From Mr Chris Reed.
Sir, In your July 15 Letters columns, Keith Burnet of Chatham House offers some sage advice about Tweeting at Chatham House events, while in your Business Life pages David Gelles (“Always online and on-message”) provides some equally sage advice for companies in using Twitter and other social media. We do, indeed, live in Twitter times.
But what Mr Gelles fails to address in his otherwise excellent article is how the impact of social media outside organisations is increasingly (and necessarily) changing the structures inside those same organisations.
Whoever represents the company’s social media presence (especially if they are from the marketing team) must be joined up with the customer service, legal and PR teams so that they not only can spot issues immediately they arise, but also have the authority from across the organisation to deal with them speedily – sometimes circumventing the traditional approval processes to do so, in order to prevent issues snowballing. This new way of working is here to stay.
The other essential point, alluded to by those quoted, is what guidance to give all staff on expressing their own, and their company’s, opinions in their own personal social media channels. Corporate social media guidelines (exemplified by Coca-Cola’s) are a 21st century prerequisite, irrespective of whether a company uses social media itself or not.
Chris Reed,
Managing Partner,
Brew,
London WC2, UK
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