Election Day Thoughts on Social Media/Marketing

It’s been a long and particularly difficult election season; I’m so tired of negative ads about candidates, issues, and propositions.   Despite my election exhaustion, however, I am hopeful that the majority of my clients, friends, and family have stood up for democracy and voted today.  It really doesn’t matter to me how you vote – just that you do so in a timely and thoughtful manner. 

This election day, I’m amazed at how many politically insensitive statements I’m reading from friends and colleagues about the issues in today’s election on both Facebook and Linked In. This makes me think about how professionals should use social media as compared with our high school and college aged counterparts. 

I’m a fan of Facebook (I love reading what many of you are up to – and it’s nice to know my children are alive and well when I’m not in daily contact). I have a Linked In account, which I use sporadically. As you can read, I maintain a regular blog.   And, at Communication Resources, we send out tweets about articles and events – though I have to admit someone does this for me as I’m not as technically savvy as you might think. 

As technical professionals, we should be different kinds of Facebook users.  We need to hold ourselves to a different standard of care relative to what and how we write.  Most of us in marketing and business development use a variety of social media modalities to report on issues and ideas (as in a blog), highlight events or accomplishments (as in Twitter), and connect with colleagues and clients (as in Linked In, etc.).  However, I’m finding less and less care is being taken in what and how we communicate in these venues.

I’d like to propose a new standard of communication be adopted by all of us who make use of a range of social media/marketing venues. 

My father, a long-time attorney and my business mentor, taught me three things about writing:

1) Never write anything you wouldn’t want read back to you in court.  This sounds strange for social media, which was intended to be more immediate and “edgy.” But remember, the way we use social media is to create an image of our businesses and ourselves.  Posting political statements undermines relationships and exhibits a lack of sensitivity to others’ viewpoints.  All of us need to remember that what we write exists forever as a statement of who we are, what we believe in, and the professionalism of ourselves and our businesses.  So, be thoughtful and careful about what you write and to whom you write it.  If you have a business Facebook (or other venue) account, keep it professional and leave the chatter to the kids. 

2) If you are going to write it down, make it complete, objective, and verifiable.  Blogs were never meant to be conversational.  In my opinion, it’s a mistake to write opinions as facts or to post thoughts that haven’t been vetted.  Blogs written for business purposes shouldn’t be merely stream of consciousness – they are another important vehicle for readers to understand you and your business perspectives.  Assume your words may be printed, copied, and distributed. Take the same care with this writing as you would a letter, a report, or an article.  Don’t write negative things that may hurt you (or others) later.  Check your facts.  Reread before you hit “post”. 

3)Whatever you write should pass the Mom-Test by being exceptionally well-written.  My mother is a linguist, champion Scrabble player, and the best editor in the business.  Passing the Mom-Test meant that any document had to be well-written.  I still hold myself to the standard that anything I write should be well punctuated, grammatically correct, and spellchecked.   Fortunately, my mother (at 83 years of age) is still ever-vigilant, watching my writing and others’ for hanging prepositions, verb-tense agreement, or the lack of a referent.  

For those of you not acquainted with my mother, The Elements of Style is still a great resource and I encourage regular bloggers (and in fact, anyone who writes regularly) to make active use of it.  Read it – it’s quite good and still – for me – the definitive work on what good writing looks like.  In addition, find and use a good editor.  Read through and check the quality of what you write.  Remember, what you write is a reflection of you and your firm.

Social Media venues like Blogger, Facebook, and Linked In provide excellent vehicles for our firms to get the word out about products, services, areas of expertise, and new ideas.  But, as with any written form of communication, these venues come with the responsibility to take great care with what we write and to uphold traditional conventions of good writing.   Communicating through a social media venue doesn’t absolve us from the responsibility to adhere to the standards of good writing.  If we want to reverse the downward trajectory of quality writing in this country, it starts with us.