How Agencies Handle Transparency in Social Media

In case you missed it, John Cass and Toby Bloomberg pulled together an exhaustive joint post recently on how agencies, consultants and freelancers handle the notion of transparency when using social media on behalf of their clients.

They reached out to dozens of their colleagues in the industry (myself included), asking them how they dealt with this issue while not only providing social media content for their clients, but in many cases posting that content for them as well.

I applaud John and Toby for spearheading this initiative. It was a considerable undertaking on their part, the result being a diverse range of opinions from those on the cutting edge of social media, a body of work of great value to the industry.

In my opinion, if a brand doesn’t have the capabilities in-house, it makes perfect sense to outsource its social media activities to someone else. It’s not only acceptable, it’s actually quite common. (I ought to know. It’s what I’m doing a lot of for clients lately…helping them to maintain a social media presence.)

But there are definitely shades of grey when it comes to a human being having someone else serve as his or her social media presence.

That’s my short answer to the question about transparency. Here — in its entirety — is a more comprehensive answer, the one that I provided to John and Toby…

Having worked on the agency side for most of my career, I’ve earned my livelihood by writing content – direct mail, email, ads, etc. – for my clients. And in that traditional marketing world, there was never much talk about being transparent in communications. It just wasn’t an issue.

In the world of social media, however, transparency and authenticity are essential. The more capable an organization is of keeping it real on the grid, the more successful it usually is in the blogosphere, on Facebook, Twitter and everywhere else it maintains a social media presence.

But not everyone has the bandwidth, capability or desire to use social media themselves. Or they may need a little help getting started. Each of these barriers to entry represents a tremendous opportunity for agencies, consultants and freelancers to provide assistance to their clients. So yes, I think it’s perfectly acceptable for an external resource to write and post social media content under the aegis of a brand. The client representative just needs to be mindful to speak in the first person plural, “we,” as he or she is communicating on behalf of the brand as a whole, not as an individual.

I don’t believe in posting for another human being, though. “Ghost” tweeting and blogging is verboten in my book. I know it’s done. And I don’t pass judgment on anyone who does it. But if there’s a name and photo attached to a blog post, tweet or any other activity in social media, I think the words should be coming from that particular person and not someone else.

That doesn’t mean that one can’t receive a lot of help behind the scenes. Those who aren’t the best writers in the world or who have more important priorities can have someone provide them with ideas and even draft posts, tweets and updates. Shared thoughts and opinions should reflect the account holder’s views, however, and – ideally – should be posted by him or her, too. That’s the only way to really get anything out of social media anyway – to be immersed in it yourself, not to have someone acting as your proxy.

When you have a few minutes, check out both John’s and Toby’s posts on this issue. It’ll be well worth your time…

To read “30+ Diverse Opinions On Social Media Agency Transparency” by John Cass, click here.

To read “Where Does ‘Transparency’ Fit In The New Social Media Marketing Model?” by Toby Bloomberg, click here.

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