Andrew Douglas B2B journalist, turned PR man, specializing in new media.

B2B’s big hurdle: Developing a personality in social media

Know what doesn't work in social media? Twitter or blog posts by nameless corporations. And that's going to be the biggest hurdle for people like me who do B2B public relations.

Andy Kleinschmidt

The rules of successful social media engagement -- frequent updates, transparency, engagement with other users, personality -- don't mesh with corporate PR 1.0. Old-school PR is about futzing over news releases and trying to micromanage how every word in each key message is written and repeated. It's often about playing defense.

It's hard to enter into a rapid-fire, engaging conversation when you've got to steer every phrase through five levels of approvals.

Compare that to my favourite people on Twitter. They give me small glimpses into their personal lives. I don't want to know what breakfast cereal they ate but I do want to trust the individuals who feed me my news and to trust someone I need to know a little about them.

I've taken a short clip of an interview I did with Andy Kleinschmidt, an extension educator at Ohio State University Extension based in Van Wert County, Ohio. Kleinschmidt is right into social media. He's on Twitter, he blogs and he's on Facebook.

"People would like to connect not only with some good information but with an expert that they trust, someone they can put a face too," he says. "I have a picture on my blog but I think I have to go much more transparent, much more next level and really put myself out there in videos and that type of thing."

Interview with Andy Kleinschmidt (1:38)

Some organizations are starting to get it. Take the Ohio Farm Bureau. They have a corporate Twitter account but add the initials of the writer to tweets. And you can see a short bio of each person on their Twitter page (see picture below, right).

Don't think this doesn't apply to you if you're not in the agriculture industry. The same rules around social media apply everywhere.

Successful corporations will allow their front-line people to step out in social media. Sure there's risk but it's either that or become completely irrelevant.