The Social Media Marketer

Social Media Management - Keeping Track of Your Frenemies

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We've all heard the phrase "keep your enemies close - but keep your friends closer."

That was coined because while we all know to watch the activities of our enemies, it's easy to let your guard down among those you consider your friends.

In a perfect world, companies that begin using the wide variety of social media sites on the Internet would have thousands of people who would tweet rapturous messages about their superiority.  We'd all have lots of friends, and everything would be great.

However, just like in life, sometimes those people who we would consider our friends are really enemies in disguise. I heard someone on a sitcom once call those people "frenemies," and that's a phrase that describes these people very well.

Everybody - private citizen or company - needs to worry about their social media management procedures when using websites to make themselves known.  In other words, it's not enough to put your information out there and hope for the best, because sooner or later, those friends you've cultivated so carefully may turn into "frenemies" of your efforts.

It might not be intentional. It could be something as simple as someone putting up an embarrassing photograph - or link to a site that says it's coming back to yours, but instead goes to a site showing the latest starlet's "secretly" released scandal tape.

Sometimes it's worse. Any Twitter user knows how annoying it is to log in and to be delighted to see there are new followers - only to discover that our new friends appear to be ladies of, shall we say, questionable morals.

And then you have the whole disgruntled employee scenario. Anyone can log onto a site, make up a profile and then spread dirt about your company, meaning that this former friend is a "frenemy" after all.

Of course, we can't be online to manage our social media sites all the time. However, when devising your own social media management plans, remember that there are ways to protect those sites and keep those who will hurt it away.

• Enable your privacy settings so the only people who can comment on your site are those who you approve.

• Have someone be responsible for checking the site on a daily basis.

• If the site allows filters, set them up to catch the most obvious curses and slurs.

• Don't allow photos to be posted without your approval.

• Watch what's already up and delete it if you have to.

After all, we try to screen out our "frenemies" in real life. Don't let them ruin your best social media management and marketing efforts.