This week’s Social Media Club Question of the Week is one of the most pertinent to my online public relations practice.

The club poses the question: In the era of social media, what do you do to control your brand?

Remember the Skittles stunt in March when they turned their online presence over to social media sites like YouTube, Flickr, Twitter and Facebook? Their site’s still that way. They’ve certainly embraced their inner social media diva.

What do they do to let you know they’re not responsible for some of the content? They have a big disclaimer you have to agree to, along with inputting your birth date so they know you’re old enough to access their site.

I do a lot of consulting with business-to-business companies. So many of them are afraid of what will be said about them if they engage in social media. Guess what? Whether they choose to engage or not, it’s already being said. The difference is if they do engage, then they have an opportunity to respond instead of ignoring what’s being said.

We’ve all heard the expression ignorance is bliss. Well, I’m not so sure about that when it comes to corporate branding and reputation.

My answer to the Social Media Club question is . . .

It’s time you realize that you’re not in control of your brand.

With social media, everyone is a publisher. Citizen journalism will increase. It won’t replace traditional journalism, but it will play an even greater role in the years to come. People will always trust the opinion of family and friends over any corporation.

So once you’ve had your come to Jesus moment — realizing you’re not really in control of your brand — what do you do about it?

You become a master at using new social media tools to publish your own content which then competes in the marketplace of ideas for mindshare. The more creative, authentic and entertaining your content, the greater your chances of popularity.

Then you go to work to engage with others using social media to represent your brand.

It’s not so much about brand control as it is about brand management and appropriate representation.

What are the responsibilities of Web 2.0 services to engage with and respond to the community it serves, and what are the responsibilities of the community to the service?

Like any company, social media and Web 2.0 services should have a good customer service plan in place.

They should account for things like responding to usability questions and gaps in service.

They should also engage with their customers through the use of their platform as well as other social media platforms.

The better a company is at listening to its users, the more likely it is to make decisions that foster stronger customer relationships.

Obviously from a user’s perspective, they should provide feedback when asked for it, and especially when they’re not asked for it. And there had better be an easy way to submit that feedback to avoid the feeling of “we don’t really care what you have to say.”

The fact that the service is free doesn’t relieve the provider of the obligation to listen and respond to their subscribers.

Unfortunately, we live in an entitled era. Everyone’s entitled to everything. I doubt any new technology will change that.

Companies that provide social media and Web 2.0 services, even if they don’t charge users for the services, should be good corporate citizens by listening and engaging with their customers.

An Example

I use Contxts to deliver my text message business card. You just text prpete to 50500 and you’ll receive my contact information delivered to your mobile phone as a text message. It’s a slick service.

I learned that you can’t have any ‘weird’ characters in your text business card or their system won’t send the card.

I learned this when my card wasn’t being delivered. I logged in to their online support forum and found a discussion thread that applied to my problem. And I received a handful of email messages from one of their employees following up with me to be sure the odd characters were removed and the service was functioning properly.

Now I know Contxts, although it’s a free service, is there for me. And I highly recommend them to anyone.

Tags: #SMCQ2, #Responsibilities

How can we best support our social media community and our peers knowing full well we’re often competing for the same clients and client money?

Tags: #SMCQ1, #Coopetition

See the Social Media Club Question of the Week blog entry.

From a Fearful Perspective

There are people and companies who still believe certain information should be concealed. This is certainly true for trade secrets, things that yield a competitive edge.

However, given American’s low level of trust with corporate executives, a prevailing trend is for greater transparency. Along with that, people desire authenticity from brands and the people behind them.

For many years I have been a supporter of professional associations in my field of public relations and business communication. You could guess that those associations are PRSA and IABC. I have dedicated untold hours to the local, regional and national advancement of those organizations, serving on all three levels.

A common theme during local board meetings was how to get the support of the community for programs when, in fact, many in the organization were competitors and fearful of giving away the shop, so to speak.

The discussions that ensued inevitably addressed ways to structure programs so as not to divulge specific business practices but to still provide value to those attending.

It’s a fine line: disclosing business secrets versus discussing best practices.

Be Professional

In my experience, professionals are good about sharing what they can and careful to withhold competitive edge information.

Be Open

Coming from the world of PR and marketing, social media seems to demand a more open approach. The very nature of social media is collaborative and just as much about listening as informing.

This is another reason why I enjoy social media consulting. You teach others how to listen to conversations, then join the conversations and be a contributory member, not just a fly on the wall.

Share Best Practices

Sharing best practices only helps further the profession. Knowing which social media tools to use in certain circumstances should be relatively easy to figure out. Plus, if you’re curious to know what the competition is doing, it’s not difficult to find out.

For example, if you were enamored by the way Blendtec used YouTube to secure a 700% increase in blender sales, you may also want to use YouTube for your videos. But chances are if you took a blender and started chopping stuff up with it, people would recognize your videos as a Blendtec knock-off. And your videos probably wouldn’t have the same sales effect.

So even though you’re aware of what the competition has done or is doing, you really can’t copy the specific tactic. You can replicate the strategy though. You can learn from their example and use a social media tool to share something unique about your product.

Do As I’m Doing

Here’s another argument for sharing best practices.

Buyers of social media should look to what you’ve accomplished, either for yourself or for your clients. If they like what they see, they’re likely to hire you.

So, in a way, actions speak louder than words, and in a much more open way than traditional marketing communications.

Our democratic society appreciates competition. If you’re worried about someone else taking your gig, try focusing on being the best at what you do so your work speaks for itself.

Contribute

To truly serve as the voice for social media, the Social Media Club has to be good for the professional — and by that I mean the person engaged and making a living through social media — and good for the profession.

The only way to advance the profession is through collaborative efforts by social media professionals.

Just like America succeeds when individual political parties work together for the common good, so will the Social Media Club effectively serve as the voice and standard for social media when its members contribute to the organization’s mission and goals.

Tags: #SMCQ1, #Coopetition