People (PR, journalists, strat com, etc.) are talking to their organization’s leadership about the possibility of engaging in some element of social media and this week a few have shared their experiences with me. One of the themes of the conversations I have been involved in is how to combat leadership’s concern someone will say something mean about the organization on their site.
Legit concern, one I have addressed before, but let me come at this from a slightly different direction:
- Say it out loud – Dear (fill in name of organization, president, etc.), you suck. There, that wasn’t too painful. Do you think anyone has ever said that before or thought it? Even as great a guy as I am, I am sure there is someone in the world who thinks I suck. Sometimes, from their perspective, I do. It’s not the end of the world!
If you really do suck (or whatever the bad thing is you are concerned about) and it is something which can be fixed, fix it. Trust me, it will be far easier to deal with the root of the problem than try to squelch all the conversations. I liken it to playing Whack-a-Mole but trust me, for as cute as they are, they bite.- If it isn’t something you can change, then don’t. Fess up and move on. More than likely others will understand your reasoning. I think it sucks the ice cream man won’t deliver during the cold months. If they had a blog I might even share my thoughts. Truth be told, we get why they don’t and many of his loyal fans will come to his rescue.
That, by the way, is the beauty of social media.
Thoughts? Please share them below (hopefully nice ones but if you must…).
Another issue is: once you start it, it looks bad to stop. Sometimes management fears the long-term commitment (too many bad break-ups, perhaps?). If you start a podcast, a new forum, etc., you look bad if you don’t keep that up… potentially indefinitely.
So, not only is manpower/staffing, corporate history, and fear of customer responses a problem, so is the long-term commitment of it. And, that’s not really a good excuse in and of itself– businesses said the same thing about Web sites ten years ago. “Oh, if we start a Web site, will it really be popular in a few years? What’s the long-term costs?” Businesses with foresight knew that the Web was skyrocketing. Today, though, companies have to balance a number of potential technologies and choose which is worth the long-term commitment.
For example, I knew of an organization that tried to make a weekly podcast. It was boring, and only 3 people listened to it (out of a newsletter readership of thousands). It simply was not done right, and did not reach their target audience. However, when they started doing YouTube videos of their events, they got numerous comments and views.
Not only is control an issue, but so is manpower.
I’ve got a client that was invited to participate in a forum. Only the upper management have the level of skills and industry background to be able to answer forum questions, but they also have the least amount of time. We’re asking ourselves.. how much value does moderating a forum bring (as opposed to industry talks, media ops, and direct customer sales)?
Similarly, do we really want to go through and moderate every post on our web site, forum, or blog? If left unmoderated, s-p-a-m, rants, and irrelevant comments could appear all over the Web site. But, customers could voice their concerns. (Personally, I like formal Web sites that are detailed and media-tailored with no comments… AND.. an unmoderated blog that allows all comments and a customers forum where customers can openly discuss.)
Same with using Twitter, YouTube, etc. Who in the company would make a good social media spokesperson, do they have time, and would their valuable time be well used? Is your audience that makes the business decisions out searching Twitter or YouTube for you? Or, are they calling you on the phone? Are they reading the latest industry white papers, press releases, or case studies about your company? Don’t get me wrong, YouTube, Twitter, etc. all have their functions, but each company has to determine how much value that each medium and each Web site has for them individually. Smaller companies, in particular, seem to be able to gain the most from social media– they can bring in new customers, gain trust, gain word of mouth publicity, and create a business image of being open and customer-friendly. For “traditional” businesses, it’s a challenge to balance their long-term image (and corporate history, including any previous bad PR) with inviting new and current customers into an open forum of trust, communication, and publicity.
Dear Bill, I don’t think you suck. You did, however, inspire me to give a “you suck” shout-out on my blog. Thanks for the help!
Awesome points, I couldn’t agree with you more. You Rock (the opposite to sucking)!
By the way, we need to chat… Will catch up with you soon.
I was just thinking about this today. I think that the root of the reluctance to engage is the illusion of *control*. It’s as if by not providing our own venue for discussion, we’ll somehow keep discussions from happening. Or by not engaging, we will keep people from saying bad things about us.
The difficulty, then, is a flavor of #3: clients who don’t like/trust their customers or don’t fully believe in their products & services. That, though, is much bigger than a PR problem.