Sun Microsystem’s CEO, Jonathan Schwartz, announces his resignation via Twitter
Executives love controlling the message. And ironically, while some in the C-suite are running scared from social media, others have found unique ways to embrace it for their benefit.
Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz made history last week as the first executive to officially announce his resignation in a Twitter haiku. This 140-character tweet was an interesting approach that gave Schwartz some control over his personal brand and sparked a dialogue on the topic. The tweet was retweeted more than 1,000 times and how Schwartz announced his resignation accounted for the majority of buzz about the move. One could argue that his resignation would have received less attention if it happened in a more traditional way.
Schwartz’s prolific use of social media is a rarity among CEO’s, so we don’t expect to see an onslaught of this approach for similar issues or corporate leaks. But it should make companies pause and think about a few issues: have you thought about using a non-traditional venue to make a major announcement so that it gets even greater buzz? How do you respond when the C-suite goes rogue in social media?
Are your updates, responses and shared links getting lost in the sea of content on your Facebook Fan Page?
Take the Toyota USA Facebook Fan Page for example. The company has been steadily posting updates to give fans information about the latest developments around the recall, but given the volume of wall posts from fans the Toyota updates are buried and not easy to find. In fact, at first glance it looks like Toyota has not addressed the issue on the Facebook Fan Page wall at all.
However, if you click on the filter button at the top of the wall you can select only updates from the page owner and see the response. Most users would not know to do this. To make sure your updates don’t get lost it’s important to post frequently and then use the text box on the left hand side of the page to point people in the right direction, i.e. to see our latest updates on the recall, click the filter button and select Just Toyota USA.
By simply posting a text box reminding your fans that they can control what information they see and from whom by using the filters above the wall posts, they’ll gain some control over their engagement and will likely pay more attention to your Page interactions.
Why you don’t have a social media policy in place yet
Despite the cautionary tales and advice from experts, only 29% of companies around the world have formal social media policies, says a recent study from Manpower. So, what’s the hold-up?
We asked Text 100 Senior Vice President and global social media lead, Jeremy Woolf, to weigh in on the barriers for adoption of social corporate guidelines and here’s what he had to say:
Jeremy Woolf, APAC
I’ve seen clients engaging in social media without a policy in place. Or if they have a policy, it isn’t being monitored or managed successfully. The barriers to policy creation have much in common with companies that lack a crisis response policy. They tend not to prioritize policies until something goes wrong.
In terms of barriers to adoption for those companies that have policies, few are monitoring employee behavior in social channels in a structured way.
The solution? First, recognize that social networks are a critical part of human interaction. Those companies that block and discourage access will struggle. Those that realize that social networks are enablers of productivity, customer support, marketing and sales will prosper. To get things started, all companies must create and share a policy. Some good guidelines can be found here.
Secondly, employees must be empowered to use social networks within their jobs, as governed by the policy. And finally, companies must systematically monitor, react and shape the social network conversations around their brand – be they customer, prospect, competitor, commentator or employee-led.
