So here's a little story that is just a quick and timely reminder about the power of Twitter and other social networking tools.
Most folks know that First Church is about to launch a new outreach into the Old Town and Arena district. The coffee house has been the subject of a great story in the Wichita Eagle, so the general word on the project is out.
Still, a few weeks back there were a bunch of details still up in the air. Still being nailed down. Just little things. Questions like "when are we opening" or "what is the place going to be called." You know. The minor stuff!
There was a lot of discussion around the table about these details. We had a staff member twitter about some of the proposals that have been floated.
Oops!
But really, it shouldn't have been surprising. Social media sites in general, and Twitter in particular is all about life as it is being lived. It's radical transparency. The conversations were happening. They were big stuff in the life of this person. No surprise that they might throw up a tweet!
It just never occurred to me or anyone else around the table to say out loud "don't tweet this stuff."
It should have. Folks who would never dream of picking up a phone and calling the newspaper, or posting something on their blog might, or might not think twice about a tweet. Twitter is different, right?
Well, yes. Except that it's not.
Tweets are showing up in Google searches. Lots of folks have no idea who is following their Twitter feed. Information that might be embarrassing, or confidential, or as in this case, just not ready for prime time in a tweet is out there, for anyone to see and act upon.
You can guess what happened.
Tweet. Response. Another tweet, and another response, this time from @RedRita who is a local newspaper columnist who works for the business page.
All worked out fine in the end. We did a bit of purging of a few tweets. No worries. Good lesson.
And I'm also sure that @RedRita will be all over the story when we are ready to release the details.
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4 comments:
Kirk,
This is Keith from Chapel Hill. I think we still have some light stands that belong to you at the church.
I have a very negative reaction to your blog. To me radical transparency SHOULD be how the church ALWAYS operates! (With the possible exception of staff parish and hiring and firing decisions.) All our decision making SHOULD be done in a way that allows anyone at any time to know what we are thinking and why we are thinking and doing what we are. I HATE the culture of secrecy I have to live with even at Chapel Hill. Yes I understand, respect and believe in keeping people's confidential issues confidential but that is not what I am talking about. I am talking about the day to day operations of the church.
Well, Keith, I guess I don't disagree with the basis for your statement, but this was not about living transparently as an individual. It's about being aware of new ways that information on your organization is spread.
In this case, it was about factually incorrect information being released. It was about elements of the ministry that weren't firmly decided being made public. Doing that would be pretty foolish. One of the things that was released was the opening date. Guess whaat? The date mentioned was today.
Guess what? The coffeehouse isn't open yet.
It would have left a lot of confusion to have that date out and public. That would serve no one well.
Beyond that, releasing the information in little bits would have thrown away the energy and synergy that is one of the benefits of making a coordinated announcement. Not taking advantage of that would be pretty poor stewardship.
Sorry you had such a negative reaction, and I'm sorry you struggle with a culture of secrecy at Chapel Hill.
I think my comments are still right on. In an organization, the best strategy is to communicate intentionally... in a strategic manner. That is particularly true when communicating change or a new program like this one. It's hard enough to gather a group of people around a vision, and move in a common direction, without having conflicting messages, or messages that are just flat wrong flying around.
I think Twitter and other social networking tools are great. I Twitter every day, but they are new territory for a communicator.
They operate in real time. They, for the most part, are the personal voice of an individual.
As communicators for organizations, we need to be aware of their presence, aware of how they can impact message, and be familiar enough with the tools to be able to react, if and when a problem pops us.
And, as for that equipment... It would be nice if someone would return the gear that was borrowed. Jimmy's not in town anymore, so maybe someone else could drop by the mic stands and microphones. Thanks!
Kirk,
Do you have a list of all the stuff we have that belongs to you? I can ask around if you don't and deliver that stuff back to you.
I think I understand your point better now. It makes more sense in the context of incorrect information being given to people.
I think some of my negative reaction is leftover from when we changed service times and the decisions were made behind closed doors in such a way that even our nursery director (my wife which makes it personal) was not told until a couple weeks ahead of time and so did NOT have the needed time to staff these changes.
I this area I admire one of the airlines I have frequent flyer miles with. They sent me an email several months ago saying they were "considering" merging with another airline and explaining how this would effect my miles. I think we should be communicating in a similar way, I.E. communicate what we are thinking about doing (not just what we have decided to do) at every stage of the process. In this way we can:
1. Avoid bad info by being very clear that none of these decisions are final yet.
2. Beat the rumor mill to communicate accurately what we are thinking (and put our own slant on things).
3. Create a sense of excitement and ownership by allowing people to give feedback on the process as it is happening, not just when it is finished.
In the end I would agree with you that "the best strategy is to communicate intentionally... in a strategic manner" and this may mean we ask people not to twitter what we are thinking. But I would say we should attempt to still communicate what would otherwise be twittered, only with intentionality.
I still think there is room for a big announcement even if all the info has been pre-released in bits before. The way to do this is to make people come get the little bits, by posting to a team blog etc... and PUSH the big announcement, to the Bulletin Email newsletter, website, Eagle etc... In this way you can achieve both.
Just my thoughts,
Keith
Kirk,
It occurs to me that the comments on this blog might not be the right place to be having this conversation about radical transparency in the life of the Church.
Just a quick apology if anything I said offended or was in-appropriate for this medium.
I did not mean to hijack your blog.
Keith
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