Last Wednesday I participated in #pr20chat, a weekly chat on Twitter created by marcomm maven Beth Harte for public relations practitioners to discuss the impact of social media on our roles as communicators.

It’s always a great discussion because the participants are some of the savviest PR and social media pros around, and the conversations are full of energy and spirited debate. The topic of the night was to determine “The Seven Deadly Sins of Public Relations 2.0.”

It was easy to agree that we have a far larger audience to appease on the social Web and that it’s important to personally understand new technology in order to make it work for you and your clients.

However, deadly sin #4 threw me for a loop – “Thinking You Can Still Control the Message,” meaning that the social Web has taken messaging control away from us.

Yikes! If we no longer have control over messaging then I’m not really sure what our jobs are. I certainly can’t imagine telling my clients that no matter what we do, we can’t influence the way their brands are talked about on blogs, forums and social networking sites.

A good communicator develops a strategy to make sure messaging is accurate, consistent and positive. I’d stretch to say we have even more control with all of the online tools available today, because we can talk directly to consumers through personal blogs, sites like Twitter and Facebook, and by engaging consumers in dialogue in forums. A good communicator will guide you on how to do that.

Here are a few ideas to help you define your message online:

• Monitor your brand and react in real time to conversations about your company or industry.  When a newspaper prints an inaccuracy it may take several days for a correction and by then everyone’s already moved on. Online you can instantly chime in and set the record straight.

• Provide expert advice to groups of people discussing your industry. We recently found a discussion where consumers were talking about the benefits of our client’s product. She was then able to thank the group for talking about it, answer questions, set facts straight and even offer coupons.  There are lots of tools you can use to monitor your brand, like Twitter Search to search Twitter conversations, to Google’s blog search to search blogs and Social Mention to search everything from microblogs to videos.

• Develop key message points to ensure consistent and accurate information. Deliver the same information to bloggers, on your own blog and on forums. Repetition will drive your key messages.  Fact sheets and other press kit materials didn’t die with the advent of Google – continue to supply background information to anyone who may discuss your product. No blogger will reinvent the wheel when you’ve given them copy to kick off a post.

• Engage with your consumers or constituents! Social networks like Twitter, Facebook and niche sites enable you to start an authentic and heartfelt dialog with potential and existing target audiences. Consumers appreciate having personal relationships with brands they use, and social media gives you a way to cultivate those relationships to build true brand ambassadors.

• Create your own blog. What better way to deliver your messaging outside of your Web site than to engage people in discussion on your own territory? Take the opportunity to show off your knowledge of your industry as a whole, position yourself as an expert and raise topics of value to your audiences. If you offer helpful content they will come back for more!

What do you think? Has social media hurt or harmed message control? What ideas do you have to help companies ensure the right conversations are happening?

Rachel Kay