As many regular AHA blog readers know, we are big fans of Brian Solis. He is a smart guy who “gets” social media and is able to explain it in a straightforward manner in a business context. If you haven’t discovered Brian, read his book Engage or keep up with his blog. The information he shares is valuable and there are few people in the social media world, in my opinion, who can clearly explain the how to of both strategy and execution – and the why behind it. He is a thought leader and he happens to have the ability to inspire and move you to action.
Brian recently wrote 14 Best Practices for Long-Term Social Media Success, which appeared on Mashable. It is well worth a read. The 14 best practices put forward in this piece are gold; they are points that we drive home over and over again with clients. If you want to engage in social media for the long-term and create positive relationships with your community – read this blog post.
Goodbye AHA Flip Cam Friday. Say hello to AHA Fast Take Friday. In today’s video, Ruth is in Red Rock Canyon, Nevada talking about seeing the bigger context of your initiative.
At our Vancouver PR agency we have been working with several clients to define social media usage policies and strategies. While each organization is different – and the policies and strategies need to reflect that – it is interesting to see the trends in how social media is being perceived and use today. It is certainly more commonplace as organizations from government to large private companies to small businesses move towards integrating social media into their overall marketing and communications outreach. For some organizations it appears that throughout the organization – including the senior executive – there is a better understanding that social media can’t be controlled. That’s an important shift and one that is opening up new approaches to social media.
I came across this interesting case study on how Texas Instruments works with employees to help them understand social media and their role online. This U.S.-based organization is providing training for employees, helping them to become conversation agents.
There is a balance that needs to happen for social media to work in any size organization. In a larger one, it does take some additional planning. There is an expectation that those participating in social media on behalf of an organization or brand will have some freedom to be themselves, to share information and stories about the organization and their role there, and to authentically engage. As important as that it, it is also crucial that anyone representing your brand or organization understands what is acceptable and what isn’t. If you don’t let employees know what is ok to share and what isn’t, you aren’t providing them with the proper knowledge to participate effectively on social media sites.
What happens when 100 or 1000 people are social media ambassadors for your organization? How can a communications team make sure that valuable, relevant, interesting information is being shared? That’s where training and planning comes in. A great outreach campaign isn’t random, it’s effective and efficient – and great content needs to be planned out. This doesn’t mean that individuals can’t be themselves, but it means that they aren’t tripping over each other and they are providing information that matter to stakeholders – which is the main reason you are using social media, right?
Get organized, define your voice, identify your boundaries, plan out your content like a magazine or TV news show would and your stakeholders will be much more interested in what your organization has to say on social media sites.
At our Vancouver PR agency, we’re big fans of Ragan.com and we love surveys and reports. That means that today was a great Monday, when I saw the daily Ragan PR news come in and there was a piece entitled 3 Social Media Challenges For Communicators To Face by 2015. And it is backed up by a report.
If you are interested in building an online community or network, this is an important piece to read. It has some solid information on the benefits and challenges, and along with being able to download the entire report, you can also download a tips and hints document.
Content is important; we all know that. Relevant, engaging, informative and entertaining content is a must. Well-written content, to AHA, means more than it just being interesting. It means that it should be grammatically correct, it should be cogent and it should have a solid flow.
Blogs, like this one, have a little bit of leeway because it is written in a more conversational manner. (It would still bother me if there was a typo or other error in this blog.) Anything that is shared internally or externally should be reviewed. Here at our Vancouver PR agency, we have an editing and proofing process that we strictly follow. The input of the crew is important and each person is encouraged to question not just the information presented, but the style, tone and the word structure and grammar. It isn’t always easy or comfortable to do this, but it is important.
