Are you scared of wicked things that go bump in the night? Social media managers have a lot more to be afraid of than the undead. If you’ve ever wondered what plagues the minds of the world’s social managers when they fall asleep at night, then you’ve come to the right place. Here are the top 4 fears almost every social media manager dreads and a few tips to help face them.

1. Posting From The Wrong Account

Most social media managers are used to ninja-like multi-tasking. Their phones are probably filled with social, graphics, and monitoring apps. Not to mention, access to client’s social accounts are at their fingertips just in case they need to send a tweet on the fly. With constant flipping back and forth between personal and business accounts, one wrong move could easily end up in a sticky situation.

Let’s face it, nothing sends you to amateur town faster than posting your personal tweets to a client’s account by accident.

One way to rid this social fear from your mind is by only managing client accounts from a mobile device designated for work. If the cost of an additional device is out of the company budget, consider the ten-second rule before each post (and no, not the one where you can pick up food that has fallen on the floor and eat it guilt free.) My ten-second rule involves taking ten seconds before you hit the send button to run through a mini-checklist in your mind. Glance at the social profile icon to check to be sure that is the icon of the account you intend to post from, check the profile name, and read through the post two times before hitting send (this will also help you correct any potential grammatical errors.)

2. Misspellings and Grammatical Errors

As much as we all strive to be grammar aficionados unless you have a copy editor reviewing each and every post you send out, the odds are in your favor to commit a grammar offense like the time the Boston Globe reported the FBI investifarted about 70 leads.

There’s no need to fear the grammar police. The ten-second rule will also come in handy here. It might even help to read your message aloud twice before publishing. The ultra-cautious may even want to plan their posts out in advance and have a copywriter review the posts before they are sent. This option is not really realistic for those who want to have a real-time connection with their audience. A brand shows authenticity when they can communicate quickly without the delay of a cautious review as explained perfectly in this LinkedIn Pulse must-read by Tara Hunt.

When all else fails, and you want to take extra precaution, discover Grammarly. Grammarly is a life-saving app that screens every sentence you type for contextual spelling mistakes and common grammar errors. Although we don’t recommend relying too heavily on the app, it’s an exceptional tool to have to double check with real-time speed.

3. Hack Attacks

This social media fear is probably one of the scariest nightmares of all. Mostly, because it’s out of the social media manager’s hands to a certain extent. Even marketing giants like McDonald’s and Burger King have fallen victim to the threat:

One way to take precaution is to change the passwords on all of your social media accounts on a regular basis. If changing passwords sounds like too much effort and too many passwords to remember, at least make your password a series of unique characters, capitalization, symbols, and numbers. Password123 is just not going to cut it. Avoid leaving out any paperwork with passwords written down. Be cautious of where you and those managing your accounts store that information.

Also, be sure to change your social account password anytime an employee or agency moves on from managing your account. The last thing you need is a disgruntled employee tweeting terrible things to sabotage the brand.

Last but not least, only give your passwords out to the people who manage your accounts day in and day out. Unless, they are the person solely responsible for managing the account, they should not have access to the account. For example, a seasoned CEO may mean well when they send out a tweet on behalf of the company, but they may accidently send something off-brand. Think about it this way: Would you let your social media manager put together a finance report on behalf of the company? Probably not.

4. Ad Budget Overspend

There’s not a day that goes by that we aren’t concerned with what’s happening with our client’s hard earned marketing dollars. Any person in charge of managing a budget has nightmares of witnessing an $7K overspend like this:

Always be cautious when setting an ad budget on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest. Save this task for a time of day when you can devote your undivided attention to the campaign creation process.

One way to take prevent overspending is to create a monthly budget for your social ads on each platform. When the times comes to set a budget, choose the “Lifetime” or  “Total” budget option. This option will automatically stop ad spend when the budget reaches its max limit. It’s not a bad idea to set a daily budget in addition to the lifetime budget. This will ensure that each day you only spend a certain amount of money. To set a daily budget, take the total monthly budget and divide it by however many days you have left in the month.

Since this is my personal biggest social media fear, I type out a monthly budget for each client’s ad account and leave space next to the budget total to record weekly budget checks. This helps me ensure the budgets are spending the exact amount needed to reach campaign goals. Ad checks are also beneficial for making adjustments to ad copy and imagery to improve the ad’s relevance and CTR. Nothing feels better than bringing a high CPC down to pennies on the dollar.

Moral of the story: Never set it and forget it! Watch your ad campaigns like a hawk to spend wisely.

Don’t let social media fears wake you up in the middle of the night. Put each of these tips into practice to significantly decrease threats and panic mode, or get in touch with our team to have the backup support you need to keep social media fears from creeping up. Are there any fears we left out that make you tremble in your desk chair? Share your fear in the comments section below, and we will help you find a way face it.