A Guide to Supporting Remote Social Media Staff for Your Small Business

By  //  September 29, 2021

Social media is an important tool for small businesses today, and using experts to maximize the impact of your online presence makes sense.

If your social team is working remotely right now, you need to do all you can to support their efforts. This can be challenging if you don’t know where to start, so here are just a few ways to empower them.

Use the right tools

When it comes to supporting remote staff, social media management tools are required. This is all about making sure they can be productive and make good use of their time, without having to deal with tedious tasks manually.

 From tools that let you publish posts across multiple accounts and platforms in unison, to tools that help you pull in data from social media to inform future marketing decisions, there are so many excellent solutions out there today. It is simply a case of sorting the wheat from the chaff and working out what your business needs from your social team.

Provide equipment

Expecting employees to use their own personal gear to work remotely is not ideal, even for small businesses.

Aside from the issues with security and service compatibility that this can bring, it also creates a disparity across teams which can hamper productivity and fan the flames of discontent.

It is better to accept the upfront costs and ensure that remote social staff have access to the equipment they need to flourish. An appropriately powerful laptop or desktop PC, in combination with a suitable webcam for video conferencing, should be a bare minimum.

As mentioned, this does come with a price, but the long term productivity benefits and morale improvements will make this easy to justify.

Offer more flexibility

One of the main perks of remote working is that it eliminates the commute, and means that the rigidity of traditional office hours can be dissolved altogether.

This in turn gives businesses the opportunity to provide employees with a better work-life balance, up to and including the option to work flexibly. If social team members can choose their own hours, this will keep them happy and satisfied.

Clearly you need to make sure that everyone is pulling their weight and receiving the same treatment, so most of all you need to be consistent in implementing flexibility for remote workers.

Provide structure & communicate effectively

Allowing employees to be flexible when they work is all well and good, but it should also be put into place within a wider structure, so that they do not feel cast adrift when operating away from the office.

There are all sorts of ways to go about this, from setting targets to laying out expectations for each team member. Scheduling in frequent, regular catch-up sessions is a big part of this, and will make workers feel valued.

This feeds into the need to avoid remote social team members becoming isolated and developing bad habits, especially if they have colleagues who are working together in the office. Social media roles in particular can be lonely, so keep workers in the loop rather than just assuming they are doing fine.

Document processes thoroughly

Last of all, do not underestimate the power of good documentation. Most social media teams operate with best practices in mind, following established processes to ensure consistency in the way your brand is presented online, and mapping this out unambiguously makes sense.

If in doubt, ask for input directly from the team members who will be affected by any changes you make, as you might get suggestions that you had not thought of already.