SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Social Media — tracks feedback from leading marketers about social media practices and issues.
This week, we asked: Do you use a dashboard to manage your social media content?
- No: 58.91%
- Yes: 41.09%
I was a little surprised by this report, featured in last Wednesday’s issue of SmartBrief on Social Media, that some brands are shying away from using dashboards to handle their social presences.
I love dashboards. I use HootSuite to manage the @SBoSM account, and it makes my job infinitely easier than it would be with Twitter’s native client. Dashboards make it easier to monitor response activity, keep up with key lists, schedule updates and track performance. I will confess, however, that they can have a dark side.
The trouble with dashboards can come if you allow them to make you lazy — if you stop monitoring as carefully as you should or if you just set up your message for the day and then step away. Social networks are fast-paced places, and it’s easy to be overtaken by events if you’re complacent. That can lead to you publishing updates that are, at best, irrelevant and, at worst, potentially offensive.
If you’re part of the majority of SmartBrief on Social Media readers who isn’t using a dashboard, give one a spin and see how it can change your workflow — but keep that vigilance and attention to detail that has served you so well thus far.