Take a moment and read this article from the New York Times from last week, "When Stars Twitter, a Ghost May Be Lurking".
There's a couple of useful things to learn from the stars like rapper
50 Cent getting caught using ghost-writers in Twitter here.
First, "He doesn't actually use Twitter, but the energy of it is all him" is just as lame an answer as it seems. There is no good way
to explain the fact that you've been deceiving thousands of followers
on twitter for months. Obviously it's the comeuppance for some bad
judgment, but one wonders, how do you avoid getting there?
This
isn't a new problem. For years now, corporate public relations staff
have tried to deal with the problem, "How do I get my CEO to blog?"
Now it's twitter, tomorrow it will be Facebook. This of course never
is a problem for YouTube, since the authenticity is generally an
integral part of video and "scripted" remarks are the expectation of the medium. Twitter creates an expectation of intimacy, be warned.
Here are three tips to consider when thinking through your social media communication execution. They hold well for blogging, twitter, and facebook.
1. Don't lie, don't make up fictitious people
It may be tempting to create "Joe Smith" blogger/twitterer at your organization and staff it with whomever is available, but that's like putting a minefield in your front yard to keep away gophers. And when it blows up in your face all that hard work will be forgotten in the reputational loss.
2. Be real but realistic
You may admire companies whose CEO blogs daily, but if you don't think your CEO is capable of that, don't make that a requirement of your social media plan. If a junior comms staffer can channel the right voice, let him/her be the voice of your brand. Their placement of the blog on the website will be enough to convey authenticity. And when you need to bring in the big guns, your CEO can guest post.
3. "Editor" is ok
Sometimes you may not be able to get your social media program off the ground with any name up front. The CEO can't really be involved, and no other staffer can get permission to be the named 'voice' of the company. Go ahead and go with a titled voice, such as "editor". That won't work forever, as Comcast's main twitterer Frank Eliason has learned while twittering as "@ComcastCares", but it's a good start.
Ghost photograph from flickr user Energetic Spirit, Creative Commons license
Comments