Should TV talent have their own social accounts?

What does your social media footprint look like? You have your main brand page, maybe a separate weather page… What else? If you’re like most TV newsrooms you’ve probably set up “talent pages.” But

What does your social media footprint look like? You have your main brand page, maybe a separate weather page… What else? If you’re like most TV newsrooms you’ve probably set up “talent pages.” But the question often arises…what’s the point? Is it really a good idea to encourage your on-air talent to have their own social presence that’s separate from the main brand? We think so…here’s why:

What’s the point?

  1. Own the brand – if you don’t create a page that represents your reporter, someone else might and the results can be embarrassing and hard to clean up. Make a page for everyone and get each one verified to take advantage of special features from Facebook. (If you have trouble getting a page verified, just contact your Client Strategy Specialist at Social News Desk, we know people.)
  2. Establish point-of-contact – Email is so five minutes ago. People talk to people via text and, failing that, they send Tweets, direct messages, or they use Facebook Messenger. If you aren’t on those platforms, your audience can’t find you.

It’s exponential

If you’re looking for lift on social media, you want to get your content out in as many places as possible. This means leveraging your talent pages to expand your megaphone. When a reporter creates content that goes on the website, make sure that content is posted on both the main brand page and the reporter’s brand page. Furthermore, tag the reporter in the post for the main brand. As NewsWhip recently reported, INSIDER travel has had success building content contributors as brands by tagging them in the top comment of their videos.

screen-shot-2016-11-03-at-5-04-30-pm

This technique gives the reporter real ownership of the piece and organically lends itself to the reporter sharing the content further. And, with time, tagging a well-followed reporter in a story will cause the item to organically pop up in more News Feeds. And that’s gold.

Inside the SND Dashboard, it's easy to tag the reporter's brand page directly inside the tool.
Inside the SND Dashboard, it’s easy to tag the reporter’s brand page directly inside the tool.

But isn’t it just duplicating our main page?

Not if you’re doing it right. Make your talent pages stand out against the main brand page by focusing on a beat of stories or a theme. To build audience, the page can share posts from other sources about similar topics, then cash in on the investment by publishing your own content. Many anchors have pet projects that they tend to focus on when ratings periods come along; why not invest in the topic year-round via social media?

screen-shot-2016-11-03-at-5-17-16-pm
Kristi Tedesco‘s “Kristi’s Kids” is a brand with legs all year ’round

Setting them up for success

Yes, the more pages you have – the more there is to keep an eye on. But we can help. Using the SND Dashboard, you can view unlimited page timelines, direct messages and posts to your pages. In native Facebook especially, posts to your page tend to get hidden and unnoticed, so it’s key to have a system that allows you to see (and respond to) all the communication at a glance.

Keep your direct messages directly in front of you
Keep your direct messages directly in front of you

What else are you doing with those talent pages? Do you have a favorite that we should follow? Let us know at support@socialnewsdesk.com, @SocialNewsDesk and @RMorrisSND.

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