How Senior Manager, Corporate Communications at Twitter, Brenden Lee, has used his extensive background in public communications to make Twitter a reliable platform to discuss anything from sports to politics.
"If you want to find conversation about what's happening in the world you go to Twitter first for that information."
Twitter is one of the largest discussion-based platforms in the world. With over 330 million users worldwide, many people rely on Twitter for social connections, comedy, and constantly updated news. However, when a platform is receiving 350,000 tweets per minute, dangerous information often snakes its way in. It is the job of people like Brenden Lee to manage this misinformation, and ensure Twitter's users that the platform is constantly fact checking and monitoring each tweet. To Brenden, there is nothing more dangerous than misinformation, both for Twitter's users and for the platform itself. "We don't want you harming yourself or harming others because of information you saw on Twitter," he said emphatically. This is true not only because it is part of the company's core belief system to "do no harm" but also because it could become a potential firestorm if Twitter becomes known as a place where harmful misinformation is spread. It is the job of public relations professionals to ensure that a company's reputation as trustworthy is upheld. Consider the scandal Facebook underwent for sharing users information and allowing alleged interference with the 2016 election by soliciting ads that spread misinformation. Brenden does everything in his power to avoid a similar situation with Twitter. The company recently declared it would not allow politicians to purchase ads on the platform anymore because of the complications that came with it. As a public relations professional, Brenden admitted this decision was met with backlash from those in government, but ultimately he felt it was the right decision to protect the company and its users.
"Twitter has beat writers who are just covering the things that are happening on our service, in the moment, all the time, and we work with those people to tell different stories."
Twitter has become so essential American culture that tweets are constantly used in widely circulated news articles. From Fox to CNN to NBC, it has become nearly impossible to come across an article that does not feature a tweet. Brenden noted that there are thousands of beat reporters whose sole job is to monitor Twitter for relevant tweets to their articles. This side of public relations, in regards to social media platforms, is something that is not often considered. People on Twitter's PR team take care to create meaningful relationships with reporters. Brenden noted that his team is in constant communication with all different kinds of reporters. He finds it's important to foster a "one hand washes the other" type of environment where his team can give a reporter off-the-record insights so that the reporter can do the same for him in the case of a potential PR crisis for the company. This explanation he provided shed important insight as to why media relations continues to be the backbone of the public relations industry.
"People used our service in particular to really stand up for the first time and say something definitive”
Brenden noticed that Twitter became a sort of home base for the Black Lives Matter movement back in March upon the death of George Flyod. While he understood that, from a PR perspective, it is Twitter's job to be the platform of the discussion and not the authority on it, he also knew that this presented an excellent chance to amplify the voice of the American people. Twitter began a campaign that took the "everyday person's" tweets that pertained to the movement and put them up on billboards across major cities in the U.S. This unprecedented situation provided Twitter with the excellent opportunity to showcase what they were really about: giving every person the ability to have their voice heard. From a public relations perspective, this campaign was genius. People were flooding to Twitter to share their experiences and have the important conversations that were necessary such as how to make their environment more diverse. This sparked conversation in Brenden's work environment as well. Diversity and inclusion has been at the forefront of the public relations industry as of late and Brenden shared that it's not about just "checking a box." He believes in hiring people on his team that are not only incredibly qualified but also bring something new to the table. He feels that if others did the same, then they wouldn't be forcing diversity but fostering an environment where diversity occurs naturally.
Social media is essential to every public relations professional, but many don't consider how essential public relations professionals are to social media platforms. Brenden Lee shared his experience and shed a bright light as to just how important it is to give PR a seat at the table when it comes to making the important decisions in a company that holds the microphone to the general public's voice.
Credit S.I. Newhouse School of Communications
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