Posted 04.18.2024 by Josh Krakauer

The Complete Guide to Enterprise Social Media Strategy

Is your enterprise social media strategy up to the standards in 2024? Let's take a look and find out.

When you hear enterprise social media, what comes to mind?

Big. Complex. Multinational. Diversified. Regulated?

There isn’t a universally accepted threshold that determines when a business is technically considered an “enterprise” organization, but we can call enterprise social media marketing by what it actually is: Different.

One key distinction from smaller brand social media marketing is program scale and scope. Enterprise social media often involves managing more social media accounts, diverse content requirements, and coordinating strategies across a larger number of departments.

Love it or hate it, the word “stakeholder” will come up a whole lot more.

Luckily – as a B2B social media agency with experience inside enterprise brands like Atlassian, Schneider Electric, and Uber — it’s one of our favorite subject matters.

In this article, we’ll walk you through the key factors to consider when building and managing a social media strategy for an enterprise-scale brand.

From defining your goals to selecting the right platforms to measure your results, we’ll give you the tools and insights you need to succeed.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

  1. Approach: Why your enterprise social media program needs a different approach
  2. Steps: Building an enterprise social media strategy
  3. Team: The structure of an enterprise social media marketing team
  4. In-house or agency: Which is best for enterprise social media marketing?
  5. Best practices: How to drive performance in enterprise social media marketing

1. How to approach an enterprise social media program

Welcome to the big leagues.

If you’re used to managing a single-brand social media program, transitioning to an enterprise account can be a significant shift.

It’s not just about dealing with reach on a larger scale, as the purpose, team structure, and budget all require a different approach too.

Team collaboration

Forget about the tight-knit team that would move projects forward with a snap of a finger. You might get there eventually but don’t count on it from the get-go.
Enterprise means thousands of employees, dozens of departments, countless tools, and established processes that must be followed.

In this scenario, the concept of team collaboration is incredibly important, and weekly pep talks won’t get you where you want to be.

At the enterprise level, it’s vital to:

  • Have excellent project managers in place.
  • Make sure there’s a functional documentation process to keep track of everything.
  • Become a master at reporting (up and downstream).

Good practices like app integrations are your friend at this stage too: They’ll save you dozens of hours of menial work, and keep the data stream flowing in the right direction.

Team structure

With social media functions for SMBs, you might find one lead social media manager or a “small but mighty” team handling social media for all channels.

With enterprise social media, the team structure can be far more complex.

Enterprise businesses usually operate in multiple countries, and have organizational structures with several layers of management.

Moreover, you must take into account two key instances before digging deeper into the strategy:

These will help you define the next steps, as they’ll bring clarity to the current state of things.

Budget planning

The budget for an enterprise social media program is typically larger than an SMB social media program, and also more varied.

Enterprise business revenue is typically measured in the billions of dollars per year, so protecting their brand, recruiting new employees, serving customers, and driving growth requires more human and tech resources. All of which means capital resources.

That might mean investing in more sophisticated social media management platforms, analytics tools, and other technologies that service your requirements for compliance and users.

It also means staff, contractors, and specialized agencies to supply services at scale.

And don’t forget about social media advertising to reach your wider net of buyers — you’ll need to allocate a budget for that too!

2. Steps to building an effective enterprise social media strategy

If you’re already working in an enterprise setup, chances are that some of the steps below have already been sorted out.

However, we’re also sure that going through these will strengthen your strategy, either by reinforcing what you’re already doing or by elevating it to a new level.

Develop goals in layers

When developing goals for your enterprise social media program, it’s essential to break them down into layers.
This means setting goals at the country, segment, or department level that ladder up to your overall enterprise social media goals.

Here are some ways to break down your social media goals:

  • By country: This will allow you to measure performance by geography and track progress toward your global enterprise’s social media goals.
  • By segment: This will allow you to measure the effectiveness of campaigns and content that speaks directly to each audience or business segment. To accomplish this, you will need to tag segments at the post level in your reports.
  • By department: If your social media program supports multiple departments, consider setting social media goals for each department. This will allow you to align your social media efforts with each department’s specific goals and objectives, whether it’s customer support, employer branding, and beyond.

Let’s not forget about the most important layer – pillar marketing goals like demand generation, reputation, employer brand, customer experience, and brand building.

Finally, at the global level, all unique channels may roll up their metrics, such as global impressions, engagement, referral traffic, share-of-voice, or leads generated.

Develop a channel strategy and account structure

Your channel strategy should focus on the right social media platforms to reach your target audience and achieve your goals.

Here are the main aspects to consider when developing your channel strategy.

Prioritize your primary channels

Choose your primary social media platforms to focus on (where your target audience is most active and engaged, and your organization is most established).
Your team will likely invest the majority of its resources to keep these channels growing. In most cases, this will be 3-5 channels.

Define your secondary and learning channels

You can expand your presence to other platforms that represent future growth. These may represent < 20% of your team’s time, but may grow as the value is proven.

Leverage multiple handles

Large companies may have dozens or even hundreds of individual social media accounts under their portfolio. (Yes, hundreds!) New accounts should only be developed when an owner is established, resources are committed, and a purpose is defined.

When an organization within the organization has its budget, strategic priorities, and specific audiences to reach, there is a case for creating its accounts. Otherwise, their messages will be lost or avoided in the larger brand account.

Examples of unique accounts under the “larger brand account” umbrella include:

  • Product accounts: Handles for core solutions, sub-brands, and acquired brands.
  • Country accounts: Handles for countries with specific needs (such as localization).
  • Department accounts: Handles for unique business functions like employer branding or customer support.
  • Program accounts: Handles for specific events, communities, or initiatives.

For example, Microsoft has global accounts like @Microsoft, product accounts like @Microsoft365 and @MicrosoftTeams, country accounts like @MicrosoftUK, and department handles like @MicrosoftSupport.

Salesforce has @Dreamforce for its annual conference — a program brand.

Meta created @MetaProsper for its initiative championing API creators.

Develop a content strategy and best practices

Your content strategy will have layers, just like your enterprise social media goals. Here are some considerations to keep in mind when developing your social content strategy.

Create a central guide to social media content

Develop a guide outlining your brand’s standards and strategy for social.
This guide should be shared with everyone who creates social media content for your enterprise, including social media managers, content creators, agencies, and customer support representatives.

Individual content strategies will vary for each brand account. However, you may decide to include standards for global marketing like key brand pillars or campaigns as a guide.

Define brand voice standards

I’ll say it here: Your detailed social media brand voice guidelines are overkill when you’re a team of one.

However, they become essential as the number of content creators grows.

Your guide will be a collaboration with the brand or comms team and include word choices, messaging pillars you promote, and stylization of your writing across platforms.

You’ll thank us later!

Choose your visual brand identity guidelines

Your social media content should also reflect your brand’s visual identity, and at the least, avoid confusing consumers and clashing with other marketing or doing harm.

These guidelines may include your color palette, typography, and graphic elements

Are you stuck on where to start? Companies like Slack and Asana have made their visual and written branding guidelines public. You can use theirs as inspiration for your own.

Consider audience geography and culture

Remember that your content may differ depending on the geography and culture of your target audience.
For example, how Microsoft-US communicates with its audience may differ from how Microsoft-Asia communicates with its audience.

Be mindful of these differences and tailor your content accordingly.

Now, on to amplification.

Amplify your strategy

Large brands with well-established channels also experience the power of reach-crushing algorithm updates on channels like Facebook, Instagram, X, and LinkedIn (no one is safe).

Social media amplification is all about maximizing the distribution of your content through organic and inorganic methods. With these, enterprise brands may have an advantage over smaller competitors with scrappy teams but limited budgets.

More people and more budget equates to more reach.

Here are some opportunities to consider for enterprise social media programs:

Invest in always-on and campaign boosting (social media advertising)

Social media advertising helps you reach the people you care about at a larger scale.

Enterprise-scale companies have sophisticated demand generation and digital advertising teams. But those ads won’t help your “always-on” posts stand a chance at organic reach.

Instead, fight for a dedicated budget for boosting organic posts to achieve your social media goals more quickly, and reach specific audience groups more effectively.

Leverage employee advocates

Your workforce is an underappreciated marketing asset. Build a program to empower your employees to share your social media content with their own networks. (Or at least, the ones who already care and share.)

Employee advocacy can help you grow followers and reach a hard-to-reach audience.

Partner with influencers

Consider partnering with influencers and creators who can help you reach your target audience and carry your message in compelling ways.

When selecting influencers, be sure to choose those who have both a substantial and engaged following.

Repurpose content

Repurpose your social media content for use on other marketing channels, such as email newsletters, blogs, and website content.

This works both ways – you can also repurpose websites, blogs, webinars, and other content assets into social media content.

By amplifying your social media strategy through social media advertising, employee advocacy, influencer partnerships, and content repurposing, you can maximize the impact of your social media efforts and achieve your enterprise’s social media goals more effectively.

Tools & rules: Publish, measure, and analyze

Once you have your strategy in place, it’s time to implement, measure, and analyze your social media performance.

This has implications for your workflow and your social media management platform.

The job of the centralized social media team is often described as setting the “tools and rules.”

Here are some considerations to keep in mind when selecting an Enterprise Social Media Management platform and developing a process that works for all stakeholders.

Compliance with local policies

Ensure that your social media strategy and brand messaging comply with local policies and regulations in the countries and counties where you operate as well as corporate standards.

Be aware of any restrictions or guidelines that may impact your social media efforts, such as GDPR.

Approval structure

Establish an approval structure for social media content.

This may involve a social media marketing lead who approves all content before it’s shared, stakeholders to consult when there’s a legal inquiry, and so on.

This can help ensure that your social media content is aligned with your brand tone and voice (and avoids a PR crisis).

Asset management

Large organizations generate thousands (if not millions) of shareable files, and eventually use an enterprise Digital Asset Management tool to organize them.

Determine naming conventions, appropriate folders for assets, and the level of access for each team member.

Your social media assets should be easily accessible and manageable for everyone who works with them.

Monitoring

Enterprise social media monitoring is easier with tools that track channels and metrics to identify areas for improvement.

Moreover, they’re vital for your reporting cycles, so make sure that you’re producing consistent results that match the reality of what’s happening.

Measurement and reporting

Use social media analytics tools to measure the effectiveness of your social media strategy.

Track metrics like engagement, reach, and conversions to understand how your social media efforts contribute to your broader business goals.

Employee and executive advocacy

An employee advocacy program at its simplest enables employees to share company content on their own channels to spread awareness. Some enterprise SMM tools build these features into the platform.

In addition, consider creating an executive social media program as well to increase the reach, impact, and visibility of your brand’s senior leaders.

Examples of enterprise social media management tools

Some of our recommended tools (that we’ve used) include:

  • Sprout Social.
  • Brandwatch.
  • Sprinklr.
  • Khoros.

Enterprise social media solutions won’t make or break your strategy. However, they can save the enterprise significant time, make tactics possible, and empower you with data.

Community management and social listening

Managing your social media community and listening to what your audience has to say is what separates the good from the great in social media marketing – and this extends to the enterprise realm as well.

Here are some considerations to keep in mind for your enterprise social media management program.

Distinguish customer care from audience engagement

Listening and response work serves different purposes and involves different roles.

Set up your team for success by developing workflows for customer support scenarios that integrate with existing solutions and tag in the right people quickly.

This leaves the remaining engagement to be handled by community managers, who might strike a different tone.

Monitor your social media channels for opportunities

Monitor your social media channels regularly for both reactive and proactive engagement opportunities. With reactive, your goal is to monitor brand mentions to identify net promoters, or customer complaints or concerns.

Respond to these concerns promptly and effectively to show your customers that you care about their needs and are committed to providing excellent customer service.

Encourage engagement

You can ask questions, solicit feedback, and respond to comments.

This can help you build a strong, engaged social media community that supports your enterprise’s social media goals.

The key to this is not to ask away, but to do it with purpose, and following the pulse of your community.

Use social media listening tools

You can listen natively or use powerful social listening tools to monitor social media conversations about your brand and industry.

This can help you stay current on trends and identify opportunities to engage with your target audience.

Measure your community engagement

Use social media analytics tools to measure your community engagement with reactions, comments, and shares.

The goal is simple – to understand how your social media community is engaging with your content and identify growth opportunities.

The structure of an enterprise social media marketing team

Enterprise social media marketing teams are organized to operate at a larger scale. But how should that team look?

Here are three common orientations for the social media team inside of a large company.

Centralized team model

A centralized social media team supports the whole enterprise with strategy and execution.

When another team needs social media campaign support, the request filters through this internal agency.

As the center of excellence for the entire organization, they are responsible for creating the tools and rules, such as templates, strategy decks, and guidance that other departments can use.

They also manage the global social media channels and direct the content strategy.

Commonly, they rely on a network of agencies and content producers to support specific campaigns and specialized initiatives.

Decentralized team model

In a decentralized social media marketing structure, a social media team or manager supports each department or business unit directly.

They work closely with the department or business unit to develop and implement social media strategies that align with their specific goals and objectives.

In this model, you trade off brand consistency for speed of execution.

Hybrid team model

A hybrid model combines two or more different models or approaches — like employing a centralized team for global brand strategy and policies, and country teams for localized social media management.

Hybrid could also represent using both an in-house social media team with an external social media agency for execution.

In that instance, the in-house team could handle day-to-day social media management tasks, like posting content and engaging with followers, while the agency could provide strategic guidance, create social media campaigns, or offer expertise in areas like social media advertising or influencer marketing.

Functional roles and responsibilities within the enterprise social media team

Let’s get to the people part. When building your enterprise social media marketing team in any model, it’s important to define the functional roles and responsibilities of each team member.

Here are the five common functional roles within an enterprise social media team:

  • Strategy: Responsible for developing and implementing your strategy. This includes defining social media goals, identifying target audiences, selecting social media channels, developing content strategies, and measuring the effectiveness of social media efforts.
  • Community management: Responsible for managing your social community. This includes monitoring social media channels for customer concerns, responding to comments and questions, and engaging with social media followers to build strong relationships.
  • Content production: Responsible for creating social media content that supports the strategy. This includes developing content calendars, creating content that resonates with target audiences, and collaborating with designers, videographers, creators, and camera talent to produce engaging social media content.
  • Paid advertising: Responsible for developing and executing social media advertising campaigns. This includes identifying target audiences, selecting social media channels, developing ad creatives, and measuring the effectiveness of social media advertising efforts.
  • Measurement and analysis: Responsible for measuring and analyzing the effectiveness of your social media efforts. This includes tracking social media metrics, identifying areas for improvement, and developing reports that communicate social media performance to key stakeholders.

In-house or agency: which choice is best for enterprise social media marketing?

Finding the right balance between internal and external resources is a challenge where previous experiences and preconceptions play a huge (and not always justified) role.

While both options offer advantages, there is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to managing social media for your brand.

Managing all five social media roles is a tall order for a single social media manager without tactical support.

In an ideal scenario, your agency shouldn’t work in isolation either. The best approach is to leverage an external resource’s flexibility and the internal team’s connectivity with customers and products.

This means the agency should collaborate with the in-house social media manager to provide audience research, content strategy frameworks, process improvements, and timely opportunities.

Alternatively, if the in-house team is comfortable with the strategy, the agency should be responsible for creating batches of scheduled content and providing paid support for growth goals.

The choice doesn’t have to be one or the other – it’s all about playing to strengths and giving credit where it’s due.

By collaborating with an external agency, your in-house team can tap into their expertise while retaining control over the overall social media strategy.

Here are some of the responsibilities that both in-house and agency teams can handle:

Agency

  • Content creation: An agency can handle content creation for your enterprise’s social media channels, including developing content calendars, writing copy, and creating visual content like images, videos, and infographics.
  • Community engagement: Agencies can also be responsible for engaging with their social media audience, responding to comments and questions, and building relationships with their followers.
  • Creatives and strategy: An agency can provide a fresh perspective and creative ideas for your social media strategy, helping you to stay ahead of the curve and stand out from the competition.
  • Performance monitoring: An agency can use social media management tools to track social media metrics and identify areas for improvement.

Brand

  • Content and creative review/approval: The in-house social media team can review and approve the agency’s content and creative assets, ensuring that they align with your brand’s tone and voice.
  • Strategy: The in-house team should oversee the social media strategy, ensuring that it aligns with the broader business goals and objectives.
  • Performance monitoring: The in-house team can monitor social media performance, identify areas for improvement, and make strategic decisions based on the insights gained from social media analytics.
  • Evaluation: The in-house team can conduct regular evaluations of the social media strategy and adjust it as needed to ensure that it continues to support the overall business goals.
  • Integrations: The in-house team is always the best choice when it comes to gluing internal tools together for better, more consistent data flows. Also, there’s less risk of a security breach by developing integrations internally.

Best practices for driving performance in enterprise social media marketing

In summary, here’s the breakdown of what it takes to drive performance with your social media strategy.

Develop a social media guide

It’s the foundation: Create a guide outlining your brand’s tone, voice, and style.

This will help ensure that all social media content is consistent and on-brand.

Also, it doesn’t have to be long, but it should give every person involved a clear understanding of the goals and what is (and isn’t) appropriate to post.

Pro tip: If the social media guide is in place, start by looking at it with fresh eyes, and update it to match the current state of things.

Create a knowledge-sharing culture

Encourage collaboration and learning by establishing a communication channel for all your organization’s social media managers.

Keep in mind that many of them may not be full-time social media professionals, but their unique perspectives and experiences can offer valuable insights across the different departments in your company.

To promote more sharing and learning, set up a regular meeting cadence, use Slack or Microsoft Teams chats, and create an internal newsletter for updates.

This will strengthen your social media strategy and drive better results across the enterprise.

Find your (internal) influencers

Tap into the expertise of your very own team members—look for individuals within your organization who can contribute valuable content or even participate in thought leadership initiatives.

These internal influencers can come from any department or level, and they bring their unique expertise and insights to your social media efforts.

Engage them in casual conversations, ask about their experiences, and encourage them to share their ideas.

By involving these key players, you’re not only making your content more authentic and relatable but also fostering a collaborative and creative atmosphere within the company.

Limit barriers that may delay content approval

Have a structured content guideline that sets clear expectations for the type of content that can be published on social media and a clear workflow for content creation, review, and approval.

This can help avoid delays in content approval and ensure that all content is aligned with your brand’s values.

In addition, make the most of automated and semi-automated workflows. Use digital forms that direct answers to stakeholders, create automatic notifications, and leverage all the tools in your arsenal to avoid bottlenecks and delays.

Amplify high-performing posts

Identify the posts that perform the best and amplify them by promoting them with paid advertising. This can help increase reach and engagement with your target audience.

Create a quarterly or monthly planning spreadsheet for performance monitoring

Develop a spreadsheet that tracks key social media metrics on a monthly or quarterly basis. This can help you identify trends and make strategic decisions based on the insights gained from social media analytics.

Key questions to ask before implementing changes

While we are trying to cover everything in this article, chances are that we might be missing a detail or two.

This is where questions come into play. Ask yourself the following questions to complete the analysis of the situation.

  • What social media maturity level has your enterprise reached, realistically?
  • How different does the ideal situation look from the current state of things?
  • What would it take in terms of strategy, team, tools, and budget to reach your goals?

Sure, you’ll likely start by addressing and updating the foundational aspects of your social media strategy, but from there on out, a lot of moving parts will start popping up.

Looking for more social media inspiration?

Learn more about building your social media strategy and using some of the latest tools of the trade with the following resources:

Also, if you’re looking for some actual, real-world inspiration, consider following the accounts below:

Ready to start leveraging the power of enterprise social media marketing for your B2B brand?

Then contact us today, and let us help you level up your efforts!

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Josh Krakauer

Josh Krakauer is the CEO of Sculpt, that B2B social media agency you just discovered. Josh has launched social media campaigns for best-selling books, publicly-traded corporations, and early-stage startups. Josh works from Washington, DC, but still thinks Iowa City is the best city on earth.

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