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career advice…Do’s and Don’ts of Social Media by Adrienne Bailey

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Social Media; a treasure to many and a monster to a few. I think it is safe to say most everyone in our industry has engaged in social media via one form or another. Without much direction, everyone began posting, linking and tweeting away. Both excellent conversation and even large controversy have been the result of a platform with little-to-no rules.

Here are just a few do’s and don’ts on social media etiquette. I’m sure we each have our own unique experience so feel free to share your rules — I’d love to hear what you have to say.

  • Do personalize your messages, especially when making connections on LinkedIn and Facebook.
  • Don’t flood all outlets with the same content, be sure to provide new content or alter messaging to fit the specific audience. In other words, don’t link all platforms together, Twitter to LinkedIn, Facebook to Twitter, etc.
  • Do mix personal with professional, but be smart about it. Have a personality but be ready to take responsibility for your actions.
  • Don’t be a robot.
  • Do respond to people trying to engage in conversation with you.
  • Don’t try and connect with people on Facebook or LinkedIn you don’t know. Those are more personal platforms and you are better off beginning with the ‘follow’ button on Twitter.
  • Do offer to help people when possible. But don’t always expect something in return.
  • Don’t tell me everything; it adds noise instead of value.
  • Do contribute something more. As contradictory as it sounds, Twitter is a great place to lead and not always follow.
  • And finally, don’t ever auto DM or spam.

What social media etiquette rules do you live by?

Adrienne Bailey is an account executive in the public relations division Young & Laramore.

pr strategy… The Dangers of Social Media Marketing by Travis K. Kircher

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I spent four years working as an assignment editor for a local TV station. We covered a host of fatal accidents, homicides, house fires, etc. One of the first things we did when we got word of a fatality, whether the death was a tragic accident or the result of foul play, was hit Facebook and MySpace up to see if they had an account. If they were young, chances were they did. And chances were, it was an open account. That is, any member of the public could access it.

I can remember one instance in particular when we were covering a fatal accident involving a young person. As soon as we got the identification from the coroner I ran his name, and, sure enough, there was his profile page, his smiling face beaming eerily from the computer screen. Already his friends had gotten word of the tragedy and were posting memorial messages on his wall. It became standard practice for the media to show those photos and read these messages on the air.

When people stop to think that they might wake up one day to see the contents of their MySpace or Facebook pages as a topic for discussion on the morning news, many of them bristle. Isn’t that a little below the belt? After all, what business does the media have delving into people’s private lives?

This is the lesson all of us must learn: As long as your profile page is open to the public, IT IS NOT YOUR PRIVATE LIFE. When an agitated husband writes, “I hate my wife!” on his evening status update, it’s no different than purchasing ad space on a 250’ x 500’ digital sign in Times Square and announcing it to the world.

The media will investigate anything in the public record, and an open Facebook account IS public record. And it may not just be the media thumbing through your MySpace photos. Prospective employers, loan officers, ex-girlfriends, sexual predators, your boss, and Osama bin Laden could all be checking you out.

Like individuals, businesses can often be careless about their social media accounts. When setting up a MySpace or Facebook page, it is critical for marketers and public relations professionals to keep the following tips in mind:

  • Keep business and pleasure separate on social media. A business owner who already has a personal account under his name should not use that same account for business purposes. Clients don’t want to hear you “shoot the breeze.” They want to see professionalism and expertise. Keep one account for fun, and the other for business.
  • Double-check the privacy settings on your social media accounts. Facebook and MySpace give you the option of making your accounts public or private. It’s a no brainer that any high level executives with personal accounts should have them set to “private.” Business pages will likely be public.
  • Be aware of potential exposure to litigation. Don’t post any content to your Facebook page without first determining whether you have the legal right to do so. Posting images of minors may pose a problem if you don’t have parent’s permission.
  • Monitor your social media networks. One of the most dangerous things a business can do is open a social media account and then forget it is there. Entire conversations may have taken place and accusations may have been leveled against your company without your knowledge. Take an active, aggressive, and vigilant approach to the way you handle your account, and be quick to nip any problems in the bud before they explode into a PR nightmare.
  • Don’t post anything to social media you wouldn’t say to Larry King. You have no idea who is accessing your account. Even if it’s closed to the public, one of your friends could save images from your page and e-mail them to others. Anything posted on a social media account should be run through the PR office first. You should also be aware that once it’s up, it’s permanent. You may take it down, but that doesn’t mean someone hasn’t already seen it, saved it,and distributed it to others.

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TRAVIS K. KIRCHER is an independent copywriter and founder of WriteNow Creative Services, which does indeed have a Facebook account (feel free to join.) He can be reached at tkircher@writenowcs.com.

social media case study… Using Facebook to Execute the Quick PR Campaign by Janet Krenn

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When California Tortilla won Best Burrito in Washington, DC by Washingtonian Magazine, the California Tortilla marketing team wanted to develop a promotion to get the word out by the beginning of July–and by the way, they only had a couple of weeks to develop, launch, and close said promotion.

To meet their time crunched goal, they turned to social media.

California Tortilla, a Maryland based Mexican food franchise, already had a solid footing in social media. Their Facebook page has more than 3,000 fans, and their Twitter page (caltort) has about 1,800 followers. California Tortilla also has a strong email list, called TacoTalk.

“[Social media] was a good fit for this campaign,” said Stacey Kane, Marketing Director at California Burrito, who notes that the franchise frequently uses social media to run promotions such as coupon give-aways and others. “Our customers are very vocal, and so social media is a good extension, a good way to interact.”

To spread the word about their new “Best Burrito in DC” victory, the company decided on a radio script writing contest. On the California Tortilla Facebook Fan Page (July22), the wall read:

“You know how California Tortilla won Best Burrito in Washingtonian Magazine?? Well we did…and we want to run some radio but we have no budget to pay anyone to write the copy. So we decided we wanted our fans to do it for us. Write a thirty or fifteen second spot saying why we deserved the award and the winner gets $1000 and free burritos for a year…”

In fact, California Tortilla relied nearly exclusively on social media to promote the campaign. But it’s not as if they snubbed traditional media. “We put out traditional PR, but it seemed to only get picked up by the trades, not local media,” said Kane.

Once the contest opened, fans had only 5 days to submit their radio scripts. California Tortilla received nearly 100 entires.

“The entries weren’t just written scripts. Several people actually submitted produced radio pieces,” said Kane.

Kane said she was shocked at the “shear amount of time and passion that people put into [their entries]. The contest closed on July 7th, and by July 8th, people we’re emailing to ask whether we picked a winner.”

They hadn’t. Instead, the company sent all the participants a goody bag of coupons and other swag to tide them over while waiting for the winner to be announced. California Tortilla plans to announce the winner within the next week, when the company launches its new website.

Although Kane said her group did not pick a metric by which to measure the campaigns success, she felt it was a hit. Not only did they get a large response quickly, “The campaign did generate a lot of buzz, and this was reflected in increased sales,” Kane said.

What does Kane recommend for other companies considering launching a similar contest via social media?

  1. “In regard to social media campaigns, stay true to your brand.”
  2. “Make stuff clear and easy for fans to execute.”
  3. “Do what you promise to do; make clear cut rules, and stick to them.”

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JANET A. KRENN is Communication Co-Chair of the New Professionals Section of PRSA. If you’re a member of the New Professionals Section, and you’d like to contribute to the New Pros’ blog, email her at janetqs(at)gmail dot com

social media tools… 15 Great Twitter Apps for PR Pros by Janet Krenn

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For a three-year-old toddler, Twitter sure has a lot of toys! Seriously, there are thousands of applications available that you can use to expand your twitter-bilities.

Here are 15 that I think are highly useful for PR professionals.

Get Your PR Message Out

1. Twitterfeed automatically tweets your blog titles, streamlining your online campaigns.

2. Twiddeo allows you to upload video from your phone or computer and posts a short url to your twitter account.

Manage the Timing of Your PR Message

3. Tweetlater  is a handy tool, especially for the PR professional. If you want to post reminders of an upcoming event, schedule them through Tweetlater.

4. Vacatweet can keep you active on the Twitter-sphere by responding to your messages while you’re on vacation.

Monitor Your PR Campaigns

5. Tweetburner not only generates shortened urls, the application will allow your to post the url to your Twitter account and track clicks and re-tweets of your url.

6. StrawPoll lets you put a quick poll on your Twitter page. A great tool if you’re looking for simple feedback.

7. Tweetnews  can track news-related tweets on Twitter.

Show Off your Publications or other Promotional Documents

8. FileSocial allows you to upload documents to their site and post a link to those documents on Twitter.

9. TwitDoc  is similar to FileSocial, with the added bonus of drag-and-drop functionality. But this function is only available for Adobe AIR users!

Meet People, Follow, and Be Followed

10. Twitdir  is one of the many Twitter directories that allows you to search for Twitterers by location, email, and alias.

11. Twitterlocal allows you to find people actively tweeting in an geographic area that you define.

12. Twollo  compares your tweets to other users to try and suggest people you might want to be friends with.

Manage Multiple Accounts

13. Splitweet compiles multiple Twitter accounts, allowing you to easily post to any of your accounts. You can also track keywords.
14. TweetDeck also compiles multiple Twitter accounts, and although I know it is vastly more popular than Splitweet, I’m just not as into it!

15. ??

I know I promised 15, so I’ll ask you: What do you think is another highly useful twitter application for public relations professionals?

JANET A. KRENN is Communication Co-Chair of the New Professionals Section of PRSA. If you’re a member of the New Professionals Section, and you’d like to contribute to the New Pros’ blog, email her at janetqs(at)gmail dot com