We do a lot of college class presentations – they’re just another fun part of our job. Recently we were at Washburn University when a student asked if we push info out to our personal social media networks, on behalf of clients, and if so, how. We get this question a lot and it’s a valid question. So much so that we’d like to share our thoughts on the importance of transparency in social media engagement and marketing.

Social media is about establishing and maintaining relationships with real people. Healthy relationships are based on trust – consumer-brand relationships are no different. When consumers are interacting with a brand online, they want to know who they’re talking to and what that person’s affiliation is with that brand. For example, if I’m looking for new shoes and I get advice from a guy that manufactures shoes, I have a good idea of what to expect from him and how to merit his advice. If I’m talking to the CEO of that same shoe store, I expect a different perspective and give it different merit.

By being transparent in your posts you are building trust and understanding in the content, the author and the brand. That’s why we feel VERY strongly that in order to build that trust you HAVE to have honest and transparent communication. We feel so strongly, in fact, that the jhP social media policy promotes it for team members regardless of posting on behalf of the company, ourselves or on behalf of our clients. So we’re required to clearly identify ourselves and our affiliation with jhP or the client.

Kohl’s is a great example of why we need to be transparent in social media. It all began with Ed Gawronski posting helpful tips on the Kohl’s page encouraging customers to visit the website where they could provide their email in return for discounts and cash-back opportunities. Unbeknownst to the other users, Ed just so happened to be the vp of marketing at Kohl’s. It didn’t take long for someone to call him out – going so far as to leave the link to his LinkedIn page. The real kicker was the comment, “Masquerade much?” That one question could have potentially been damaging to the brand – check out more about the case HERE.

When you’re posting as a representative, we recommend the following simple steps to prevent public embarrassment and damage to the brand:

1. Identify who you are using your full (real) name.
2. List your affiliation to the brand.
3. Discuss whether you are acting on behalf of a company, client,
   self, etc.

These three steps allow you to be honest and respectful and to engage openly in a conversation with others. Essentially, it’s doing just what you’d want others to do. So tell us what you think. For what other reasons do you feel it’s important to be transparent?

Of course the Internet is changing. Change is what it does best – faster and better than any other medium ever. Although we launched the jhP blog just a few years ago, social media has rapidly gained influence. So now’s an ideal time to reinvent our online presence. We concentrated on three key areas.

Conformity

Building a solid brand requires thoughtful repetition. While jhP has built a presence on most major social media sites, they were constructed one at a time – over time. The existing materials, though strong in and of themselves, expressed different visual philosophies.

It was time to take a look at everything we had going, all at once, and establish a more uniform look. We like to think of jhP’s style as being sophisticated simplicity. Our new designs should collectively reflect that.

Usability

Slick visuals are good, but a website serves a purpose. Users want to quickly access information. We at jhP want to make that easy. The new blog is designed with functionality and simplicity at its heart.

By removing extraneous ornamentation, simplifying the color scheme, and standardizing the appearance of elements, we draw attention to the content and what the user can do with it. Large areas of white space and careful use of the company orange coordinate to focus attention where it’s due.

Facebook, Twitter, and other social media tools have been integrated throughout. Users can comfortably and easily share content with their friends. That interchange is vital in making the jhP online presence meaningful to visitors.

Flexibility

The Internet will change again tomorrow. We’re building to accommodate that change as easily as possible. That means using strong, flexible, accessible standards. The new blog is designed to accept quick revisions to structure and appearance to adapt to whatever comes next.

Thanks for visiting our latest evolution. We hope you like it. Whatever you think, let us know. There is always evolving yet to do.

Your company has received some bad publicity via social media – turns out you deserve it. So how do you handle this negative feedback?

As we said in our post, Dealing with Disgruntled Ex-employees via Social Media, when you’re dealing with social media, your responses should always be on a case-by-case basis. That said; let’s build a scenario. Let’s assume the negative comments are factual and that no lives are at stake. Let’s also assume that this is not an issue that will require potential legal counsel and that this is not just a rant by some disgruntled ex-employee (which was the case in our last scenario).

Here are three suggestions to handle THIS specific situation.

1) Don’t ignore the situation. Publicly own up to it.

While you may not have all the information yet, if you know at least part of the negative comments are true, publicly own up to it. Apologize and say you are looking into the situation further. When you make it clear that “we’re on it,” this puts you into a position of at least some control. Imagine how this alone would have helped a company like Domino’s last year when that terrible video about a couple of former employee’s “secret” ingredients went viral. It was easy for Domino’s executives to quickly access that video, so they should have released a baseline statement of acknowledgment immediately with further information to follow.

2) Learn all the details and handle the situation internally.

When reports first emerged about brake/accelerator problems with Toyota vehicles the company would have improved their position by releasing a blanket statement of acknowledgment – not admission, but a simple “we hear you, we’re checking.” That would allow them time to look into the situation internally and determine if a voluntary recall was necessary or if the problem was a case-by-case situation. Granted, there were major safety and legal concerns involved, but with the guidance of their general counsel and legal team they should still have been able to draft SOME type of reasonable and timely response. Then they could proceed to learn the details and handle the problems internally – then publicly.

3) Publicly apologize and make amends.

Take notes from many popular retail organizations – if your restaurant order is wrong, most times your waiter will agree, volunteer to make it right, take care of the situation, apologize and then either discount the meal, give it to you on the house or give you some freebie for your hassle. Now when they do that don’t you feel more favorable towards that organization? Maybe not always, but more times than not the answer to that question is yes, you’d go back. So fix the problem and apologize with a public explanation of how you corrected the issue.

All that said, keep in mind that with any crisis management situation you must evaluate your response on a case-by-case basis. So when you are utilizing these points during a crisis remember these are only basic steps. You MUST include your marketing and publicity teams in your resolution meetings as well as any legal counsel if there are potential legal ramifications.

The moral of this situation is that no one’s perfect and we will all make mistakes. But more often than not, if you admit blame, take care of the situation, apologize and do what you can to fairly make amends you will gain a stronger brand loyalty among your customers than you had before. Challenges, correctly addressed, are opporunities.

If you’re a part of LinkedIn you’ve seen it again and again. You’re looking for someone who’s qualified to answer an important question or fill a key job opening. You’ve discovered a promising name and title. But when you click on their LinkedIn profile, the information is sadly incomplete. So you quickly move on to another name.

Now what about you? Is your profile complete – offering the viewer a true sense of your capabilities and personality? Are your words spelled correctly and are your grammar and writing style intelligent and professional? If not, you’re making a weak first impression. That could cost you to miss out on your next valuable opportunity!

LinkedIn can’t work for you if you don’t put a little work into it. Try these easy ways to quickly improve your profile.

1) Write your information in first person and make sure it’s current.
2) Personal Headline: Use your title along with words that best describe the services you provide. Be sharp. Space is limited.
3) Use a professional profile picture, headshot only please, and smile.
4) Update your status and make sure the status has value to the viewer. This keeps you top-of-mind to others.
5) The Summary is a great area to put a personal spin on who you are. Share your experiences, specialties and skills sets. Focus on results and share what you expect in a solid business relationship.

As a marketing agency, everything we do revolves around strengthening brands. We emphasize the importance of a business’ brand, as well as the personal brands of key individuals within the company – applying these same concepts to our clients’ personal brands. We provide profile consultation, setup and training, on both the individual and group levels.

Remember, the first impression is vitally important. Once the door is open, your personality and capabilities can shine through. There are more ways you can put LinkedIn to work building your brand and improving your workday, but that’s for next time.

About LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a trusted online networking tool utilized to extend your network and gain business contacts. LinkedIn currently has 50 million members with a growth rate of 1.5 million per month. LinkedIn is free to use, but there are additional services available for a reasonable fee.

My Life Without Facebook: IS OVER!!

In case you missed it – I gave up Facebook for Lent.

It’s official – Lent’s over and so is this experiment. Which is good because I’m TOTALLY OVER this whole no Facebook thing! I’ve enjoyed the increase in face-to-face and phone conversations that I’ve had with my friends and family, but those conversations could have been even more fun with a little help from Facebook on current events.

I was an early adopter of Facebook and other social media outlets, so it’s been nice being able to take a step back to remind myself, and others, how this tool can really be utilized. By doing so I was able to be reminded of how Social Media can affect us, not just personally but professionally. So I hope through my step back we have all began to think of social media as a compliment to your traditional marketing plan. Here are a few other things I hope you’ve began to think more about in regards to your business:

• Social Media is a way to engage with your customers – but should not replace in-person or personal communication.

• You can’t communication with your audience if you’re not using the same communication tools that your audience is using.

• You might be trying to communicate, but if you’re not where your audience is then business can get pretty lonely pretty fast!

• Social networks aren’t the ONLY place your audience is at so it should not be the ONLY place your business advertises. It should compliment your other advertising efforts.

So what did I do first on Facebook?

•   Looked at pictures of all my friend’s newborn babies
•   Became a fan of my bank’s Fan Page
•   Went through all my friend requests (15), messages (56) and event invites (I stopped counting!)
•   Followed up on the happenings in my friends, family, co-workers and client’s lives – we’ve got LOTS to cover this week!!!
•   Updated my calendar with several of my client’s events as well as local non-profit and chamber events.
•   Uploaded all the pictures I’ve taken the last month and a half
•   Went through my news feed (no not from the last 6 weeks – just the last day)

I’ve CLEARLY got lots more to catch up on but that’s kept me busy for a little while. I hope you enjoyed relentlessly torturing me with stories about facebook gossip. I also hope you’ve enjoyed following the things I’ve learned from this experiment, but mostly I hope that you’ve taken something away about how communication channels are evolving.

Next year I’m totally giving up cookies or maybe chocolate – but definitely NOT Facebook! Until then, thanks again for following and I’ll see you on Facebook.