"Swaying" Social Media (and Other PR Blog Jots)

"Sway" by the Rules?

The Flack

In response to the release of a product called “Sway” from a British marketing company, which purports to monitor and influence online conversation about its clients’ brands, Peter Himler wonders if such a product would have an ill effect on social media.  He notes that monitoring the online conversation is essential to conducting public relations, but that any effort to spin or control that conversation loses the trust of the public. “At a time when digital has blurred the lines between PR, marketing and advertising and the rules of social media relations are still being written, it's dangerous (if not disingenuous) to tout one's ability to manipulate the cacophonous world of social media.”

New Social Media PR Guidelines Released

Neville Hobson

After announcing plans last fall to release a set of guidelines for PR practitioners dealing with social media, the UK organization Chartered Institute of Public Relations has officially added the new guidelines to its code of conduct.  Neville Hobson argues that while most of the suggestions are merely “common sense,” he thinks that they will be useful, particularly to those PR professionals still new to the idea of social media. He also praises CIPR for coming up with a very good “official” definition of social media. “It’s good to see a strong emphasis on other emerging issues (as the guidelines call them) which include some clear guidance on areas such as astroturfing, pitching, ghost writing blogs and contributing to wikis. All of such points are firmly linked to the CIPR’s overall code of conduct.  It’s a good document, in my view, one which will be of use to PR practitioners everywhere, CIPR members or not (if you do use them, remember to attribute your source of reference to the CIPR).”

JetBlue Not Going Far Enough

BL Ochman

BL Ochman praises JetBlue for its use of social medial crisis communications, referencing CEO David Neeleman’s recent YouTube appearance, but doesn’t think the apology or the recently publicized compensation plans goes far enough. She recommends more free tickets to the inconvenienced passengers, and the creation of a customer blog where they can share their experiences and get more information. “If they're really serious about keeping their customers and getting new ones, they'd give every customer who was involved several free round-trip tickets to the destinations of their choice, whether they were on the tarmac or in the airport for three hours or thirty. It would cost JetBlue a lot less to prove their promises have teeth by actually providing great service than by trying to advertise or promote their way back into our hearts.”