I’m going to talk to you about why you need a Social Media spokesperson.
A spokesperson really is the public face of your company. You may for example have a Twitter page or a LinkedIn Company page but you need a person within the company who is the public face, who essentially gives the official statements of what is happening at the company, shows the companies values and views and also that person really needs to set the tone on how everyone else speaks on behalf of the company.
You need to think about who is going to be fulfilling that role. Very often you will have a Managing Director filling that role or a senior person in the company; the head of PR or something. What you need to think about is who is actually going to be doing that on a day to day basis.
Although the CEO might have a Twitter account, they may not be the person; it may be someone who is doing that bit on their behalf. Whoever is the spokesperson, you need to make sure that their voice is authentic, that they are genuine. If people read that Twitter account of the CEO it must really sound like them.
If you are the Social Media spokesperson or are running a Twitter account on behalf of the Managing Director, make sure you actually speak to them to talk about the things with them that they want to share with the community. Make sure that before you put any updates out ensure that the person you are tweeting on behalf of has actually read what you are about to publish and actually approves of what is said.
There is nothing more embarrassing then when a CEO of a company has had something put on Twitter on their behalf and then when shareholders and clients come up to you afterwards to ask you about it you say ‘what is that? I don’t know anything about it’. That does often happen and can be hugely embarrassing.
Bear that in mind. The other thing to bear in mind is that the spokesperson needs to ensure that a consistent message is given across on platforms. For example, if your annual report has just been published and a question is being asked about it, you may have put something about it on Twitter, is your timing right on the other platforms as well? Are you putting across a similar message?
The other thing a spokesperson can do is set the tone for other employees. You might have a company Twitter account but you might encourage other employees to go on to LinkedIn for example and to go on to Twitter.
What the spokesperson can do is actually keep the other employees informed about what he or she has just said on behalf of the company and then they can take that update on Twitter or LinkedIn and share it on their profile as well. So that person actually sets the tone; not just for the company but sets the tone for the employees.
To summarise – the spokesperson is the public face of the company. They will typically have a Twitter account or LinkedIn account where they are tweeting in their own names, so you can see the face of the person who is speaking, they are going to be authentic and most importantly they will be consistent.
Next time you are planning to set up a Social Media campaign, think carefully about getting the right person to represent your company.
Watch our video blog….Why your company needs a social media policy
