I like to build my work resources with one thought in mind: if I disappeared tomorrow, could somebody else easily and quickly figure out what I do?

Dramatic? Mayhaps. (Definitely.) I mean, I haven’t disappeared yet. But I could. (I won’t.)

Why am I like this? 

I spent years working at film festivals, where the only way to pass knowledge on to the short-term seasonal workers, and the only way to remember anything year over year, was through intensely detailed post-mortems and internal documentation. Imagine if you only did a job for 11 days a year. Would you really remember everything from a whole year prior when you can’t even remember what you had for breakfast last week? When you could instead have a nice, detailed manual to refer to? Exactly.

Plus I just really like being organized and everything is better when it's colour-coded.

…Also I have ADHD. (There it is). 

Cool Siân, but, what does this have to do with social roles/teams? 

I've been working on social teams in companies of various sizes for over 5 years and the internal documentation and resources varied from “what’s a resource, lol” to “eh, this is alright but could be better.” Is this because a lot of social teams are built and managed by people who have little to no experience in social media and don't actually know what's needed? Most likely. Or it could be like the one job I had where the person I replaced deliberately kept everything squirrelled away in their brain because they didn't want anyone else to "steal" their incredible ideas. (Yes, it was a white man, how did you know. ) 

How can we battle this lack of knowledge? By building resources! 

In my most recent role, I found myself the de facto head of my department (because even a department of one has a head) and prioritized building a comprehensive database for all things community management and social media. My goal was to make the job easier—mine, my direct and indirect teammates', and the company's. 

I did that by building a few different resources that you can build too:  

• A main brain-station/database that breaks down everything in your role/team, like admin tools, a resource library, how-to guides, tasks, goals, historical notes/feedback, etc…

• An internal, company-facing "101 guide" with a high-level overview on what you do. 

• A social media style/technical guide that provides an overview of how the social strategy gets applied practically and platform best practices

• A coverage outline/plan to hand-off when you're on vacation/away for an extended period of time. 

Yes, it's a lot of work. But, honestly? It's so worth it. Resources like this are essential because they: 

• Give your brain a rest so you don't have to remember and keep track of literally everything. 

• Centralize everything so it's not scattered across different places/programs. 

• Are extra valuable in remote-work settings and working across different time zones.

• Act as an onboarding tool so future-you doesn't have to work as hard to train someone.

• And from a business/security standpoint, they're just common sense and practical.

"But what if I build these databases so then the company doesn't need me anymore and they fire me?" One, that's a shit company anyway, so good riddance. But two, at the end of the day these resources aren't, and never will be, job replacements. They're job helpers. And us social media folks need all the help we can get.