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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.
While some companies embrace the use of Facebook, even for work-related collaboration purposes, other companies are setting up firewalls to ban the use of Facebook in the workplace.
In an episode of, “For Immediate Release,” Shel Holtz speaks with CEO and President of Serena Software, Jeremy Burton about Serena “Facebook Fridays.”
Every Friday, the company allots an hour of time for employees to spend solely on Facebook. Before the company implemented the program, about 30% of employees already had active Facebook accounts. Virtual attendance of “Facebook Friday” isn’t required, though employees are encouraged to take advantage of this social media usage time.
Burton believes Facebook brings people together and makes up for the “human” communication that’s lost through channels such as email, text messaging and content management systems lack. However, Facebook also allows employees to interact with people on all levels of the company, breaking down hierarchal barriers to upper level management.
Facebook brings the subculture that exists within any organization offline to the virtual realm. Burton compares Facebook to sitting at Starbucks; we watch people go by and interact with others. Based on watching conversations between people in this subculture, we learn something about them or are, therefore, more inclined to strike up conversations.
Facebook is comparable to the “water cooler” within the organization where corporate gossip and personal or professional anecdotes are passed along. Facebook just takes water cooler relationships and cements them online.
However, critics of corporate Facebook argue that it reduces productivity, slows down bandwidth, compromises corporate professionalism and causes danger to security. Do employees share too much about their personal lives on Facebook? Will they spend too much time and money people-watching on this “cyber Starbucks?”
Organizations need to realize that no matter if they ban or embrace Facebook, employees will find a way to use it, and it will ultimately affect the organization in some way. The same information that gets passed through the grapevine at the water cooler, and then home to the dinner table or to happy hour, now has the possibility to circulate on Facebook as well.
Courtesy of Miller & Smith
After his recent entry into the White House, President Barack Obama devised a plan for an open federal government. This “open government” will be more transparent, participative, and collaberative.
The new social media platform is a prime place to start building an “open government” because of the interactive nature of the internet. Not only can citizens interact with government agencies and officials via blogs and social networks, but citizens can interact with each other.
President Obama isn’t the only government official working for a more “open government” though. Local governments utilize social media forums to reach citizens as well. I recently met with Harrisonburg City Mayor, Kai Degner, to discuss his plans for the city. Degner believes listening to Harrisonburg residents is the most important aspect of his job as mayor. He discusses issues important to residents with them online and offline.
Degner writes a blog to discuss why he voted on a public issue or put a program in place the way he did. He’s explicit about his decisions and uses his own voice in the posts to connect with concerned residents. Degner told me face-to-face interactions are that much more rewarding after he’s begun a conversation with someone online.
In order for social media in government to succeed, agencies and officials need to be open and interactive. Due to the Public Information Act, government agencies have a responsibility to make government records available to the public. Most government agencies post information online, however, this isn’t enough to foster an “open government.”
In order for social media to contribute to a more open government, blogs, for example, need to be written by individuals in their own personal voices and readers need a space to comment on topics of interest. So many Americans distrust government because they feel information is hidden and they can’t be heard. To change the distrusting dynamic of this relationship, government agencies should make themselves transparent through social media forms and engage citizens in online conversations.
Below are a few examples of government blogs that post open, interesting information, and leave comment space to engage readers in conversation:
In the video, Shel Holtz, author of Tactical Transparency, defines transparency. He says organizations shouldn’t expose every internal secret (particularly for legal reasons) in order to be transparent to their audiences, but they should disclose information about business goals and practices, and allow audience members to have access to all of the internal employees.
The key to fostering positive consumer relations is constant interaction between the customers and the employees.
Many companies are being forced into transparency. Consumers no longer call up a company’s customer service department if they’re unhappy–that message would only reach one person. They are instead going online to blast the company in front of thousands of other consumers. How should companies respond? Companies should join in on the conversation and explain to consumers why the service or product was less than mediocre, and work to rebuild a connection with angry consumers.
Dan Rather, formerly of 60 Minutes, made the mistake of closing the doors on his audience during the investigation on Former President Bush’s military service. If he had opened up lines of communication and updated viewers on the investigation, he could’ve kept from angering so many people. His lack of transparency cost him his job.
Dell on the other hand was forced into transparency after its outraged consumers created an angry network of blogs. Dell joined in on the conversation and created Direct2Dell and Ideastorm, which have been a huge success in rebuilding postive customer relations.
I found Holtz’s own personal story the most interesting. After a neglectful customer service experience with Park ‘n Fly, he wrote a blog post to complain to his readers. An administrative assistant from the company joined in on his conversation to apologize. What’s most important is that the Park ‘n Fly employee sent the message directly to Holtz, without checking the message with management first. By opening up free lines of communication between employees (lower and higher level) and consumers, Park ‘n Fly managed to uphold its relationship with Holtz.
The video’s central message is that companies should give their consumers a glimpse inside the organization to build a trustworthy relationship with them.
- Scott Beale / Laughing Squid
Why have so many corporations entered the blogosphere? They’re just joining everyone else.
A corporate blog can enhance a company’s reputation—if the company follows the blogger code of ethics. Corporations shouldn’t participate in “blog-spin” or create a fake blog, which Angelo Fernando terms a “flog,” in his article about unethical blogging practices: “Transparency Under Attack.”
Wal-mart’s corporate blog back in 2006 was an example of a “flog.” Two PR agents wrote the blog from the comfort of their offices, while acting as a couple inside their RV, as they stayed overnight in Wal-mart parking lots on their nationwide road trip. Readers discovered the fraudulent postings and were outraged. Bottom line: corporations cannot fake transparency.
Jeanette Weisschuh, who runs Hewlitt-Packard’s social responsibility blog, stresses the importance of openness to reader feedback on a corporate blog. Why have a blog if there’s no room for dialogue between the company and its key publics? A blog without feedback is just an online newsroom where corporate communicators post press releases.
Vincent Potier, of Vonage, however, doesn’t see the point in corporate blogging. He argues that corporate blogs are boring because lower level employees won’t share their honest opinions about the company in fear of losing their jobs. He believes company blogs naturally have a corporate, authoritative voice.
Corporate communicators need to draw the lines on corporate openness through blogs by asking questions such as, “Why are the legal implications of this post/comment?” “How will I react to negative reader comments?” or “Does this post share too many transparent details, making it a dull read?”
Jeff Jarvis lays out rules for his blogging practices. He will not accept money for his opinions, no ads can appear in his posting space, all information will have proper sources, and he will open up to readers about his business relationships as long as details aren’t libelous or confidential.
Corporate blogs can build trusting relationships between companies and their publics as long as boundaries for openness are drawn prior to the first post and bloggers are actual corporate stakeholders.
For more information on corporate blogs see: “Corporate Blogging” featured in New Media Age.
- 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.
