Would your mother care about Tesco using Twitter?

Established by Adam Vincenzini and Emily Cagle, #CommsChat is a weekly, UK-based Twitter conversation looking at all aspects of communications – and on Monday evening, we were thrilled to be involved for the first time as sponsor.

Guest-hosted by Reputation Online‘s Vikki Chowney, the session was inspired by a conversation between Chowney and the Wall Street Journal’s Ben Rooney, in which the latter insisted that social media, while potentially valuable, was not an essential component of brand communications.

A full transcript of the session can be found on the CommsChat website, but I wanted highlight a couple of stand-out themes. What I found particularly great about the chat was the level-headed lack of evangelism, a trope which still has a habit of creeping into social media conversations, particularly those taking place in social media.

On Monday night, there seemed to be a widespread acceptance – still all too rare – that social media is not for every brand, nor for every sector. At least, not right now. As a number of contributors pointed out, it all depends on where your stakeholders are, and their comms expectations.

And though it wasn’t quite expressed in this way, there was an acknowledgement that showing usually overrides telling, that products and services are often the strongest communications tool of all. For example, much of the chat revolved around Ryanair’s communications: the airline seems to enrage rather than engage, yet the business remains successful as it delivers on (albeit limited) expectations.

All good stuff. Big thanks to all those contributing, to Vikki for hosting, and to Adam and Emily for inviting us in.