Is Twitter dangerous? Should agencies ban their reps … particularly their junior reps … from using it? Or at least stay awake nights fretting about risk? Lately, there have been a slew of Twitter-related PR gaffes by unlucky (or irresponsible or unenlightened) PR types that have made senior agency and in-house executives particularly uneasy. But is their fear misplaced?
Let’s recap:
1. The creators of video game Duke Nukem fired their PR firm The Redner Group after their rep tweeted the following threat to reviewers: « Too many went too far with their reviews … we are reviewing who gets games next time and who doesn’t based on today’s venom. »
2. A PR rep manning Chrysler’s Twitter account likely misapplied the following Tweet to his client’s corporate account rather than his own personal account (either way, it’s bad) : « I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the #motorcity and yet no one here knows how to f**king drive. »
3. Similarly, an internal social media resource at the Red Cross, made the following Twitter gaffe: « Ryan found two more 4 bottle packs of Dogfish Head’s Midas Touch beer…. when we drink we do it right #gettngslizzerd. » The Red Cross apparently has a sense of humour, posting the following after deleting the tweet: « We’ve deleted the rogue tweet but rest assured the Red Cross is sober and we’ve confiscated the keys. » The incident actually turned into a fundraising opportunity, thanks to the good people at Dogfish Head.
4. If you’re a fan of the classics, you’ll appreciate this flashback to 2009, when a Ketchum exec tweeted his distaste for the city of Memphis a few short hours after teaching FedEx employees all about Twitter at their Memphis head office: « True confession but i’m in one of those towns where I scratch my head and say I would die if I had to live here! » FedEx was not amused.
While I’m of the mind that these incidents speak more to very poor judgement than to the perils of Twitter, and that instilling solid values is what agencies should do to ensure their employees communicate professionally no matter the communications channel, there are a few things you can do to ensure this kind of slip up doesn’t happen at your PR agency:
1. Don’t mix business with pleasure: Tools like Tweetdeck and Hootsuite have features that let you manage multiple accounts. Choosing one for client accounts and another for your personal account means that there’s little risk of mistweeting.
2. Be transparent: While it’s not best practice, many brands turn a portion … if not all … of their tweeting responsibility over to their PR agencies. They should do so transparently, ensuring tweets are identified; using initials is standard practice. At least this way followers can identify the actual source and not necessarily link it to the brand (in an ideal world, anyway). It might help if accidents happen.
3. Remember crisis management 101: Own up to the error and, if possible and appropriate, keep a sense of humour about it. Social media is fluid and moves quickly. A well placed mea culpa and a bit of self-effacing humour can go a long way to quickly cooling off a heated crisis.
4. Think twice before hitting submit, share or reply: do you really want to spew venom through social media channels when you’re managing accounts that aren’t your own? Don’t let momentary rage or frustration get in the way of good client relations and a reputation you’ve cultivated over time.
5. Be prepared: Maintaining an active Twitter presence, becoming part of the community and ensuring your brand’s account always has a human face is the best way to ensure your Twitter account isn’t seen as the impersonal mouthpiece of a faceless corporation. The community understands that to err is human, so be human.
As for the Duke Nukem example, threatening people, online or off, usually isn’t the best course of action. Just saying.
A quick look at my Pearltrees account tells me that I’ve accumulated a nice collection of Twitter-related applications. Have you heard of some of my favourites?
1. Formulists – I use this one to develop niche networks for myself and my clients. Choose the « Find Tweeps like someone else » option and Formulists will lead you discover some great profiles. Add them to your Twitter list, and start developing relationships from there!
2. Follower Wonk – This app is great for searching Twitter bios for keywords (ex: your brand or industry). It also draws comparisons between Twitter users, with venn diagrams showing overlaps in followers and influencers and charts tracking Twitter activity.
3. DoesFollow – This is a nice, simple tool that lets you know if Person A is following Person B. Handy if you want to be doubly sure your DM will reach your favourite journalist or blogger, or if you want to get a sense of the impact a tweet or retweet can have. Twitter can be like a cocktail party. Sometimes it’s nice when someone can introduce you to that fetching creature across the room.
4. TweetPsych – This app gives you the « psychological » profile of any Twitter user. Far from wanting to play armchair therapist, I use this to get a sense of who any given Twitter user is – what he or she is interested in etc. Bios are one thing. An analysis of tweets to build a profile is another. In case you’re curious, I tweet about media 47% more often than the average user and about learning 8% more. If you’re looking for someone who tweets about leisure, I’m apparently not your girl. I tweet about leisure activities 70% less than the average user. Hrm .. I’m not sure that’s a good sign. On the other hand, @pmharper tweets about money, work and leisure 276%, 210% and 126% more often than the average user and reflects anxiety 86% less than the average user. No comment.
5. Foller – If you want to get an idea of what the influencers you’ve identified are interested in these days, Foller is the one-stop shop for you. Particularly interesting for hashtags. It also displays a map showing geographical influence. I’m popular in Canada, the US, Europe .. and India! (Hi Rajesh!)
6. TweetReach – I’ll often use a special hashtag or trackable URL like budurl or bit.ly on Twitter. When I want to have an idea of how far those tweets might have reached, I plug the unique identifier URL into TweetReach. The free version of this app has its limitations, but it’s a nice start.
7. TweetEffect – Curious to know what kinds of tweets make people start or stop following you? Tweet Effect your last 170 or so updates and highlights those where you gained and lost. I suppose making a second #rapture joke on Saturday was too much for some. I lost 7 followers with what I thought was a link to a cute video. Strangely enough, a link to a photo I took of my tonkinese earned me a new follower. Proof that, online at least, cute cats win over zombies everytime.
8. Nearby Tweets – Hyperlocal is trendy for a reason. Find out what tweets are originating near you or in cities around the world using this Twitter app. When an important story hits — the Mumbai terrorist attacks for example — you can target the city (Mumbai) and keywords (Taj, terrorist etc) that are of particular interest.
9. Keepstream – I’m always on the look out for good ways to present Twitter content to clients. Keepstream lets you curate tweets, get a glimpse of hyperlinked content, add commentary and then share the content on Twitter or Facebook. There’s an embed code so the content can be published on a website or blog. This app has potential. I’d like to see a premium version that would allow me to share content only with specified users, like my clients and colleagues. This would make the comment field that much more useful. Still, it’s not a bad start.
10. The Archivist – Tweets are fleeting. Twitter search only goes back so far and no third party application I know of guarantees it can deliver the full archive of Twitter search results going back the 5 or so years Twitter has been around. Cue The Archivist. Sure, it’s no time traveller, and no, it doesn’t have access to Twitter’s pipeline, but it does get you started and gives you some insight into the identity of the top users chatting about your brand, top related keywords and top URLs. I depend on platforms like Sysomos’ MAP, but it’s nice to be able to complement a paid service like that with a free service like this.
What are your favourite Twitter apps?
Derek K. Miller, blogueur influent de Burnaby C.B., est décédé hier, après une lutte acharnée contre le cancer. Père de deux filles et mari dévoué, ce musicien produisait de la musique libre de droits pour utilisation dans les baladodiffusions et bloguait sur des sujets variés, dont la science, la technologie, sa famille et sa maladie. Les proches de M. Miller ont publié ce matin un billet d’adieu qu’il avait rédigé quelque temps avant sa mort. Cet ultime billet fait présentement le tour de la blogosphère et touche des milliers de lecteurs. Tellement que son site n’a pas pu supporter le volume de trafic. Au moment de l’écriture de ces lignes, le site PenMachine.com était hors ligne.
Pourquoi l’évoquer sur ce blogue?
Parce que la disparition de ce blogueur nous rappelle que dernière chaque blogueur que nous identifions comme étant un « influenceur », il existe un individu qui vit, qui aime, qui souffre et qui connaît des moments de grand bonheur. Un être mortel, qui compte pour la communauté qu’il a tissé autour de lui.
Lorsqu’une entreprise décide de se lancer dans l’aventure des médias sociaux en menant une campagne de relations auprès des blogueurs, les responsables des communications ne doivent jamais perdre de vue que les blogueurs ne sont pas des journalistes. Ils ne sont pas des professionnels embauchés par une entreprise médiatique pour produire du contenu qui sera vendu à côté de publicités dans un grand quotidien ou à la télévision. Ils sont motivés uniquement par leur passion. Leur œuvre est forcément intime. Forcément personnel. Et ces passionnés forment des communautés – des tribus – caractérisées par des liens serrés et tissées avec chaque commentaire. Avec chaque hyperlien.
Dans les séances d’introduction aux médias sociaux que j’offre à mes clients existants et potentiels, je parle immanquablement de la notion de tribu. Je considère qu’il est essentiel de comprendre que les médias sociaux permettent à des tribus de se former selon des champs d’intérêt, et ce indépendamment de distances et de frontières. Nous ne devons jamais oublier que derrière chaque blogueur que nous approchons dans l’espoir d’obtenir de la visibilité pour les entreprises et marques de nos clients, il existe un être passionné qui s’investit souvent corps et âme dans la production de contenu qui l’intéresse et qui intéresse les membres de sa tribu.
Collègues: Mettons de côté nos listes et engageons nous pleinement dans la conversation en ligne ainsi que les rencontres hors-ligne. Entrons en dialogue avec le blogueur en tant qu’individu. Prenons le temps de le connaître. Tissons des liens avec lui. Démontrons du respect pour son temps, son investissement personnel et sa passion. Gagnons sa confiance. Faisons nos preuves et démontrons-lui que nous méritons d’être un membre à part entière de sa communauté. De sa tribu.
Et lorsqu’un membre de notre tribu signe son dernier billet, pleurons-le ensemble.
Derek K. Miller, repose en paix.
The world, indeed the whole universe, is a beautiful, astonishing, wondrous place. There is always more to find out. I don’t look back and regret anything, and I hope my family can find a way to do the same. – Derek K. Miller
A few years ago, I had to drive as far as Ottawa to attend a social media event. Now, there are more social media events than you can shake a stick at (where does that expression come from, anyway?) including the two Montreal events I organize. My absolute personal favourite, though, is Podcasters Across Borders – or PAB to its friends. I was at another kind of event this past weekend – my brother’s wedding – and spoke with another PAB veteran. We agreed the people who attend PAB are weird … in the best possible way. This weirdness completely explains why I love PAB so much. While other social media events drown in startup and marketing presentations focussed on monetization, PAB reminds me every time of the beauty of social media.
You’ll meet actors-who-podcast, knitters-who-podcast, scientists-who-podcast, geeks-who-podcast, photographers-who-podcast, comics-who-podcast, educators-who-podcast, comedians-who-podcast … and the list goes on. They’ll impress you with their passion and commitment. They’ll inspire you.
PAB has broadened its scope to include everything social media, so the non-podcasters among you will find the kind of weirdness that will make you happy at PAB too.
I didn’t attend last year, so don’t know if Ottawa has the same charm Kingston did, but I suspect that it’s the people, not the venue, that make the event. I’m looking forward to finding out.
You can register here.
Embrace your inner (and outer) weirdness. See you at PAB.
Elections Canada has issued a warning: it is forbidden to divulge election results before all polling stations have closed in Western Canada. Those who break this law are subject to a $25 000 fine and up to 5 years in prison. The 1938 law was aimed at traditional media, and can seem anachronistic in the age of social media. A number of Twitter users are mobilizing to defy the restriction.
Let’s calm down a little. It’s not because one CAN do something that one SHOULD do it. How about hitting pause on this self-centered age we live in, to think about this a minute. Around the world, in Libya, in Egypt, in Iran, in Tunisia, in Irak, in Afghanistan, people are killing one another in pro-democratic movements.
And what do we do? We get indignant when faced with a law that seeks to protect our democracy and we gear up to defy it on Twitter. To what end?
Yes, the law should be changed to better reflect our new communicational reality. No, we should not sacrifice democracy on the altar of Twitter. Let’s respect our democratic institutions and the right of Western Canadians to express themselves through the vote, free of all external influence.
Bottom line? Grow up.
On election day, until the last polls close in all electoral districts, the Canada Elections Act prohibits the dissemination of:
election advertising
results of election opinion surveys not previously released
election results from other electoral districts
Note to my readers: For the first time since launching this blog over 4 years ago, I’m translating a post. The challenge of having a bilingual blog is that you know that no post can be read by 100% of the people who follow you. I chose a bilingual blog format because I wanted to engage with two communities. It happened that those communities were separated by language. A bilingual blog is a truly Canadian compromise to a truly Canadian dilemna. The problem is that, this time, I want to be read by both anglo and franco Canadians. For those of you who master the language of Molière as well as the language of Shakespeare, my apologies for the redundancy.
