Here, then, in alphabetical order (by first name), is a list of the 47 people who work for Twitter including, with official confirmation where possible, details of what they do. If you have an interest in keeping up-to-speed with all developments on the network, you might find following some of these accounts of enormous benefit. Indeed, from what I have seen, many of these guys are more open and communicative about changes within Twitter than their esteemed leaders.
Now, obviously, this is about Twitter staff, who, as you would expect, are all on Twitter (though, interestingly, at least one of them has protected their updates). But to me, this was a big eye-opener, a sign of things to come.
A sign that people will expect a company or organization’s staff to be accessible, to be found online.
But more than that, a sign that people will find ways to “get to the source” rather than listen to the party line. Did you see the last sentence of that quote? “…many of these guys are more open and communicative about changes within Twitter than their esteemed leaders“.
Whoa.
So what does that mean for your organization? It simply means you need to be able to empower your people to speak for you, because they probably will anyway. There are plenty of ways to do that – start with good common sense policies.
Most importantly, you need to enable trust. You need to be able to figure out how to be transparent internally, so that people really understand when they can share information and when they can’t and why. Don’t wait on this one. Don’t be that example of what not to do.
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Awesome post and so relevant to associations. Silos and social media just don’t mix. Everyone on staff needs to be on the same page about everything; the days of only the top tier people being included in meetings, decisions, etc need to be over. Today it’s a liability to have half (or more) of your staff out of the loop or in the dark about what’s going on in the association.
Take the pretty popular social media model these days: having junior staff handing the association’s social media presence. Senior association staff are probably not thinking twice about the interns or entry-level people who are representing the association. Meanwhile the people who are considered entry level on the inside are considered ambassadors for the association from the outside–members and the public see those people as the face and voice of the association. If you ask me it’s a recipe for members wanting and appreciating the more personal contact from the lower level staffers and not trusting or respecting higher-ups who appear disengaged because they’re not interacting in social spaces.
Sorry–I think I just went off on a tangent–am I totally rambling or is what I’m saying even vaguely related to your point? I hope so!
Great post. The landscape has changed from organizations attempting to keep their staff from using blogs and social networks to the realization that communications via social media will take place regardless of policy.
Organization are now realizing they need to do as you just said, provide “common sense policies.”
While one might consider “common sense policies” to be redundant, we continue to see that people need a reminder that they are representing a larger organization, even if they are communicating via a personal Twitter or Facebook account. When people realize this, they tend to bear their responsibilities.
Heh, ten years ago during the dot-com boom the company I worked for would allow anyone to have direct dial lines, all calls had to go through the receptionist for fear of headhunters poaching employees. Times certainly have changed, for the better!
Thanks for the great comments! I think this is entirely to do with “systems thinking” – if you have an organization where people understand the role they play in the whole, and have ownership in that system, and are trusted to speak for the system, then when they do, it will be a benefit for the system and not a risk.
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