How to Execute Social Media Takeovers

Social media, by nature, is about hitting the moments. Managing a social media presence involves striking a balance between spontaneity and meticulous planning. As a result, we curate everything. We stay in control.

What happens when we give up that control, for just a bit?

At Litmus, we run an employee takeover of our Instagram each month, where I relinquish control of my domain to someone else-all the while biting my nails. While there's plenty of different applications of a social media takeover, we use it to show off our amazing employees and our remote-first culture. Since the majority of Litmus works remotely, it's a great way to involve the whole company and give our followers behind-the-scenes access to what it's like to work for us.

Whether you're asking influencers, employees or customers to take over your profile, here are some tips on making sure your social media takeovers stay compelling and on brand, even if you're not doing the executing:

Start With the Experts

When we first began our employee social media takeovers, we set the stage by using our marketing team-already proficient in Instagram-to establish some best practices and work out any kinks. This allowed us to establish how takeovers work and what kinds of stories work best.

I'll close out our first #employeetakeover with this very fitting mural near my Airbnb in Amsterdam. I'm incredibly fortunate to do what I love in an industry I love among a community I love. I'm lucky enough to blend work and travel without sacrificing productivity or opportunity. Cheers, Justine . . . #amsterdam #litmuslife #wework #dowhatyoulove

A photo posted by Litmus (@litmusapp) on Jun 3, 2016 at 2:13pm PDT

When asking employees to take over, make sure they're comfortable with the platform first. When you live and breathe social media every day, it can be hard to remember that someone might not be as familiar. Make sure you're on hand to walk any new or novice users through everything they need to know. Otherwise, stick to those familiar with the platform and audition folks by looking at their personal handles.

Build a Framework to Be Consistent

For each social media takeover, we established a framework that everyone could follow. For the first post, we ask users to post a selfie (or portrait) to introduce who they are, what they do at Litmus and a fun fact about themselves.

We also sign every post with co-tags (^XX), just as we do when responding to prospects and customers throughout social media. This makes it feel like the response is truly coming from that person and ultimately making the social connection more humanizing.

@joon82 Woohoo! Super glad you're enjoying it, Kristian. ^JM

- Litmus (@litmusapp) October 3, 2016

Here's a breakdown of our framework:

• Post No. 1 is a selfie or portrait and introduction.















Hey y'all! I'm Erin (@ultra_k), and I'm the Email Marketing Manager here at Litmus-which means I create emails about email for other #emailgeeks. It's a pretty awesome gig. I'm doing an "employee takeover" of the Litmus Instagram account this week, giving you a behind the scenes look at what it's like to work at Litmus. # As a full-time remote employee living in Alexandria, VA (just south of Washington, DC), I like having the freedom to take my home office outside sometimes. When the weather is nice like it is today, I'll take my laptop out to my yard in the morning and catch up on emails and chat with the Marketing team while I drink my coffee. Getting to hang out with my foxy-dog, Roxie, is a big perk, too! ^EK . . . #litmuslife #remotelife #remotework #employeetakeover #remotefirst #makeemailbetter #roxiedog




A photo posted by Litmus (@litmusapp) on Jun 27, 2016 at 8:27am PDT











• Posts No. 2-4 can vary, but we ask employees to include snapshots of your day, whether that's a team meeting, views from their workstation, lunchtime, family, pets or any other highlights that happen, such as attending an event.















The one thing I missed most about switching from commuting to work to remote working was … the commute. Wait, hear me out! When I started working remotely I got into the habit of rolling out of bed and straight to work. I started to miss that little lull I used to get before work, where I sat on the tube (London Underground) to work and lost myself in a book for an hour. # So now I get up a little bit earlier and give myself some extra time to myself in the mornings. Breakfast and a good book. It's also helped me have a bit of separation between home life and work life, which I found I needed working from home. # Currently I'm reading Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith. Only a quarter of the way in, but enjoying it so far! If anyone's got any book recommendations, I'd love to hear them. ^JM . . . #litmuslife #employeetakeover #makeemailbetter #emailgeeks #flatlay #remotelife #remoteworking #remoteworker #breakfast #kindle #remote #remotework #morningroutine




A photo posted by Litmus (@litmusapp) on Aug 23, 2016 at 2:20am PDT











• Post No. 5 finishes the employee takeover by thanking our followers and mentioning their personal handle, if applicable. We then tease the employee social media takeover for the following month.

I'm closing out my first #employeetakeover with a picture of Edinburgh - where @taylahd (Litmus' customer support extraordinaire) and I are spending a few days post-TEDC before we head back to Boston. . My time in London was amazing - the conference was inspiring and it was so nice to spend time with the Litmus London gang. But, now it's time for a little time off to explore a new city. I'm liking what I'm seeing so far! . Thanks for following along the past few days! Hope to see some of you at TEDC Boston or San Fran. . Cheers, Lauren