Strategy

How To Run a Successful Social Media Takeover: Tips and Tricks

Published on October 24, 2022

A social media takeover is a great example of a win-win situation – both for you, the brand, and the person you collaborate with. You get more eyes on your account while they get a boost in their engagement as well. This article talks about the various benefits of a social media takeover, including the best tips on how to make it successful.

It seems like everybody is on social media these days – right from household brands to large enterprises. So, how do you distinguish yourself from this vast ocean of brands?

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By constantly trying new things that keep your audience engaged. And a social media takeover is a perfect example of this!

But what exactly is a social media takeover? How does it help, and how do you make it successful? Let’s find out!

What is a Social Media Takeover?

A social media takeover is the act of collaborating with someone and basically handing over the reins of your brand’s account to them for a particular period of time. It can be anyone – an influencer, an industry leader, your employee, or even a customer.

You are essentially allowing them to “take over” your account for a while and engage with your audience.

Benefits of a Social Media Takeover

Apart from giving you an opportunity to collaborate with influencers or key opinion leaders (KOLs), hosting a social media takeover has several other benefits, too.

#1 More eyes on your brand

Whenever you collaborate with influencers or KOLs, your audience tends to increase since they come with their own set of followers who are bound to tune in to the takeover.

Moreover, influencers often have a niche audience as well, so not only do you get more eyes on your brand, you also get exactly the kind of audience you want to attract – people who are interested in your niche!

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#2 Increased engagement

Social media takeovers are often very interactive events that end up drawing more people. Not only that, they also tend to be more authentic than curated posts.

This, along with the cross-collaboration ends up giving your brand a major boost in engagement, increasing your brand awareness.

#3 New type of content

Social media takeovers give you the chance to break out of your mold and put forth new types of content that end up creating buzz. For example, you can give the influencers early access to your products and have them hold an interactive Q and A session about it with your followers. Or you could invite an industry professional and have them explain about the benefits of your products. This would work especially well with beauty/ tech products.

Or you could simply let an employee take the audience on a behind-the-scenes tour where they explain how things are made!

#4 Build trust in your product

When an influencer collaborates with a brand, it is understood that they believe in the brand. This is because influencers operate on trust and typically don’t endorse products they personally don’t like.

So, a social media takeover by an influencer automatically means they endorse your product which convinces new followers of your brand’s authenticity.

8 Steps On How To Run a Successful Social Media Takeover

#1 Define your goals and expectations

The first step is knowing why you want to host a social media takeover and what you expect to get out of it. Do you want to increase product sales? Get subscribers to your newsletter? An increase in followers? Give your audience information about a new product?

Clearly defining this and setting reasonable metrics for success will help you get that much closer to achieving it.

#2 Choose who will take over your account

Based on your goals, you should choose who will be ideal for your takeover. It could be an influencer in your niche or an industry expert who can shed some light on your products! For example, if you are a skincare brand, you can invite a renowned dermatologist to talk about the positive effects of your products on the skin.

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If you want to do something really different, you could have one of your employees or even one of your customers take over and have them talk about their personal experiences with your brand!

#3 Choose a format for your takeover

Will the influencer be interacting with your audience through stories? Or will they go live? Or will they create their own posts and interact with your followers through that?

Again, choosing a format depends a lot on your goals and whatever your influencer is comfortable with doing. For example, if you are planning on doing an interactive Q and A session, you could pick either stories or live streaming.

#4 Come up with a plan of action

The next step is coming up with a detailed plan of action.

Going over the content guidelines and tone of voice. What will the influencer be talking about? Have they made themselves familiar with your brand voice? Are there any things that they should absolutely not mention?
How long will the takeover last? Will the influencer need to be present at your office?
How will you provide guidance to the influencer throughout the takeover?

At the same time, don’t set too many limitations and also encourage the influencer to use their personal tone to add authenticity.

#5 Create a unique hashtag

Having a dedicated hashtag for the takeover will help you promote the event and reach a lot more people. Even people who don’t follow you or the influencer might end up tuning it.

So, come up with a hashtag that lets people know who the collaborators are!

#6 Promote the takeover

Start promoting the event at least a week before. Create some posters with all the details and use the unique hashtag you created. Get the influencer to promote it on their pages, too. Encourage people to set a reminder. Give them a tease of what is going to happen at the takeover.

#7 Hand over the reins

Now that everything is set, the only thing left is to hand over the passwords to your account. Make sure you do it only an hour or so before the takeover. Use a password manager to send the login details securely to the influencer. Once the takeover is complete, revoke their access.

If you are not comfortable with a password handover, you can add them to your social media management tool and limit their permissions. This way, you won’t have to give them sensitive information.

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Another option is to have them pre-deliver the content to you. This method obviously has the risks of seeming too scripted or not authentic enough. Moreover, this will also reduce the chances of a live interaction. But it could work in some cases: such as when you are only going to hold a Q and A session via story stickers.

#8 Analyze the results

Once everything has been done and dusted, the final step is to analyze the results and compare them with your goals. Did you achieve what you wanted to achieve? Were there things that you wish you could have done differently? How did the audience react? You can use social media analytics tools to make this step easier for you.