May 12, 2008
“3Q’s in 3Min: Joel Postman, Socialized”
A little late–technical difficulties–but still equally full of content, it’s last Thursday’s “3Q’s in 3Min.”
Every Thursday, socialTNT channels the spirit of citizen journalism by putting bloggers, reporters, PR pro’s or anyone with something to say about social media in front of the camera for a short, three minute interview. The videos are meant to encourage dialog between PR/communications practitioners, journalists and marketers on the future of media.
On a particularly sunny afternoon last week, we met with Joel Postman, Principle at Socialized. In today’s “3Q’s in 3Min,” Joel talks about obstacles publicly traded companies meet when trying to launch a social media campaign and how to defeat them.
When I first met Joel at a Social Media Club event last fall, we discussed the valuable possibilities social media presents for internal communications within large companies. As Director of Executive and Internal Communications at Hewlett Packard, Joel was exposed to the special problems large corporations encounter trying to maintain relations between employees and management.
This week Joel and I chatted about external communications. Being a publicly traded company, you are beholden to your share holders. You’re also closely monitored by the SEC. That means all outward-facing information has to be passed to legal teams for approval.
Such stringent controls might hinder or deter corporations looking to launch a social media campaign. It shouldn’t. It might be a delicate balance to strike, but corporations don’t have to compromise conservatism to engage with their customers, let go of their brand and institute social media campaigns. Key element: educating your employees about what they can and can’t speak about.
Fun Facts about Joel
- Launched Socialized in January 2008
- Spent four years as Senior Speechwriter for Sun’s Chairman, Scott McNeally
- Working on a book to be published in November, SocialCorp, to help corporations walk the delicate line
- We’re both fans of legendary SF house music DJ and producer, Mark Farina
Watch as Joel offers his top tips to corporate spokespeople trying to get involved in social media and helps corporations figure out what they can’t talk about!
How does social media strategy differ for a publicly traded company? Do you work with or in a corporation? What are some of the challenges you or you’re clients have experienced? How did you overcome them? Let us know in the comments!
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The post was about accountability, communication and education. If someone creates something that could impact people’s pocket books, that person should take responsibility for their actions. Especially if that person is already involved in social media and understands that nature of how it works.
In the past, socialTNT has responded with blog posts on how to increase communications (you can find those
Last night, my MacBook decided it wanted to be ornery. I tried repairing the OS, but that didn’t work. I ended up having to do a clean install of Leopard. After that didn’t work, my happy MacBook has to spend today at the Apple Genius Bar. Luckily I had an archive (Thanks Timemachine!), so they were able to restore my data. There is still some software that needs to be reinstalled, but the interview slated for today will be up tomorrow.
This weekend, all eyes turned to the blogosphere to watch as 








Every Thursday, socialTNT channels the spirit of citizen journalism by putting bloggers, reporters, PR pro’s or anyone with something to say about social media in front of the camera for a short, three minute interview. The videos are meant to encourage dialog between PR/communications practitioners, journalists and marketers on the future of media.
Web 2.0 Expo marches on, and socialTNT has been there day and night. On Thursday, Day 2 at Moscone Center, socialTNT ran into ReadWriteWeb’s 


