On pizza and Twitter.

Posted by Ron Antonette on Apr 21, 2009 in Blog, PR, Social media | 1 comment

I’ve read a number of comments about Pizza Hut’s obvious PR stunt — seeking a summer intern to Twitter about their activities. The NYTimes.com story is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/20/business/media/20twitter.html?_r=2

Some have written that it’s a timely response to Domino’s Pizza’s effective use of social media to combat their recent crisis, while others have reasonably suggested that a major brand would never entrust important communications to an intern level. I side with the latter.

Who would you trust to author 140-character missives about your brand: A creative, professional communicator with years of persuasive writing experience, or a budget hire who will be with your company for a few weeks?

As I see it, it’s further continuing an unfortunate trend of professional communicators hiring persons who are skilled in digital tactics and thinking they can train them to become communicators … rather than the other way around. 

The biggest fallacy about social media that some firms try to sell in to client prospects are is that it’s hard, that it’s special, that it requires a discipline that you don’t have.

Let’s view it from a different perspective: The facts are that companies have forever entrusted their direct-to-consumer communications to the Customer Service department. Molly or Morgan first via mail, then by phone, and then by e-mail are empowered to extend goodwill to consumers who contact them with complaints or questions. The true difference is that now those customer service encounters can be easily and rapidly repurposed through social media and news conduits, as Domino’s just saw.

Yes, yet again, it all boils down to Everything About Your Brand Communicates. What’s “hard” or “special” about social media is that marketers need to prepare better than in the past, recognizing that anyone who represents your brand might find their words repurposed as spokesperson or an expert – even if “company policy” mandates only the PR team talk to the media. Communications training courses must be offered and reviewed regularly throughout a company’s organization. What’s common sense to the communications or the brand marketing team might not be top of mind to the back-of-house employees, many of whom are on the front lines with your potential customers every day.

When I coached Little League, there was another manager who worked for a beverage distributor and would come straight to the field in his logoed attire. To me, that communicated that his company supported community activities by ensuring that he could get to practices and games during what would be working hours for others. It’s a subtle point – the coach probably didn’t have the time to change – but consider whether your colleagues could be positively (or negatively) reinforcing your brand’s image in this way.

Back to Pizza Hut. I have fond feelings for Pizza Hut, mostly because some years ago one near a major college campus I used to visit always sold us beer without asking for IDs. (I don’t remember much about the pizza, however.) But I think promoting the fact that the company is willing to entrust a communications tactic to an intern shows exactly what they think of Twitter as a potential asset: Not much.