David Edelman: Social media and the C-suite (by McKinseyCMSOforum)
Towards the end of this wonderfully brief and useful video, David Edelman of McKinsey hits on something I’ve been saying about managing corporate reputation for some time, because it’s true and helpful. But maybe I’m saying it in a way that’s too abstract. So here’s three different ways of saying the same thing, for the record.
My version:
When something goes wrong, organizations struggle to communicate effectively online (i.e. directly to stakeholders) and suffer unnecessary reputational damage if they’ve failed to invest in building the necessary processes and channels during happier times.
David says:
“For negative buzz, the implications [of social media] are: having established channels out into the market through social media that you built up over time — a Twitter feed, a community you manage, a Facebook fan base — so that if you need to get your side of a story out there, you’ve got an established audience that you can speak to and provide content to.”
And for the militaristically (or sports-jargon) inclined, a not-quite-right but directionally accurate way of summing this up is: the best defense is a good offense.
For a few practical tips on how to do this in the real world, check out my post “On Smart Markets” (November 2011) and a new post from David “My prediction for 2013: ‘Operations’ becomes a key word in marketer’s vocabulary.”
