My December 7^th Vocus Webinar on “The Techniques of the New PR Champion,” sparked many questions from participants. Here is the fourth and final part of the Q&A.  Parts I, II and III are also available on my blog for review.  I hope that I’ve answered everyone’s questions from the Webinar.   If I’ve missed any, or you have more, please don’t hesitate to post your question and we can answer them together.

1. How does record retention work on social media for government agencies?

There are resources that allow you to archive your tweets and Facebook updates for record retention.  For example, Backupify is a service that provides automatic daily backups, archiving, and export of Google Docs, Facebook page updates, your Twitter feed and Flickr streams, and comments in your other social media channels.  In addition, if you’re using a monitoring platform, such as Vocus, Sysomos, BurrellesLuce Engage 121, Alternian, or Radian6, you should ask your service provider if you can archive manually (by exporting a PDF report), or if there’s a way to automatically archive updates to your social media sites.

2.  Do you have a DVD included with the book with templates for helping to chart a businesses progress?

I’m still working on how exercises will be presented in my book (if they will be at the end of the chapters or in an additional guide).  However, with respect to charting business community progress, there’s one tool I used in my presentation to show how a business can “Chart a Social Map.”  This tool is called Mindmeister, for mind mapping and brainstorming.  It’s a very easy (free) online tool to use and it shows growth of social communities over time.  You’ll want to have an updated chart in your social media plan.

3. For a major hospital, what are some metrics to analyze using social media?

Hospitals are an extension of community, so you will want to look at growth in a number of ways.  In addition to looking at how many people follow and friend the hospital, you should also be tracking how people move from your social media sites to your website to find out more information about the hospital, doctors, areas of specialty medicine, community events, etc.  It’s really important to tie your social media efforts to your website analytics (traffic to pages, views, time spent on site, referring location, etc.)  You should always be driving to your hub, which is your website, because it houses the most important ways for people to interact and to find out more information.

Sentiment is another really important community measure. You should be looking at the sentiment of conversations about the hospital and comparing your positive, negative and neutral sentiment over time (making sure that the positive is on the rise).  You can also track other hospitals in your area to see a comparison in sentiment.  I would recommend doing the same with Share of Voice (SOV) in social networks.  How does your hospital’s SOV compare to that of a competitor on Facebook or Twitter.  These are just a few metrics that are useful as you increase your social media participation.

In addition, if your hospital has a foundation, you will want to track how many members of your social media communities become aware of your foundation, request more information and interact on your foundation’s website, as a result of social media participation.

4. How do you start in the right direction, if you have the responsibility to be the PR Champion, but not the authority or upper administration support?

If you are tasked with the responsibility of social media, but need to get the buy in, then you have to put together a “formal ask.”  Social media is not something that can be approached loosely in an organization.  Here’s one approach:

• Step One: Find research and highlight similar types of organizations with respect to how and why they are using social media.  Be sure to document any success stories, as well as any negative situations, due to the lack of a social presence.

• Step Two:  Begin tracking competition to show that direct competitors are out there using social media effectively and your company may need to play catch up.

• Step Three: Audit your own company’s efforts to show that there are people already talking, maybe even your own employees, and, in this case, proper guidance and training would benefit the company. You may also uncover a few social media fires that need to be addressed immediately.

If you document and present this information in a more formal way to upper administration, it will become more of a priority and hopefully an eye opening experience to get you the buy in that you need.

5. Is it best to ignore and delete comments on company social media pages or respond to them?

No. The only comments that should be deleted are the ones that violate your social media policy, if they are defamatory, harassing, abusive, etc.  Otherwise, any comments that are negative need to be addresses based on your Comment Response Chart. A Comment Response Chart shows you how to move through situations from misguided information and bad experiences to handling “Deterrent Detractors” and “Angry Ragers.”  It’s okay to have some less than flattering comments on your Facebook wall or company blog.  It actually humanizes the company and makes your organization more transparent to the community.  If someone visits a company’s Facebook wall or blog and there’s nothing but glowing remarks, they may be skeptical.  It might appear the company only keeps the positive comments and deletes the negative or helpful criticism.

6. How do you find editors respond to social media releases?  Do editors want to be reached via Twitter or through email?

The answer to this question always varies based on individual preferences.  With respect to the first part of the question, editors want a really good story with factual and credible information. If you can deliver this information packaged in a helpful manner with additional resources, then they will like whatever tool you’re using.  I remember one editor who interviewed in my book, PR 2.0.  He said that if you don’t have a well-written release, with information that his readers would find useful, then don’t bother sending a tool with fancy bells and resources (he was referring to a social media release). It’s really important that you deliver good information regardless of the format.

To answer the question about Twitter vs. email, you’ll learn quickly how a journalist prefers to receive information. If you are unsure then make sure that you ask.  Most journalists are still very comfortable with email, although I’ve come across instances where conversations with a journalist move to Twitter DM, upon request.   Everyone is different, so you want to make sure you accommodate based on a person’s individual preferences.

7. How aggressively do you pursue these types of strategies in a more methodical organization, where process is ingrained and slow to change?

When you uncover the need for new processes and procedures, you will have to aggressively show why social media is important to business communications.  However, that doesn’t mean that the change will happen quickly.  In a more methodical organization, where culture is embedded, and historically change is slow to occur, you will have to take a crawl, walk and then run approach.  One of the most important steps to spark the change will be to use a social media audit.  The audit usually uncovers the issues or areas of liability, which then results in the writing of a policy.  Slower organizations feel more comfortable with a policy in place so that employees understand how to participate properly and that there is guidance or training involved.   Chances are many employees are already participating, so the practices outlined in my webinar will actually help the organization move to a more comfortable level of participation.

8. How do you institute the handling of personal information protection while pushing for PR and marketing product?

A good social media policy will instruct employees, as well as the company’s public, on how to participate properly including the use of personal information.  Some policies have a section that discusses the personal vs. company use of social media.  I look at examples of organizations using social media effectively including the United States Armed Forces and many hospitals across the country. They handle both propriety and personal information that can’t be divulged to the public.  If these types of organizations can participate successfully, then it’s just a matter of getting the right guidance and training in place, so people know what’s considered an acceptable use and unacceptable use of social media.

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to completely take off my PR hat; it’s usually “on” no matter what I’m doing.  But, on September 16, 2011, in New York City, I’ll be wearing a different hat. It’s my blogger cap, when I cover the PRSA T3PR Conference.  Twenty plus years ago when I was starting out, I didn’t have the opportunity to switch roles from PR person (the liaison) to the reporter covering the event.  The PR person always practiced PR and helped to facilitate the media coverage and the media person focused on reporting the news that led to the good coverage. Today, the switch is unique, exciting and allows many of us to share our enthusiasm and appreciation for reporting.  It’s also an excellent way to walk in the shoes of our worthy journalist friends, with which we work so hard to build solid relationships.

To truly understand what people go through in the scope of their day, you have to walk in their shoes.  I remember stating in my book, “Putting the Public Back in Public Relations,” that social media allows you to become the people you want to reach.  Well, stepping into the role of blogger certainly makes you understand how to reach bloggers the right way, how to help them build a better story and to understand what they go through in the reporting process.

I’m really looking forward to blogging about the PRSA T3PR Conference because I have a deep interest in public relations and technology.  From what I’ve read so far about the conference, the event has a heavy focus on how to identify and create opportunities for differentiation and offers insight on how brands that are driven by innovation can create strategic public relations programs. I’m looking forward to hearing from professionals including Amy Messano, senior public relations manager, U.S. SMB&D, Microsoft Corp. and Scott Stevens, APR, former vice president corporate communications, Nissan Americas.  I’m also looking forward to hearing what several of the other experts have to say during the “Technology Crisis Digital Age” session.

I’ll be doing a post session article to discuss my findings at the conference and will share the best highlights.  Stay tuned for more about the PRSA T3PR Conference or maybe I’ll see you there!

[Disclosure: PRSA offered me complimentary entrance into their conference, so that I can report to my PR and marketing colleagues on the sessions.]

Here’s the good news…if your organization is participating in social media, then the public relations function has expanded. The responsibilities of the PR professional continue to increase, with new roles assigned.  As you take on these new challenges, you’re seen as an even more valuable asset to your company.

In my book, “Putting the Public Back in Public Relations,” we discussed a few of the new PR roles including the following:

-       Listening/ Conversationalist

-       Market Analyst

-       Web Marketer

-       Viral Marketer

-       Social Media Professional

-       Customer Service Representative

-       Research Librarian

Although, you’ve embraced many of the roles above, now it’s time to add several more responsibilities to this list, as a result of social media and 24/7 communications. The Eight Roles Assigned are meant to open up your frame of reference about other functions that should be on your PR radar and quite possibly fall within your domain of responsibility.  For those of you who are already participating in one or more of the roles mentioned below, kudos to you!

Here’s the list of the Eight Roles Assigned to the PR professional.  Are you ready to take on these opportunities?

1. The Policymaker:  eMarketer published a chart in May of 2010, surveying U.S. companies about the responsibility of Social Media Plans.  The chart revealed that the two departments most likely responsible for the planning process were marketing and corporate communications. PR professionals are quickly learning that a critical part of the communications planning process is the development of the social media policy or policies.  Some policies are internal for employees and others are external facing for the public, and tailored specifically for a particular social channel.  Being a policymaker can range from spearheading the policy process to helping assemble the policy team.  However, your role may also include diving in to write the policies and communicating social media policies internally for maximum employee participation and impact in the organization.
2. Internal Collaboration Generator:  Communications professionals are realizing that social media collaboration starts on the inside of the organization.  Because social media moves across the organization, it’s imperative that specific departments (PR, Advertising, Marketing, HR, IT, Legal, Sales, etc.) work together and the silos are broken down for sharing, innovation and collaboration.   PR professionals are often the champions who work with their marketing peers, the company executives and the web team to research, help select the platform for communication (i.e., SharePoint, SocialText, and BaseCamp, to name a few.) and to create a program that educates employees on the value of social collaboration and use of an internal portal for sharing.
3. Crisis Prevention Doctor:  Because every company can face a crisis today, PR professionals are proactively building their crisis plans (integrating social crisis), with comment response charts and helpful tools to illustrate levels of comment/crisis escalation.  It’s extremely important that anyone involved in social media for the organization (from PR and marketing to customer service) be trained and prepared for today’s viral social crisis that has the ability to capture both social media and traditional media attention.  PR professionals are focusing on training their teams in crisis prevention, setting up the best platforms for pre-listening and post crisis sentiment monitoring and understanding the differences between crisis and the news cycles of the past vs. the fast paced 24/7 crisis of today.
4. Communications Technology Tester:  If you’re in PR, you must become a communications technology tester for your company.  For example, it was great to see so many of my PR peers in Google+.  This is a big step and almost a turnaround from the past. At the start of social media, PR was criticized for not being up to speed on the knowledge and use of social media channels.  As a PR pro, you should constantly be updating your knowledge of social media; rolling up your sleeves to experiment with the different tools, applications and social platforms. If your job is communication and relationship building, then you need to know and understand where consumers are congregating, how they behave in social communities and the best ways to reach them through new channels.  Being a communications technology tester helps you to educate others in your organization.
5. Reputation Task Force Member:  Being a member of the Reputation Task Force is the equivalent of practicing reputation management on steroids.  Because social media can change a company’s reputation drastically, in a short amount of time, we have to be tracking and responding with speed and accuracy.  It’s our job to review the conversations, evaluate the brand sentiment and head off any reputation issues before they get out of hand.  We have always been known as the “brand police” called in when crisis occurs.  However, our role has expanded to a special task force, now pre- crisis, which gathers information and analyzes how attitudes leads to consumer advocacy and loyalty, or to less then favorable reviews and situations that lower company ratings.
6. Organizer of the Communications Process:  PR professionals have to educate and redirect their organization to implement a new communications process.  No longer can companies rely on the push method for their messages.  Now it’s your job to make sure that the company constituents are pulling from your organization to meet their needs.  The process begins with listening to the conversations but also requires organizing, curating, and developing new content.  With a new process in place, companies offering meaningful information to stakeholders are positioned as valuable resources that answer questions, help people make decisions, create loyalty and build stronger relationships with customers.
7. Relationship Analyzer:  Here’s where your role turns into the communications sociologist.  It’s so important to observe and analyze how your audience connects, not only with you, but also with each other in a specific community. As a relationship analyzer you are looking at how people start, build and grow their relations and how social graphs reach across networks.  The relationship analyzer also sees the deep connections between the brand and its influencers; those brand champions who support and speak positively on the brand’s behalf.
8. Master of the Metrics:  PR professionals have to move from accepting metrics (no more AVEs or Average Value Equivalents) to forging ahead with measurable objectives and metrics that reveal positive outcomes for the organization vs. the outtakes and outputs.  Your programs will require different Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), but it’s critical to investigate and differentiate between the metrics that are based on conversations, authority, sharing behaviors and education/learning vs. the metrics that show lead generation, sales, customer satisfaction, and finding cost savings as a result of social media.  By taking a closer, more intimate look at learning how to monitor and measure through different platforms (i.e., BurrellesLuce Engage121, Vocus Social Media Monitoring, Sysomos, Radian6, etc.) it will help you to tailor your measurement program.  In social media, you need to show Return on Investment (ROI) for the executives vs. the Return on Engagement (ROE), Return on Participation (ROP) and the Return on Awareness (ROE) related to specific company programs for various departments.

What new PR roles have been assigned to you?  The roles mentioned in this post are only just the beginning.  Of course, our roles will continue to expand. Please share some of the new priorities and responsibilities you’re tackling as a result of social media.

I was recently invited to participate in Online Newsroom Summit in September.  A great deal has changed over the years with respect to developing or “socializing” your newsroom.  Because companies are looking to accommodate social audiences, the newsroom is an area that has experienced a makeover.

When I first started working with companies to create their online newsrooms (although at the time we were calling them online pressrooms), these areas offered an excellent way to build relationships with journalists.  Newsrooms provided information and resources for their stories, making the company information gathering process extremely turnkey.  The idea was to have materials available, at any time, and, if necessary, without the assistance of a PR representative. Journalists would gather the resources they needed, when they needed it, having access to company’s information portal 24/7.

Today, as a result of social media, the newsroom has become an area for all of the company’s stakeholders, not just the media.  Bloggers, customers, prospects and partners searching for information, find an updated newsroom to be very useful.  As a matter of fact, many companies are renaming their newsrooms, opting for a “Media Center” or “News Center” as a repository for different groups to find all types of media.

It’s interesting to review how the newsroom has changed.  Back in early 2000, the best newsrooms included the following:

• Company backgrounder
• Facts sheet or company snapshot
• Bios of executive or key team players
• High resolution photos and logos
• Executive presentations
• Corporate videos and videos from company events
• News releases (archived)
• Links to past publicity
• Links to helpful resources and industry partners

Ten plus years later, not only do we have the information listed above, but we also see a drastic change to the newsroom’s content and functionality, with the addition of the following new social features:

• Blog communities with company executives or SMEs
• Speaker and / or interview requests
• Social media releases (SMRs)
• Multimedia galleries
• Podcasts for download
• Optimization of content by tagging images and text for search engine relevancy
• The ability to share newsroom content in a number of different social media communities
• Icons to find, “Like” and/or follow the company in various social network communities
• Tag clouds to see the most frequently tagged newsroom topics
• Twitter feeds for products / services, and company conversations

Although all stakeholders find and use a company’s newsroom, we still organize information to suit the needs of journalists. It’s important to note that according the Bulldog / TekGroup International 2010 Online Journalist Survey on Media Relations Practices, “97% of journalists indicated that they use such sites in their work.”  The survey also revealed that nearly 45% of participants visit newsrooms more than once a week, with approximately 84% reporting that they visit at least once a month.

Here’s a list of a few really good examples of socialized newsrooms for you to review and consider, as you develop your own newsroom, media or news center for your website:

Starbucks

Ford

CIGNA

Microsoft

PRSA

Cisco

BASF

What are some of the best examples of socialized newsrooms that you’ve found? How are you changing the features and functionality of your company’s newsroom?

I’ve been writing about the social media audit process, uncovering what an organization learns when they go through this exercise.  My last post “The Social Media Audit: Five Common Missing Pieces” mentioned the fifth missing piece as “Training and Education.”  This piece is a crucial part of your social media program.  Brands are finding out that social media focus should start from the inside out. If your internal champions are not on board, on the same page and working collaboratively, your program may suffer with its external social communications and not engage as effectively with the public.

If you know that you need to set up a training program or educate your employees on social media, here are several of the features you should keep in mind when deciding on an internal social platform:

• Social networking capabilities (with the ability to set up a profile)
• Internal communications tools including messaging, discussion and chat)
• Sharing capabilities including links, resources and documents editing
• Subgroups and/or discussion forums
• Data ownership and whether or not the social network claims any ownership rights in your code, content, or network data
• Ease of set up and use; the selection of a platform that’s easy to manage and upload content
• Ease of customization; a platform that enables employees to add designs, photos and maintain the brand’s identity
• Price (there’s a big difference between enterprise software and a platform for creating social sites)

When you review different platforms, make sure to keep your company’s culture in mind and select a platform that is intuitive, simple to navigate and one that offers some type of training (i.e., video tutorials). Moving from a traditional communications infrastructure to an internal social platform is a tremendous shift, so you want to ease into the change with a platform that is hands on and easy to use.  A few platforms that we’ve reviewed are SharePoint, Socialtext, Grou.ps and Ning. Of course, it’s important to do a comparison and demo each platform to see which one is the best for your organization.  Remember, when you’re finally up and running, it’s also really important to set up benchmark measurements to gauge employee adoption and participation rates.

What platforms would you recommend for internal social collaboration and learning?

We are less than a week away from our February 23^rd #PRStudChat with our very special guest @ChrisBrogan, co-author of Trust Agents. Chris joins us that night at 9:00 p.m. ET (please note the time change as we usually begin at 8:30 p.m. ET) for our Twitter discussion on the PR influencer and how to build trust online. We are looking forward to Chris’ insights on the topic and the dynamic discussions with Chris and our community.

We also announced earlier this month that we have an exclusive sponsor that night.  Ruder Finn, is sponsoring the chat session and their sponsorship will go toward several lucky community members receiving Chris’ book.  We’re going to post a question on the PRStudChat blog that night (related to influencers and building trust) and ask our community to answer the question.  A random drawing will select community members to receive the book, Trust Agents, all made possible by @RuderFinn.

We are very excited to have Chris join us on February 23^rd and can’t think him enough for being our special guest.  We’re also very happy to have @RuderFinn as the sponsor of this session, which is designed to educate PR and communications professionals on the topic of the PR influencer. There’s still time to post any questions that you’d like to ask Chris about becoming a Trust Agent or building trust online. Feel free to post them in our LinkedIn Group.  Hope to “see” on you on February 23^rd at 9:00 p.m. ET, for a very dynamic discussion.

A little more about our sponsor, Ruder Finn:

Ruder Finn, Inc. is one of the largest independent integrated communication firms in the world. Through offices and affiliates worldwide, the agency serves the global and local communication needs of more than 250 corporations, governments and nonprofit organizations.

The key to building an effective social media policy is to customize the guidelines to meet the needs of your organization. A well developed policy will guide your employees in the many ways that they engage in social communications. The best practice approach requires that your organization invest the time, resources, and effort to plan and build a policy that empowers the organization, allows people to understand the value of social media and helps them to see how they can better participate as internal brand champions.

I had the pleausre of working with PRSA to assist in the development of their social media policy, which was rolled out today. It was a great exercise because of the intricacies of an organization that serves more than 21,000 members. It’s a comprehensive policy, one that sets the standard for social media participation, gives guidance on engagement, and offers social media best practice resources to employees, volunteers and leaders. PRSA’s policy will grow and evolve as the organization extends its social footprint.

A best practices approach to creating the PRSA social media policy included the following steps in the development process:

• Finding a champion (in this case the PR manager) to spearhead the effort, corral the team and manage the process from start to finish.
• Building a coalition or core team that developed policy objectives across the organization so it would not only guide employees, leaders and volunteers, but also PRSA chapters, sections and districts. The coalition consisted of PR, marketing, executive leadership and the PRSA legal team.
• Conducting an in-depth audit to evaluate the current state of PRSA social media and to help standardize and promote better brand guidelines connected to social media participation.
• Encouraging participation and not stifling communication, going well beyond just the do’s and don’ts of social media. The policy also carefuly reviewed situations specific to the Society, and focused on where the organization needed to convey stronger messages, including legal concerns like privacy, intellectual property and disclaimers.
• Covering employee participation on behalf of PRSA, as well as including a statement on personal use. Understanding that employees will participate during their work hours and their own free time, it’s important that employees know the type of representation, responsibility and respect they must have for PRSA at all times.
• Considering several key areas in the policy, including access, account management, acceptable conduct and the rules of engagement, content, security and legal issues.
• Introducing leaders and members to the draft policy, asking them to evaluate usefullness by participating in a survey prior to launch. Feedback from the survey was incorporated into the social media policy to create an even stronger set of guidelines.
• Including other organizational policies — the PRSA Code of Ethics, the PRSA Branding Guidelines, the PRSA Style Guide and the PRSA Media Policy — fully integrating these policies into the social media policy, as they now relate to social outreach.

This is only a starting point for PRSA and its new social media policy. The Society’s policy will continue to evolve as the organization grows its social media presence and identifies increased opportunities for engagement.

It’s critical that the process of policy development continue throughout every phase of social media planning. PRSA will continue its best practices approach by implementing an organization-wide social media plan that allows departments to tailor it to their goals and strategies;  re-evaluating its policy during the strategic planning phase each year; and sharing the direction of its own social communications with leaders, volunteers and members.

What is your best practice approach to social media policy development and how has the overall process helped to create a strong set of guidelines for your organization?

You may have heard me say this before, but it’s really important to read everyday to stay on top of the trends, news and industry information.  There are so many great resources for professionals to keep us in the “know.” However, we also need to set up a daily reading regimen to peruse interesting articles, blogs, newsletters, etc.

Here’ my video blog on my personal reading regimen and the magazines, email newsletters and blogs that keep me up to date on industry and business news.  What are your reading resources and how do you stay on top and in the “know?”