Social News: Trading Accuracy for Immediacy

Now that every person and company can virtually not only make it in the news, but make the news itself, we're bound for a bumpy ride on accuracy. There are two challenges in this scenario: 1) is that of standing out in the sheer tide of bits being shared as news in real time, 2) you may not be able to stop or correct inaccurate information once it starts spreading.

Add to that the knee jerk reaction of many businesses that wish to ride the news cycle when something happens, like the recent earthquake in Haiti, and what you may have is a recipe for disaster in addition to disinformation. This happens because the efforts are harried and not thought-through in order to get a message out quickly. AdAge dubbed it confusion. I'm more inclined to call it something else.

In the rush to be seen doing something, a brand or person often trades accuracy - and trust - for immediacy.

News grounded in vision

Situations like responses to world events are one reason why you need to have a solid business strategy, which in turn informs how your company or brand behaves in all instances - and communicates about what it does responsibly.

If you have a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) plan with a long term vision of helping others in a way that integrates with the abilities and skills of your employee base, then it's easy to see how you can integrate communications about what you're doing in a specific instance.

If you don't have such a plan or vision, you may come across as an ambulance chaser. It may also become challenging to communicate clearly about your actions, when you haven't established a track record for being the company that believes in a cause.

Social News

Here's where it now becomes the responsibility of those who pass information on to vet their sources. This is not just about the credibility of the people in your network, although we agree that it does play a role in it.

It's about creating a process for yourself to verify the claims made. You could check the company Web site and social media presence - this puts the onus on updating and coordinating communications on the source/player involved.

This if you want to become a trusted source yourself, of course. I'm skeptical by nature, it means I seek opposing views on issues and challenge the information I receive. One of the reason you don't read too many product or service reviews here is that I rarely have the time to do the research I want to do when I get pitched a story or product. 

Ideas for brands

There are many legitimate instances and examples of companies that pay off their vision by integrating community efforts into their communications. Is yours one of those? Regardless, I'm sure you want to be represented correctly in the news and online conversations.

How does a company make sure it's quoted correctly or what it does is reported with accuracy? Setting up a news area of your Web site that is more substantial than just listing news releases and a press kit is a start. Some other ideas for brands to integrate all marketing communications:

• make your news portal or home page really easy to navigate at a glance
• link all your outposts or social bookmarks in a visible place
• put processes in place to make decisions about what to share, faster
• be prompt in updating your site with the most recent information
• develop really simple sound bites that cannot possibly be misunderstood
• get your news out consistently in all communication outposts
• provide images, presentations, videos, and quotes in different formats for your employees and evangelists to use

Feel free to add more ideas of things you have done or seen a company do that have worked well.

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Want greater accuracy, faster? Don't wait for a crisis to put processes in place that allow you to disseminate the right information in the right places to the people who want to communicate with you. This is also public relations and an increasingly important aspect of the news cycle.

© 2006-2010 Valeria Maltoni. All rights reserved.

Comments

[Mary Ann Halford]

Valeria, your points about what brands need to do are spot on. When it comes to point 1: make your news portal or home page really easy to navigate at a glance - I think web designers and web masters for many brands need to get in gear here. I think that there is too often an emphasis on flash and glitter and not on the utility and power of what the website can be.

[Kate Robins]

Valeria, Great post. Timely, to the point and very well put. Being first is a short lived glory, sometimes a dubious distinction and carries a higher risk than being next and best. Next and best is in a whole different category than next best. Thanks. Kate

[Kathy Madison]

Valeria - Your points about accuracy are essential. The privilege of open communications carries with it a critical responsibility to vet, to analyze, to think first -- otherwise, social media becomes gossip and truth gets trampled in the crazy stampede for attention.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Mary Ann- isn't it amazing how something so simple as usability gets forgotten? In my experience, content creators need to do a better job documenting the user requirements for Web developers. They seem to be talking another language!

@Kate - unless you're prepared to be first with researched news, it pays off doing a little leg work. We seem to live in the age of reactions, when responding would be a better choice.

@Kathy - the more I'm out here publishing, the more conscious I am of the responsibility to my readers and the community. Offering one's own critical thinking is a very good start.

[Toma Bedolla]

Valeria - Thanks for taking the time to write this piece. The balance that has to be struck between immediacy and accuracy exists both for the publisher and the reader. I think the options that you list to remedy the situation a fine for treating the symptoms of the problem, but don't address the cause. There is no accountability on the Web (and increasingly less in the mainstream), for disseminating misinformation. I think it is clear that the demand for "real-time" information is here to stay, and in order to protect the consumer (and we are ALL consumers of information), we need to hold sources accountable for the accuracy of the content they produce, even if they are anonymous to us. The veracity of our statements should yield us as a credible or unreliable source within a given context. We are currently working on this problem today and will be bringing our solution on-line for beta testing early in 2010.

http://inforesting.com/video/InfoDemoV7b/InfoDemoV7b.html

Misinformation is a problem that will only get worse until there is an incentive to be accurate in your reporting, blogs, tweets etc.

[Peter (with apologies)]

News is a strange thing:

we want it
but can't use most of it

we want it fast
but forget it faster

we want more of it
but don't know why

we want it to be truthful
but don't want to pay the price of truth - in time, money or resources.

Personally, news has become make believe - a fiction inspired by life. Something to fill the last remaining moments of otherwise full lives.

Perhaps, when news no longer really matters it might not matter what's in the news.

A moral outrage brought on by an immoral appetite for new news.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Toma - thank you for injecting a new element in the conversation. I was just discussing today how the presence of a regulatory or official body changes the dynamics of behavior - both privately and in public. A consideration that has ramifications beyond news to cover all information, and to include freedom of expression. Good food for thought.

@Peter - what if we label it "information"? Does anything change in your view?

[Peter (with apologies)]

The relationship between news, information and entertainment has become muddled in my mind.

I just don't know why its all so damn relevant to life.

Unless of course news/information has become the chief way by which we experience life - as if we are slowly pasting over the windows on the world with tweets and blogs.

By the way, I think shopping catalogues are the closest thing to the modern concept of news. I suspect this is what really matters to many.

Perhaps the same view, but now a little clearer.

[Valeria Maltoni]

"why" is a question that matters. I just reread my own post about behavioral economics. Somehow I tend to follow a thread and progression and have found some ideas there.

Catalogues bore me. Fiction is far more interesting - story and insights there. Sometimes even great writing (some of my best teachers are fiction writers).

Vicarious experience, now that is a thought.