Death of the Corporate Spokesperson?

For decades we’ve had the Corporate Spokesperson; groomed, media trained and prepped to deliver a single message repeated at least 3 times in an interview. Or just the “face” we always saw. This worked for Traditional Media, but with the growth of Social Media and the blurring lines between professional and social media for what consumers read, this is changing radically. The “Corporate Spokesperson” may be evolving to be the “Corporate Conversationalist” who has brand status similar to that of the corporation itself.

One could say this new trend started with Robert Scoble, who changed the way people saw Microsoft. Now, highly recognized Social Media guru Chris Brogan represents himself and the company he’s involved with, CrossTech Media. Jeremiah Owyang of Forrester Research is another example. Even Dee Hock of Visa. There are a number of examples. The Corporate Spokesperson isn’t entirely dead yet, but as companies learn to engage Social Media, the old rules are changing.

In the past, the Corporate Spokesperson was selected from the ranks of management for their ability to work with media and be trainable by the PR agency or media trainers. The PR agency and the professional media had known ways and methods of working. Journalists knew that a media trained person would be following a script of some sort with a planned message. The objective of Corporate Spokesperson was the keep on topic and repeat the key message 3 times at least if they could. Then there’s Bridging Techniques as given us by Sen. Ted Kennedy who was brilliant at it. There may even have been 3-4 Corporate Spokespersons depending on the situation; CEO for good news and AGM’s, CFO for financial, VP Marketing for product related and someone took the flack for crisis communications.

As people like Chris Brogan, Robert Scoble and Owyang speak not just for themselves but take on industry thought leadership they represent the company and the corporate brand. As they gain traction in Social Media, they inevitably get interviewed in Traditional Media. They establish a Personal Brand. They also have to learn media skills in dealing with journalists. It is a difficult and challenging task. The Traditional Media rules still apply, but there are no defined rules for Social Media; yet professionalism and courtesy in representing the Corporation and the Person set new tones and requirements.

While the Corporate Spokesperson isn’t dead yet, the rules are changing. Any employee can start blogging and they do, and they may tell a harder truth than the CEO ever would, and journalists will find that information, quickly exposing Corporate Spokesperson for being On Message. Likely the journalist will then go with the employee blogger who speaks Real Language – corporations better hope the message is close or a PR crisis will then loom.

These are just some more considerations for the Conversant Corporation.