Tag Archives: Twitter

Apr 20 2011

How to Manage Your Face in the Social Space

Public relations students and young professionals have long been engaged in social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter. We’ve grown to understand the value of connecting with companies and professionals on LinkedIn, and we’re often early adopters on location-based sites like Foursquare and SCVNGR.

While we use social media for professional networking and engagement, it’s very much a part of our personal lives. With the mix of business and pleasure unavoidable, how do you manage your face in the social space?

I’ve heard many professionals lecture students on the fact that there’s no such thing as keeping the two separate. I agree to an extent and recognize that a balance is necessary. Ialso  believe it’s possible to keep part of one’s social “face” professional while the other part personal. For students and young professionals looking for a job, it’s all about who you let into your network.

When you engage on social media sites, do not link your accounts so that one update reaches all outlets. Since high school, many students have used Facebook as a personal networking tool: keep it that way. It’s not appropriate or necessary to “friend” a boss from an internship on Facebook. However, it is appropriate and probably essential to connect with them on LinkedIn. Knowing the functions of each outlet will help make this distinction easier.

For me, Twitter has been the most challenging. I want to maintain my face as a PR professional, but also have fun with friends that have become fellow tweeps.  The result: I keep tweets professional, but don’t stray from personal, fun tweets as long as they’re appropriate.

How challenging has this been for you? Leave your thoughts below!

About the Author
Stephanie Takach is a junior at Drexel University majoring in communication with a minor in marketing. She is also president of Drexel’s PRSSA chapter and an aspiring PR professional. Feel free to contact Stephanie on Twitter.

Related Articles
Apr 12 2011

9 Ways Social Media is Like Sex

1. It’s Not the Size of the Tool, It’s How You Use It – One of the greatest things about social media is that businesses with tiny marketing budgets can still benefit from them as marketing tools. The winner in social media is not the company that shelled out major dollars for a new and shiny tool, but rather the company that leveraged their free Twitter account to engage with their consumers and bring in new business.

2. Foreplay is Key – Some companies dive head first into social media, and then wonder why their results are less than satisfactory. Before using social media as a marketing tool, it is necessary to scan the environment you are about to enter. Know what people are saying about your brand, your industry, and your competitors. Here are 10 free tools you can use to get started.
 
3. Your Lame Pick-Up Lines Only Work in the Short-Term – Can you use free stuff (contests, promotions, etc.) to draw in new Twitter followers and Facebook fans? Sure. Will you have built real, lasting relationships with these consumers? Not unless there is a tie-in with your brand and a significant benefit to your audience.
 
4. It’s Ok to Ask How You’re Doing – There’s no shame in reaching out to your customers for feedback on your social media efforts. Ask them what they hope to gain out of liking you on Facebook or following you on Twitter. Is it information? Deals and discounts? Don’t be shy – asking for suggestions is like free market research, which can be used to boost your performance.
 
5. Your Most Satisfied Customers Are Happy to Share Their Experiences – Social media has become a vehicle for consumers to share what they’ve experienced with certain brands, both online and offline. Ask them to post their experience on social networks or review sites (assuming you know they are satisfied), or perhaps take this a step further by building a brand ambassador program. Your most loyal customers are eager to advocate for you.
 
6. Your Most Dissatisfied Customers Are Even Happier to Share Their Experiences – Just as your happy customers will tweet and post about how wonderful you are, you’re not-so-happy customers can potentially wage an online war against your brand. With social media, everyone has a voice. The guy who was unhappy with your customer service may have a blog with 100,000 readers. Be on the lookout for negative sentiment regarding your brand, and have a plan for handling it. Know that ignoring it can very quickly blow up in your face.
 
7. Everyone’s an “Expert” (Or “Guru” or “Ninja”) – You’ll hear these terms thrown around quite loosely in social media, but they should not be taken at face value (see #5 at this link). Just because someone knows how to set up a fan page or uses social media for personal use does not in any way signify that they are suited to manage your brand’s social media marketing.
 

8. You Need to Do More Than Just Show Up; You’ve Got to Engage – Think you can set up accounts on different platforms, schedule some content, and see results? Think again. To see success in social media requires real, long-term engagement. Performance improves over the course of a relationship.

9. It’s better to admit your mistakes immediately – When you screw up in social media the whole world sees it. Staying silent about it can result in highly negative sentiment regarding your brand. You’ll often find that consumers are more forgiving if you admit to your mistakes and make an effort to correct them.

About the Author

Andrew Krebs-Smith is Vice President at Social Fulcrum, a word of mouth and social media marketing agency. Andrew has “leveraged” social media and other marketing tools for over 100 companies including Pfizer, the National Chicken Council, and Strayer University.

Related Articles
Feb 8 2011

Free Speech and New Media

Think twice before posting content online, says Fritz Messere, Dean of the School of Communication, Media and the Arts at State University of New York at Oswego.

Hard to believe that five years ago Facebook was just beginning and Twitter is even 4-years-old.

As new technologies increase our ability to reach out and say what’s on our minds, we often think past the basics of how social responsibility should apply to our electronic speech. It’s amazing to read postings where people are called all sorts of unfriendly names, including some that would not be used in polite company.

Are people less concerned with what they post on the web or in a blog; perhaps writing things they would never say face-to-face to another person? Well, it’s good to remember that the web’s anonymity is not an electronic shield for libel action. In 1997, the Supreme Court said that the Internet allows individuals to become town criers, “with a voice that resonates farther than it could from any soapbox.”

Some experts argue that the net provides greater freedom than any other forms of media. But should it apply in all situations? The answer is not an easy one. Libel generally requires identification of the person being libeled and the person or persons doing the deed. And, libels that occur on the web can proceed just like any other defamation case.

On a blog it’s often difficult, but not impossible to know the name of the person posting the comment. Look at some facts: In most cases courts have dismissed lawsuits or have refused to make identification of anonymous critics, but there are some exceptions. In 2009, a Cook County (IL) judge ruled that the identity of an anonymous post to a newspaper’s website had to be released to a village trustee who believed she had been libeled. Similar rulings have taken place in North Carolina and elsewhere. In 2006, a Florida court awarded a plaintiff $11.3 million in a defamation lawsuit stemming from a web posting.

So, it is definitely possible to unmask an anonymous posting. However, Maryland’s highest court has probably established the bar for determining whether to unmask an anonymous poster. The court ruled that in order to unmask an unknown blogger, a person would have to establish all the facts for a case of defamation first. (Remember, too, that defamation differs from state to state as it is treated as a civil wrong.)

Probably most of us would argue that for the most egregious cases, the courts should provide victims with some way to right an injustice. But not all criticism is defamation. So, it’s one thing to call a person a fool but it’s quite another to call a person a crook.

A good rule of thumb is to never write something that you might want to take back tomorrow. Things posted on the web may have a long life.

Fritz Messere is the Dean of the School of Communication, Media and the Arts at State University of New York at Oswego. He holds the rank of Professor of Broadcasting and Telecommunications in the department of Communication Studies. Messere is the author of four books on media and media production including Broadcasting, Cable, the Internet and Beyond, (coauthored with Joe Dominick), McGraw-Hill, now in its 6th edition.

Related Articles
Feb 1 2011

Nominate A PR Pro On Twitter Who Deserves To Be Recognized (but with a catch..)

Watch the video for info on how to nominate someone!

Related Articles