by Michelle Goodall, Head of Marketing at Guild.co.
Us communications professionals use WhatsApp daily.
It has become part of our DNA.
And chat technology has enabled the Public Relations industry to be more efficient and agile.
Many PRs use WhatsApp for client approvals, crisis and issues management, client contractual discussions and chatting to journalists and colleagues.
It’s a messy platform where our professional lives and mobile phone numbers are mixed up with family and friends and embarrassing Rugby/ Hockey/Football teammates posting morally dubious videos and memes.
Like SMS or email, it is a great common communications denominator. Pretty much EVERYONE uses WhatsApp after all.
But how many of us have assessed the business risks of 1:1 client communications using WhatsApp messaging for our PR agency or consultancy?
And how many of us have really thought about GDPR and privacy risks of social media messaging platforms?
WhatsApp’s Terms of Service prohibits non-personal use
The simple truth is that most Public Relations professionals don’t know that WhatsApp’s Terms of Service prohibit its use for non-personal purposes.
Under the ‘Legal and Acceptable Use’ of Our Services section of WhatsApp’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/, they formally state that “(f) involve any non-personal use of our Services unless otherwise authorised by us.”
‘WhatsApp for Business’ enables PR agencies to send daily round ups of news and articles to prospects and clients, such as The Unmistakables brilliant ‘Minoritease’ https://www.theunmistakables.com/blog/welcome-to-minoritease
This is great example of a compliant business use of WhatsApp in our sector.
However, if you are using WhatsApp for any other form of client communications, you should read this cautionary blog post. https://guild.co/blog/10-dangers-of-using-whatsapp-for-business/.
A rumble around our increasing dependency on Facebook apps and concerns around data privacy and GDPR compliance in a business setting is turning into a roar.
As the Jules Polonetsky, Chief Executive of the Future of Privacy Forum in the Wall Street Journal https://www.wsj.com/articles/do-messaging-apps-fit-into-the-workplace-not-always-comfortably-11568772000.
“Organisations should make it clear to employees that they should not use private-communications channels for work-related purposes. […] Third-party apps that operate completely outside the employer’s governance make it impossible to protect sensitive company data.”
There are private, GDPR compliant alternatives to WhatsApp for business messaging
There is a solution. Compliant, private business messaging apps do exist.
Guild is a Freemium app, primarily created as a compliant business messaging app alternative to WhatsApp.
Its founder, Ashley Friedlein explains that PR agencies should provide counsel, not just around the ethics of social media, but also ensure that they are clued up about business messaging and privacy risks:
“Chat platforms are great for speed and efficiency, but they have no obligation to be private by design. In fact, their ad-funded business model relies on our data.
He continues, “WhatsApp doesn’t allow users to access all of their personal chat and messaging data. Imagine a scenario where your client has communicated a pivotal decision to you on WhatsApp, but the message has disappeared or has been deleted. There is no record. No proof. In an ideal world, we’d all be using email for all approvals, contractual stuff, but increasingly we’re doing it by messaging.
This puts the agency and client at risk. This is one of the reasons why we’re seeing agencies signing up for Guild. They have complete oversight over all groups and messages and can access historical conversations. There are so many advantages to this, not least proof of explicit consent from clients’ messages.”
Time for PR to get on the front foot – PR use-cases for business messaging
It’s not a conspiracy of silence in the Public Relations industry, it is inertia.
If non-GDPR compliance isn’t enough to get business owners and comms professionals to re-evaluate their use of WhatsApp, then the imminent ads on the platform might. Ashley believes that this could be a tipping point for many who wish to separate personal from professional chat.
Smart, #FuturePRoof PR professionals should get on the front foot now, advise their clients and ensure their own messaging is risk-free, private and GDPR compliant.
Messaging app use-cases for Public Relations include crisis communications, client messaging, small VIP communities, advisory boards, internal communications, qualitative research panels and even branded communities.
For example, if I were working on Dove’s ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’ today, my PR agency would use Guild to create:
A collaborative group of educational advisors, wellbeing experts, psychologists, stylists to discuss the campaign, messaging and impact
A group of the original ‘Real Women’ models to organise their whereabouts during the campaign
A client/agency messaging channel to discuss media opportunities and gain approvals and sign offs
A crisis and issues management group to evaluate and react to issues
Humane tech that supports the PR industry
Guild supports small businesses and is an ad-free, private alternative to WhatsApp for businesses. It has been recognised by the Digital Agenda as ‘Humane Tech’ in their ‘Power & Responsibility’ Green Paper. https://digitalagenda.io/insight/green-paper-launched-ahead-of-power-responsibility-summit/
Unlike WhatsApp, it can be fully branded and allows the host to invite members to private groups where conversations are threaded and searchable.
Guild is free to use up to 30 members, across as many groups as you want, so most PR agencies will come under this threshold.
Give it a try before the ads hit your WhatsApp screen…. and before you accidentally send the offensive Rugby meme to your most sensitive client… or your Nan.
https://guild.co/blog/12-things-you-can-do-on-guild-that-you-cant-with-whatsapp/