Airport Business

OCT 2014

The airport professional's source for airport industry news, articles, events, and careers.

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SOCIAL MEDIA October 2014 airportbusiness 21 place to take the issue offline and get it resolved. Sometimes social media sites offer give- aways, contests or sweepstakes, and Emery cautions there are rules for this as well. Most social media sites detail these guidelines. "You see it all the time. Companies ask visitors to take a specific action, such as like their page or share a post, to be part of the contest," she says. "But the law is very clear about that. You can allow people to volunteer to be part of the contest but you cannot ask them to do something as a condition for entering it." In addition, only certain individuals should be tasked with posting and monitoring social media. "If they are doing the posting in-house, there needs to be authorized people in charge of it, and only those people should be posting," says Childs. "You don't want everyone to have access to your social media page." Finally, checks and balances should be insti- tuted to ensure nothing slips through the cracks. "We hear about things that happen by accident all the time; someone forgot to do something, a photo that should not have been posted slips through," she says. "If you have a strategy and a plan, at least you know what posts are planned for the next two weeks. Planning things out can avoid some costly mistakes." Childs emphasizes that once mistakes hap - pen, the information is out there forever—even if you take it down. "What you post or don't post needs to be part of the strategy, and there must be specific people in charge of that." RULES OF ENGAGEMENT Controlling what others post to your social media sites is also a concern, according to Emery. "What happens if you have someone posting on your social media site and they're saying a lot of really negative things? What are your legal rights?" she asks. Airports, airlines and FBOs need to devel- op rules of use for their social media pages. These rules should give them the authority to remove posts they find unacceptable, offensive or untrue. "The rules should say, 'We reserve the right to take down any content that we find offensive,' " she says. These rules should also include a privacy policy. "Your first line of defense is to go to the social media site itself. There's an email form you fill out when you find something offensive and you can ask to have it taken down," she says. "They are pretty good about removing things, but it might take a couple days." Monitoring what others post is an essential part of social media. "There needs to be some- one dedicated to checking posts, monitoring messages and looking at notifications," Childs says. "If you don't have someone checking and taking action as needed, how many people will see it before it comes down?" POLICY AS PROTECTION "The most important thing is to have a social media policy as part of the employment hand- book," says Emery. "This policy should detail how the employees represent themselves in the public domain." Naomi Angel, a partner with the law firm, Howe & Hutton Ltd., spells out the elements of a social media policy in her presentation "Managing Risk in the World of Social Media. According to this document, policies should: • Clearly address what is prohibited activity, • Detail how social media will be monitored and audited, • List what the company will have access to in terms of company email and texts, as well as what can be released to third parties, and • Include employee acknowledgment of receipt and understanding of the poli- cy, and a waiver of privacy when using company property. A policy isn't something that can be devel- oped and then ignored. According to Emery, these policies should be revisited annually, and employees regularly reminded of them. "Technology is moving so fast so if you don't update it with a fair amount of regularity, you can get yourself into a world of hurt," she says. If employees are found to be in violation of the policy, Emery indicates the company should follow the same disciplinary policy they would use for anything else. "Depending on the severity of the behavior, you would typically go through a disciplinary process where the first offense is an oral warning, then a written warning, moving up to a suspension or termi- nation," she says. When using social media, it's important to know the law and react accordingly. Those who do that will be able to take advantage of all the benefits that social media has to offer. Those who don't may be putting themselves at risk. STRATEGIES FOR SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESS SOCIAL media marketing is a great avenue to build your brand, but to be successful your social media strategy should be aligned with your brand's message and goals. Business writer and marketing consultant, Jack Rivera offers the following suggestions in "5 Tips to Maximize Your Social Media Marketing" to help businesses harness the power of social media. f Create an attainable social marketing plan. Know what your goals are for social media then develop a strategy. Set sensible goals with a realistic timetable. f Identify the types of exposure your brand needs. This will help you determine which social networking sites best address those needs. f Post exciting content. Keep the audience engaged by posting original, engaging and exciting content. Publish on a regular basis to keep people coming back. f Make it a customer service arm. Social media use can extend your customer service. Rather than call a hotline number, customers often will use social media to make inquiries and launch complaints. It's important to answer these queries and be as helpful as you possibly can. f Follow and tag influencers. By tagging influencers to relevant posts you broaden your reach, especially if they share the content with others.

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