I have a few updates from the summer. Although I did not update this blog during the summer vacation from school, rest assured that I am back in the swing of classes, and new posts will follow soon!

In June, I was contacted by a Ragan.com employee, who requested permission that my post on ethical corporate ghost tweeting be reprinted on the Ragan blog. Here is the resulting post on Ragan.com.

Additional thoughts on ghost tweeting

I encourage readers to look through the comments on the Ragan post; some of the commenters provide further insight into the ethics of ghost tweeting.

Over the summer I worked at a small telecommunications business. I had the opportunity to set up social media accounts (on Twitter and Facebook) for the company. When I set up the Twitter account, I had to explain to the company owner why full disclosure of tweets is necessary. I discussed with her the options, and recommended that her full name and title be included in the Twitter bio, since she planned to be the primary tweeter.

Although her full name and title would be ideal, she did not wish to include her last name or specific title. Therefore, I must concede that every situation is different.

Ultimately, she and I agreed it would be sufficient to include in the Twitter bio “tweets by Susan, owner.” This illustrates the difficulties some PR professionals must encounter in their work. There is a thin line between insisting on full disclosure from a boss and infringing on that boss’s authority.

I would like to revisit this issue in a future blog post.

Do my readers have any additional thoughts on ghost tweeting?

Twitter has a bad reputation – many users post tweets about useless or overly personal information. However, Twitter is a useful public relations tool.

In PRSA’s Public Relations Journal, Angelica Evans, Jane Twomey and Scott Talan examine the importance of the microblogging site in their article, Twitter as a Public Relations Tool. The authors interviewed a dozen executive-level PR professionals to determine the value of Twitter as part of a social media strategy. I highly recommend that anyone with an interest in Twitter and PR read this article.

VALUE OF TWITTER

The Internet has become a main means for information flow. It has displaced newspapers and radio as a source for news. In addition, Twitter is increasingly used as a means to learn about and report breaking news. More than ever, people turn to Twitter for firsthand accounts of news, as well as reviews of items and opinions of brands.

According to the authors of the article, “The relationship between a firm and its client is very important, and the relationship between that client and its target publics is paramount.” Twitter encourages two-way conversations between an organization and its audience, which is a main goal of public relations.

INTERVIEW OF PR EXECUTIVES

While I recommend reading the entire article, I will summarize the key points.

The authors of the journal article interviewed a dozen public relations executives from PR firms and asked them three main questions:

1) What do public relations executives think about the current use of Twitter?

According to the authors of the article, “Industry leaders in public relations view Twitter as a valuable asset to their daily practice.” Twitter allows micro-targeting of messages to certain communities, facilitates one-on-one conversations with customers, and allows the PR practitioner to listen to conversations and engage the audience in conversation when necessary. All PR executives surveyed stated that Twitter is a valuable part of their daily practice.

However, there are negative aspects to Twitter. Due to the quantity of information posted to Twitter, it can be challenging to sift through the tweets to find relevant conversations. In addition, organizations must be willing to devote a good deal of staff time to maintain Twitter accounts.

2) How are public relations executives using Twitter in contemporary public relations campaigns, and what are the costs associated with the application?

Overwhelmingly, the public relations executives surveyed stated that Twitter is only successful when it is part of an overall communications strategy. Twitter should serve as one piece of a larger campaign. The main use of Twitter is to communicate with a key audience.

However, many of the executives surveyed noted a tension between the cost and benefit of Twitter in PR campaigns. As mentioned in the previous question, proper use of Twitter requires staff to spend time sifting through large numbers of tweets. Since it is difficult to determine the financial benefit of Twitter to a company, it can be complicated to justify paying employees to maintain the Twitter account, even though social media is a key part of a PR strategy.

3) What do public relations executives see as the future of Twitter in public relations in these campaigns?

Many of the PR executives agreed that microblogging is here to stay. Short, instant communications (exemplified by Twitter) will continue to be important. One professional added that Twitter is not “a one size fits all solution and there are some companies for whom it may not be as relevant, but any organization with a consumer face will likely adopt it.”

Twitter allows companies to create relationships with their customers and to interact with them in real-time. An added benefit of Twitter is that it offers an opportunity for media professionals to contact PR practitioners for story ideas and information. Twitter may be the only social media outlet that offers this benefit to the PR industry.

EVALUATION

The interview process revealed that Twitter is generally seen as a valuable public relations tool. What surprised me, personally, was the emphasis that Twitter should only be used as one part of a successful PR strategy.

Even though Twitter may not be the most vital tool at a PR practitioner’s disposal, the microblogging site provides many benefits to the PR industry. I am interested to see what other advantages will develop in the future.

There is a great site called Facebook Studio that showcases campaigns from companies such as Skittles and Coca-Cola and shows how those companies used Facebook as a platform to implement unique campaigns.

MILK-BONE CAMPAIGN

One of the most exceptional Facebook campaigns was about Milk-Bone, a brand of dog treats that donates a percentage of its profits to train service dogs and place them with people who need assistance from service animals. The “It’s Good to Give” campaign from Milk-Bone used Facebook to share the story of a service dog named Noble. Through the Facebook fan page, fans were able to follow Noble as he grew from a puppy learning to walk on a leash to a fully trained service dog.

Milk-Bone posted pictures of Noble along with his progress as he grew and learned. Milk-Bone encouraged active participation and conversation among the audience, which soon became personally invested in Noble’s story.

This campaign was successful because it employed emotional appeal and encouraged active participation among its audience, while still maintaining focus on the brand.

The audience posted pictures and conversed on the "It's Good to Give" Milk-Bone Facebook page during the Noble campaign.

EMOTIONAL APPEAL

Part of the reason this campaign was so successful is because Milk-Bone appealed to the audience on an emotional level. For many people, there are few things cuter than a puppy. Milk-Bone combined adorable puppy pictures with a feel-good story about helping humans. The audience became invested in Noble’s story on a personal level, and some felt that the dog was part of their own family.

ACTIVE PARTICIPATION

Another element that added to the success of the campaign is the active participation of the audience. Facebook users could “like” the page to earn special rewards for Noble. Many consumers used the page to share stories of their own pets or to converse with each other and build community. They became truly involved in Noble’s story.

Milk-Bone could have continued to simply post pictures on its Facebook page. Because the audience was so involved in Noble’s story, Milk-Bone harnessed that support and produced television commercials and a PBS documentary about the campaign.

FOCUS ON THE BRAND

The Facebook campaign maintained focus on the brand and its mission.

During PR campaigns, sometimes the audience loses sight of the brand. In this case, it would have been easy for consumers to focus on Noble and not realize that the point of the campaign was to increase the purchase of Milk-Bone products. However, I believe that Milk-Bone was able to emphasize the brand and connect it with the humanitarian cause of providing aid to humans. The Milk-Bone logo was prominent on the Facebook page and in many of the pictures.

EVALUATION

According to the Facebook Studio page, the “It’s Good to Give” Milk-Bone campaign featuring Noble earned 6.3 million impressions through its Facebook fan page and more than a billion media impressions. As a result of the campaign, donations, volunteer applications and service dog requests rose to record levels.

The Facebook campaign is still active now, and the audience can follow the stories of three young dogs, Grizzly, Star and Presley, as they are trained and placed with human companions. The Facebook fan page currently has approximately 162,000 fans.

This Facebook campaign is an excellent example of a successful social media strategy, and I hope that in the future we will see many more effective uses of Facebook like the Milk-Bone campaign.

Should the author’s identity be disclosed?

I believe it is best for companies to be as transparent as possible. This includes identifying exactly who updates the corporate Twitter account or who tweets for the CEO. The audience deserves to know where the content comes from and what that person’s agenda is. Identification of a ghost tweeter may increase credibility of the company and trust between the corporation and its audience.

Furthermore, it is impossible to write something completely objectively. The author will always put some of his or her own bias into the writing. Even though the ghost tweeter may be completely familiar with the CEO’s point of view, the author has the power to choose how to phrase a statement and what information to include in a tweet.

How much information should be disclosed?

As an example, let’s consider the Twitter account of a company called SuperCompany. This example is hypothetical. SuperCompany does not exist  –  I made it up.

SuperCompany CEO Sally Smith is busy and does not have time to update her Twitter account. She enlists the help of the company’s PR department to manage the Twitter feed. From the PR professional’s standpoint, what would be the best description to write on the Twitter account homepage? We can agree that disclosure of identity is important on Twitter, but how far do we need to go?

Here are three options for the Twitter account description of SuperCompany:

• Official Twitter account of SuperCompany CEO Sally Smith
• Official Twitter account of SuperCompany CEO Sally Smith, written by employees
• Official Twitter account of SuperCompany CEO Sally Smith, written by SuperCompany Public Relations Executive Tom Johnson

Which option would be best? The first option lacks full disclosure of identity, since it leads the audience to believe Smith manages her own tweets. The second acknowledges that Smith does not handle her Twitter stream, but does the description contain enough information to be considered sufficiently transparent?

The third option has the most information – it tells the audience not only that the account is not authored by Smith but also that Tom Johnson is the true author. Is this the best option, since it has the most information?

I believe that the third option is the only truly acceptable one. Twitter should be used to promote conversation between a company and its audience, and that audience deserves to know exactly whom they are conversing with. If the CEO does not write his or her own tweets, the identity and affiliation of the true author should be revealed.

An ethical gray area

Corporate ghost tweeting, the practice of leading the audience to falsely believe that a CEO authors his or her own tweets, falls under the gray area between ethical and unethical. While I believe ghost tweeting is misleading and therefore unethical, this is a complex issue that has many angles.

For more information about these ethical dilemmas, check out this post by Todd Defren from SHIFT Communications about tweeting under someone else’s name. Tom Woolf at Woolf Media provides more insight into the issue of ghost tweeting in this blog post.

What do you think, readers? If you managed the Twitter account for a corporation, would you insist on full disclosure of your identity, or would you be content to ghost tweet under the name of a CEO?

Mickey Nall (picture via PRSA website)

Nall spoke about how the future of public relations is “tradigital,” a combination between traditional and digital influences. He argued that social media is the future and that PR professionals will have to adapt their strategies to incorporate these changes.

Role of PR

Nall began by describing the role of a public relations professional: “to create masterful stories that raise awareness, shape or change opinions, and influence all parties, build and connect communities that will help propel our clients’ businesses.” I think that hits the nail on the head – as PR people, one of our primary goals should be to tell truthful, relevant stories about our clients.

But it’s not enough to just create news. According to Nall, “We need to make the truth fascinating.”

Break through the noise

However, the PR professional must remember that the brand is integral to the story. With so much information produced every day, getting a message to your audience can be difficult. Nall offered several tips to break through the noise:

• Your “big idea” must anchor the product or service in a larger issue, such as healthy eating or a national trend
• Employ compelling, credible third-party spokespeople, such as authors or chefs in your message
• Use real life stories of people to add interest
• Refer to causes that consumers and media care about, such as human right issues
• Publicize your client in places with heavy media attention, such as the Super Bowl

Above all, the PR practitioner must not lose sight of the brand. Find a way to tell a story that embodies not only the product or service but also the brand image.

How to reach consumers

Interestingly, what has been known as the “age of deference” has become the “age of reference.” Previously, consumers trusted authority figures and leaders above all others, but now consumers have the most confidence in messages from peers, friends and family. (See this MarketingWeek article for more information about the shift.)

The most trusted information sources, leaders and elders, are now less trusted than friends and celebrities (picture source: Opinion Leader).

This is an interesting development because it requires us to rethink the best way to spread messages about our brand. Nall said that word of mouth drives purchase more than any other influence. We must create talkability about the brand. This may be accomplished effectively through social media sites such as Twitter or Facebook. If a consumer’s friend tweets about how wonderful a new movie is, that consumer will trust the friend’s opinion more than a message from the CEO of Warner Bros Entertainment.

Tradigital world

Today, in an age of rapid spread of information, we must combine traditional and social media to make our messages effectively reach the audience. This often involves using social media. Nall says that from a public relations practitioner standpoint, “social media is PR – it’s just a different form of what we do.”

Nall concluded with this statement: “We all need to adopt the tradigital landscape, but we’ll get to shape it” in the future. This is an exciting time to be involved in PR. We will truly have the chance to affect policies. I agree with Mickey Nall’s assertion that we need to combine traditional and current media to effectively tell stories in a tradigital world.

As you know by now (if you read my About Me section), my name is Melodie Seble. I study at the University of Oregon, and I am pursuing a dual major (journalism: public relations and Spanish) plus a minor (journalism: communication studies). Since you made it this far already, please be sure to check out my About Me and Comment Policy sections for more information.

This is me, looking rather frightened of the camera shoved in my face by a well-wishing colleague.

This blog will begin as a project for my J 452 class (called “Strategic Public Relations Communication”), and I intend to continue to blog after the class finishes.

After two years of struggling, uninspired, through generic pre-journalism classes at UO, I felt that I did not belong there, and I considered switching majors to something that would interest me more. However, when I finally took my first PR class, I knew the exciting world of public relations was right for me.

With this blog I hope to gain knowledge and experience about public relations. I will not use this blog to write about anything my heart desires – this space is for academic subjects and will have a heavy focus on PR.

My goal is to expand my digital footprint. I hope to have the opportunity to present this blog in a portfolio to a possible employer someday, so I will try to maintain a professional tone while still being interesting to my readers.

I am still learning about PR – about what it is, what it means to be a PR practitioner, and how I will fit into the PR landscape. I am dedicated to learning and improving my professional skills, and this blog will help me gain experience.

Here is my promise to you, my reader: My blog posts will be professional, interesting, relevant, accurate, and thought-provoking in some way.

Thank you for reading, and please stay tuned for more posts.

This will be a journey, so please stick with me and see what we can learn!