Co-op Digital Blog

The Community Management team are responsible for engaging with content posted onto Group, Food, Insurance, Legal and Colleague social channels. Engaging directly with any responses, whether positive or negative, means we have a great insight into what our community is talking about.

This is why it’s vital we communicate with business units to have notice of what content is going out, giving us the opportunity to input suggestions based on current conversations with the community. Having this collected view of content being posted from all business units also helps us to ensure that we have the right amount of support to cover possible busy hours.

We’ve recently changed the process of content creation with certain BAUs, working with them in idea sessions and meeting regularly to go over upcoming content. These weekly meetings help us to also gain insight into what results the business units want to see. This could range from a post designed for the community to share or direct questions aimed to provoke conversation. Knowing this helps us to manage the conversation effectively and makes sure we have enough time to prepare responses and brief our team.

#NostalgiaFM

We were involved from an early stage during the production of #NostalgiaFM informed on all details that could affect our way of working, from how many posts were being promoted throughout the day, to the tone of voice the team were aiming for. Having this information helped us prepare brand responses that would engage the community as well as plan possible surprises and delights to send out on the day. Overall this helped us to successfully engage in 700 positive conversations.

At the end of 2015 we improved our content scheduling by using Trello and Outlook Calendar in a more efficient way. Each week we check in on what all BAUs have planned and input this information into a Trello board. Having this integrated with Outlook ensures the team all have the ability to check the weeks’ activity from the diary on their phone. This agile way of working is simple but effective and helps us access the information we need on the go.

Sophie Newton, Social Media Community Manager – @thatssonewt