Of the five communications audits we have done in the past few months, four of the organizations are dealing with challenges in that their social media networking communities are not growing and there is little or no engagement or interaction.

One of the challenges of social media is that it is easy to lose perspective when it comes to content creation and social media. We see it quite often – there is great intent to share interesting, informative, engaging content. Unfortunately, it gets sideswiped when the content creator sees their role only as the publisher of information and not as a facilitator of conversation or content.

The traditional paradigm of providing information is to push it out. It’s a one-way approach where people are “told” – facts, information, stories and ideas. Social media allows us to do more. It allows us to actively participate, to put information out and to take information in. It gives us the opportunity for a conversation, for a two-way (or three-way or twenty-way…) approach. It encourages a community approach that inspires participation and interaction. Many organizations just aren’t there yet; they are defaulting to the more traditional way of doing things… putting information out through Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.

It is a cultural shift and it does take time for this approach to take hold – for it to become the standard of how you communicate. There are straightforward, simple ways to start to do this. Of course, the first step is recognizing that you aren’t encouraging interaction, but are using your social media networks as a megaphone to push out information.

Review the last month or so of your updates and outreach. How often did you ask for input from your community? How often did you respond to others asking for input, opinions or advice? How often did you link to ideas or conversations that were relevant – but didn’t directly benefit your organization – even though your community would be interested in the topic? How often did you recommend a blog, Twitter or Facebook follow that you felt would bring value to your followers? If it isn’t often, it’s time to shift a little.

For some organizations, this is a big paradigm shift. It can, in fact, be culture shifting. There is a perception with the fast-paced, 24/7 cycle of user-generated content online, that organizations have lost control of their “message.” When in fact, the social media era (in my humble opinion) should be seen as providing the most opportunity to let your target market (and others you haven’t even considered) in on the conversation about your brand, organization, and product or services.

Before social media, people went home, went to parties and pubs, went to coffee shops and restaurants, conferences and networking events and discussed what they were thinking with their family, friends, and colleagues. If they were frustrated or angry enough, they might send a letter to an organization, to the newspaper or to a consumer investigative reporter. And until you got a call from the media or happened to stand behind someone talking about you at the local coffee shop… you had no idea what was being said about your brand.

Today, you can engage. You can respectfully and authentically step forward and correct errors, help to clarify miscommunication and to participate in conversations with the people that use your services or product, that are a part of your community, and that support your brand.

There are great opportunities to build strong relationships, to share interesting aspects of who the people behind the brand are, what life is like in your organization, why you do the work that you do, etc. And, should your brand face an issue or crisis, you will be glad that you did. Most people understand that mistakes happen, that errors can be made – we just want to know how you are going to make it right, that you see what went wrong and why and what you will do to ensure it won’t happen again.

One of the most valuable (and effective tools) an organization has is to create interesting content. Monday’s post will talk about more about what the steps are to creating compelling content that will be watched or read, and shared.

At AHA, we have done a great deal of work studying online behaviour relevant to communication. What is being said and discussed online is a key component for an organization – from building and managing its reputation to dealing with potential issues and crisis communication. However, there are still large organizations that have not yet come to terms with this for some reason. Some aren’t even monitoring what is being said or who is saying it. More and more we are seeing issues come up, not from an outside source, but through online discussions by employees.

Social media gives everyone from employees to unions and association members the opportunity to gather and discuss things virtually. This is a new opportunity to engage with one another and to find like-minded people. And they are going to do it with or without your support, assistance or knowledge.

I spend a great deal of time speaking and working with CEOs, presidents, COOs, VPs and senior communications executives. Just about everyone I have ever worked with wants to do good things for the people that work at their organization. If there is something that people aren’t happy with, they want to know about it. If there is something that needs to be changed, they want it brought to their attention. People matter to them. And yet there is still a challenge, in some areas, in having the senior team see the value of social media or realize that it is now a part of everyday business life.

Imagine if people were encouraged to participate in honest, open and respectful dialogue using social media and discussions could be facilitated rather than controlled (or perceived as being controlled). It is a culture change, but it is one that is coming. And one, I strongly believe that organizations need to embrace.

Wouldn’t you rather be a part of the conversation – even if it was critical or negative – rather than have it go on without your knowledge or input?

Ms. Shaw had a lot of insight into how the world is changing and how we as communications professionals can make the most of this. One of the areas that she talked about was the online newsroom. The online newsroom is a component, in my opinion, of brand journalism and it is a hugely effective tool for an organization.

We’ve all made use of (and in some cases still are using) media kits. Most of us have, at some point, created b-roll for media use and provided images on a disk. The online newsroom holds all of the information that would normally be in a media kit – and more. It allows your organization to become a “media outlet” on its own, because these days, you aren’t just informing and showcasing your news to journalists – you are making it available to all stakeholders online. An online newsroom can have interviews with key subjects about a topic (including industry and community leaders and other relevant individuals), it can provide a range of photos (for web and print usage), it provides facts and stats. It can provide editorial style articles, brief profiles, and industry overviews and “state of the industry” forecasts. And, as Ms. Shaw pointed out, some organization’s online newsrooms even provided suggested tweets about their organization. I have to admit that when she first said that, I was skeptical – but the more I thought about it, if the tweets are accurate, interesting and aren’t self-promotional, I don’t see why not.

I think it will take some time and effort for more conservative organizations to wrap their heads around an online newsroom and brand journalism. It is a culture change for them. However, times have changed. An online newsroom and telling your own story is now not only accepted, but expected. Getting the interest of a journalist has always been challenging, it is more challenging these days. Not only could an online newsroom help you get their interest, it also provides a direct opportunity to connect with stakeholders directly. A well-produced online newsroom can become a resource for journalists, bloggers and your target market.

One of the things Ms. Shaw said was that social media actually provides more access to the newsroom of media outlets. (This is achieved through following journalists on social media as well as creating relevant content so they follow you back.) I took that remark seriously. It makes a lot of sense. And when our clients get to those newsrooms and catch the attention of journalists like Gillian Shaw, I want to make sure we provide everything she wants or needs for her story. It is the communicators’ role to provide credible, authentic, accurate information – with a real story attached – to journalists. And, now, thanks to the online world, also directly to stakeholders.

Not everyone is ready to leap into social media full throttle, but it is important to start the process of listening. See what people in your industry/area of expertise are doing online. Pay attention to the conversations that are happening. It’s a good first step into connecting with your specific community.

Have a critical look at your website. We often get clients calling and asking for a social media strategy and when we start the discussion of why they want to engage in social media, we ask about their website. Quite often, their site is stagnant and hasn’t been touched in a very long time. Your website is an important component of your online brand. How up-to-date is it? How relevant is it? Is there a way to make the content more current on a regular basis?

When clients want to begin to use social media tools as a part of their overall communications outreach, we often recommend starting out small, one step at a time – with a focus on doing it right. Below we have outlined four small actions you can take over the next two weeks to begin to include social media in your day-to-day work.

1. Review your website. How many unique visitors do you have each day? How interactive is your site? How current is your site? How does your site compare to others in your industry? What could be done differently to encourage visitors to check out your site more often, stay longer or to take the next step and connect with you? (Econsultancy.com has a helpful post titled: Five easy ways to make your business website more social.)

2. Who are the five top bloggers in your area? Set up RSS feeds and read their blogs regularly.

3. Who from your industry is on Twitter? Use the search function on Twitter and find out who is talking about your business, industry, and area of expertise. Set up a Twitter account and follow them. Listen to what they have to say.

4. Is there someone in your office who is active online, who blogs or is on Twitter? Find out who this is and ask their advice. You might be surprised at who it is and how much you can learn from them.

The world of social media can seem overwhelming, but by taking small steps and learning about the culture, the technology and the people – it makes it easy to accomplish.

How and when an organization responds and reaches out using traditional communications vehicles and through social media is crucial. One of the challenges is that social media has turned the world into a 24/7 news cycle. Many organizations aren’t prepared for that. How do you strategically and authentically respond if you aren’t prepared?

There are many steps an organization can take to put processes in place in case they are faced with an issue or crisis. It makes it a great deal more straightforward to deal with the issue at hand, rather than trying to decide what the approval process is for a tweet or blog.

We often work with clients to prepare issues and crisis communication plans. There are times, when the development of the plan includes a session with senior executives and/or staff. This workshop takes them through case studies of issues that played out online and puts some potentially real life scenarios in front of them. It’s a great opportunity for an organization to come together and work through what needs to happen and to understand how and when to respond.

When we work with clients that have this challenge, we focus on what the senior team needs to hear. While every team has its own idiosyncrasies, there are some key points that work for most.

Show the business case for social media use.

Depending on the industry, this can mean anything from explaining what it could mean for sales and customer service to providing the rationale on how participating in the social media world is a component of reputation management. A well-thought-out, concise business case can put the use of social media into perspective.

Use case studies of similar organizations that are active in social media.

I can’t imagine there is any industry that doesn’t have some kind of social media opportunity. If there are a limited number of case studies within your field, look at organizations that do similar work in other industries and clearly show why they are being used as a case study. (While the product or service might not be the same, show the similarities in size, target market, etc.)

Don’t gloss over the potential challenges.

They didn’t get to the C-suite by being stupid. Don’t try to slide by the risks – you will lose credibility. You can show them how the risks can be mitigated and managed. And it is always of value to show the risks associated with not participating.

Show the stats.

Social Media Today ran a great piece earlier this summer that pulled together a wide range of facts and stats on social media usage.

Start small.

For some organizations, moving into social media is actually a shift in culture. Realize and respect that. The move from (perceived) control of the message out into what they may believe is the “wild, wild west” – with no control – is a big leap for some. Introduce pilot projects and when you do, create case studies of the successes, challenges and lessons learned.

There are many opportunities to show your senior executive team why integrating social media into your communications plan is a strategic move. Once you get their buy in, sometimes the challenge is making sure they realize social media isn’t a magic cure to all your marketing or PR challenges.

Social media is a big part of what we do at AHA. Whether a client organization should participate in different areas of social media or not depends on the organization, their stakeholder groups and their communication objectives. However, every communications plan that we develop has a social media component to it – at the very least for monitoring the conversations online.

We often partner with ad agencies and marketing agencies on projects and social media is usually a part of a campaign. Who manages the social media aspect is usually an interesting discussion. It often becomes a blend of the advertising or marketing team and the AHA team.

I strongly believe that social media provides an opportunity to deliver what PR was created to do: generate authentic, transparent, two-way conversations that engage, inform, educate and, often, entertain.

I came across an excellent blog post by Cheryl Gale that clearly explains (and supports) why PR should take the lead with social media. It’s worth a read.