3 communication channels that need a social makeover
The job posting. The press release. The “team/bios” page of your website.
What do these things have in common? They’re all false conversation starters - companies offering up some information to reel customers in, then clamming up when customers want to respond or dig deeper.
Very web 1.0 - heck, very pre-web:
- Highly structured: constrained formats, language, and/or length limit creativity. (Customer: “Read one, you’ve read them all.”)
- Suspiciously positive: only successes are socially acceptable in these formats (Customer: “Hmm.. what aren’t they telling me?”)
- Emphasizing the uneven relationship: you only know what we want to tell you (Customer: “I guess they don’t value my input…”)
- Infrequent and static: you only get information when we have enough to it to publish, and then it never changes (Customer: “Is this still relevant?”)
It’s time to give them a social makeover.
And by social, I don’t mean “Company X has thrown a sheep at you!” I mean utilizing social media in exactly the way that it differs from pre-web media: embracing the absence of structure, providing useful information, and offering a venue for listening and responding back.
Toolbox: Get Started
- Reserve your company, product, trademark Twitter usernames (whether you think you’ll use it or not).
- Take the next logical step and reserve your company name at the major free email services as well as the major free blogging sites like TypePad and WordPress. (If you ever have an email outage, you’ll appreciate being able to send out emails from companyx at gmail.com instead of your personal address.
- Create some extra email addresses (suggestions@, research@, productname@).
- Carve out some website space where you can easily update content (if you can’t get edit access to www.yourcompanyname.com, see if you can host content at a secondary site like moreinfo.yourcompanyname.com or make use of the TypePad or WordPress site you just registered).
- Find an automated reminder system that works for your email habits (Outlook tasks, or a site like Remember The Milk or Backpack).
- Set up a free online survey account with SurveyMonkey (if you want your own branding and ability to receive lots of results, it’s well worth the $200/year for the professional subscription).
- Mac users, familiarize yourself with the built-in screen capture functionality. Windows users, go buy a copy of SnagIt
Now you’re ready to upgrade your communications.
The Job Posting
I’ve never heard a company say that they’re seeking out mediocre employees, and yet most companies have decidedly mediocre job postings. I’ve written about my experiences trying to craft a better job description before, but here are some more ideas on making your posting stand out:
Make information about the company and products readily available.
List the hiring manager and their LinkedIn profile.
Public transit friendly? In a cool metro area? Show it off.
OK, so few companies can match Google’s 20% free-time projects, but can employees choose a conference to attend each year? Pick their own computer system? Get all the free work-related books they can buy?
If you’re not comfortable publishing all of that information 100% publicly, you can always make it available only to applicants who have submitted their resume. Automate an email response (”Thank you for submitting your resume”) that includes a URL and password where they can get this information.
The Press Release
Regarding the press release itself, here are some good starting points from people more expert than myself:
Die! Press release! Die die die! (Silicon Valley Watcher)
Press releases are nearly useless. They typically start with a tremendous amount of top-spin, they contain pat-on-the-back phrases and meaningless quotes. Often they will contain quotes from C-level executives praising their customer focus. They often contain praise from analysts, (who are almost always paid or have a customer relationship.)
The social media release (PR 2.0):
The social media release is not a miracle pill to cure the ills of poorly written press releases. It is merely a tool that is most effective when combined with a strategic arsenal of relevant company blog posts, traditional releases, relationships, and an emerging category of press releases that tell a story (written by people for people using SEO to reach them).
For startup companies, the bigger issue may be the pressure to be newsworthy. You just don’t have that many “press release-worthy” events per year. But there are many more small milestones that would interest your early adopters and die-hard users. A company blog is a good way to keep users informed, but even writing short, unstructured blog posts can take more time than you have, and you don’t want a stale blog - that’s almost worse than not having one.
Enter Twitter. If you were wondering what it’s good for, this is it. There’s a lot you can say in 140 characters, but not so much that it’ll take more than a minute to craft it. Things like:
- Great blog post about us over at [URL]
- Redesign sketches online at [URL] give us your feedback!
- Interested in beta testing new product version? [EMAIL]
- Version x.x available for download now [URL]
Or any indirectly related quote or article that you enjoyed. You’re building a personality so that your users can relate to you (and cut you some slack when the inevitable thing goes wrong). Don’t feel pressured to update your status on Twitter every day. Try weekly, and until you make it a regular habit, set up an online reminder so you build consistency
SuggestionBox is a small company that uses Twitter really well.
The Team Page
Every company has a page with one-paragraph bios of their executive team. Current role, past companies, degrees and alma mater. The only things that vary across companies are the names and whether or not they included pictures. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never been particularly curious about where Company X’s CEO got their bachelor’s degree. When I visit a “our team” page, it’s with one of these goals:
- I’m angry about a bad experience and want to vent/escalate…
- I’m interested in buying supplies/products from this company and need to talk…
- I have detailed questions about the product technology and need to talk…
- I’m interested in working for this company and doing due diligence…
…and none of these goals will be met. Recognize that my next step is going to be to hit Google, LinkedIn, review forums, whatever it takes. Embrace the information that’s already out there. Your “team” page should list:
- LinkedIn profiles for the entire management team
- Other social network profiles (but only for those folks who actively maintain and interact with them)
- Contact information for each product or service, as well as a generic suggestions address
This last one is particularly interesting - realistically, if I want to know about Product X, the CEO isn’t the person to ask - she or he is just not going to be down in the guts of the product. (Unless you’re a 1-2 person company).
I’d love to see a company list productx@companyname.com, productz@companyname.com, etc. email addresses so I could send questions or suggestions directly to the individual most likely to be able to respond.
If you have a critical mass of users, take it the next step farther and let them talk to each other. My current company hosts a messageboard where any user can register and post questions, issues, suggestions. It can be painful to read when the critical feedback reaches a fever pitch, but it’s not like not listening will make it go away.
Recognize that your messageboard will skew ugly-negative sometimes. It will often skew towards a certain type of user (typically early-adopter, power-user, brusque, knowledgable, passionate, helpful). And your job is not to be defensive. Your job is to listen, answer questions factually, and proactively communicate change.
This is just the tip of the iceberg - there are tons of opportunities to evolve your communication channels from icebreakers to ongoing conversations. For a lot more interesting ideas, check out these articles:
The Ritz-Carlton mystique (great service and communications in the mostly offline space)
Writing Better Help Wanted Ads
Old Media Still Needs to Get Over Its Control Issues
Tags: Communication, hiring, press releases, social
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