Managing social media at scale

In our latest white paper, Managing social media at scale, we examine how to create and manage a global social media programme. We ask three of our in-house experts – Blaise Grimes-Viort, VP of Social Media Services; Wendy Christie, Chief Production Officer; and Richard Simcott, Head of Languages – how to put together a programme that works in both global and local markets.

Download: Managing social media at scale

For a global brand, managing social media is a complex business. Social campaigns need to adhere to a global strategy, while being effective locally. Campaigns must fit with central branding guidelines; have a consistent style, tone and quality across territories and sub-brands; and yet still have resonance in local languages, and across cultures and time zones.

To do this successfully takes a close partnership between the brand, its social media teams and all its various agencies. It needs clearly defined roles and processes, that can be implemented without stamping out creativity.

Global guidelines should leave enough room for local colour, creative flare and cultural relevance.

Hub and spoke model for global social media management

Blaise considers how to structure your team; assigning roles globally and locally using our ‘hub and spoke’ model; setting creative themes (and how to implement them locally); optimising and standardising content; and how to choose the right tools for the job.

Wendy looks at the issue of quality and team resourcing: how to ensure quality control across multiple territories; how to staff a social media programme at scale; dealing with emergencies and setting up escalation processes; and training and managing a global team effectively.

Richard, our resident hyper-polyglot, tackles the issue of getting the right languages in place: how to decide how many languages you need; the difference between localising and translating content; the importance of cultural fluency; and why humour and insults don’t always travel well.

Finally, we have a checklist of things to consider if you’re starting out on a global social media journey. We hope you find it useful.