In a public relations context, social media is a lot of things. Personally, I think it’s an awesome tool for engaging with audiences in an honest and transparent way, while building relationships and social capital. There are things it’s not, though, and that’s about as important. Over five weeks, I will be blogging about those things that (in a PR context) social media is not.
Social media is not:
- For everyone
- About you
- Easy
- A fad
- Marketing
This week, I’m talking about why social media might not be a good idea for you.
- This is what happens when grammar nerds meet tautologies on the internet.
Social media is social
Social media is, primarily, social (apologies for the tautology). It’s about sharing information and stories. Facebook invites you to share links that you find interesting, photos you’ve taken, and updates about what you’re doing. Twitter simply asks you “What’s happening?” However, if company statements have to go through legal, then it simply isn’t possibly to be spontaneously social. By time a blog post has gone to legal, been vetted, and uploaded, it could be days after the event that originally triggered the post. If you’re thinking about whether you as an individual should use social media, you should probably consider whether you’re a social sort of person. If you’re not very good at talking to people and sharing, then you probably shouldn’t be using social media.
Social media is transparent
Social media is also honest and transparent. Honesty builds the social capital you need and without it, you risk alienating your consumers. It can open you up to criticism, but gives you a vehicle to respond to that criticism. If you or your company don’t have the skills to respond to criticism, then social media is more likely to be a liability than an asset. The same applies if you can’t be transparent, which might be for any number of reasons: for example, military contractors who work on top secret projects can’t even say how much they spend on paperclips, never mind update twitter with a picture of the employees sitting down to lunch. Or, you might just have a corporate environment that doesn’t lend itself to transparency. If the corporate approach is a cautious one, the idea of sharing the internal workings of an organisation might be a little bit terrifying.
Social Media is a means, not an end, for public relations
Social media is a tool in the public relations toolbox. It’s a great way to connect with audiences, and to build understanding of your brand or company. You shouldn’t be doing social media for the sake of doing social media though. Unless you know what you want from social media, how you’re going to do it, and who you’re targetting, you probably shouldn’t be going in to it. For example, your company has a blog, and you update every day with new anecdotes of life in the company. The blog gets great readership, there’s a wonderful community of commenters, and… that’s about it. It doesn’t link in to any of the company’s activities, there’s no effort to engage readers with the actual brand, If you don’t know why you want to do social media, don’t do it. Social media takes up a lot of time, and if you don’t have a reason for doing social media other than “so that I can do social media”, you’re better off doing something else with that time.
There are many more reasons for not doing social media: my favourite post on the topic is Outspoken Media’s “10 Reasons You Should Run Like Hell From Social Media“. In the next post in this series, I’ll be talking about why social media isn’t about you.
