PR 101

Like most of you who are heavily involved in social media, I get lots of emails. I divide that mail into three categories: ones I read right away, such as those from clients or friends; ones I put off to later, such as links to white papers I want to read; and finally ones that are obnoxious. While not quite spam, they dance right on the edge of that designation.

Among that last sheaf of messages is a group that is really starting to bother me. It has gotten to the point that I have been flagging them as spam and blocking the senders.

Who are these annoying senders? Are they insurance salesmen, Nigerian widows offering me millions, or schemes telling me how I can make millions while working only 20 minutes a day? Nope, not one from one of those groups.

Where that email is originating is from so-called social media “experts.”

These are people who you would think would know better. After all, they claim to be social media experts. But apparently in their effort to learn about social media, no one explained push vs. pull marketing to them.

In brief, social media’s foundation is pull marketing. What that means is a company provides evidence that it is an expert at what it does or how it makes quality products. It does not send that information out itself. Rather satisfied clients spread the word around the Internet. That builds positive word-of-mouth, which in turn builds engagement and eventually sales.

What that means is one notice sent out. If it is worth reading, or attending, people will. It is more complicated than that, but that’s the gist.

What is not done is acting like a used car salesman and bombarding a potential customer with a dozen or more sales messages.

That’s exactly how I feel when I receive one of these emails telling everything they can do. I don’t care. When I help on something, I go looking for it.

One English-based trainer has sent me seven emails in the last two weeks touting her social media training systems. If an email can be described as breathless, these would fit that description. The subject line on one read: “complete social media course – last remaining places!”

Another group I joined (now that was a mistake) keeps urging me to post on Craigslist. I get one of those about once a week. I tried it once – it didn’t go well.

Then there is my personal favorite. I keep getting emails from people asking me to endorse them. If I do that for them, they tell me they will reciprocate and endorse me. Now mind you, I don’t even know these people, let alone worked with them.

I have a very firm rule about endorsements. I will only do it if I actually know you and worked with you. What value is an endorsement from someone who knows nothing about you? I also never ask for endorsements. If somebody likes my work, they can feel free to endorse me. But that’s up to them.

I am currently taking a sales training course from Westboro, Mass.-based Kurlan & Associates Inc. One of the first lessons we were taught is that people hate sales calls. When you connect with a potential customer start off just saying your name. Then discuss how you can help them. Don’t go on and list all the things you can do. At that point, they don’t care.

So when I get an email or a call from so-called “social media expert,” I immediately know they are not. The step is to hang up or hit the delete button.

The headline on this piece is one of the most basic marketing communication rules on the books. Benjamin Franklin coined the phrase more than 250 years ago in his Poor Richard’s Almanack. Like much else of what Franklin had to say,“ three can keep a secret if two are dead” is still very applicable today.

Yet, it still amazes me that in this digital age of electronic sharing of everything people have not internalized that rule. It hey did, it would keep them of trouble of their own making. Not following that rule will always lead to public relations problems and a lot of collateral damage.

The latest person to fall victim to a failure to pay attention to Franklin’s aphorism is U.S. Navy Capt. Owen Honors. Honors’ career was derailed because of a series of videos he made when he was the executive officer of the U.S.S. Enterprise. According to the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot newspaper, “The videos were a series of profanity-laced comedy sketches that were broadcast on the USS Enterprise via closed-circuit television.” Some were described as homophobic.

Did Honors think no one was ever going to talk about this to an outsider? But as Ben said, secrets just cannot be kept. In Honors’ case, almost 6,000 men and women who crew the aircraft carrier saw these videos. The odds were better than even that someone was going to talk.

I not am going to talk about the content of the videos or Honors intent in producing them. I am not seen the videos. From everything I have read, Honors was a rising star in the Navy. He apparently was an excellent leader slated to become an admiral. Perhaps he one day would have become Chief of Naval Operations – the overall Navy commander. Not anymore.

This entire situation is about how the videos were perceived and the fallout from their release. There are numerous stories talking about how the videos show the sexist, homophobic culture that the writers claim permeate the military. Again, I have no idea if that’s an accurate picture of our fighting men and women. I would say not from own experiences dealing with our armed forces. I do pro bono work for groups that work with veterans. I married into a military family. I have a lot of experience with our military.

However, truth does not matter, only the perception. I tell this to clients all the time. Perception is reality as far as the outside world is concerned. That’s why you have to be careful because the odds are very good that what you view as an off-hand remark could come back to bite and bite hard.

Remember, this is the era of social media. What once might not have spread beyond a city block will now zip around the world in minutes. Once the problem is out of the box, there is nothing that can be done to put it back.

As Capt. Honors unfortunately found out, it is not just the individual who will get burned. It can be an entire organization.

HowHH

There’s no crying in baseball and no rules in a knife fight. But social media does have rules. Don’t know what they are or you don’t believe me? Well, read on.

Remember, social media is all about building a community. All communities need rules or they descend into anarchy. Hard to market anything in that environment.

I decided to start to codify what I believe are social media rules for two reasons:

• More and more, I seeing people do things on social media that really irks me. They have no idea of the purpose or reasons for using social media.
• I spoke last week on social media. I named some of the rules, but realized there was no one accepted set of the dos and don’ts. I have no idea if my list will become that set of rules, but somebody has to try.

So here is my list of social media rules with some explanations on why I feel the particular rule is needed.

Oh, one note – I doubt I will be able to cover all of the rules in one posting. I will most likely continue this Wednesday. Plus, I plan to list any suggestions you make. In fact, I want to encourage you to send me what you think should be rules for using social media. If you don’t like one of mine, tell me why.

Now then, here they are:

• Don’t lie. The reasons for that should be obvious. Social media is particularly unforgiving about anyone who tells a falsehood. It will destroy your, or your company’s, credibility.  No one buys from such a company or hires such a person.
• Do not spam. Here’s the definition of spam I like. It comes from answers.com: “Unsolicited e-mail, often of a commercial nature, sent indiscriminately to multiple mailing lists, individuals, or newsgroups; junk e-mail.”  You spam me, I report to you whatever provider you come from and I block you. I should add my rule is don’t ever solicit me. If I want a service you provide, I will find you.
• To follow up on that last point, soliciting business violates the spirit of social media. The whole point of social media is to demonstrate yours or your company’s expertise. If people like what you say, they will buy your product. You want to give people solid reasons to buy your product. You want your customers to endorse your products, which provides reasons for others to buy. It is like fishing: you cannot ask a fish to take the hook; you have to give it a reason, such as an enticing fly.
• I have four basic rules for connecting with me:
  • Use your real name. My first thought when someone uses a “cute” name, is what do they have to hide?
  • Post a picture. Again, what are you hiding from? Why don’t you want people to see what you look like? If you are company, post your logo.
  • Post a brief biography and a link if you have one. Again, what do you have to hide? I want to know something about you before I connect.
  • Ask me once, and only once, to connect. I get lots of email – somewhere around 100 a day. I might not get to your request right away. That does not give you license to bombard me with continuing connection requests. Doing that ensures I will not connect with you. One more thing, I do get through all of my email within two days of receiving it. If I don’t respond to your request, it means I have decided for any number of reasons not to connect. Don’t take it personally and don’t ask again.
  • Once we are connected, I also have rules:
    • Do not tell me what you had for breakfast, what cute thing your dog did today or that the sun is shining. I don’t care. I connect with people, who are marketers, bloggers, social media wonks, or into politics, fiction writers or people I find interesting. I am here to learn and discuss. If you post anything that falls into what I view as banal, I will block you.
    • Never, ever try to sell me anything, or tell me you have a surefire method for ensuring I will become a millionaire by working 15 minutes a week. I don’t believe you. I will never believe you.

Okay, that’s enough for today. I will cover some more rules Wednesday.

Please let me know what you think about these rules. Provide with me some of your own. I will report them.