Cheating on our Website with Facebook

Concept is populating a shiny new Facebook Page for our business, which showcases our clients and successes, goings on, team, news, points of view, and other goodness. As we’ve spent time on it this past week, posting and uploading, writing and customizing, we’ve commented to one another how easy and fun it’s been to build it out. (The kind of fun that has me working into the wee hours when my client work has long gone to bed.)

But now that we’re nearing launch phase, I’ve started to wonder, isn’t this all on our Website? And that was my husband’s first question when I asked him to come take a look. While I was hoping for a  simple, “Wow, honey, that looks great!” I didn’t get that, and instead defined why a Website works with Facebook, rather than in place of. (My husband is a great “so what?” meter.)

My description of the evolution of communications and the way people engage with brands today didn’t quite do it for him. But then I drew the smile, head nod, and “yeah, that looks great, honey!” with the following comment: To ensure people are reading our blog and staying informed on our company, they need to come to our site, or subscribe to our RSS feed, which few traditionally do for small and medium sized businesses. With Facebook, our content appears in front of our audiences, where they already are, without asking a single thing of them.

We’ve seen dynamic communication and audience growth work well for our clients through the Facebook Pages we manage. Now it’s our turn! And what about your business? If you’ve asked yourself about the virtues of Facebook vs. your Website or blog, consider the following:

1. Replace your Newsletter:  Are you doing a company newsletter? Consider replacing or augmenting it with content on Facebook. Invite the same people on your mailing list to join your Page. You’ll likely receive more Likes and Comments than you would have in replies to the newsletter.
2. Make a Great First Impression: Facebook is becoming the de facto place for people to look for and at your company (like LinkedIn replacing resumes). It has the power to replace a Website for quick introductions and information. Let your Facebook Page be the first impression you make about your business, brand values, mission and work quality.
3. Extend your Company Voice:  Are you looking for ways to develop or extend your company’s unique point of view and brand? We love the new Facebook feature that allows you to edit as your brand, so your Likes and Comments appear from your branded Page, rather than individual person, giving your company its own voice.
4. Stay in Front of your Audience:  Nearly 1/3 of the world’s population is on Facebook, including most of your friends and family, colleagues and business prospects. They’re already there, and your brand can be there as well, speaking to them, asking questions, sharing content and starting conversations.
5. Separate Business and Pleasure:  Do you blur the line a bit between business and pleasure on Facebook, but don’t like spamming your pals with corporate promos? Facebook Pages (rather than Profiles) let you keep personal it its place so you’re not mixing biz speak with photos of your kids.

So yes, this content is all on our Website, but you’re all on Facebook. We still love our Website, as we do our blog and LinkedIn profiles and Twitter feeds, but Facebook is dynamic and interactive and allows for easy updates and conversations. We’re  excited to engage with our friends, colleagues, clients and prospects through another channel, and show potentially the world what it is we do. We do realize “the world” will not be Friending our Page — but it’s there for them regardless, and that’s the point.

Now don’t worry, blog, you’re the first one I turned to for this post — but only because you so smoothly populate our Facebook and Twitter feeds automatically. If you didn’t do that, well, our parting would be such sweet sorrow.

Your Online Voice Drives your Offline Reputation

Dana Wollman, an editor at LAPTOP Magazine—a super sharp gal and all-around good person—and I had lunch a few months back when I shared my dismay at searching for an account coordinator to help the agency with research and social networking support. I was lamenting that the Internet is a double-edged sword for our candidates, because they’re in the field of online communications, yet seem to fall down a bit in, well, online communications. Our conversation worked its way into a story on how job hunters in particular need to manage their online reputations, which ran last month and is a great read if you haven’t yet seen it.

My expectation for sound writing and interesting points of view was (as many expectations are) perhaps higher than it should have been. I was basing the candidates’ qualifications for the position on the writing style in their personal blogs and the content of their social Web posts. Was that fair?

I began to beat myself up a bit, but couldn’t move away from the fact that the personal anecdotes I learned about these candidates left me a bit curious about their fit with Concept. I didn’t fret for long because I asked the question that serves me well when faced with ethical quandaries: “What would I do?” Sure, not the largest sample size, but I’m a decent judge of character, have managed my reputation well over the years, and am in the business of reputation management after all.

What I would do (and, in fact, do), is write for everyone. I assume that my clients are reading my Facebook updates (sorry, you must be bored out of your minds), that their customers are reading my Twitter posts (since I’m identified as the manager of their Twitter profiles), and that potential clients type “Samantha Steinwinder” into Google before calling to discuss a partnership. And that’s exactly what they’re doing.

As someone who spends an inordinate amount of time online, reading, writing and generally participating—for personal, business and even my clients’ business—my reputation is my lifeblood. And my reputation is also tied to that of my clients’. We’re interchangeable, with my voice representing their business, and vice versa. I love the book Trust Agentsby Chris Brogan and Julien Smith for the thoughtful tips on this client/customer reputation entanglement and how it should and can best be managed.

But that doesn’t mean I’m all business. I reveal openly that I am ridiculously in love with baseball and football, that my musical tastes can’t break out of the 70s, and that my children are my stars and moon but I still love my day job. I share what my friends, family, clients and even their customers might like to know or, at a minimum, won’t find objectionable or grammatically flawed.

I hope my “audiences” learn simply that I’m a decent writer, share my passions openly, love a good debate—and even more so, competition—and that I don’t offend my keyboard. All things that serve me well, yet tell you a bit more about my personal style. And, thankfully, what you won’t learn about me is what I had for lunch. Unless it’s dim sum. Sometimes I can’t help but talk about dim sum.

Truth in Public Relations

A couple of weeks ago I attended a cocktail party in downtown San Francisco, hosted by one of our newer clients, real estate search engine Roost.  The party featured fabulous wine from Peay Vinyards, poured by vineyard co-founder Andy Peay himself.  Before the party started Andy and I were chatting about the fact that they’ve focused on Pinots from the very beginning, even when they weren’t trendy.  When I remarked how interesting it is that all industries go through their trends and people scamper to take advantage of them – be it wine, fashion, publishing, technology – Andy simply said, “That’s why it’s so important to be true to yourself.  Then, you build an audience based on your core beliefs.”

And then, you never need to waver from them.

My partner Samantha and I have been reflecting on our core beliefs as we celebrate a milestone anniversary for Concept. It was this week five years ago that she and I had a summit at her house in Seattle, out of which came the agency as we know it today. And in the past five years, many PR tactics and agency philosophies have come in and out of fashion. Yet despite working in an industry renowned for taking liberties with the truth, we’ve always remained true to our clients, to the media, to each other, to our employees, and to ourselves – as people and as a company. Our reporter friends appreciate it, and so do our clients.

We believe our principles have guided us to do our best work – isn’t that what your principles should do? —  and why we appeal most to clients who subscribe to our core principles of Integration, Integrity, and Imagination.  It’s also why we’ve had a continuously strong business that has thrived during boom years and is weathering the current economic downturn, and why great clients like Gracenote and ARCHOS have been working with us for years. 

To everyone who has supported us over the past five years, we thank you for believing in us.

Veronica Skelton
Co-Founder and Managing Director – San Francisco Office
Concept Communications