To begin to sum up my blog about transparency and authenticity, I would like to look at a gray area. This is the place of the PR professional in social media. As I have said before, some professionals have had the misfortune to be caught lying (Whole Foods). But for most professionals, who have no intention of being fraudulent, where does the line fall between being a “person online” and being a “business person online”?
Ike Pigott, writer of the blog, Occam’s RaZr wrote a post called, “PR and the Gray Zone.” In it he talks about the role of PR professionals in new social media. He notes that it is hard to know what your role is as a business person online. Especially if you try to be honest and people still want to kick you out of an online conversation because you represent a business.
I think this venn diagram designed by Pigott is an excellent representation of what a PR person should be online. In it the social media professional is transparent, professional and an advocate for their organization. Note that being a “transparent professional” would make you a reviewer and being a “professional advocate” would make you an astroturfer. Where do you fall on this diagram?
Check out this video by Chris Brogan. He reminds us that as business people we should not come off sounding like a used car salesmen. I think it drives home the ideas I have covered today.
To sum up, being transparent and authentic is key when you go online as a business professional. Being upfront with people about who you are and what your motives are will make all the difference. Yes, some people will still be adverse to talking to you because you represent an organization. However, there are plenty of people who want to talk to you because they have an interest in your product. Conversation is key. You must get to know people and figure out their needs to discern whether or not you can fulfill them.
Elaine, I liked this post because I felt that it answered a very good question that many people struggle with. Though business professionals and representatives do have the mindset of wanting to promote their business in a positive way on the Web, we forget that those same professionals are also consumers. While many people may want to kick them out of conversations once told who they are or who they represent, I feel that it is also important to remember that the business professionals are sitting in the same boat that we are as consumers when it comes to other products on the Web. Overall, I feel that having a business professional that also wears the consumer hat is a good thing because that professional can take what he or she does or does not like in terms of a business’s Web presence and use that information in order to help the consumer of his or her own business in a more effective manner.
I think that this post is really interesting especially the part about how most people in online communities do not trust business people who are trying to communicate using social media. I think that they are just like everyone else communicating using blogs, Twitter, etc. It’s not right to say that they shouldn’t be trusted or listened to because they have an agenda to make their company successful. I would argue that everyone has an agenda online, like if someone found a company’s product defective and they decided to post a scathing review online (“Dell Hell”) then they have the agenda of trying to discredit that business. While they might look at it as trying to tell the truth about the product they still have a purpose for communicating online, just like any business professional. So I think it’s silly when people try to “kick” business people out of the online conversation because the average user online probably has a pretty similar goal in mind.