Helping People Understand Twitter and Other Social Media

When reviewing the weekly update from one of my LinkedIn groups, I came across the following post from David Pittman (Sr. Director, Marketing Communications, Initiate Systems, Inc.). I found his approach insightful and have his permission to share…

My company recently jumped headlong into social media, becoming active on Twitter, Facebook, and, LinkedIn, with soon-to-roll plans for other social media outlets. As the marketing communications director, I'm responsible for getting all this action rolling. That means I also field a huge range of questions from co-workers.

The most frequent type of question I get is "How is [X] different from [Y]?", especially "How is Twitter different from Facebook?" To help my colleagues understand the different social networks, I borrowed from my product marketing friends and created personas for each network. Each persona is the name of a fellow well-known employee, so everyone can quickly picture the personality of each social network and the 'feel' we will try to give to each in our communications.

Below are the personas I wrote, with the names changed to protect the guilty.

Our blog is like Tom C: authoritative but with a humorous edge. Invites other opinions.
Twitter is like Bill F: clever, witty and fun; easily interacts with other people; not afraid to ask thought-provoking questions.
The website is like Ginger K: organized, has everything you need. Isn’t as outgoing as other media, but is always ready to interact with you.
Flickr is like Emily G: has all the images, pictures and graphics you could want. (One person added, “And is easy to use.”)
YouTube is like Dr. Robert H: has depth and technical knowledge, but also has a funny personal side.
LinkedIn is like Alexandra T: knows everybody; exudes a professional demeanor; isn’t afraid to reach out and make connections.
Facebook is like Ted P: cheerful, congratulatory and social. Reaches out to other people, encourages interaction among different people, has lots of friends; is able to integrate personal and professional.

What do you think of the characterizations he applied to each social network? What changes would you make?

Posted by James Robert lay at 6:30 AM in Communication, Geekiness, Giving Back, Innovation, Inspiration, Leading the Way, Marketing, SCMS, Social Media, Texas Credit Union League, Twitter, Word of Mouth Marketing | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

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Apparently you can actually major in social media now. A school in the UK is offering degrees in Social Media where you learn to utilize different social networking sites like facebook/twitter etc.

http://www.bcu.ac.uk/courses/media/socialmedia

Freddy Croft

Freddy, it was only a matter of time. Social media is evolving so rapidly it can be mind boggling. I appreciate the community of users and there willingness to share and challenge each other. We truly are living in dynamic times.

Janine McBee

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