Don't have time to read?
Check out this audio version of our blog, also found on your favorite podcast platform!
Publishing already has enough challenges; switching from native to in-app doesn't have to be one of them
When anyone goes to publish a post on any form of social media, there are numerous things to consider: Am I using the proper lighting? Is this joke going to hit the right audience? Is this even the right place to post this type of content? When it comes to brands posting content on their various platforms, they have answered all those questions and still have to answer more.
Creating a new social marketing campaign with various teams working at different paces can quickly feel like wrangling cats. Some brands can find a hash dash system to publish their campaigns; using a disjointed system could be ignoring a core efficiency tenant. Centralizing most final processes makes for a smoother publishing experience.
Two teams, two solutions, one challenge
Let's, for a moment, imagine two social marketing teams. For this example, they are identical in scale, scope, a team size of fifteen people, and budgets. They use the same social media and are launching a new Instagram campaign.
Their primary targets are tech-savvy 20-30 years with a high level of disposable income. Both teams decide to run three posts and a reel. Both teams currently use Khoros, but Team A publishes natively, and Team B uses Khoros to publish strictly through in-app.
Team A: Publishing Natively
Team A could be considered old school, and every aspect of the publication process is facilitated through a mixture of emails, Slack pings, and mobile publishing. The only time Team A uses the Khoros platform is for basic analytics. This process can sometimes work for smaller teams not looking to scale.
Brands generally have one shot at fostering positive customer engagement in the sea of social media noise. Given Team A's larger size, this could be viewed as treading a fine line between success and missing the boat. Without even realizing it, the simple act of getting a few Instagram posts published can transform into a confusing web of governance routing, content creation deadlines, and lost analytics.
Governance:
Saving face is essential for any brand. In our hyper-connected world, all it takes is one mistimed or unsavory post to start a social media firestorm. Team A's social media managers simply post content with limited approval. The upper management team will either leave it up or strike it down if they deem it distasteful to the brand's reputation via pinging the social media managers through Slack. Team A's governance strategy ends in questionable posts going out into the world, and at times the brand's reputation receives intense customer pushback.
Content Publication Timelines:
Spreadsheets have long been Team A's source for accounting, data tracking, and for to track their publication calendars. When it comes to publishing content on time, spreadsheets and other publication methods plainly show their potential downfalls.
Most spreadsheet scheduling issues can be attributed to human error. Instagram's scheduling system makes it possible to plan out a full calendar of posts for a campaign in advance. Team A's social media managers can easily forget to input planned posts on their brand calendar or spreadsheet to schedule a post on Instagram, resulting in valuable publishing time lost.
Analytics:
Data in today's world is worth its weight in gold. Understanding your campaign without correctly updated analytics is like trying to walk through a hedge maze blindfolded. It is possible to manually keep track of all analytics using Instagram's own analytical tools, but it's also possible to miss a key metric.
Team A uses the Khoros platform to track their basic analytics, but most of the team's campaign is published natively. Still, by publishing this way, several of their Instagram posts end up not syncing with the Khoros platform and are left with missing analytics.
Communication:
Cross-functional communication can be a challenge for any team working in social marketing. Coordinating between the social media managers, the photographers working on the campaign, copywriters, and upper management for approval isn't just attempting to herd cats but instead trying to run a whole feline circus.
Team A's social media managers haven't shared the primary brand Instagram account password with anyone but each other. The photographers aren't uploading their photos on time, and posts are getting approved either after the post has gone live or in a Slack thread spanning four users and 50 or more messages.
In short, Team A's communication system is disjointed and inefficient and leaves the team open to employees posting without approval or the proper brand voice being shared.
Revenue:
As an old poker player would say, you never gamble with your own money. Sadly, our hypothetical Team A is not only using their own money, they're actively betting on a losing hand. Finding the right balance of cost to benefit is becoming increasingly difficult in the digital social market. One website or channel is viral one day is forgotten the next day.
Team A's "old-school" style of publishing and digesting analytics means their missing key metrics that would better inform their digital strategy and when to tighten or loosen the marketing purse strings. Team A would have lost over a month using an outdated social trend that decreased their customer sentiment and their customer's willingness to buy their product. Now, the original budget for a new campaign is out the window.
Team B: Publishing In-App
Team B has fully incorporated the Khoros platform in its marketing and publishing process. Instead of having their team's publishing process scattered across six phones, twenty people, and four different accounts, they have one single login for all team members in the Khoros platform.
Their governance process is baked into the publishing process of any post published using the Khoros platform. Both the calendar and governance are now centrally operated, and Team B is not beholden to one password known by a single social media manager.
Team B's easy access to analytics ensures that all campaigns are tracked correctly, and they are never betting their budgets on projects that may or not work. Instead of waiting for weeks after a campaign has been completed to see the levels of success, their metric tracking from in-app publishing gives them the knowledge to better plan the next campaign and make sure they're putting the right budget to work.
In short, while Team B and Team A are identical in size, campaigns, and scope, Team B has centralized its publishing process by using the Khoros platform to its full potential.
Now that you have a good overview of the differences between publishing natively and using the Khoros platform, deepen your knowledge with these additional resources and videos.
- Subscribe to the Khoros Marketing Blog
- Using Khoros to publish to Instagram via mobile
- An in-depth guide to approval paths
- Housing and adding new social accounts
