When you are representing a business or corporation of any type your voice has the potential to impact the reputation of your organization regardless what type of account you hold.
There are three basic ways you are perceived by an audience:
- Corporate
- Professional
- Personal
The Corporate Account is simple; it is the voice of your agency. What you say, how you say it, where you say it al impact on the reputation and perception of that account. There is always a person behind the keyboard, but that person has to understand that they are the public voice in social media for that corporation.
The Professional Account is one that on its face is an employee of the agency who represents themselves as such. This account may not carry the same weight as the corporate account, but it nonetheless represents the agency. This account may be more personal and relatable to the public but professionalism must always remain intact and above reproach.
The Personal Account is the most popular account in the social space. The account has no ties to the agency, other than the person who populates the information is an employee. The account holder is just an average everyday person and the account shows no tie to their employer and work is not discussed there. These accounts will often have a disclaimer that the opinions expressed do not reflect the employer.
The fourth account and often the most dangerous:
The Hybrid Account
The Hybrid account is a combination of the Professional and Personal Account. Sometimes the account is set up as a personal account but information often contains posts about their work, their position, what they do. Or, it is just known that the person running the account is an employee of your agency and they are tied back to their agency whether they like it or not. The reason for the danger of this account? People forget who they are outside of their personal life and often clash with who they are representing, be it by design or by accident.
Your Voice
It doesn’t matter which account you are operating. You have a voice. That voice is what you choose to make it. One bizarre thing that I see is when the types of accounts clash with the position the employees hold or the message they are trying to convey.
You will often see professional accounts get too personal. Opinions get stated that are not necessarily in line with their employer or their position within the organization. Put it another way, I really don’t want to hear the CEO of a Fortune 500 company I’ve invested in talking about the beverage choices in the cafeteria. I would hope that person has their focus on bigger issues.
“But that’s more personal, that’s more relatable.” is what some may say and I’ll agree, it sure is, but is it the job of the CEO to be more personal and relatable or is it to ensure the company runs at peak performance? If I want personal info, I’ll follow the employees. The CEO can be personable and relatable without lowering themselves or their position.
Police are held to a higher standard and must adhere to that regardless of tactics, tricks and strategies to get more followers, friends and likes. Want more of those? Give great consistent content and stay in line with what you represent. Make sure that your information has high-end user value!
This does not instill confidence – actual Police Tweet, re-created to protect the…
You can be personable and relatable without being unprofessional. The words you use, your grammar and the subjects that you choose to speak about set a great tone for remaining professional while being relatable.
When your voice and your position are in conflict, that is when the biggest problems occur. What is the voice you really want people to hear.
