Yours socially

A CEO recently told me he had an inkling he needed to get his brands on ‘some of those social media things’ but that he had no idea where to start, or whether social media marketing worked.

In contrast, Andrew Alamango of Etnika fame sold out two nights of Café Brazil jazz last autumn using Facebook as the primary means of marketing the event. Historic house museum Palazzo Falson, which has been on Facebook only a month, says it ‘could not resist the irony of having an ancient house with a strong presence on the most happening social network site’. It appears that those with little or no marketing budget are more inclined to investigate, and invest time in social media channels than potentially more cash-rich businesses.

But social media is nothing new. From internet’s earliest days, we’ve had chat, forums, message boards and virtual worlds. Today, blogs, podcasts, social networks, photo- and video-sharing sites, RSS (really simple syndication) and more, all fall within its scope. We now talk to each other by posting on a Facebook wall, uploading a video on YouTube and ‘Twittering’ about our every move. Even websites’ pre-eminence is being whittled away. Search engines pick up well-tagged blogs rather than website urls. Your homepage is now wherever someone lands when they search for you.

Little of this has, until now, interested business, particularly local business in Malta. But, when Dell has a senior Vice-President Communities & Conversations, you know that social media is moving up a gear and becoming more mainstream as a business tool. Today, any entity used to mediating and controlling its publics will have to face this paradigm shift and engage in online conversations if it is to stay relevant to its audiences.

But social media for business is not without a learning curve. There are some basics to get right, if you want to join the conversations and gain.

Get closer to your clients

Social media is about understanding customer nature, and nurturing it. Consumers today prefer to read and listen to opinions about products and services from fellow consumers and their peers. If you are going to use social media, don’t interrupt their natural conversations with corporate spin and one-way marketing messages. You need to foster a valued, trusted, authentic voice to get heard in the babble.

Listen to some home truths

On social media, your customers tell it to you straight. Dell discovered from its Twitter presence that people thought its customer support centre was abysmal. It took measures to improve the service based on the customer gripes it picked up on Facebook comments. Better to know than not know.

Market cost-effectively

In a recession, social media becomes more important simply because barriers to entering it are zero. It costs nothing to set up and manage a Facebook page or to Twitter; only your time. You can monitor return on investment though, as social media has readily-available metrics. Start low-key and learn what works.

Engage with purpose

Find people who are passionate about social media within your organisation. Let your social media-savvy employees do their bit on your behalf, but as themselves. Palazzo Falson has two staff members with responsibility for its Facebook page, and, according to the curator, they are doing a great job.

Enter social media conversations wisely

Ryan Air heard disgruntled customers moaning about it on Twitter, and entered the fray publicly on the medium giving all customers a cocky brush off. Within an hour, the Ryan Air ‘Tweets’ had been pulled, probably by a senior executive who thought a junior’s hasty responses ill advised. Social media is about immediacy, but think before you post or tweet.

Don’t socialise everywhere

Your goal should be to fish where your fish are. You don’t have to touch each conversation, but you need to be having one or two, because whether your business realises or not, it’s on social media already. Your name is being bandied about as any Google search will show you.

Lastly…see your customers as your allies, not just as people to sell to. They are your real brand value, so value their online conversations about you and with you.

Can you outsource your corporate blog?

A corporate blog is PR isn’t it?  And few companies have a problem outsourcing PR.  So why would they have a problem getting a blog written on their behalf?  After all, outsiders write sales and marketing collateral, press releases, company newsletters and a whole lot more.

But there’s a big difference in how blogs are viewed and how PR is socially accepted.   Blogs are supposed to be personal. Remember, they evolved from ‘web logs’ or web diaries.  And you can’t get more personal than that.  Which is why corporate-style speak in a blog doesn’t go down well.  

We like to know the people we’re engaging with online.   We have no problem with company blogs, so long as they are written by people not the corporate PR machine.  The corporate blog is an oxymoron.  It should be called an employee’s blog, the CIO’s personal blog and so on.  The blog has to add value, not sell or hype.  It could be for instance by techies to techies, about giving perspectives on the firm’s sector, or simply on life behind the scenes at firm x.  It can be a composite blog of several staff, or a sole voice.  Dell, for example, has key bloggers like Lionel@dell (Lionel Menchaca) who is billed as the chief blogger.  He is a personality blogger in his own right and also Dell’s main man on Twitter.  

So if we know we’re following a blog, penned quite clearly by identifiable staff, how would we feel if we found out that the blog was written not in house but by anonymous PR hires?  Well, we’d no doubt feel cheated because the spirit of the web – honesty, freedom and sharing – would have been usurped by harsh corporate realities of control, cash and time.  

But the argument for and against hiring others to pen your blog isn’t quite that clear cut.  There are several camps here: those who believe only blogs reviewing products or giving technical advice can be outsourced as there’s nothing intrinsically personal about their content; and there are those who believe more or less any blog can be outsourced, so long, and here’s the caveat, that the writer is as passionate and clearly informed as the supposed author; a heartbeat away from the client in other words.    

I have written for all sorts of companies and individuals over the past 20 years. Speeches probably come the closest to blog writing as a speechmaker always needs personal asides and anecdotes.  So I believe it is possible to ghostwrite blogs for clients if you have empathy, can draw their ideas out, know their voice, know their business and know what the blog medium demands.   

The blog is the corporate client at home; off guard, relaxed and chatty.  So long as the ghost writer understands this space and doesn’t get it muddled up with PR, sales, marketing and other forms of corporate speak, there’s every reason the blog will do just fine.  There’s nothing wrong in writing for people who just don’t have the time or the turn of phrase.  The pro-blogger can add value by letting clients get on with what they’re good at rather than wasting time starring at a blank screen waiting for inspiration.  

But is the blog deceitful if it’s ghost written?    That depends on the professionalism of the hired blogger more than the reality of the blog being ghostwritten.  A rose can smell as sweet by any other name.  So long as the ghostwriter knows how to describe the rose in the first place, the outsourced blog has its place.