Advice From the Front Lines on Branding Via Social Media

The American Red Cross empowers its staff and volunteers to advance the brand via social networks by:

• drafting guidelines for discussing the organization online;
• developing guidelines that will help chapters establish official presences with proper guidelines; and
• giving internal training, e.g., a social media 101 class.

Harman added that staff at her organization create a daily "social-media update e-mail" that contains the most relevant mentions of the day, to keep anyone who wants to receive it aware of what's being said about the organization out there.