Archive for Facebook
Crisis Communications Tip #15: It’s Rarely Straightforward
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The incredible coverage in the traditional media, posts on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other online venues of the recent Jet Blue flight attendant’s bizarre reaction to a less than civil passenger brings home the point that a crisis is rarely, if ever, straightforward in the facts surrounding what happened.
IMO, what’s getting lost in the accolades for the flight attendant’s way that he quit his job are the bigger, more serious issues of the safety risk he put the passengers in when he deployed the evacuation chute and the complicated state of today’s customer service.
It will be interesting to watch how Jet Blue moves forward and how it incorporates the incident into its customer service training. It should make for an important case study.
Facebook Friday: Answering the ‘Facebook Page?’ or ‘Group?’ Question
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It’s one of the first questions we hear when a client is considering its Facebook presence. Do we set up a Facebook Group? Or is a Facebook Page (aka “Fan Page”) more appropriate?
For most companies, the answer is likely going to be “Facebook Page,” as it enables public figures, businesses, organizations and other entities to create an authentic and public presence, according to Facebook. Groups, according to Facebook, “are the place for small group communication and for people to share their common interests and express their opinion.”
If you want to decide for yourself, the reporter in me says go straight to the source. So follow this link to the Facebook blog and their post, “What’s the Difference between a Facebook Page and Group?” And then you make the call!
Facebook Friday: Dealing with Trademark Issues
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Some companies new to the Facebook scene are finding that an overzealous employee or well-meaning fan has already established a Page for a brand or business. (Kind of like the mid-90s when the IT Department and others were claiming URLs well before the C-suite started to realize that a presence on the Wide World Web might be a good idea.)
Fortunately, Facebook has a process for dealing with that pesky issue of trademark infringement. If you – or your client – believe that Facebook is indeed catching on but discover that someone already established a Page, there’s somewhere you can turn to claim your rightfully trademarked name. Go to Facebook’s “Report an Infringing Username” section to “request removal of an unauthorized Page” and you should be on your way to claiming what’s rightfully yours.
Sawmill Introduces ‘Facebook Friday’
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On Twitter, today is “Follow Friday,” when people recommend their favorite users to follow each week.
Here on the PR Buzzsaw, we’re introducing “Facebook Friday,” when on certain Fridays we’ll share a favorite tip for making your Facebook experience (from a PR standpoint) just a little bit better. We’re all about being practical and simple here, so it’ll be just one tip at a time.
This first “Facebook Friday” tip comes via R2integrated’s Page Sands, who delivered an outstanding presentation at a Greater Baltimore Tech Council event this week. Here goes:
When naming your (or your client’s) Facebook page, don’t be tempted to simply call it “XYZ Corporation.” Think about the search implications and use a name that is more likely to deliver search results. As Page explained it, analyze your top keyword search results and name your page using that intelligence. Your friends and fans already know you, but the people you want to reach are more likely to search for a broader term. So instead of “Anthony, Davis & Miller Realty Associates” (which really doesn’t say much), try something more specific, such as “New York City Apartments.”
Social Media: Personal vs. Professional
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At a recent social media seminar covering the basics and featuring a panel of corporate users and SM “experts,” a fascinating and spontaneous discussion of personal vs. professional uses of social media resulted when one of the corporate panelists told of rescinding a job offer when photos of the candidate, deemed “inappropriate” by the CPA firm, were discovered on Facebook.
Surprisingly, one of the “expert” panelists was passionate about her insistence that the candidate had the “right to post photos of herself with a drink in her hand” on Facebook without any spillover to her professional standing! Further, this is the same counsel that she offers her clients: professional uses of social media tools are separate from those for personal uses and should not be connected.
She is indeed correct that she has the “right” to post anything about herself that she cares to on any social media tool she wishes. However, she is incorrect (and perhaps also naive) to expect the viewer/reader of this information to categorize it as exclusively personal with no correlation to her professional reputation.
The history of traditional mass media and now social media is replete with examples of people’s professional lives being played out in the public limelight – because they chose to or because they didn’t realize the line separating personal vs. professional is blurred at best.
I urge this panelist as well as those in the seminar audience to use the power of social media tools to their utmost advantage but to do so with the full and complete understanding that there is no “vs.” separating “personal” and “professional” in social or traditional media. Ever.
Social Media a Key Part of Company Success Stories
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When three executives from some of the Baltimore region’s most successful companies got together this morning to share “good news” stories about profitability in the face of a recession, they also took the time to share thoughts about marketing.
And no, they didn’t talk trade shows, direct mail campaigns and press releases.
Try Facebook, Twitter and blogging strategies as the tools they’re focusing on, even if it’s to monitor what customers – and competitors – are doing, linking to, following and saying.
The Greater Baltimore Tech Council event, “Who’s Growing in 2009?” was emceed by Art Jacoby (in photo above, left) featuring Tim Lorello, SVP and chief marketing officer for Telecommunication Systems, Inc. (also known as TCS), Michele Perry, chief marketing officer of Sourcefire, and Todd Johnson, president of Salar, Inc. (right). All three companies are in a strong growth mode, and marketing plays an important role.
But a pleasant surprise of the morning – at least for me – came when they talked about their use of social media and its emerging importance to their businesses. This was no social media how-to workshop where you’d expect that kind of talk. This was a business event and these unsolicited comments about social media’s value came straight from execs in the trenches.
Perry called this a time for “lots of learning and tracking…and numbers to watch” when it comes to social media, with time spent listening to what’s being said about Sourcefire and the industry. She also shared a powerful anecdote of the firm’s success with media interviews as a result of prompt response to Tweets by reporters needing sources for stories. “It all happens within half an hour,” emphasized Perry.
Lorello also acknowledged its importance and talked of winning awards, which leads to news coverage, which leads to results on the search engines, still the most important player in online marketing. Meanwhile, Salar, Inc. has a Facebook page (including pix from a recent Paintball outing) and a Twitter account, but the most efficient use of Web 2.0 tools are the industry blogs that have “10 times more credibility” than other sources, according to Johnson.
“It’s a wonderfully cheap way to market directly to our audience,” he said.
Before the Q and A session got underway, Jacoby, a notable business consultant, proclaimed that “social media is the next giant.”
Amen, Art.
P.S. Check out the blog post about the event written by Baltimore Sun tech reporter Gus Sentementes. It’s on his new blog just launched this week, BaltTech.
