By Brian Dolby

Social media and its ramifications for professional communicators continue to send shock waves across the public relations and marketing world as everyone involved looks for the perfect answer.

There is, of course, no “one fits all” answer for organisations looking to either protect or enhance their profile and reputation in the digital world. While for one company tweeting — or using Twitter — may seem ideal; to another it might make it appear too flippant and trivial.

Social media and its offerings are changing and evolving all the time. There is no doubt that if communications professionals thought the arrival of the internet, and the email process that came with it, was revolutionary, then social media is perhaps ten times as complex and critical.

I cringe when I think back to the days when, as a young public relations manager, I first viewed this “internet thing” as a gimmick only for techno geeks who seldom ventured out of their R&D bunkers. When first offered an email address, I declined with the opinion that “I’d probably never use it”.

The communications world has changed incredibly since those days and, like many GTB readers, I changed with it and now Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and the rest of part of my hourly — if not daily — rituals.

But while we all look to make sure we are as well connected as possible from a personal perspective, how do we approach the subject in terms of communications for our companies or clients? Is it Twitter or Facebook, LinkedIn or Plaxo, YouTube or Vimeo?

Digital audit

If you are starting from scratch — or even if you are merely overhauling an earlier effort to move with the times, my recommendation is to start with a digital audit. Check what “social media” you already have — it might be more than you think; for better or worse.

The simple way to start is with Google — whose alerts will tell you of news mentions, blogs, groups and forums — even video.

The most obvious second step is to look at your own website. Like the plumber whose home has the leakiest taps, often the most “driven” digital media organisation can often forget to maximise its own website before it looks elsewhere.

Apart from making sure it is up to date, it is vital to set up a process where it constantly changes in order that it attracts the attention of search engines. Links to reviews, blogs and Twitter feeds also help enormously.

While this basic activity is going on, your organisation will automatically be growing its “online footprint” and you can then selectivity make decisions on how to move forward proactively.

There is much to consider. But in a month when revenues from online media overtook TV advertising for the first time — in a month when a business survey showed more than 90% of businesses realised social media was important — it is something organisations will ignore at their peril.

Realistic

Once you have assessed where you stand and what is “right” for your business, you need to be realistic about what is achievable.

For example, the same survey that showed 90% of businesses acknowledged the importance of social media, also revealed that 60% had no one looking after it and even those that did often had a very junior member of staff working on it.

This is a key point. Social media is instant — that’s one of the most revolutionary things about it — and therefore you should take on what your organisation can manage effectively and regularly. There is nothing worse than a website or a blog that is hopelessly out of date — and yet that happens time after time.

So, before you take on a blog, for example, think carefully about how you are going to manage it. What messages is it going to convey and is the person responsible going to be given the time and space in their working day to make it effective?

Several chief executives have championed social media and pledge personal commitment to a blog, only to fail because of the pressures of the “day job”. Attempts to support this with a short telephone call and a ghost written entry also generally fail for the same reason and within weeks a social media initiative which started with a fanfare can become an embarrassment that all concerned wish they had never started.

A lesson to learn here is that while you need a senior person to give your blog status, you do need to select someone who can actually deliver.

And it must also be acknowledged from day one that this is a long term and sustained commitment because — and this is the key differentiator between conventional “top down” communication and social media — the channel you are creating is two-way, which brings its own challenges and opportunities.

Blogging is very similar to Facebook in that to be effective the user needs to be on screen virtually every day in order to keep up to date and to keep pace with responses and requests to link up. Dedicated social media devotees have little problem with this, although the sheer time involved is partly the reason why Twitter has appeared on the scene and taken hold so quickly.

Limited time

Twitter allows to you send 140-character messages from virtually anywhere, anytime. It’s simple, it’s very fast and it meets the need for business people and organisations who really do want to embrace social media but have limited time.

Twitter has partly shot to fame on the back of several high-profile personalities getting involved and now — in a public relations context alone — many organisations are using Twitter to raise awareness of their daily activities and announcements.

The use of shortened URLs mean that Twitter can be used to pass on vital information and links to where more in depth material can be found.

A typical example is news releases, where Twitter can convey the headline and key message only but can provide an important feed to the main information.

News releases themselves have undergone radical change during the social media revolution. The impact on the public relations industry is far too wide for me to fully cover in this article but there are two main areas which have to be considered — immediacy and targeting.

Public domain

The immediacy is fairly obvious. The moment you press that button on your computer, your news is out there. It’s public domain and it’s public domain on a global scale.

I learnt that lesson myself the hard way a few years ago after having landed an exclusive interview live on the CNBC Business Programme during an exhibition in Asia. The deal was that my organisation would get the slot on the programme immediately after the main news at 8am and we would reveal a major news announcement.

The only problem was that worldwide distribution was fixed for 8am and by the time the interview was scheduled — at 8.03am — not only was the news “out there” but the producer had found out and was baying for my blood.

Fortunately he was too busy to lynch me on the spot and we got the interview but it was a moment I never forgot.

Targeting is the other important issue. While any PR person worthy of the name would feel that they already do this, social media has thrown up a whole new challenge and approach. Bloggers, for example, do not appreciate being “assaulted” by the conventional news release approach and PR people must adapt to this growing environment.

For bloggers in particular, and generally for most electronic media, the best approach is to do your research about what they write and what they are interested in.

When you have that understanding, send them the facts, with supporting audio, video and/or weblinks so that they can make their own story. If all that effort seems too much like hard work, just remember that many “conventional” journalists now use bloggers as source material for their own writing and, bearing that fact in mind, the value of doing this is obvious.

Traditional media

However, don’t forget the traditional approach either. The troubles of the telecoms industry and the recession has produced heavy losses in the media. Remember Communications News, Telephony, Communicate, Communications International, Comms Week and the rest?

Even some of the survivors are down to the bare bones, which means staffing of an editor only and a very limited freelance budget — so well written items which are not wildly promotional stand a good chance of being used in online editions without much alteration.

I had a client complain recently about a lack of coverage following a news story. Yes, he agreed, we had achieved more than 50 pieces of online coverage but only two pieces of print.

The simple truth was that the “print” coverage was from titles looking to “buy” editorial later via an aggressive sales team. But the online was not only from the key media that readers of Global Telecoms Business should all know and love, but was immediate and totally accurate.

Within a few hours of release he had achieved global coverage — the story has been used word for word — and it was a job well done.

My advice is to take a hard look at what your organisation is already doing. Then look at initiatives you can enthusiastically sustain long term and in particular make sure you are maximising the internet to get your news out there.

Me? I’m off to update my Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and the rest. GTB

Surfing for social media information

Here are a few places you might like to click for further information:
del.icio.us: http://delicious.com/ 
Digg: www.digg.com 
Econsultancy: http://econsultancy.com/ 
Facebook: www.facebook.com 
Flickr: www.flickr.com 
FriendFeed: http://friendfeed.com 
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com 
Mashable: www.mashable.com 
PR Blogger: www.prblogger.com 
PR Squared www.pr-squared.com 
RealWire: www.realwire.com 
Twitter: www.twitter.com 
Vimeo: www.vimeo.com 
Youtube: www.youtube.com 

This is the fourth in a series of articles by Brian Dolby of BCSPR. Previous articles are here:

PR can work for businesses, especially in times of crisis 

Fork-lift truck drivers and the art of making news about your business

Strike early to get noticed at trade shows by the media