Alan DraperHave you ever sent a text message to someone, and the minute your finger left the send button… you realized you sent it to the wrong person? I admit I am guilty of that. In the past, when this has happened, the result could have been hurtful. But the most recent occurrence of this was a few months ago, when I meant to text a friend of mine and texted my husband by accident – yes… I was talking about someone, but what I said was “she’s a peach!”
This started a whole side dialogue (literally about people and references to fruit!) with a completely different friend that was rather endearing… (Incidentally, she referred to me as an artichoke, and if you know me, that’s rather fitting)
The fact remains we can very easily misstep in our communications – with the speed and intensity of how digital we have all become. We need to slow down and pay attention to what we are doing.
As the role of the Community Manager has evolved, a condition has emerged which I call Social Schizophrenia. For those of us who manage multiple communities, and or multiple social profiles, we often take on multiple personalities representing multiple brands, with multiple messages going across multiple channels. Is your head spinning yet?
I’ve had moments recently where I’ve had one Twitter account open and been thinking about another and tweeted something out of one that was meant for another. Unfortunately, it happens.
I stumbled across a similar story with Red Cross and a rogue tweet, that sent Red Cross on a PR recovery mission. They managed to turn it around, but it is something to be cognizant of if you are managing multiple profiles.
It’s worth it to take a few extra seconds when crafting content and assigning it to a channel to make sure the message is correct, the content is relevant and it’s not hurtful to anyone – and I mean anyone – since once you send it out socially, the truth is… you can never take it back.
If you manage multiple profiles here are a few questions you might slow down and ask yourself:
- Does this content align with the mission or vision of the organization or person being represented?
- Will it provide value as a stand-alone piece of content?
- Does this bit of content accurately represent the personality or brand of the person or organization being represented?
- If this bit of content goes viral, will it be good for the brand or person being represented?
- If this bit of content is perceived as negative, do I have a plan to respond publicly (socially)?
- Is it the truth?
- Do I have it assigned to the right social profile for publication?
The changes in Facebook have made it easier to switch between pages, and sharing content to pages and/or someone’s timeline has become easier. The fact remains, however, with so many people managing multiple profiles, error is bound to happen. Even with the best social CRM tool, and the best staff, mistakes can be made. Taking a few moments to slow down will reduce that possibility.
As I focus this year more on quality social connections, over amassing a large volume of connections I find myself focusing more on the quality of my personal messages…
But…some days I have to laugh at myself – who am I right now?
This article was written for Business 2 Community by Alan Draper.
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I think we all suffer from this so-called malaise.. perhaps, not because we’re being careless, but we’re just inattentive. With all the clutter and saturation that the online world has brought us, it’s really hard to stay focused.