile products coordinator at New York University.
There's no good time of year for a social silence: Prospective students are always making decisions. The deciding factor between two similar schools could be a friendly social exchange. "If you disappear, you can miss one of those super students," Barrows says.
Silence also can affect your visibility within a social network. Wells cites Facebook's ever-changing algorithm for brand pages: When you post sporadically, your content appears less frequently in users' feeds and you lose momentum.
These are not the tweets you're looking for
Do you remember when your favorite soap opera would announce that the part of Mr. Regular Star Actor is being played today by Mr. Other Actor? Even with preparation, the change was jarring to regular viewers. The person seemed like an impostor. This is what you want to avoid when a new person, whether a temporary or permanent replacement, takes over established social accounts.
"[Your audience] shouldn't notice a disturbance in the force," Cohen says. An account with a record of studious posts shouldn't flip the switch to goofy GIFs overnight. "Test, experiment, and adjust gradually," Cohen advises.
Social media staff need to respect existing expectations, agrees Liz Gross, social media and market research strategist for Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation and Affiliates. "They see institutions as an entity with a personality. If that tone were to change or go silent, that's almost breaking an unwritten social contract with your audience," she says.
There's a large reputational risk when transitions aren't handled properly. But internal challenges like staffing changes should be just that: internal.
Permission slips
Employees who are leaving should deliver an up-to-date document that lists all social media accounts, usernames, passwords, and account administrators. But it's up to remaining staff members to change passwords and remove permissions after an employee departs. Unfortunately, that doesn't always happen. It's not uncommon for former social media managers to have access to accounts months, even years, after parting ways (myself included).
Centralized accounts aren't the only social presences to consider—academic departments, schools, and campus offices should also know if departing employees have access to their affiliated social media accounts. And those students who have been stellar social media ambassadors but soon will be graduating? Connect your alumni association colleagues with these future alumni so they can share their school spirit as graduates—and disable their access to your social accounts.
This problem isn't limited to social media, however. A 2014 survey by Osterman Research, an information technology market research firm, revealed that 89 percent of employees retained access to at least one application or platform after departing a company, and 41 percent of them logged on. Ethics will keep most people from accessing information or posting, but you should eliminate the risk by ensuring past employees, no matter how much you trust them, do not have access.
There are human resources implications as well. IT checklists for outgoing employees tend to focus on shutting off access to internal systems such as email accounts. What about the frequently used external programs and applications that no one outside your unit knows about, let alone tracks? This includes not only social media accounts but blogs, cloud storage, systems for managing projects and customer relationships, training services such as Lynda.com, stock photo and audio websites, and shared Gmail or other external email accounts used to sign in to platforms like Flickr and YouTube.
Prepare for departure
Planning an exit strategy is second nature for Wells: Her spouse is in the U.S. Army, so she frequently relocates. She constantly thinks: "How am I going to leave? What am I going to leave them with?"
In 2014, before exiting her position as online content and social media coordinator at Texas A&M University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Wells provided editorial calendars and documentation so colleagues would understand what she had been doing and why. Student workers became integral to her former team during the transition.
"How deep is your bench?" Wells suggests asking, borrowing a sports analogy. She recommends training multiple backups who know the right voice and tone to use on the institution's channels.
Gross agrees. "Do everything you can to make sure you're not the only one who holds the keys," she says.
Familiar with working in a small shop from her previous positions at two campuses in the University of Wisconsin System, Gross now works for a nonprofit that helps people navigate the student loan and repayment process. Working in a heavily regulated industry gave her new perspective on the importance of policies, which led her to create more behind-the-scenes structure for the organization's social media accounts, including documentation of significant details such as how to interact with customers and where to find content. Building these resources has helped her with onboarding new employees and training backups. The payoff? When Gross spent a month in Europe last year, she wasn't worried about disconnecting. "It's an amazing feeling," she says.
Finding temporary or permanent replacements is about processes as well as people. The campus culture Cohen helped create through a social media users group at Tufts University allowed her to spot a rising social media star, someone with institutional knowledge whom Cohen recommended for the position she left in 2011. "She had the right sensibility, and I was able to lobby for her," Cohen says.
Are your emergency plans in order?
Even if you're not planning to leave anytime soon, you should always be equipped for transition. Common situations to prepare for include lengthy vacations, family leave, staff sabbaticals, and conference travel. But you should also consider grimmer circumstances such as illnesses, injuries, death, and abrupt staff changes.
Wells was attending an October 2015 conference in the Midwest as Hurricane Joaquin approached South Carolina. Her campus was bracing for impact. Where was her backup? Attending the same conference. Thanks to the Internet, Wells managed inclement weather communication remotely, but what if she didn't have that kind of access? Social media is an essential crisis communications tool. Your emergency plans must consider such scenarios.
How do you begin? "Externalize the process," Cohen says. Documentation should not be trapped in someone's head. "Document everything," Barrows agrees, listing items such as campaigns, content sources, key accounts, administrators, and contacts at social networks.
Good documentation can help make the case for quicker hiring decisions. A departmental director might understand the urgent need to replace a social media manager, but employees are at the mercy of internal policy.
"The key is to educate before you need buy-in—and in a language that appeals to decision-makers," Cohen says. By continually sharing social success stories, she reasons, you will have proven value for these positions over time—and administrators will see why you can't delay hiring new people for them.
"Educate as high up as you can," Barrows says. Quantitative data is important, but recording great social moments can demonstrate the importance and value of a steady social media presence.
Letting go
Saying goodbye to the social media channels you've spent time nurturing can be tough, emotional even. You've been awakened by a mobile device blowing up with comments, handled midafternoon meltdowns, and stayed up late answering questions. But just as parents appoint suitable guardians for their children, you need to do the same for social media channels.
"I always want to leave an organization in the best way I can," says Wells, who believes that we all do better when we prepare our successors. "We need to step up and say, ‘I want the person behind me to be better than me.'"
Transition Considerations
You can't be social without people and preparation. Planning is essential in social media—and a plan isn't a plan until you write it down. Don't wait until someone gives notice to begin this work. Detailing your daily operations and contingency scenarios will improve your operation and help you sleep better at night. Here are some elements you should include in your social media documentation.
- Trained backups: Who fills in for you when you're out sick or on vacation? Who is that person's backup? Whose role could be temporarily modified to take on full-time social media duties during a longer transition?
- Processes: What does a typical social media day look like? How often and when do you post? How often and when do you do your social listening? If social media is only part of someone's position, how do these duties fit in with the rest of the workday? What takes priority?
- Social media posting schedules: What's being shared and where? Create an editorial calendar for your content.
- List of key accounts: What are your primary social media channels? What social channels have you claimed but aren't yet using?
- Admins: Determine who has administrative access for each account and what each person's role is.
- Login credentials: Record usernames as well as the associated email address and password for each account. Don't forget third-party monitoring software or external apps that allow access to social media accounts.
- Social media style guide: What is the tone and personality of your posts? Of your responses?
- Analytics: What key metrics are important to you? How and how often do you report out on your analytics? Who receives these reports or briefings?
- Regular audits: If you are a central unit that oversees decentralized social channels, how often do you monitor their activity?
- Communications strategy: Social media's place within the institution's communications strategy and plans is an important consideration. Where does social media fit in? Who are the key points of contact for statements and information such as weather closings, campus lockdowns, and incidents that require crisis communications?