In Social Media, What’s Old is New

• Tweet

• Tweet

Last week I had the pleasure of accompanying our CEO, Aedhmar Hynes as she spoke at the Conference Board Corporate Communication and Web 2.0 Conference. The panel, “Overcoming Barriers to Building Digital Relationships,” discussed how many of the “new” rules in social media are in essence the very old rules and fundamental elements of traditional PR.

As companies begin to evaluate new methods of effective communications management using social media, there is a rising trend in the convergence of marketing and PR departments, and their joint efforts in using social media as an engagement tool to reach their consumers directly. As these departmental functions continue to silo into one via social media, the fundamental public relations principles of transparency, authenticity and consistency could not be more relevant.

Panelists alongside Aedhmar included, GM’s Director of Social & Digital Communications, Mary Henige,  Diane Schwartz, VP and Group Publisher of PRNews and Ray Scippa, Director of Internal Communications at ConocoPhillips.

Even with social media on the forefront of most communications and marketing departments, many companies restrict access to Facebook, YouTube and Twitter with fear that employees will spread company-related blasphemy. On the flip side, those organizations that encourage their employees to engage in their social webs often get something beneficial in return.  A Text 100 client, IBM, is a prime example of this thought process. By instilling trust in their employees and allowing them to engage in various social media platforms, they establish an understanding that individuals will be held accountable for anything they “broadcast” on behalf of the company. According to GM’s Mary Henige, there is often a greater risk of restricting access to social media than offering employees the freedom to engage in the social media web.

I caught up with Aedhmar briefly after the panel and she shared some insight from GM’s Mary Henige discussing transparent crisis management via social media: