As PR continues to evolve seemingly faster than the Twitter stream, we in PR are forced to confront the “that’s the way it is” mentality. I was recently reminded of that when I read a post by social media/PR pro Shannon Paul. Paul talks about the long-time PR favorite tool – the company spokesperson. You know who I’m talking about – that old, grey eminence that was trotted out every time a company wanted to make a pronouncement. Often times the official was so extensively media-trained and briefed he or she sounded like a company robot, a far cry from a flesh-and-blood human.

HOW TO GET YOUR MESSAGE OUT

Now as we begin to remove some of the rusty chains we’ve shackled some of our clients with, we realize that there are often a lot better ways to get our message out. Sometimes (and I know I sure as heck am guilty of this) we think everything should come from the company president/CEO or whoever is singled out as the company mouthpiece. And while this person might have been safe in the sense that he/she won’t say anything offputting, the designated mouthpiece may also not necessarily be the best spokesperson when it comes to discussing the nitty-gritty of a company. Shannon Paul uses a great analogy, comparing the spokesperson to the owner of a reataurant and the chef as the person with the day-to-day knowledge of food preparation. Chefs in a sense are the real people – the ones literally getting their hands dirty. Of course, today, many chefs are merely overseers while the cooks do all the hard labor – but you get my drift.

All of which made me think about a question a client had recently. Is it appropriate to respond to blog posts? Who in the company should be doing it? What is the protocol? The fact is that you don’t want a cacophony of voices responding to blogs posts relevant to your business but at the same time you don’t want to eliminate spontaneity and interaction among your employees. I recommend — even if you’re a company of one — that you establish a policy so that there is a semblance to coherence to your online responses.

QUESTIONS TO ASK IN DEFINING YOUR RESPONSE TO BLOG POSTS

Here are some questions to think about as you do so:

• Is someone assigned to track posts mentioning your company – or issues you’re concerned about – so you don’t miss any?

• Who responds to posts? Do you have a system in place for people to do so? • Are there rules for responding? Certain messages you want to consistently get across?

• Do responses need to be vetted? And, if so, by whom?

I’m by no means suggesting there is a right answer to any of these questions. Just that you need a procedure to handle this just as most companies have a process for dealing with offline media. Spontaneity in my book is often over-rated when it comes to business. In fact, it can spell the death of rational thought. How are you responding to blog posts? Do you have a company policy? I’d love to hear from you.