In fact just yesterday one of our clients was approached by a so-called online marketing firm which runs a stable of websites and several high quantity Twitter feeds. Note I say quantity rather than quality. They boasted that they could saturate Twitter with our client’s name and get them in front of hundreds of thousands of investors.

A quick trawl through one of their websites and five minutes scrolling down follower and tweet lists showed that the Twitter feeds were bot-controlled and the tweets ranging from nonsense to almost outrageously non-compliant. In other words, a dangerous waste of time and money for unsuspecting companies looking to outsource their online communications.

So what is Twitter really about? At time of writing, Twitter has nearly 500 million registered profiles and over 100 million active users. With such vast numbers you could be forgiven for thinking that you need an advertising, scattergun approach to capturing the attention of the right people. The problem is it doesn’t work like that. Oh you can use that approach but when it comes to investor relations, that strategy is likely to do more harm that good.

Following someone on Twitter has now become similar to giving out your email address – you don’t want to be spammed and nor do you want unsolicited contact. This means that genuine Twitter users (and by that I mean human rather than bot-run), particularly those utilizing Twitter for work or investment purposes tend to be very selective in who they follow. Since it’s the genuine users that you’re after, you need to identify the right ones using the correct identification and search procedures and you need to give them what they want and that means quality content. This holds true whether your Twitter usage is IR related or more mainstream marketing.

A content strategy that prioritizes quality is vital to leveraging the potential of Twitter. You need to give users a reason to follow back or find you of their own accord, you need to increase the number of retweets from high profile and respected influencers, you need to encourage people to actually read your tweets and click on links that you’ve inserted. You also, of course, need to ensure your content is compliant with regulations. In theory I shouldn’t need to mention compliance (it should be a given) but we are regularly amazed at how far some companies and so-called social media firms or consultants will sometimes go, and the risks they take, when it comes to social media communication.

If you’ve recently started up a Twitter feed for IR purposes or are thinking of doing so, feel free to get in touch and tell us how things are going.

I spent some time after the conference checking out the social media presence for each of the companies these IR execs represented and was not surprised at what I found. In much of the IR world, particularly in certain sectors such as mining and energy, social media retains a shroud of mystery, as if it were a new and popular fad that will fade in time. The result is that many IRs who try it out, do so without really understanding the requirements for successful engagement.

Social media – and by this I mean socialized media and social networking – is not rocket science. It is a communication channel first and foremost. Yes it has some particular qualities compared to other forms of communication – principally it’s potential for two-way engagement with your audience – but if anything these qualities reinforce the need for the same best practice that applies to all communications.

Best practice encompasses a number of elements but for now, based on what I found during and after the IR conference, I want to highlight just two: activity and content.

If you have set up an account on Twitter, StockTwits, Facebook or some other social network then make sure you use it daily. Visiting an account page that does not feature regular updates is like visiting a store that has hardly any product on the shelves – you leave unimpressed and unlikely to return. Moreover, as you start to build up an online audience and followers you need to engage them regularly, after all, what’s the point in connecting with them if you’re not going to leverage their attention?

Of course, daily updates means you need regular content and this was the second area where most of the execs I spoke to had fallen down. Your target audience, and here I’m talking about investors, brokers, analysts and journalists, expect useful information from you. Simply posting share prices daily is not going to cut it and that means you need a content strategy before you push the ‘go’ button on social media which will enable you to generate and promote content that is useful to your audience, draws them to your social media pages and website on a regular basis, furthers your business goals and is compliant.

Yes, this approach takes ongoing time and effort but without it social media will be of little practical use to your company.

Effective corporate reputation management is comprised of many elements, one of the most important of which is stakeholder communications. Stakeholders come in many forms: investors, regulators, customers, legislators and of course the Media. Regardless of size, it is vital that public companies build and maintain good relationships with each group because left alone, stakeholders can and will receive information from many sources some of which may be less than reliable or include deliberate misinformation.

Consistency, understanding and preparation are three of the watchwords that public companies should hold dear:

Consistency of message – it is vital that the same key messages are communicated across the board. With such a large audience and so many channels available, your company must talk with a unified voice.

While your message must be consistent, you also need to understand your audiences in terms of what information they need to know and how they prefer to receive and engage with it. Press releases, briefings, statements, pod casts, tweets, blog posts… understand your audiences and channels.

Ensure your spokespeople are prepared so that they can and will be able to respond correctly, consistently and in a timely manner to enquiries from any stakeholders and you can reach out quickly to intercept any issues.

Managing your stakeholder relationships will help to build and protect your corporate reputation, directly benefiting your company at multiple levels.

Distinct PR was the only public relations agency that the company had decided to speak to. The other companies pitching for the business were all pure-play social media companies. Now I happen to know some social media firms that are very, very good at what they do – they understand social media’s place in the larger marketing mix and what is needed to deliver genuine business-orientated results (and I’m not talking number of likes, fans or follows).

Unfortunately the social media consultants that we were pitching against did not fall into the knowledgeable category and had instead filled the prospective client’s collective head with such meaningless drivel that even I, with many years of consultancy under my belt, was appalled. I’m not going to bore you with a lengthy account of the uphill battle to re-educate the prospect’s execs (which was successful because we got the business) but I do want to pierce a few of the smoke and mirrors that are being employed by certain firms and consultants out there.

It’s not about the packaging: It takes minutes to set up an account on most social media platforms. Sure, you can have a custom-made page for platforms like Facebook and this can take some time but be wary of anyone who makes a big song and dance out of getting you set up on the various platforms and creating specialized pages for you. Having a great looking page is worthless if you don’t have a corresponding content creation program.

Automation and integration: It doesn’t take long to send out updates on each platform so don’t be impressed by anyone stressing how they will update every single platform out there. There are many 3rd party programs out there that will enable you to put out a single update (tweet, wall posting, status update, etc) and have it published across multiple platforms simultaneously.

The right tool for the job: There are many forms of social media and online communities out there – from the big networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, to countless forums, blogs and more. Just because they all exist, doesn’t mean they are right for your company. Question anyone that gives you a long list of social media networks and communities that they will help you engage with. Depending upon your business model and industry, you may only need to get involved with one or two forms of social media to show the right ROI.

Of course, it’s one thing to know what to avoid, it’s another to know what to go for. I could write multiple posts on the subject of conducting social media in a professional manner that generates the right results but since this post is about what to avoid, let me finish by saying that if you find yourself on the receiving end of a social media proposal, if it doesn’t talk about things like audience analysis, listening exercises, joining and starting conversations and above all content creation then kick it into touch.

Now I’m not going to discuss the merits of social media networking vs offline, face-to-face networking – both are important in today’s business world. However, many of those involved in social media – from marketing and PR pros to industry observers – have become so obsessed with the numbers game – be it FB Likes, Google +1. Klout +K, LinkedIn Connections and Twitter Followers, that the art of genuine networking seems to be getting lost in the noise.

It was with delight therefore that I came across an article on networking, well an annotated slideshow actually, in the Harvard Business Review that discusses and advises on the art of networking at work. The main takeaways from the slideshow are as follows:

• Build outward not inward – don’t deepen connections with people you already know well – reach out to those outside of your main circle.
• Focus on diversity not size – focus on adding people with skill sets, experiences and views that differ from others in your network.
• Build weak ties, not strong ones – sounds strange but the idea is that strong ties tend to be your friends whereas weak ties (which only need contact a few times per month) are often your window and access point to skills and experience that you don’t share.
• Use hubs, not familiar faces – identify and reach out to hubs – those who are established and well-connected.

“With Twitter and Facebook and every other network that defines the statusphere, we are conditioned to publish and consume content at a rapid fire pace. In many ways, we compete for attention at every moment – all in 140 character bursts at a time (well 120 if we hope our words are to be retweeted.) I believe brevity fuels a hunger for depth.”

He’s right of course. The questions are how and when do you provide this depth? After all, if you’re a business looking to leverage the benefits of social media your research (or in-house/external expertise) should have convinced you of the need for quality content. It’s not enough to share. You have to share things of interest (to your customers/clients/investors/stakeholders) and with a quagmire of content already on the Web it had better be useful, informative and worth their time to look at.

The time constraints that come into play during content creation have given rise to the creation vs curation debate that has been going on for a while now. If you’re not familiar with the debate there are plenty of articles that cover it. Perhaps check out this recent post that I like by veteran video journalist Michael Rosenblum. It’s quite anti-curation but informative nevertheless.

Rather than get bogged down in the merits of each approach to providing content, I want to offer the advice that I give clients whenever this topic needs to be addressed:

Create when your expertise can shine and curate in all other instances. At all times make sure your content is relevant to the interests and needs of your target audience and, when curating, add value by providing objective commentary, overviews or other elements to save your audience time and help them to digest the info.

Some of his points were spot on, others less so but it was the comments afterwards that got me thinking about how professional PRs communicate to clients and potential clients just what part social media should play in business. I’ve been told many times by company execs that while PRs will happily explain how they leverage social media on behalf of the client, the conversations essentially boil down to “hire us and let us deal with all this social media stuff for you”. Yet the flip side is complaints by PRs that clients often do not listen to their advice on how to utilize social media.

The solution actually brings me back to Shankman’s post. His main thrust is that at its core, best practice social media utilizes the self same elements of marketing, customer service, etc. that have been the staple of successful business since well before the emergence of social media. In this same vein, PRs and clients need to share their respective expertise with one another in order to build a successful relationship – an approach that agencies and clients have always needed in order to succeed together.

As I mentioned in a previous post, it is curious that we as an industry ceded ownership of the emerging website development market during the dotcom boom to marketing agencies and boutique design firms. Granted, the more astute PR agencies hired or partnered with the necessary talent but many small agencies simply referred clients to website designers or marketing firms and in general did not educate clients well enough to ensure our involvement at a deep level.

In this age of information overload the need for high quality, audience-specific content, smart curation and clear audience engagement is key. Due to our experience and knowledge of content, audience and markets, PRs are ideally placed to advise, direct and generally be involved with a client’s website on an ongoing basis.

Does this mean that PRs should be html experts? No. Particularly when the use of CMS platforms such as Drupal, WordPress, DNN and others are becoming increasingly popular with corporations and SMBs alike. It does mean that PRs should understand and be involved with how clients create and curate content, how they integrate their website with mobile and social media platforms and apps, how they leverage SEO mechanics and what they do with site analytics.

Above all, PRs should have a clear picture of how we can facilitate this activity to deliver ever greater value.

He used these questions to illustrate the fact that as social media, networking and mobile tech continues to push the PR and marketing industries through a bumpy transition period, we PRs must educate clients, prospects and the business world in general regarding our expertise in the area of content and social dynamics. He went on to talk about the need for PR agencies to fill gaps in their service offering by bringing on board experts in mobile technology as well as ensuring regular ongoing training for all staff in multiple areas of our business so that we spread our arms wider than we did in the dot com era.

As it happens, many of us are doing just that. We PRs of course have a direct line to the professional Media (which has ever been our province) but we now have unblocked access to the end users, to influencers and online community leaders. We have the tools to identify them, to communicate with them and the training (as PRs) in how to engage them. What remains is to learn the lessons of the Dotcom era and make sure the business world knows what we are doing and how we are doing it.

• Be active or be absent – The top brands post an average of 24 times per month on their wall
• Give up control – Just under 80% of the top brands allow fans to post on their wall
• Respect is a reply – Two-thirds of the brands consistently reply to fan comments and questions

Considering the social awareness shown by these brands by their Facebook activity, it was interesting to see that only around one-third of them actively encourage fans to engage them (via surveys, contests, etc).

The full survey can be found here