Aside from the obvious marketing value of social media, social media platforms have other informational, brand-building and brand-reinforcing value. To ensure uniform communications and consistent usage standards, some businesses use social media templates to help build and reinforce their social media policies and practices. But what can you use social media templates for, and what are the caveats?
Different Social Media Templates For Different Purposes
If you do a Google search, you can find a number of different social media “templates.” Templates can be useful in a number of different ways, but the primary purposes of a template are to ensure uniformity and to save time.
Policy Templates
Social media templates that provides policy support enables businesses to roll out a social media policy uniformly to their employees. Policy-oriented social media templates allow businesses to identify immediately the types of social media interactions that are and are not acceptable. By informing employees of the expectations of the business with regard to their business-oriented social media contacts, businesses can help create a more uniform social media experience for both their employees and their target audience.
The caveat with using social media templates for policy is that the policies must be reviewed periodically and updated as social media platforms change. Additionally, as situations arise that the template-oriented policy did not anticipate, the template policy must also be reviewed, updated and redistributed to all employees. While policy-based social media templates can get your social media program rolling, they’re not a “set-and-forget” item. Regularly scheduled policy reviews will help keep these social media templates up-to-date.
Profile Templates
Most social media platforms allow (or require) the poster to create a profile. Profile-oriented social media templates can help save time by creating a uniform profile that can be applied to most social media platforms. Templates can help you apply standard photographs, logos, graphical images and text information all in the required/permitted sizes and formats. By having these offline social media templates handy, you can roll out changes to your social media profiles quickly, uniformly and without the hiccups that might otherwise occur.
Posting templates
Social media templates oriented toward standardizing posts can also be helpful. Several blogging platforms have ready-made templates that can help ensure both the quality of the content and the uniformity of its appearance. In addition, other social media platforms have specific posting limitations like character lengths and image formats. Using social media templates designed to make your posts uniform or compliant with the platform’s limitations can save time and frustration in the long run.
If you would like more information about social media templates, social media planning or related marketing support, please contact our Creative Director, Dave Ramsell or give Dave at Granstreet Creative a call at (330) 243-0651 to set up a consultation. Dave will be happy to help you develop a viable social media plan and customized social media templates for your business.
Photo Credit: ba1969, via FreeImages.com
