Mar 13 07
Leadership communication could be all a-Twitter
By Scott Sigler
Social Media and business communications - all the PR and marketing people say it’s the way to go, while the money-makers in corporate sales and management could really care less. Social media means your people have to do something extra, download something, interact with something, post, read, comment - in short, take time away from selling to involve themselves in yet one more form of communication (how about another webcast, guys! fun!).
But every now and then, something in the Social Media space pops up that could have practical application to internal corporate communications. Take Twitter, for example. What is Twitter? Twitter is an online tool that lets you inform people what you’re doing at any given moment. “Working on end-of-year reports,” or “off for lunch with Sam,” for example. I know, I know, riveting stuff. Twitter lets you collect “friends,” and these people see the messages you’re posting. You can post online, or by cell-phone text or instant message. You can also receive Twitter messages by the same vehicles.
I initially looked down my nose at Twitter as yet another tool that had no real business application (a horrible habit I have), but then I got to thinking. Twitter is a tool, and like any other tool, it works if you use it the right way.
Imagine you’re JetBlue CEO David Neeleman, it’s Valentine’s Day, and you’re getting blasted in real-time media as you try to figure out how to solve the problem of hundreds of passengers held “hostage” on a tarmac. Now imagine you have a Twitter-like setup, and you can send cell-phone texts to your constituents, telling them where you are, what you’re doing to solve the problem, what they can do to help and what language they need to carry forth to their constituents. Your constituents get these messages on their computer, instant message and their cell-phone - as soon as you send them.
With nothing but a cell-phone text, you can instantly communicate leadership (we’re working on it, and here is what were doing right now), an inclusive corporate culture (everyone knows exactly what’s happening, no one is in the dark), and message unity (your people are informed: they know what to say, and who needs to hear the messages). You’ve mobilized your entire company or team to follow your leadership.
That, my friends, is slightly more important than what Sam is having for lunch.
SNP is looking into ways to make this happen, and trying to understand how to develop and implement best practices for such a communication vehicle.
Plenty of other people are blogging about Twitter, including:
- Robert Scoble @ Scobelizer
- David Armano @ Logic & Emotion
- Eric Eggertson @ Common Sense PR
As a digital “native” or one of those twenty - somethings to whom social -media is a way of life, I have a feeling that whether or not it’s implemented now, tools like twitter will show up. As we takeover the work force, I think we have a certain level of expectancy when it comes to speed and information. In terms of creating value, one can take a look at a function of Facebook — a Myspace for college students & alumni. The “news” function allows every edit that you make on your page to show up as an alert on your friends’ page (from what you’re doing, to new pictures, to updates on your blog). At first, it felt like an invasion of privacy, but users soon realized that the new function established a feeling that you’re more connected with your friends which leads to a notion that you’re somehow more significant in their lives—and besides time, that is another important benefit of tools like twitter that can be utilized to create value in the workforce.