By Bob Speyer and Justin Delos Reyes – Web Success Team

Teamwork is essential to the success of every brand’s online presence. It involves collaboration between groups of people with different skills, personalities, and expertise. Online marketers, for instance, collaborate with PR specialists, programmers, webmasters, advertisers, and traditional marketers, when they are hired to meet a brand’s social media goals.

One of the difficulties that teams run into is poor communication. Communication can break down for several reasons. When it does, the client is left to deal with the results. The upside to this hurdle is that it can be repaired or overcome. Here are some tips on how to keep your team, and the teams you are working with, focused on your client’s objectives.

Check Egos at the Door
Remember this: everyone has something unique to bring to the table. Find a way to utilize each team’s strengths. If you believe your team has a great idea, fight to have it carried out. But you should also keep an open mind about the suggestions other teams have. Genuinely acknowledge and consider their ideas to give your client the best possible results.

Determine Each Team’s Responsibilities
Before a project begins each team should have a clear understanding of what their own responsibilities are; and each team should be aware of what the other teams are responsible for as well. You can save everyone a lot of frustration by staying within your boundaries of the project. Take care of what you were hired to do and provide assistance to others when they, or the client, asks you to.

Decide on a Project Manager
There needs to be at least one person that every team can go to for help, to share ideas with, and to express concerns to. He or she needs to be in contact with the client on a regular basis and should be capable of making sound decisions. They also need to be a great listener and be knowledgeable about the product or service the client offers.

Remember Your Client’s Goals
As you get deeper into a project, external factors may throw each team off course. When this happens everyone needs to focus of what the client wants. Refer to what each team was asked to do in the preparation stage of the project and coordinate with each other to devise a plan for moving forward. Meeting once a week or conducting a conference call can really go a long way in terms of keeping everyone focused.

Avoid Burning Bridges
Disagreements and misunderstandings are likely to occur when several teams work on a single project. When the project reaches its completion, tie up all the loose ends before you move on. You don’t want your company to have a reputation for being uncooperative or hard to work with – especially since people can voice their opinions about you through social media. You don’t have to like the people you worked with and they don’t have to like you. But having a mutual respect for each other at the end of a project is the best way to end things.

Let Your Voice Be Heard
What are some of the difficulties you’ve encountered when working with other teams. How did you overcome them?

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