4 Reasons Why the PR Team Should Be in Charge of Social Media
Social media use among Fortune 500 companies has plateaued, according to recent data
. This hardly means these organizations have adopted social media en masse (62 percent have an active corporate Twitter account, while only 58 percent maintain a Facebook page), and it presents an opportunity for those without a social presence or those who remain inactive in those channels.
This prompts an important question for the laggards: Who should be in charge of running these things, anyway?
If the headline is any indication, the answer is the PR team. Here’s why:
The PR agency or team is best equipped to respond to inbound media requests.
When a reporter reaches out to the brand via social media, your organization must be prepared to respond promptly. If the reporter doesn’t get a quick response, he or she will move on to find another source.
The PR team already handles inbound media requests, so they are prepared to coordinate interviews and provide the journalist with any background information for the story. The PR team also has a better grasp on which journalists have already been in communication with the organization or have written previous stories, and social media provide additional channels through which the PR practitioner and journalist can communicate.
PR understands the organizational messaging.
Whether it’s the typical “say this, not that” that stems from the corporate legal department or subtle messaging tied to the product or service, the PR team is already adept at communicating in the organization’s style.
Social media accounts are often run in a particular voice (Think of Twitter accounts or Facebook brand pages that refer to the organization in the collective “we.”), and the PR department is best equipped to incorporate the unique tone of social media into the organization’s many other communications channels.
The PR team is trained in reputation management.
It’s no secret that customers use Twitter as a sounding board for issues they encounter in dealing with your brand. The PR team knows that an organization’s many audiences – consumers, partners, investors, stockholders, media – should be treated differently, but all with an eye on the big picture.
This said, the PR department should have close ties to other departments with a horse in the race (read: everyone). If complaints come flooding in about a landing page on the site crashing, don’t you think the Web team would like to know? Similarly, the PR team should alert customer service or sales if people mention difficulty redeeming coupons or processing a transaction.
PR strategy, in part, dictates social media strategy.
You have a comprehensive public relations plan for your organization (if you don’t, you should probably get on that). Use it. A social media strategy that’s in lockstep with a PR strategy amplifies results on both fronts.
What did I miss? Do you disagree? Sound off in the comments below.
A version of this post originally appeared on PR Daily, where the author is a contributor.
In addition to his role as a media relations specialist at Walker Sands, Andrew is a regular contributor to PR Daily, the world’s No. 1 online news website for the public relations industry.
Follow him on Twitter at @Andrew_R_Cross.
But what about authenticity? I don’t disagree with the position that PR should monitor and respond to social media, but should that be exclusive? Often it’s the conversation with the help desk or the candid thoughts from the top management team that make social media so ‘engage-able.’ And hey, there’s nothing like a good PR blunder to gain exposure and keep the PR department busy.
Ideally, just about every department monitors social media to some extent. And every department should be kept in the loop and even have a say in social initiatives, but when it comes time to execute, PR is best equipped.
And to your point on authenticity, Fiona, PR is trained to represent individuals and teams throughout all levels of the organization. It’s much more difficult to maintain a voice on social media when five people from different departments are sounding off via Twitter, for example.