Who is looking after your ghost towns?

During a session with Digital Brand Expression on how to coordinate your company’s social media efforts one question was raised: Does you company manage ghost towns and why isn’t someone looking after them?

The session was about how to  get control of all the social media projects of a company and set common rules and guidelines for all departments and individuals. As more and more company’s become interested in social media there are sometimes a lot of uncoordinated projects going on, from employee groups on Facebook started by HR, blogs by the research and development department to customer service initiatives on Twitter. But the problem is that sometimes the different departments act without coordination which can cause brand confusion and incoherent messages.

Another problem is that when there is no central control, departments or individuals sometimes start social media channels which are later on abandoned when a specific marketing campaign ends or when the person responsible quits the company. The result is ghost towns, branded social media channels with no updated content, nobody answering and noone moderating comments. The thing is that these channels still show up in Google when searching for your company which doesn’t help your brand reputation.

There are many things to consider when formulating your social media strategy and having protocols and guidelines for how to avoid ghost towns is one important factor.

/Sara