Who will ultimately be responsible?

It’s important that staff and volunteers within your radio station are clear on who does what with your social media profiles. It’s also important to get staff input and buy in to make the social media profiles a part of the station and not just an add on.

To run social media profiles effectively it needs to be someone’s job.  While the responsibility can be shared between contributors (and should be to enable continuity and diversity) a free-for-all with access for everyone will not lead to the development of  a distinct or engaging voice in your social media communications.

You don’t need to leave all the responsibility with one person, but there should be a clear hierarchy of ownership over station accounts.  Make sure station staff know who they can talk to to approve material they aren’t sure about. Encourage staff participation but ensure that is funnelled through the staff who are managing your social media profiles.

Likewise, you should get to know existing social media pages that presenters are running for their individual radio programs. Create a network of pages, follow each other and consolidate your efforts.

The buck does need to stop with one person though. If things go wrong (which they can), then it is important that the chain of command is clear and that one person has the final responsibility for how social media is managed.

Some questions to consider

• Who will have access and hold passwords to your social media profiles? Login details for social media accounts should belong to station email addresses.  Accounts linked to personal accounts risk losing access when that person leaves the station.  Where multiple page owners or administrators can be added in a social media platform, make sure more than one person can update and access these pages.
• How will station staff members have information posted under the station profile?
• Do any individual shows have profiles or pages you may want to link to as a station?
• Do station staff and volunteers know what or how much information can be shared on air about comments made on social media profiles?
• Will communications on the page come from the ‘station’ or will users identify themselves?

Before assigning or taking on the task as the station’s social media contact, or assigning it to someone else, consider the following:

• Does the person have the time to devote to social media? It is not a tool that can be used every so often – it needs to be regular and consistent to build a relationship with your audience
• If you/they accept the task will it be at the expense of another responsibility within the station?
• Are you/they familiar with social media environments generally, and what guidance or training may be required?

Top tips

• Encourage station volunteers and presenters to identify themselves as station affiliated when they are joining a conversation about station events or business on the station social media profile.  The public will be able to detect the relationship with a bit of digging around so it will look a lot better to simply declare affiliations upfront.
• Encourage individual radio station programs to create their own social media profiles and equip them with the knowledge to do so. They may only create one profile in one social media platform but it gives that program a voice and is a good way to get connections from other social media profiles to the general radio station profiles.
• Utilise the many free online tools that are available to communicate in social media platforms and to monitor your activities. Coordainting a stations’ social media activities does not mean that you need to be sitting in front of a computer 24/7 and these tools will allow you to communicate with your audience at a time when they may be more active – this could be at 8am, 1pm or at 11pm.

Learn more

• Four Steps to Incorporating Social Media at Consumer Touch Points: Marketing Professionals
• 3 Helpful Tips For the Community Manager On the Go: Social Media Today

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