Social Media is HERE AND NOW

by Tony Shelton and Dayna Steele, Shelton & Caudle/Vollmer Public Relations

Social media has taken the world by storm, moving so fast that some people have no idea they have even been left behind. With Twitter and Facebook, emailing, texting, and cell phones that all but cook your dinner, it’s a whole new ball game for corporate America.

During a recent crisis communication training, a plant manager made a point of saying that social media wasn’t an issue for his plant. He said he wasn’t worried about employees sending out photos during a crisis because “we don’t allow cameras inside the plant.” Really? After a quick survey of the 14 people in the room, we were able to point out that everyone present had a cell phone with a camera. All but one of the phones also had a video camera.

The point is: No matter what the industry or size of the company, you can no longer control information. That means companies are going to have to learn to embrace social media and find a way to use it on their own terms. The alternative is to be blindsided and run over by people – including possibly your own employees – who do know how to use it and manage it.

“Well,” you might say, “I’ll just ban cell phones with cameras.” Really? At a recent dinner party, one man pointed out that he carries a dummy phone. As a highly paid safety consultant, he is asked to show his cell phone at the security gate of industrial plants. Typically, security holds onto any phone with a camera. For just this reason, he carries a phone he had to special order without a camera. In his other pocket? A typical cell phone like the rest of us have – with a camera and video camera.

First, simply acknowledge you can’t control information about your own company anymore. So, what can you do?

1. Educate yourself. At a minimum, make sure you, your executives and your communications department understand social media and how to use it.

2. Dedicate an employee who understands it and is tasked with implementing and utilizing social media. Southwest Airlines has an entire department covering social media. Getting ahead of it and getting your own message out early can often be crucial.

3. Learn in advance how to monitor social media, so you will know if you become the target of a social media attack. You can’t control rumors and defend yourself if you don’t even know the rumors are out there.

4. Educate your employees about what you are doing and what they can do to become involved as well. Like it or not, they may well become your in-house “i-reporters,” who will get the story out when something goes wrong. Give them some guidance and they may even get the story out on your terms.

5. Let clients and customers know they can reach you through these media in a pinch.

Social media is here to stay. Organizations that educate themselves in the ways of social media will be ahead of the game. The ones that don’t will be left in the dust of their ruined reputations and won’t even know what hit them.