The Revolution Will Be Tweeted

‘The Revolution will not be televised’ sang Gil Scott-Heron in 1970. With recent events, it appeared that he couldn’t have been more wrong, as we watched the waves of protests and uprisings across the Arab world played out on screens. But a closer analysis of the Facebook Revolutions shows the greater importance of social media, and there are valuable lessons in these global events for brand communications.


Of course, I don’t profess to know the mind of Gil Scott-Heron, but it’s likely he held a similar view to 1970’s CBS Newsman Edward Murrow, who (paraphrasing Marx) described TV as ‘the opiate of the people’. Scott-Heron’s lyrics suggest a view of TV as a means by which governments and powerful corporations could subjugate the people, and in particular whites could control blacks. For him, The Revolution would subvert the media and would not be reduced to a TV spectacle. Everyone would be involved together - you wouldn't be able to stay home at watch it on TV.


Today’s technology has become so personalised and user-friendly that literally everyone can use a camera phone and upload content to YouTube, or post instant messages on Twitter. Rather than a tool for subjugation, new media has become the great enabler. States may still control the TV that’s broadcast in their country, and they can even shut down the internet to a certain degree, but in doing so they often damage themselves and their economies. Moreover, Twitter and Youtube have proven to be virtually uncontrollable. Even if the direct routes are shut down, footage and messages seem to find ways round it - there are even several workarounds for China’s Great Firewall. This is the truly globalised, interconnected world, where citizen journalists make the news, and anyone can comment on it, rather than simply watching a particular broadcaster’s angle. Governments have taken this on board, with Beijing’s police recently opening China’s first ever police PR department complete with microblogging and online video. But states can’t control social media scrutiny, they can only be part of the conversation, in some senses just another brand in the market place, rather than owning the market place. People will either buy in to its products, or not – time will tell.


Facebook didn’t produce the revolution in Tunisia – it’s not something that Facebook can claim ownership of. But it was an essential tool that enabled (unwittingly) the instant communication required to allow it to happen. Ben Ali’s subsequent TV appearances where he took the traditional approach of glossing over what was happening stood in starkest contrast to events in the Arab Street and reinforced his disengagement.


How does this relate to PR?


The lesson for brands is clear – embrace the conversation. Get in amongst your customers, your staff and your stakeholders and engage with them. Some brands are now so far advanced in this approach they are leaving slower competitors far behind. Their staff are using internal social networks and messaging. Their corporate stakeholders and customers receive online magazines and engage with their blogs. Their consumer audiences follow them on Facebook and Twitter and their posts about the products are greeted with comments from company representatives, their questions are referred to customer services.


PR agencies should also take note, if they haven’t already done so. It’s no longer enough for social media to be a bolt-on to traditional PR campaigns. The customers want direct interaction. PRs must themselves become the enablers for their clients to use social media, with clients opening themselves up to scrutiny in the process. There must be a plan for that – something PR people are very good at. Perhaps 2011 will be the great Brand Social Media Spring as well as an Arab Awakening.


Rather than televised, the revolution was tweeted, Facebooked and YouTube’d. Incidentally, the most liked comment on that Youtube clip of Gil Scot Heron is from an Egyptian. Apparently, the song was popular during the protests.

Cover Notes: The Five Golden Rules

So, you’re submitting your CV to a recruiter or a new job. What do you put on the email? While this may sound like a minor consideration, it’s actually one of the most important things to consider when applying for a job. Your cover note is THE first impression, the packaging on the product. Now, there’s a million online guides to creating a good cover note that I’m not going to repeat here. These are worth a read and you should heed their advice. But there are some golden rules I’ll briefly put forward here:


Rule No 1. – Get your CV up to scratch
I can’t emphasise this enough. If your CV doesn’t convey your experience, a well crafted cover note is useless. Spend your time tweaking your CV first. Check out my previous posts on crafting a CV from scratch. The best cover notes are let down by a badly updated or structured CV.


Rule No 2. – Minimal for recruiters
Usually, when you send a CV to a recruiter, you’ll be applying via a website or a job board. The recruiter is unlikely to read your cover note and will instead go straight to opening the CV, making a cover note irrelevant. In fact, in this case, the cover note can be detrimental to your chances. Long cover notes will put the recruiter off. If you have to spend three paragraphs describing your suitability for the role, the chances are that your CV doesn’t do this enough – see Rule No. 1. It also begs the question – should you be applying for this role? However, sometimes a small intro is a nice opener – so keep it brief. Single paragraph, say 200 words (the length of this paragraph, in fact). Think about it as the opening paragraph on a press release. After all, that is what your CV is – the press release that sells the product – i.e. you. When applying to a potential employer - this is a different ball game entirely and depends on the process they have used – which could be an open application where you submit a cover note, or an application form that requires careful formatting. In these cases, check out the available online guides.


Rule No 3. – Do not bulk email
It’s tempting to send your CV on a group email to save time, but it immediately reduces your chances. It tends to look lazy and unplanned. What’s more, it’s obvious that you’ve not tailored your approach or application to each employer/ recruiter or job vacancy, which shows lack of attention to detail. It also suggests you’re signing up with a million recruiters and possibly seeking out the ensuing bun fight between them. Not cool. If you wouldn’t Cc or blind copy a group of journalists on a release, then don’t do the same with recruiters. A new job is worth taking a bit more time over. Address it to the recipient; ‘Dear Joe’ or ‘Hi Joe’, never just ‘Hi’, and most definitely not ‘Dear all, excuse the bulk email’.


Rule No 4. – Spell-check, spell-check, spell-check
Not just with auto spell checker and it’s American spelling. Read it once, read it three times. Get a friend to read it. This is PR – spelling errors will shoot you down. We don’t use a ‘z’ in ‘organised’ in the UK.


Rule No 5. – Make sense
On several occasions, I’ve had a CV with a cover note that says ‘I’m sure I would be a great addition to your company’. This is a common error when you ignore Rule No. 3. I’m not the employer, I’m the recruiter. Another common error is the use of overly complicated language – like someone has deliberately consulted a dictionary to find the most obscure or pretentious way of describing something in order to demonstrate a greater grasp of vocabulary. This is OK to a degree – PR is about the use of language – but make sure the word has the intended meaning and if it complicates the meaning, that’s a PR fail. You’re after a concise message.