Page 119 - Social Media Marketing for Dummies

social media marketing, the question of how the SMM voice conflicts with its
brand voice doesn’t really arise. The brand and SMM voices are perfectly aligned.
That may not be the case for you, so as you wade into the social web, think care-
fully about your SMM voice and whether you’re even comfortable having one
before participating. It’s also worth pointing out that there are inherent risks in
having a person who isn’t a trained marketing or communications professional as
your SMM voice. Where possible, if you’re going down that route, be sure to get
the person basic media training first.

Richard Branson, chairman of the Virgin Group, has his own presence on Twitter
(with more than 13 million followers) and represents himself and his company
(www.twitter.com/richardbranson). The airline Virgin America (which is part of
the Virgin Group) also has its own Twitter presence (twitter.com/ virginamerica)
that is used to interact with passengers, share special offers, and announce travel
advisories. With 800,000 followers, arguably the Twitter activity makes a
difference.

In the case of Marriot Hotels, its company blog “Marriot on the Move” (https://
www.blogs.marriott.com) is written from the firsthand perspective of its CEO,
Bill Marriot. His posts are a mix of business success tips, information, celebra-
tions of how Marriot is doing, and stories from his personal life. What’s most
powerful about the blog is that it’s easy to tell that Bill Marriot blogs from the
heart in a very personal and authentic way.

Now that you know what an SMM voice is, how it differs from your brand voice,
and what business objectives may drive the need for this voice, the only remaining
question to answer is “Who exactly in your organization should serve in this role?”

In the next few sections, I look at the most common types of people who serve as
the SMM voice and what they’re typically best at doing.

CEO

A CEO can be an SMM voice. In many cases, he is already close to being an SMM
voice anyway. He’s representative of the brand but is recognized and noticed as an
individual personality with independent opinions that happen to drive the busi-
ness’s direction. This person is best used as an SMM voice providing industry and
company insights. After all, he has the credibility and experience to do so. In many
cases, you can use the CEO SMM voice to forge deeper relationships with custom-
ers as well. The CEO of Forrester, George Colony, is actively blogging (http://
blogs.forrester.com/ceo_colony), and you can tell that it’s really him. The
CEO participating in the social web and sharing his insights (and responding to

CHAPTER 5 Developing Your SMM Voice 103