The Company Blog: Company A's Story, part 4b

Responding to reader comments

Briefly:

• Respond to comments to encourage discussion
  
• Respond to comments to show you care what your readers have to say
  
• Do not respond to every comment
  
• Respond appropriately and in a reasonable amount of time

The head of Company A is very good at responding to reader comments. He does not get drawn into flame wars, but does respond to legitimate complaints and concerns. He answers direct questions, and even poses new questions to his audience in response to comments left. His comments are worded so that he puts no one down, but when he sees a suggestion or question he finds particularly insightful, he is quick to praise.

He also reads through his comments more than once, recognizing that more comments are likely to be left after his first round of responses. He seems to check post comments two or three times in the week after he posts something to the blog, responding to comments when appropriate. If the discussion calls for it, he may continue checking the comments after that first week, too.

Social media has to focus on social, and that means conversations. If you don't respond to comments on your blog, you lose that conversation.

The Company Blog: Company A's Story, part 4a

In the story I posted about Company A I left a comment on Company A's blog. Having a blog that the public can read is a great tool, but, like any tool, it needs to be used correctly in order to do its job. The way Company A's blog is used isn't terrible, but it could be even better.

For my next two posts we'll look at two different aspects of Company A's blog:

Written by the head of the company

Briefly:

• Heads of companies often run companies better than they write engaging blog posts
  
• Blog posts from the company head provide authority
  
• Company heads often can't make blog posts a priority over tasks directly related to running the company
  
• Blog posts from the company head can make readers feel like part of the inner-circle

Company A's blog is well written, but there have been only five posts in three months. That's too few to keep people really engaged. The lack of posts doesn't stem from a lack of things to write about. Company A is involved in at least two major undertakings right now--one which will drastically affect the company, one which is likely to affect the entire industry. At the same time, they're involved in all of the activities they're typically involved in. So, if not lack material, why have there been so few posts?

Lack of time. The head of Company A is incredibly busy, and writing blog posts has taken a back-burner to the work of actually running the company. If someone else had been in charge of posting to the blog (even if they were doing so under the head of the company's name), the blog would be kept updated. Readers would be able to turn to the blog to see what's happening with the company's actions and decisions, and get brief explanations of those decisions. As it stands, his blog readers are left in the dark.

Due to the head of a company's areas of expertise and priorities, it is often better to have someone else writing the company's blog posts.

Company A's Story, part 1

Here is a story about a large, national company I'm currently working with. It's a story of some of the decisions they've made about their brand new social media marketing campaign. Over the next few posts, I'll focus on different parts of this story and talk about the good or bad of a particular decision.

---

I'm currently working with a large company that's been around for several decades (I'm not allowed to disclose which one, so I'll call it Company A), helping them get a fledgling social media PR campaign off the ground.

It began when I left a comment on Company A's new blog. One of their newer, younger employees--an assistant to the head of the company--contacted me after reading my comment. He agreed that Company A should have a social media campaign and wanted something he could take to the board.

I outlined a basic plan that specified a few social media outlets they should focus on and how to use them to engage their customers in useful conversations. He took it to the decision-makers--largely people who don't use or understand social media. And, like so often happens, they were afraid of it. But this employee, this assistant to the head of Company A, understood the power of social media. He convinced them to try it. But the decision-makers still were not comfortable.

"As you know, Company A has an image problem. Almost all of the press we've gotten lately has been about The Problem. The only reason we're even considering this type of program is because we've heard it can change our image."

They passed my plan to their Public Affairs department where, based on what they were used to and directives from above, they quickly changed it.

The first decision they made was to shut down all unofficial Facebook fan pages and create a new, official Facebook fan page. They asked me for questions they could use to engage anyone who visits the page.

"But nothing that might get someone talking about The Problem."

I created a list of discussion points, the first of which they posted to their Facebook page the day it launched.

The day after their Facebook fan page went live, Company A's PR department sent an interoffice memorandum to every employee, informing them that there was a new social media marketing campaign and giving a brief overview of it: a new Facebook fan page, and possibly using twitter for important bulletins.

The Facebook fan page went live last week. Right now, that's as far as this social media marketing campaign has gotten.

Check out my upcoming posts to see what I think of individual decisions they've made, and what I think will happen because of them.

Search Amazon.com for social media for business