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I recently produced a short video blog to further discuss transparent consumer relations. I’m hoping my readers can get a better idea of who I am through my authentic voice and the atmosphere of the video—in the School of Media Arts and Design hallway (my second home).
After days of dubbing tapes, re-shooting footage, saving and re-saving for video and sound, and the usual video production frustrations, I now have a completed “vlog post.”
Video blogs and webcasts can potentially cost between $5,000 and $7,000, not to mention the cost of production hours. Are video blogs really worth the time, money and effort that companies pour into them to enhance the relationships with their key publics? Do these videos make the company more transparent to consumers, employees and shareholders? Or are they just a form of entertainment to add to the hype of the corporate website, blog or newsroom?
Southwest Airlines hosts a video blog on its corporate blog, Nuts about Southwest. Video blog posts range anywhere from new Southwest TV commercials and scripted humor videos to footage from promotional events. While these videos meet the fun cultural standards at Southwest, they may not add to the overall transparency of the organization—they just function as entertainment for the Southwest online audience. However, these videos do exemplify Southwest’s ability to break down the corporate marketing voice and use down-to-earth, humorous authenticity.
Check out this video posted on Nuts about Southwest around St. Patrick’s Day. Two Southwest employees give viewers a glimpse into their exciting day. Could they be showing hints of authenticity and transparency?
Accenture also has a video blog. Though the videos are less entertaining than Southwest, Accenture uses them to build transparency.
In the video below, for instance, an Accenture employee describes how she balances her life at work and life outside of the office. The folks at Accenture have given her the freedom to talk about recent vacations complete with personal anecdotes. This employee can be completely transparent and authentic, even in as serious an environment as an IT consulting firm.
Check out the video post on Accenture’s video blog site.
With constant updates and 140-character messages, Twitter is the environment to create the authentic voice of an organization.
Twitter has received a lot of popularity lately, with “tweets” from mega-corporations such as Comcast, Zappos, and Jetblue. Even President Barack Obama twitters. 
Twitter is a great way to reach a mobile audience. Followers might receive tweets on their cell phones and comment back in seconds. No matter where the audience is, followers can find out what’s going on at the company.
With only 140 characters to update followers on corporate news, links or events, many corporate twitterers have adopted an authentic, short-hand tone of voice.
Southwest, for example, tweets about weather, flight delays, and most recently, live updates aboard the new wi-fi equipped aircraft. SouthwestAir uses a light-hearted tone to chat with followers on Twitter. Employees post tweets using phrases such as “super cool” and “bummer.” Followers also exchange jokes with employees frequently. With its high customer satisfaction ratings, Southwest can interact with customers in a casual manner, similar to how Southwest flight attendants talk with travelers on-board.
Comcast twitterer, Comcastcares, answers customer service questions and concerns. Comcast doesn’t have as high customer satisfaction marks as Southwest, and therefore utilizes Twitter to gain customer trust.
Comcastcares, maintained by Frank Eliason, director of digital care at Comcast, has done a remarkable job revamping the frustrated relationship between Comcast and its customers. Comcastcares has a slightly serious tone because customers need their questions answered quickly and accurately.Wachovia uses a very formal tone to interact with customers on Twitter. Twittering Wachovia employees don’t introduce themselves with photos and professional information like those at Comcast. In fact, Wachovia doesn’t provide as much corporate information or links to other corporate social media as Southwest does either.
Wachovia sends out tweets with a formal, marketing tone. Check out the tweet from @greenbanking on March 27th. Greenbanking promotes paperless billpay, in a commercial voice, which is much less authentic than the voice of SouthwestAir.
But is a casual, joking tone too aloof? Or is a marketing voice too distant? Jokes may decrease credibility, but formalities may take away from the authentic relationships built on Twitter.
Tone of voice on Twitter depends on corporate culture. Southwest uses an authentic, jovial voice because employees are encouraged to act that way in real-time. Wachovia employees naturally use a formal tone because of the rigid structure of the banking industry.
Courtesy of Life 123 Alpha
After beginning a discussion on authenticity in the previous post, I decided to delve deeper into the subject. A major issue in regards to authentic social media is ghostwriting.
A study published in the Public Relations Journal found that readers prefer to read a corporate blog written by the CEO or another executive with equal star appeal in the organization. Most readers prefer a CEO blog that covers personal as well as business-related topics.
However, CEO blogs can pose problems for the CEO as well as the organization. For instance, blogging takes time, research, and effort. Can a CEO or another top exec cram another task onto his or her plate? If blogs are too personal, they may become inappropriate or boring. Blogging CEOs must have the communication skills necessary to interact online with organizational publics. Finally, CEOs who blog about the internal logistics of the company may become too transparent and (as discussed in previous posts) may disclose too much information, resulting in legal issues.
Therefore, ghostwriting has entered the blogosphere just as CEOs and organizations have. Simply defined, a “ghostwriter” writes a corporate blog and acts as if he or she is the CEO or top executive who is the supposed author.
Dave Fleet, a marketing and communications consultant from Ontario, believes ghostwriting is unethical. Whether the writer acts as another individual on a blog or a microblog, such as Twitter, he believes readers have a right to know whose personal ideas and words they are reading. If the actual author or the blog is not a CEO, but rather a communications department employee for example, that knowledge should be shared with readers, says Fleet. Without this vital information, readers won’t know who they’re interacting with and his or her trust in the organization may be compromised.
However, a reader of Fleet’s blog on social media and marketing communication begs to differ. “Ghost Blogger,” a reader of Davefleet.com, spends so much time studying how the CEO whom [he] writes for reacts to situations, reading the CEO’s emails, and editing blog post drafts with the CEO face-to-face that [he] believes [his] ghostwriting duties are completely ethical.
The issue still remains undecided. But will ghostwriting become more or less ethical as more people and organizations adapt to blogging and microblogging in the near future?
Podcasts and online videos can be a great way for organizations to connect to their publics through the all important use of voice and sight. Podcasts create a personality for an organization or individual to present to an audience. However, podcasts and videos can very well backfire just as they can succeed in building a relationship with publics. In order for a podcast or online video to succeed, the producer needs to develop an authentic—or one-of-a-kind—voice.
To develop an authentic voice, the producer needs to follow a few simple rules:
1. Don’t just read from a script. Though it’s important to stick to a script so that you don’t get off topic and bore your audience, reading directly from a script can be equally as boring to audience members.
2. Don’t use a corporate tone, but rather a fun, casual tone. A number of producers use a voice similar to radio talk show hosts’. A casual voice will engage the audience and won’t compromise credibility. After all, you’ve created a podcast to build a personality for your message or organization—don’t make the message sound like a corporate advertisement.
3. Don’t read press releases! If audience members are really concerned about news updates, they can visit the organization’s online newsroom.
4. Remain professional. Casual doesn’t mean sloppy. No inappropriate personal stories. Make sure there is no distracting background noise in a podcast or video. Make sure the lighting is good and there are no distractions in the background of your online video.
Below are two examples of online videos. Both exemplify the do’s and don’ts listed above. Listen to the speaker’s voice to critique the podcast voice. Pay attention to the ways in which the speaker tries to engage the audience visually through the use of video production.
This video was written and produced by the folks at Marketwire, an organization that assists companies in press release distribution through new social media tools. Watch a few seconds of it and look for the do’s and don’ts.
Now, watch a little of this video by Christopher Penn, producer of the Financial Aid Podcast. You can watch the video below, but it might be more beneficial to watch it on the Financial Aid Podcast site to understand his interactive navigation. “His what?” you’re asking. Check it out—you’ll see!
Between the two, who do you think has a better grasp on authenticity?
- Courtesy of Life Multimedia
For starters, let’s define authenticity and transparency. Joel Postman lists transparency and authenticity as two of the six attributes a blog should have in his book, Social Corp.
An authentic blogger posts voluntary, unfiltered information that will lead to two-way, open communication. A transparent blogger is open about the goals that he or she hopes to accomplish or the goals that his or her organization hopes to accomplish. An authentic blog also shares the strategies used to achieve those goals.
So, I have taken Postman’s advice and stay authentic and transparent on this blog as well. How will I do it though?
Before starting this blog, I began reading other public relations and advertising blogs—most of which have been top ranked in recent years. Each blogger defines who he or she is in the first post or somewhere on the blog, such as the “About” page or in the sidebar. Communications gurus such as Shel Holtz, B.L. Ochman, and Joel Postman introduce themselves to their readers. For readers to trust the opinions of these professionals, they’ll first need to ask themselves: “Why the heck should I listen to yet another blogger?”
Once social media creators have established their backgrounds in order to prove to readers: listen in on their conversations, they’ll need to establish a voice. Not just a consistent voice for podcasts or vodcasts, but a voice to use in blog posts and comments, Twitter updates, and Facebook information. Creators shouldn’t shy away from using the first person tense either. It can help build a stronger transparent relationship with audience members if they can see how exactly “I” or “we” plan to accomplish a goal, handle an issue, or feel about a current event. Shel Holtz, B.L. Ochman, and Advergirl aren’t afraid to expose their bare opinions to readers through use of the first person tense.
