In September I live-blogged from the annual conference of the Arthur W. Page Society. To be invited to join this august group you need to be the #1 communications professional in a company with more than US$2 billion in revenues. I joined when I led global communications at Ford Credit.
Social media was THE hot topic at the conference. In an adjoining salon PCs were set up and attendees were encouraged to cruise the social media landscape. There were professionals from Wieck Media on hand to guide.
I’ve been blogging for a year and I still feel like a newcomer. I’m on FaceBook and Twitter and Flicker. I watch on YouTube, gather Widgets and shop at Amazon.
Yet at this global conference the level of comfort with social media was very low. Many attendees are aware - yet paralysed and inactive. Reminds me a bit of a B movie…
Adam Brown of The Coca-Cola Company said their products or company are mentioned 3,000 times every day. And the marketing team at Coke have implemented a number of innovative campaigns. Cherry Coke has 100,000 friends on MySpace!
Yet real management of social media for corporate communications is just starting at many companies. Microsoft makes a habit of reading blog positings then adding comments even when the author disagrees with the company or adds a hate post. They hope to temper strong disagreements by letting bloggers know their voice is heard.
In short there’s no best practice for corporate communications in social media. There are some basic rules to follow, though. Always be transparent when you’re editing or adding material on-line. It’s okay for a company to edit its Wikipedia page - the Pope and the CIA have done so. But don’t try to hide that you’re a corporate voice.
Just like the top-level communicators at this conference the message is simple. Dive in. Try something new every day. Participate. You will make mistakes - but you’ll also make friends.
And throughout the process you will continue to learn.
