Remote Social Media Teams: How to Communicate Effectively

Intro

In 2023, many social media teams are working remotely, either part- or full-time. Not only did many companies retain a hybrid or WFH policy post-pandemic. Offering fully remote work also lets teams attract the greatest talent the job market has to offer.

However, coordinating a remote social media team can be challenging. Especially when it comes to communication.

How can you make sure that everyone is on the same page? That workflows run smoothly? How can you minimize friction losses and misunderstandings?

Here are seven tools and strategies you can harness to communicate effectively with your remote social media team.

Settle on a single document collaboration system

(Source: Freepik)

To begin with, you need to decide on one document collaboration platform for everyone to stick to. Yes, this is basic. Nevertheless, many teams still lose too much time by sending documents back and forth and converting them between file formats unnecessarily.

Opt for a single cloud-based document collaboration system that allows you to share, co-create, and co-edit text documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. No matter if it’s a Q2 wrap-up, a strategy presentation, or the annual report, just having one central system makes it so much easier to generate a cohesive document with a minimum of frustration.

Currently, the most common cloud-based solutions are Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. Both offer a variety of file types and integrate with a large number of other business apps.

Prioritize cloud-based solutions

Talking about cloud-based solutions, you should prioritize them for as many of your workflows as possible, not just document sharing.

File storage, graphic design, video editing. Sophisticated cloud-based tools exist for all of these. And they make the lives of remote teams so much easier.

For instance, say one of your team members is drawing up a graphic for an Instagram reel or post about a testimonial for your latest product. If they do it in Photoshop on their personal laptop, only they can work on it. And if they get sick or are otherwise unavailable, you’re left hanging.

The more efficient solution is to use a cloud-based design tool such as Canva. Your entire team has access to all the designs. And as long as you name your files and projects right, everyone can find and edit whatever they need.

Try asynchronous meetings

Next up, consider switching to asynchronous video calls, especially if you have team members across different time zones.

Video calls are a great way for team members to interact, share ideas, show off their latest designs, get feedback on complex concepts, and bond. However, they also swallow up massive amounts of time. And they can be difficult to arrange, in particular if your team is international.

Asynchronous meetings, in contrast, allow you to record your contribution as a video clip - screen shares included - and then share it via a simple link. The rest of your team can then watch it when they have time. Plus, they can check the automated transcript for the most interesting bits of information, speed your clip up or slow it down, and react via comments or a video of their own.

This allows you to effectively communicate much more, and more complex information than an email, but eliminates the need to find a time that works for everyone to set up a video call.

Centralize your business telephony

Another excellent way to increase your communication efficiency is to get a central business phone service.

Like many other tools on this list, modern business phone services are typically cloud-based. That means your team can access them from anywhere, no matter where they are located.

Plus, they come with many more channels than just plain voice calls. Video calls, instant messaging, live chat, and email are also often included.

In addition, many providers also offer nifty additional features, often based on artificial intelligence, to make your life easier. For example, some services come with automatic call transcripts and call summaries. This makes keeping meeting minutes a breeze.

Leverage message-based team collaboration

(Source: Freepik)

Are you tired of endless email chains? And missing crucial messages because someone forgot to hit “reply all”?

Then you might want to switch to message-based team collaboration tools instead. During the last few years, Slack and Discord in particular have emerged as strong contenders in this field. And for good reason.

These tools allow you to efficiently structure communication between team members. While you can direct-message someone, most exchanges are structured into channels.

For example, say you have a working group in your team that’s charged with drawing up a new strategy for short-form video content, in response to a possible TikTok ban in the US. Instead of having the members of this working group email each other, you can set up a Slack channel for them to exchange messages and share documents. That way, nobody will have to worry about missing out on important information.

Harness project management suites

If you’re working on bigger or more complex projects, or you have to coordinate a larger team, consider leveraging a project management tool.

These come with more sophisticated functionalities than the collaboration tools above. They let you assign roles, specify deadlines, set up dependencies between tasks, and clarify workflows.

Each team member will see the tasks assigned to them and the date by which they have to be completed. Plus, if you want to check in on the status of a project, you can easily visualize it as a Kanban board or a Gantt chart.

Select the best remote social media management tool

Finally, there is the social media management tool you use. In a remote team, selecting the tool that’s best suited to your needs can be a bit tricky. There are different priorities.

Consider how many users different tools allow at different plans. Whether you can specify workflows and different permissions for different roles. If it’s possible to save and edit drafts and leave comments and suggestions.

This might sound basic, but many great social media management tools actually don’t include these functionalities and are therefore less well-suited for remote teams.

Conclusion

Working as part of a remote team can be a great experience for motivated social media experts. And you can assemble a fantastic, driven, and productive team to take your business' social media game to the next level.

That is, as long as communication works smoothly.

By integrating the tools and strategies above into your workflows, you’ll be able to ensure just that. It will help you to minimize frustration, miscommunication, and friction losses. And make sure that your entire team can work towards your common goals in sync.