10 things you should think about when using Social Media in a corporate environment

It used to be that if you googled your name and would not show up on the first page you were nobody. Today, you have to be all over the place in the Social Media. Many companies or company officials refrain from going public on the social networks out of fear that something could go terribly wrong. The truth is that the rules are the same you first heard uttered by mom. Here are soem to think about:

1.- If you are just starting out, pick a name that represents the company and create an identity. Complete your profile, customize your landing page according to the company’s branding and build a stream of posts that other users may find credible before publicizing your handle.

2.- Who do you represent? – This is probably the first thing you have to think about when entering any social network. Are you the official spokesperson for the company you work for? Are you a highly visible official?
It may matter more in some instances than others, but as with any other social interaction, if you are at work, you are to some degree representing the company. Take this into account at all times.

3.- Act professionally at all times – Just as there are some inappropriate conduct at the company party, there are remarks, photographs, videos that should not be on your corporate social media account. If there is a chance that your supervisor may call you about the post you are about to post, you will probably going to get that call.

4.- Public? Think share value – With every post, think about what Wall Street may think. If there is any chance that a post may move the needle, do not post it.

5.- Absolutely no confidential information – This may sound pretty obvious, but the line between what is ok to be published and what is not may be a little gray sometimes. If there is anything that your worst enemy should not be reading, do not post it.

6.- Be on-topic – None of your corporate followers are interested in what you did during the weekend. They do want to know about the latest developments though, or where you see the market going, and maybe even take a peek at that last leadership retreat portrait (see 3, 4 and 5 above!).

7.- Be accurate – Provide links to content that supports your posts but never, ever regurgitate something without checking the facts. Follow links before you repost them. Check the authenticity of the source and make sure that any comments you are posting are supported by the facts.

8.- Be timely, be original – Social media content is always more attractive when it is newsworthy. Say things that nobody else is saying, before anybody else says them. This will make you more attractive for your followers. Tweet often, some experts place the ideal amount of tweets -depending on the industry- at anything between one and eight a day.

9.- Be responsive – Encourage comments from other members of the organization, even competitors. Respond to comments. Respond to all inquiries, negative or positive but mute the conversation on inappropriate comments. Have a zero-tolerance policy on these.

10.- Be honest and always take the higher ground – Disclose your relationship with the company, acknowledge errors, explain what happened. Respect your competitors and your audience, may the best man win.

Just came in: FB replaces all platforms

It goes something like this:

Joe Posted Something on your Wall:

"Honey, we ran out of paper at the downstairs powder room"

Lucia commented on your post:

"Look in the cabinet, there should be more there"

Joe commented on his post:

"Nope"

Lucia commented on your post:

"I will be there in a minute, writing something on fb"

Edward commented on your post:

"We always keep plenty in the cabinet too, seems to work for us"

Joe commented on his post:

"Hurry up honey"

With the widespread adoption of a communication technology -or any technology for that matter- there is always a moment in time when somebody figures out a "original way of using it" or a way of misusing it.

The ping-pong email is a famous one, where people interact by exchanging one-liners through email and expecting immediate answers. The 15-minute voicemail, the two-party conference bridge dial-in are other examples of this.

Exchanges like the opening one, while exaggerated for illustration purposes are becoming more prevalent. The point here is that the parties could just talk to each other, and there is no benefit in having this conversation on fb, where usually the objective is to capitalize on your friends input, enriching the discussion, or simply because there is something worth sharing, either because it sublime or entertaining.

The parties do have a technological alternative that fits better their communication needs, but they are just resorting to fb (or whatever they choose) because of pure laziness.

What's its name? Facemail?

It was in the news, but honestly, nobody is paying a lot of attention.

Facebook has announced that this Monday, they will make available their email services. At the time of this writing, it is not clear what enhancements are they incorporating into their Inbox feature, other than a dedicated email address.

I have been watching social media for a while (click here to see my 2008 rant) and I never saw Facebook as an email killer, but more like an Outlook killer. Think about it, What does Outlook do for you in a typical office environment? Integrates your contacts, communications, and takes care of your appointments and resource booking. There is not a lot that Facebook is missing out of these.

There are four things that I would point out with Facebook's announcement:

1.- Facebook does stand a chance. Email is becoming more and more just a transport layer and a notification mechanism. If I look at how my two daughters use their online resources, it is easy to come to this conclusion. They do have email addresses, to be able to "communicate with the dead", but they rarely check them. They communicate through Facebook and SMS, and email's function is reduced to make the vibrating device go off on their smartphones. If the notification piece is solved, Why send an email? You already have that message in FB's Inbox. It seems that something in these lines is coming with the announced Office Online integration.

2.- We need more. Some said this will be a GMail killer. Well, not until we get the gazillion storage capacity, the external email address, the capacity to SEND emails to people that are not on Facebook, Offline and mobile client access, resource management, iCal and VCard translation, multiple addresses to be able to manage your online personas, distribution lists, better threaded conversations, and -Oh Yeah!- better search. This is without even factoring in Google Buzz (or Wave?), which is a truly revolutionary way of communicating.

3.- What about voice? Nobody cares anymore? I do. Google has a nice foothold here, both with the Android operating system running on phones, Google Voice, and Google Talk's capacity to do VoIP. And it is not just a telephone, it looks more like your personal switchboard and unified communications platform. Facebook has a shy attempt at something like this with their partnership with Vonage, but again, no way to call anybody outside of Facebook, and what is even worse, no way to call anybody ON Facebook that does not have the Vonage app on their mobile.

4.- We still need more. There has been some comparisons with GMail's priority Inbox -which I think is the best thing after email search-. Facebook has insight into what is important for you, and what is not. So -in theory- they may be able to classify email according to this. The question here is, Can they do it better? Right now, honestly, they are not there yet. Facebook filters out stuff that I am interested in and stuff that is new to me and I would have never given a chance other way.

And let's face it, we do have "circles of friends", we have the "A" list, the "B" list, the acquaintances; people from work, and family. On top of this, our interests change. When I am looking to move to another city, or just go there for a short trip, I focus on friends that live there. If I am having parenting issues, I turn to friends that have same age kids as mine. These are all things that are not necessarily reflected in my status updates. Facebook makes it -in the best case- laborious to track these changes.

One thing is true. They got us to write about them, not on email but on a blog, and announce it on Facebook.