Last week I was in the city of glitz and glam, Las Vegas, attending a conference entitled, “Social Media for Public Relations and Internal Communication.”
The conference inspired me to work at telling more compelling stories, to think of brands as publishers of relevant content and to use social media to deal with crisis situations.
During conversations over lunch and listening to speakers, the truth of a speaker’s simile hit me. He commented that the social media landscape is like the Wild West. He’s right, in the grand scheme of things, tools from Twitter to Gowalla and from Foursquare to Facebook are all trail blazers. These platforms are opening and widening channels of communications.
As with the historic rush into the American west, the journey into using social media to connect with customers, employees and reporters allows even the smallest players to stake their claim. With a determination to explore, work hard and innovate, organizations can establish communication best practices.
It was encouraging to hear that organizations like NASA, Southwest Airlines, Intel and the Red Cross (@NASA, @SouthwestAir, @Intel and @RedCross) are still trying to figure things out and still make mistakes on social media platforms. Although uncharted territory can pose danger and risk, the benefit of a stronger connection with consumers is well worth the trip. The organizations above have found this to be very true. They have fostered excitement around their brands, defined guidelines for internal communication and have strong practices in place for dealing with crisis.
In the days and weeks ahead, my goal is to not let what happened in Vegas stay in Vegas. Keep your eye out for posts on how Southwest Airlines developed their social media guidelines, how Wells Fargo turned their brand into a publisher and how Intel braces itself for the inevitable crises.
