There are many best practices and suggestions for public relations professionals when it comes to social media, but what are some points you would want to make sure you follow to be proactive for your clients and online presence? PR Daily actually had a great article today about what were some of the worst points of advice when it came to social media, and some are definitely ones that have come up in PR conversations as well as in crisis communications.
Here are some others you may want to take into consideration as well – I have heard some of these over the years in my work in research and consulting:
- “I can have a separate professional and personal persona on social media by creating two different profiles on FB”: Hmm – the ideal thing you would want to do here is to have a consistent, transparent, and professional online persona that represents who you are as a person. As my grandfather used to say – “one set of manners” – and the best thing to do in managing your online reputation proactively would be to have one online reputation.
- “I know exactly what people are going to do if we tell them to use a specific hashtag for a particular campaign:” One thing we have to be aware of when it comes to social media is you have to look at ALL potential scenarios – no matter how unlikely they are. This is a key practice in crisis communications – we have to be aware that we may be implementing a hashtag for a particular purpose, but it can be misinterpreted in other ways. Look at what happened with McDonald’s and their hashtag “McDStories.”
- “I want to be able to broadcast information and not allow people to comment on my page:” This is where you want to have a set of guidelines for how conversations and sharing abilities will be on your page – but you want to be transparent on it. Social media is all about having multiple voices and points of view in a central location. Deleting comments without any explanation will just escalate the emotions and people will go elsewhere to have these conversations and report them to others. Look at what happened to Nestle a few years ago and Cook’s Source.
- “Our audience will use just the assigned hashtags we tell them to use.” Hmm – not always. We have to be aware of the organic nature people have with hashtags and how they use them for communicating during a crisis – so we have to educate and train professionals to monitor these. The Domino’s YouTube Crisis (#disgustingdominos) is one of the traditional references used here in this area. Also, you don’t want to have anyone highjack your hashtag like what happened recently with Maldives Tourism.Here are some other proactive tips for social media and crisis management for PR professionals. Tools like hashonomy and the hashtag app to monitor trending hashtags so you can see what people are saying.
- “We have someone just out of college in charge of our social media presence.” Unless they have had extensive training, integration for their own personal brand, and education and training in best practices with social media, this may not always be the best route to go. Proper training and experience with new technology is crucial since these online conversations and interactions are going to formulate first impressions and are going to be attributes associated with the reputation of the brand, client, and even individual.
- “If you say you are a social media guru or leading researcher in social media, then you are.” I would have to quote Tom Cruise from the movie Jerry Macguire by saying “Show me the money” or “Show me the expertise.” Professors and practitioners have to establish themselves in the field for a particular specialization, and what we are seeing right now is the fact that social media is pretty hot and everyone wants to get on board. You have to be able to back up these claims with research that can be applied both in practice and contribute to the academic community. In addition, you have to live in social media in every aspect of your life and proactively manage it in all aspects – both professionally and personally.
In summary, these are just a few things to keep in mind and watch out for – as emerging technologies continue to evolve and change our profession and even our society – we have to look at what others are saying and be aware that there are some good points of advice we can take, but there are others where we have to look at it and determine if it is good or not good for our own business and personal practices with new media. These points are not only good for practitioners or researchers to follow, but also sharing these points with emerging young professionals and students is key as well.
Hope you all are having a great day!
Best Wishes,
Karen
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