Having this week reissued its guidelines for social media, the CIPR offers five tips in how best to use social media within public relations.

1.    Engage in conversations

Interacting with an audience through various social media channels can be the fun part of building a brand online! Regularly contributing to relevant conversations is key to creating a strong dialogue with stakeholders.

2.    Ensure a brand is consistent across networks and platforms

If practitioners confuse their audience, they will lose their audience. Ensure various social media profiles give off a similar ‘vibe’. Keeping the style and tone of voice consistent will help an audience identify and engage with a brand.

3.    Don’t be fake, be honest about who ‘manages’ social media channels

An individual: if a practitioner is updating a Twitter account, Facebook fan page or a YouTube channel on behalf of another individual, for example, a fellow employee or a client CEO, it is best to be open and clearly state ‘@person’ typically ‘manages’ the channel. Preferably, this information should be outlined in the biography or administration sections of the social media platforms. Using ‘flogs’ (fake blogs created by a PR agency or organisation to promote a service or product) or ‘astroturfing’ (the practice of falsely creating the impression of independent, popular support by means of orchestrated and disguised public relations activity) is bad practice. CIPR suggests practitioners steer clear of these tactics.

4.    Be upfront about conflicts of interest and don’t forget to disclose relationships

If writing or contributing to a blog which recommends a service supplier, make extra effort to make readers aware of any conflicts of interest, such as a financial or a partnership link between the client / member and the supplier. When endorsing an organisation/ client / customer don’t forget to disclose the relationship. For example, if a practitioner tweets (or re-tweets) client news, it is best to include [client] at the end of the tweet. If a practitioner tweets(or re-tweets)its employers news on a regular basis, it is best they declare their relationship by including the name of their employer in biography section of the Twitter profile. 

5.    Don’t forget a social media presence becomes part of a brand legacy

Posts, pictures, images, tweets, status updates (content in general) can stay online forever. Think about what message to share via social media channels.

For a full list of social media do’s and don’ts see the CIPR social media guidance