social media

Chris Perry (@cperry248) who is our digital communications president, wrote this really good post on Forbes about social CEOs. I am taking the liberty of repeating his 5 must-dos for CEOs wanting to get social or even considering it. I would probably add one more and that is to find yourself a buddy who can read your Tweets as a sounding board when you first get started. I think that that second opinions can save oneself from having a red face and worth the try until you feel comfortable enough to try it alone.  And maybe it's worth having a buddy just as good practice when it comes to Tweeting or even Facebook.  They might not be good golfing buddies but hey, this is a new age. Take his advice. It is seriously good. Here they are.....straight from Chris. Realize you shine bright in social mediums. Social media participation is a public appearance where everything is on the record. Assume that comments will be picked up by the press as well as examined closely by your customers, staff and others watching your company. Speak and act accordingly. Recognize your role as Chief Narrator. Social platforms like Twitter aren’t a sounding board for a CEOs innermost thoughts; they’re an extension of other modes of communication you use as the lead executive of your organization. There’s great opportunity to share thoughts on your company or industry issues that get amplified through networks that reach employees, investors, customers and the press. As with existing communications efforts have a plan in place as you engage. Anticipate social remarks being a part of a permanent public record. Avoid posting or tweeting on topics that you would never discuss aloud in a public forum. Badmouthing competitors, going too deep into personal affairs or speaking about divisive issues is not the way to go. Don’t be gun-shy when engaging online, but anticipate that what you say will generate the same reaction as if it were published in the press. Don’t court controversy if you can’t take the heat. Opinions on relevant industry issues and current events that affect your business are fine. But steer clear of statements that might be controversial – unless you want to be at the center of the storm. Off the cuff remarks can have a massive ripple effect to be managed your staff, PR team and others tied to the issue after the fact. Pause for a moment in private before you go public. Despite the inherent risks embrace your humanity. Words of caution don’t mean you can’t let your personality shine through. In fact, this is one of the best ways CEOs can engage on a deeper, more human level with stakeholders. Personal insights into what it’s like to lead an organization show authenticity. Just remember that there are limits to what’s appropriate to share.   Any leader looking to engage through social media can harness the power, or suffer from the peril, of the medium. While it provides a forum for new interaction, new communications policies have similarities to traditional media guidelines. Keeping that in mind will help you participate in ways that adds value, not headaches, to your organization.    

  Just returned from a multi-city tour of Europe where my colleagues and I talked about socializing your brand. This was based on our (Weber Shandwick) new recent research. We spoke to many clients and prospects about digital communications and the rewards and risks that come with this new territory.  Someone asked how you balance the reward-risk ratio when your senior management does not recognize that digital is so important to reputation today. In fact, our research found senior marketing/brand/comms executives saying that over half (52%) of a brand reputation today is attributed to how social it is. And this figure is expected to grow exponentially as time goes by. This gentleman said that being a social brand is akin to surfing with sharks. I loved the analogy because it explains how great it can feel to employ digital to communicate and give voice to a brand's story and yet how unexpected it can be when you feel that shark ripping into your reputation. The answer of course is being prepared. That's what the best of companies do. Crisis readiness gives you the head start you need today, in both a digital and non-digital world. Reputation is increasingly hard to manage while swimming with the unknown.

  It has been a very hectic week as we travel around to the many markets in EMEA to discuss Socializing Your Brand, our new research on what it takes to be truly social today. As always, I try to keep up with other news and events and that has been harder than usual as my laptop crashed between markets. Caught an article citing Michael Silverleaf, legal counsel hired by News Corp., saying that it would be harmful to air information related to “a culture of illegal information access” because it would be "extremely damaging to NGN's public reputation."  (NGN=News Group Newspapers) I had a double take when I read the last two words of this sentence. Is there such a thing anymore as a public vs. private reputation? It seems to me that there is no longer a divide between private and public. There are no secrets and we are all public figures and public institutions. Let`s get real. The other article that caught my eye came about while taking a train with my colleague to a mountain top village near Geneva.  Instead of day dreaming as I had hoped, this brought me back to reality. The article is terribly interesting because it is about women CEOs and how their husbands support them in their quest to the top.  James Stewart wrote it probably because he was thinking about the new female CEO of IBM who recently joined the exclusive – and small -- club of women CEOs.

“Asked at a Barnard College conference what men could do to help advance women’s leadership, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, a professor at Harvard Business School and author of the landmark “Men and Women of the Corporation,” answered, “The laundry.””

Hah. If only it were that simple. Made me realize that I had to get back to the hotel and get some laundry done quickly for the next leg of the tour.

   I always learn something new when I go to the Council of PR Firms Critical Issues Forum. The 2011 event was this past week and Robert Gibbs spoke, the former White House Press Secretary for President Obama. He delivered a perfect keynote presentation -- attuned to the audience, well-timed, thoughtful and chock full of good stories and insights.  In my view, he sure shored up his reputation. A few things caught my attention....

• Go where your customers are. Gibbs told the story of how he was told that President Obama had some down time in LA during a visit and how he suggested that the president visit the Jay Leno show. Of course, people thought he was crazy but he underscored the importance of going where your voters (customers) are.
• Use technology strategically. Gibbs decided to use Twitter when he realized he could get a jump on what journalists were thinking before, during and after press conferences.
• Social media reaches more. In the 2012 election, the social media team will be the largest one in the President's re-election campaign. As he said, it strengthens and grows the brand and insulates it when things go bad. I wanted to tell him that "inoculate" is an even better term to use. Gibbs said to think of this coming year as the Twitter Election. 
• An event is 2 Tweets.  He said that brands must be disciplined today and since Twitter is how news gets made these days, 2 Tweets = event. Interesting concept, right?
• Tough times are just that, tough times. The BP/Gulf of Mexico oil spill was one of the toughest times in the White House. Gibbs said he can think of 100 things that they could have done better now. Hindsight.
• 2008 vs. 2012. Expect to see more story telling from "real" people in the re-election campaign. Stories from real people are powerful validators.
• Which is harder -- selling products or politicians? Gibbs says politicians.
• Be careful what you put in writing. This fascinated me. He said that because everything in the White House is archived, people are careful about what they say because it could be totally misunderstood 12 years from now or some such time.  And because of the archiving, no one says anything all that interesting!
• Get out of the bubble. This is the same for CEOs. Find a way to get real and to be in touch with the average person. President Obama reads 10 letters a day from people who send him letters. He answers them and tries to figure out what can be done. But it keeps him in touch with reality which is sorely needed when living in the White House or DC. CEOs should get out of their offices and ride the subway or the bus when they can.
• Politics is "yelling for a living." I thought that's exactly right.  And a good note to end on.

 This week we launched our excellent survey on what it takes to socialize a brand. It is among top marketing and communications executives in companies around the world. One of the drivers of world class social brands is being ever so careful about the assaults on a brand's reputation.  We learned in the survey conducted with Forbes Insights that executives of world class social brand companies are 35% more likely than the average global company to report that their brand experienced an online crisis in the past year that affected its reputation. These social champions who have dealt with a recent online crisis are no stranger to the risks of the hyper-connected world — two-thirds (66%) report that they deal with negative online commentary on a daily basis (vs. 51% of total global companies). The latter point was good news to me although perhaps not so for companies. The reason I say that is because I often get asked about how often companies experience reputation crises and I quickly respond "daily." Our research reveals that nearly two-thirds of socially aware companies are dealing with reputation threats and its just the tip of the iceberg. Just this week we saw Netflix and RIM in the news -- some self-inflicted and some not.  If you want to read more about the blackberry crisis and my comments, go here. These types of online crises will only increase as the world gets smaller, more people go online and more are eager to share their opinion about brands.  Being vigilant is the job of everyone. Lets not fool ourselves -- we all have to play cop.

Interesting news today from my very own Weber Shandwick. We are releasing a study today called Socializing Your Brand: A Brand's Guide to Sociability that we did with Forbes Insights.  The survey was among nearly 2,000 marketing and communications executives with digital responsibility in 50 countries worldwide. As a reputation maven, I have to share the interesting insight about reputation. According to the study, global brand executives believe that sociability is growing rapidly as a contributor to a brand’s overall reputation, from 52 percent today with a projected estimate of 65 percent three years from now.  Thus having a vibrant and thoughtful online presence is not for the weak-hearted brands. 52% is a substantial estimate which is only going to grow. So for all those brands out there wishing to be world class, go get social. Check out the survey.

Have Asia on my mind as I am soon airborn. A few facts and stories I just learned as I am preparing to go and talk about reputation trends. These are all China-based for now....

• In four years, more than 700 million people in China will be watching online video sites. Youku, similar to our YouTube, is one such leading site. (McKinsey Quarterly, 2011). Pretty dazzling if you ask me.
• Even during the global recession, sales of luxury goods in China rose by 16%. (McKinsey Quarterly, 2011).
• An interesting incident that caught my attention. Apparently the CEO of DangDang (China's Amazon) exploded at his bankers in a profanity-filled tirade blaming them for an IPO that undervalued his firm. The language was so profane that when reported there were alot of ****s. This all appeared on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter.  Apparently some employees of the bankers fired back on Weibo although now there are reports saying they were not employees. Whatever the story, what I found interesting is that we focus so much on social media guidelines for employees and perhaps its time to develop them for CEOs too! Not exactly a reputation-building story.

  Do cities and countries recover their reputations after their images have been tarnished or damaged by natural disaster? This question is bound to be answered as we see what happens to London after the August riots.  A market research firm analyst Simon Anholt studies the reputation of cities and reports on them annually for Gfk Roper.  When asked what he thought about how much cities are affected by reputational issues, Anholt said “not much.” He thought that if it did, he would have seen more change in reputational perceptions of New York, London and Tokyo than he has seen so far. Essentially, memories are short. Some proof of what he says comes from The European Tour Operators Association who report having only 0.2% cancellations on visits to London immediately after the riots. Additionally, property prices have not seen any negative effects among investors or large real estate firms.  There always is a silver lining when it comes to politics, however. The mayor of London said that the riots this past summer showcased London’s resilience. There is no doubt that city reputations get bruised when these types of events occur but the impact does not seem long-lasting. Is that a sign of the times? In the aftermath of Japan’s earthquake, tsunami and subsequent nuclear accident, the city of Tokyo has seen no significant erosion to its city image according to the 2011 Anholt-GfK Roper City Brands Index^SM just mentioned above. Among the top ten cities in the 2011 survey, Paris ranks as the top overall city "brand”, and  Tokyo ranks 10^th among 50 cities measured. There you go. But I must add that there was one thing that truly saved London’s reputation and set an example that may have lasting power -- the “broom armies.”  Groups of people took to the streets afterwards with brooms, dust bins, cleaning gloves and garbage bags to sweep away the broken glass and debris left after the looting.  As someone said, it was the “perfect symbol for the civilised majority.” And another said it was a “shared response” to fear and uncertainty. Best of all, it started with a simple Twitter campaign among stranges, #riotcleanup.  Twitter again comes to the rescue to mobilize people to do the right thing, not just the bad. We can expect to see more of this in 2011 and 2012.  People will fight back to reclaim their shared decency, city citizens will mobilize to stabilize their home streets and reputations will repair themselves through the deeds of ordinary people who barely know each other.

When I was researching and writing an article  on safeguarding your digital reputation for the Wall Street Journal Europe's website this week, I found this interesting article on how the International Olympic Comittee (IOC) had issued social media guidelines for "athletes and other accredited persons" for the 2012 games. Now we all know that many companies and organizations have such guidelines, but this was different in that the IOC made it clear it would be monitoring online content and would withdraw accreditation "without notice, at the discretion of the IOC, for purposes of ensuring compliance with these Guidelines."  That will surely keep athletes and any other accredited individuals from using social media for commercial purposes and harming the reputation of the games and committee. At first I thought this was a bit harsh but on second thought, many companies and organizations monitor what employees are saying but don't outright admit it. Sounds like the IOC is being very transparent about keeping its reputation clear. I only wish they had defined "accredited" persons.  They have a definition of terms at the end of the guidelines but do not define what it exactly means. I assume they mean third-parties but I did not have much luck online figuring it out either. Does that mean only third-parties must follow the social policies set forth? What about fourth or fifth parties -- meaning four or five degrees of separation away from the first and second parties? I guess I am getting too technical and asking too many questions. But I think it would help to know if a vendor or supplier is an accredited person of interest! Anyhow, please read my article on digital defense and the five essential tips to safeguarding your reputation.

  As you know from reading my blog, one of my great interests is online reputation management, particularly in times of crisis. At Weber Shandwick, we have conducted research starting way back on this topic….from Safeguarding Reputation to Risky Business: Reputations Online to Reputation Warfare and more to come. This past week I learned of some new research from Altimeter Group, authored by Jeremiah Owyang. They surveyed 144 social business program managers as well as conducting interviews with 63 corporate practitioners and providers. This included our very own David Krejci in our Digital Communications group about our social media crisis simulator Firebell.  I liked David’s quote (“experience the paralysis”) which is what Firebell does – it gives you the heart attack moment when social media has your company in its sights.  Since digital defense has been an important element of what we do, we were delighted to share information on this resource.  Some of the facts (read the full report here) worth noting are as follows:

• Be prepared. More than three-quarters of  social media crises could have been diminished or averted if companies had invested their resources internally and strategically. Of the advanced companies identified by Altimeter, 13 of the 18 have a clearly defined crisis plan with clear roles, responsibilities and action steps.  But they found that 56% of all companies had no clearly defined plan (that’s when the paralysis sets in).
• Companies need social media policies. These policies guide employees on how to participate in the social universe.  Left unguided, employees are uncertain or oblivious how to participate online and probably do so and go off the guard rails. Reputational risk is heightened, not lessened, when no social media policy is in place. In their survey, 83% of all companies they surveyed had a formal policy in place but among the more advanced ones, all 18 or 100% did. Interestingly, 8% had a policy specifically prohibiting employees from engaging on behalf of their companies. While I have traveled around the world, I have seen this to be true but it does not seem to deter most people and in fact, most definitely increases anonymity online. 
• Ongoing education is critical to managing online crises well. I found this section of the report very helpful because there is so much more that companies can do.  An example was given of a company that has a certification program with over 60 online courses.  Companies could certainly do better at social media training, whether it be brown bag lunches, speaker series, internal newsletters, etc.
• Create a scalable hub and spoke system to lead the social media strategy. The more advanced companies have a center of excellence at the hub with oversight for strategy, governance, training and education, measurement and vendor identification.  The centralized hub works closely with the cross-functional and cross-business unit support teams (the spokes) to support the overarching strategy and common policies. The hub is usually operated through marketing and/or corporate communications. This corporate social media team typically consists of 11 people. 

There is a lot of good common sense and best practice advice in this report. Take a look. We have a lot of work ahead of us to make our companies digitally safe.