Twitter has fundamentally changed our lives, whether we like it or not.
And people have written miles of books, blog posts and even tweets about best practices and what matters on Twitter. One of the biggest things that is almost universally agreed upon is to be genuine. So how do we as public relations professionals remain genuine when we’re asked to tweet about a client?
The precedent
Fundamentally you are free to talk about whatever the hell you want with your Twitter stream. It’s your content. It’s your copyright. It’s your reputation.
Your reputation? Yeah, your reputation. You put it on the line each and every time you post something to the public domain. When I hit publish on this post, I was subjecting myself to the judgment of past, present and future employers. It’s the same thing with Twitter.
If your precedent is to include links to client announcements or blog posts, then that’s fine. You’ve willingly shared that information. After all, without clients we wouldn’t be able to pay the electric bill so we could tweet, right? There is a conception that all posts in a social network should be neutral and objective. If you have a relationship, some feel it should be disclosed either up front or by using hash tags or other microsyntax. For example, James Governor from the analyst firm Redmonk uses “$client” to denote posts to his Twitter stream about his paying clients.
And that’s a judgement call you will have to make.
But what about when your employer says you must tweet on a client’s behalf?
Mandated tweeting
I see a potential for conflict when an employer mandates that an employee tweet on its behalf. Making a choice to share the announcement of a project you’ve worked on or a blog post from a co-worker is one thing.
Being told what to tweet and when to tweet it is another beast. The argument is that it’s not genuine. If you don’t want to post it, then why should you be obligated to? I’m all for being a team player. But sometimes you need to protect the community and precedent you have created. I don’t know what the right answer is. So, I’m asking you.
How would you respond to being given a pre-written tweet and being asked to post it? Would you? Why or why not?
My new IRL buddy Kenji Onozawa is running this little series where he shoves a camera into people’s chests faces and talks to them about social media.
This is a great series because it helps put a real person to the avatar. The joys of tweetups, conferences etc… are that they help us realize just who eachother is. Without actual human connections, social media would not exist. I was more than happy to participate in something like this, even though I hate being on camera.
Amazing how time can fly sometimes, isn’t it? I have been guiding the corporate communications strategy for Etelos, Inc. for three years and have put a lot of myself into that role.
But, sometimes change is necessary. New challenges need to be faced and new opportunities need to be tackled. Now is that time for me. I will soon be starting a new opportunity with Right90, which is based in San Mateo, CA and will be running their corporate communications for them.
I am moving on from a great group of people who put everything they have into what they do. I will be joining a team that is ready to expand its reach and has a lot of passion for building its messaging.
What does this mean? It means that I will be heads down focusing on content, content and some more content. It also means that I’ll be looking to you all for suggestions and feedback about what’s working and what’s not.
Do you work for a company that hasn’t yet adopted social media practices? Perhaps you are the one implementing a strategy to stay connected to your audiences. But, what rulesarethere?
As I mentioned recently, social media and social marketing are in their infancies and we are defining the rules. But defining these rules is especially important for companies. Having clear guidelines makes a social media program versatile and transferable. Plus, it will make the lives of compliance officers a bit less stressful.
Don’t be an idiot
Sounds simple enough, right? If you are acting as a representative of a company anywhere that is visible to the general public, act as if your boss is reading over your shoulder (If you’re the boss, act as if your leading investor is over your shoulder). Having a little conscious whispering in your ear while you type should keep you clear.
Keeping a positive focus on the actions of the company should be a priority for the social media practitioner. It shares the spotlight with fostering discussion of the company’s activities.
Maintain your voice
When you operate as the voice of the company, it will be difficult to keep your voice out of the materials you generate — learn to embrace that. You will create “better” content if you keep true to your personal writing style and voice. Copy will come more naturally and your audiences will be able to better relate to it so long as you are being genuine.
Write what you know; write how you know and you’ll be surprised at the results. Plus, you will avoid the leading, unique tendencies to be a ground-breaking leader in your content vertical i.e. “marketing speak.”
Active or passive
When you are creating a content channel, make an overt decision on whether it will actively participate in any discussions that may or may not occur. Of course, I would recommend being an active voice within the community you are trying to create around your service or product. But it is sometimes necessary to broadcast.
What I would avoid, however, is simply being one or the other. If you only broadcast, no discussion, no community occurs. And that defeats the purpose of social media/marketing as a whole. If you are only responding to comments or external discussions, the audience controls the conversation. And, while it is important to participate, it is necessary that you lead the discussion as it relates to your product or service.
To delete or not to delete
Regardless of how you engage, be it broadcasting or conversing, I would strongly advise to proactively react to negative comments and feedback. Deleting the critical material is ultimately up to you, but I feel that addressing the issues is important. Unless the complaint is patently wrong.
Keep it current
Post, create content and keep it up to date. Not much to say beyond that.
Make it good
Making content that doesn’t suck is generally a good idea. If your job is to blog, make sure you read some of the popular blogs and see what makes them popular. Are they funny? Do they use lots of word play? How many links do they use? And so on. The point is to provide value to the people that pay your company money and the people you want to pay your company money.
Your tweets, blog posts etc… should be checked for grammar/spelling/typos. Your videos should have decent sound quality. Your podcasts should have a quick edit done to kill dead air or pregnant pauses. Posting solid content makes for a happy audience. It is frustrating to read through a post that is rife with errors.
Setting up social media rules is a difficult challenge to say the least. The problems compound when you add in the layers that are natural in a company. But I think that perhaps the most important rule should be “Don’t be afraid of change.”
What has worked in your company? How do you participate? What rules do you have? Share them in the comments.
There is no etiquette, there are no rules. Make your own and make them known.
Do you find yourself facing social media overload? With Twitter followers, Facebook friends, Flickr friends, LinkedIn connections and countless other social networks to manage, sometimes I just find myself a touch overwhelmed. Do you?
All of a sudden, I found myself with more than 800 followers on Twitter, which compared to some isn’t a lot, it is a daunting number to me. I can’t follow everybody back and feel like I’m making genuine connections. And this is leading me to make my social media rules.
Be genuine
The old standby is back again. If you’re putting a false impression of yourself out there, people will associate you with that and not respect the “real” you. Don’t be fake.
Twitter is disturbingly Google friendly. I spent a few years as a reporter and most of my articles have been over taken by Twitter musings, blog posts and a video interview I did more than a year and a half ago. It is vital that anything you put out into the public be representative of your talents, skills and opinions.
Be visible
If you truly want to foster genuine connections, don’t sign up for every shiny new bubbly social network that pops up. Unless you can actively spend time there and create a community. If you neglect connections and networks, they will quickly dissolve. I like to say that the best part of social networking is that it is a passive technology — you get out what you put in.
By focusing your efforts/connections into fewer places, you are able to have more quality interactions that are more beneficial to both parties.
Be flexible
The other day, I unfollowed about 50 people on Twitter, but since then I’ve followed just as many new people. There’s a sociological theorum out there called Dunbar’s number, which states that a human is only capable of so many stable connections at any one time. I think that social networks have greatly expanded that capacity, but your brain and attention are still finite resource that require flexible management.
It’s important to know that you can’t connect with everybody and you can’t manage 1,000 profiles. By being flexible with your interactions, you are able to provide a more genuine social interaction.
In a nutshell
Here are my rules in a nutshell:
I will be myself
I will not follow, friend or accept everybody.
I will engage, interact and participate
I will not be disappointed by a lack of response
I will ask for you to read this blog
I will not force this blog down your throat
I will look at your profile.
I will be genuine.
What are your rules? What are your social networking guidelines? I would love to know.
Are you finding yourself wondering about the future? Or, even the present?
As we sit, peering over the edge of our recession into the pits of a depression, many PR, marketing and communications folks are scratching their heads (or asses I suppose) and wondering “now what?”
Changing the face of PR
If you’re on Twitter, subscribed to multiple RSS feeds and have Google alerts set up for more than five searches, you’re pretty far ahead of the game. That is the future of PR. We are in the process of redefining and also refocusing on the relations side of PR.
I sit in the tech sector of PR. And it’s very different than the rest of the world. I deal with bloggers, which are a very different species than a local business writer, which is a very different species than a food writer. But, the goal is the same. Establish quality relationships in order to connect with writers to see what piques their interests and provide them with quality stories that fit into that mold.
Nose down, ears up
The best thing a PR person can do right now is listen. Read your targets daily. Learn their habits and their likes. The great thing about bloggers is that they tell you what they like and don’t like. Use that.
By listening and paying attention, you show the people that you are pitching or working with that you get it. And, any leg up on the competition is imperative to your success.
Show your worth
The companies paying PR people’s salaries want more results for less money. And we must smile, bear down and deliver. This is a great time to be in PR. We get to show the rest of the world what we’re made of and what value we add. Deliver different media contacts. Deliver a new video interview. Or deliver a new idea for a series of blog posts.
In a time of economic slowdown, one must be resourceful. Original and effective ideas will get you paid.
Be genuine
I think I am going to say this in every blog post I ever write. If you try to be more than you are, you’re going to fail. Offer genuine value and recognize your strengths and people will recognize that. Not just clients, but the media professionals you work with.
If you are genuine, you don’t need to live in fear of not delivering what you have promised. Instead, you can deliver quality results and have happy customers.
Although times are tough out there, there is room for growth, success and happiness. Work on delivering quality and value and you’ll get a piece of that. But I’m curious to know how you plan on weathering this storm. Let me know in the comments.
I’ve decided to share some lessons I have learned in my time as a public relations pro. So, without further delay, my first piece of advice is: be genuine.
Say hello. Be genuine and connect with reporters without ulterior motives. Public relations is in a period of hyper evolution and so much emphasis is placed upon the relationship side of things. Social media is, indeed, a PR game changer. More and more mainstream media are on Twitter, for example.
Keep in mind that there’s a human behind that byline. And let those humans know there’s a human behind the pitch as well.