I’m struck by your point on transparency. If we pulled together a Ten Commandments of Public Relations, somewhere on the list would be Thou Shall Not Try To Hide the Truth. It’s an old cliche that over time the things you want to hide will come out, it’s better to acknowledge everything right away, to get in front of the story, etc.

We’ve all heard this many times, mostly in the context of disaster communications, but I wonder how seriously we’ve taken it. As an industry devoted to image management, we are at least as good at defensively hiding and spinning as we are at proactively positioning our people and brands.

Here is the real impact of social media for our business: no more secrets. If there is something remarkable about your brand, good or bad, it will make its way online. Your customer will share it, or an employee will make a comment somewhere, or a blogger will notice it. If you try to react to a bad story by acknowledging 80% of it right away, someone will break down the remaining 20% and roast you for it.

The problem: social media creates this radical transparency but doesn’t improve our collective ability to tell truth from fiction. So not only will your brand’s dirty secrets come out, so will false rumors that can spread like wildfire.

To your comment on listening, as well as participating, RIGHT ON! Isn’t the number one rule to great communications behind a fantastic listener? How can we participate in conversations online (offline, too) if we don’t listen first? And not just listen, but listen intently and listen often.

Great post – thanks for including me!