It occurred to me while participating in Social Media Club Greenville’s September panel yesterday that there are still MANY questions and misconceptions in the business world about Social Media. So without wasting any time, let’s cover a few obvious ones here today:
1. Misconception: Social Media only works for some companies.
That’s a lot like saying that the telephone, email or the web will only work for some companies. It’s nonsense.
Will Social Media have varying degrees of impact from one company (or industry, even) to the next? Sure. But we are talking about a lot of variables here, from budget limitations to a basic ability to execute. The medium in and of itself isn’t what works or doesn’t work:
Social Media, as a toolkit, as a set of channels, as a business process even is both industry- and brand-agnostic.
Whether you’re a florist, realtor, attorney, IT distributor, restaurateur, publisher, major global brand or government agency, Social Media can fit perfectly within your organization.
In our panel discussion this morning, a example of the type of company which might not be a good fit for a Social Media program was a bank or other type of company that might not be as popular as an Apple or a BMW. I disagree. Companies with image and public perception challenges should absolutely not shy away from using Social Media. Quite the contrary: They should look to Social Media as a means and an opportunity to address that pain point.
Look at what Comcast and Charter Cable are doing with customer service and engagement on Twitter, for example. These are cable companies! (Nobody likes their cable company.) Customer Service in that industry has been a joke for decades: You have a problem. You call the 1-800 number. 45 minutes and 15 transfers later, you finally realize that the guy on the other end of the line, the guy who hardly speaks English, the guy who has only been working in that call center for six weeks and is now the end of the line in this game of toll-free hot-potato can’t fix your problem any more than the previous 14. Enter @comcastcares (Comcast’s Frank Eliason) and the revolution in customer service he spawned by integrating social media into the company’s biggest public perception pain point: Customer Service. The result: Faster resolution times, for starters. Happier customers as a result. Great PR. And probably some decent cost savings to boot when you add it all together.
Another example: Men’s Health jumping into mobile content. (That’s right, Mobile.) The Social Media universe doesn’t stop with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Youtube. There’s a lot more to this than the usual four or five social networking apps. 😉
Trust me, if some cable companies and print publishing houses have figure out how to use Social Media to their advantage, any company can. 😉
2. Misconception: By participating in Social Media, we will lose control of our image and/or message.
Really? How?
Will customers suddenly crash your strategy meetings via Seesmic? Will their Facebook updates derail your media buying? Will they somehow use Twitter to intercept and rewrite your press releases? Will they hack Seesmic to replace your next ad campaigns with their own? Will they use MySpace to brainwash your empoyees into acting like jerks?
Of course not.
By participating in Social Media the first thing you will do is open a window, not a door into whatever criticism may or may not exist outside the wire. The first thing you want to do when getting into Social Media is listen, not talk. Forget about the push tactics for a second. Don’t even think about pull tactics either. At first, just listen.
Just listen. And wait. And listen some more. Listen and learn. And then listen some more.
The first thing that happens when you get into Social Media (properly) is not a loss of control, but instead a gain in understanding of how people outside your organization – customers and not – feel about your company. The good and the bad, both are valuable. This is business intelligence. It’s market and situational awareness. It’s data and insight and information. Where is the loss of control in that?
Before it becomes anything else, Social Media is a tremendous listening tool. It’s a learning tool. The more time you spend using it that way upfront, the more time you spend learning how to monitor, measure, separate signal from noise, the easier it will be for you to hold on to the level of “control” over your brand you feel comfortable with.
Learn these channels. Take the time to become comfortable, familiar, then fluent with them. Baby steps, grasshopper. Before you can rock the big surf, you have to learn how to balance yourself on your board. Start at the beginning.
Control is media-agnostic. Learn the channel, learn the landscape, learn how this ecosystem works, and you won’t have to worry about “control.” Social Media is no different from email, trade shows or the water-cooler.
Misconception 3: Social Media is just a fad.
Not unless people stop doing two things: a) talk to each other, and b) give up technology (especially portable technology). No? They aren’t going to do either? Are you sure? Okay, so Social Media probably isn’t going away then. Though I’ll give you this: Social Media will change. It will morph into something a lot less… “media” and a lot more app-based and organic.
In terms of where Social Media will be in 5 years, think less “web” and more “widget”: The growth of mobile, an inceasingly U.I. savvy public and the age of the open API are driving this evolution. Before you know it, “Social” technology will be more about creating increasingly thin, fast and intelligent connective layers than developing massive databases like the ones we now know as Facebook, Twitter and Myspace. (And yes, you should think of them in this way. Peek behind the veil a little if you ever get a chance.)
So don’t worry about Social Media going away anytime soon. Social Media will continue to merge with all other technologies, from your phone to your TV to your car to your fridge to other every day objects, which means it’s here to stay. As a result of a) our need to connect and share and communicate and b) our passion for gadgets, in ten years, the lines between technology and face-to-face interactions will be a lot more blurred than they are today. Social Media will be embedded into everything – hopefully not in an annoying or intrusive way… but you never know.
Back when personal computers started becoming mainstream, I had conversations with business owners who said computers would be a fad. They were wrong.
Back when the web started becoming mainstream and companies began to build websites, I had conversations with business owners who said the web would be a fad. “Why the hell would we ever want to have a website?” was the mentality. They were wrong.
When cell phones started becoming mainstream, I had conversations with business owners who said they would be a fad. They were wrong.
I am sure the same thing was said of the television, and the regular telephone and automobiles and wrist-watches. Those people were wrong too. This is no different. Get on this train now, before everyone does, and you will have an advantage. Wait, and you won’t. It’s that simple. If the convergence of communications, technology and culture were a fad, I wouldn’t waste my time hanging out here. 😉
Okay, that’s all you get for now. We’ll revisit this soon. Have a great Tuesday, everyone.
Brand Building and Online Marketing Blog 
great content. you need a retweet button on this blog.
Good idea!
Great post and great preso at SMC yesterday-thx for representing!
It really comes back to the toolbox analogy from Spike- roughly- ‘SM is a crescent wrench, and you need the whole toolbox to build a house.’
Very true, but that darn crescent wrench sure does come in handy sometimes. We need every tool at our disposal to win this fight for our clients. And ourselves.
Yep. Spike is absolutely right on that one. Toolkit and tools.
Though… I think more of this as a really good lubricant that makes all of your existing tools work better and last longer.
Put down the kool-aid and step away from the social media, Olivier. 🙂
Actually, I did find a business that cannot participate in social media. I met with a financial adviser who deals in securities, and suggested a social media strategy to him. His every marketing activity must be approved by the SEC. He would not be able to create a blog post, post on his Facebook Page, create a YouTube video or Tweet without having it first approved.
I agree with your statement: “The medium in and of itself isn’t what works or doesn’t work.” While almost every business can use social media, it doesn’t mean that every business has to use it. There are many businesses who thrived without advertising or traditional marketing and there scores of businesses who can make it without social media marketing.
The Kool-Aid? 😀
I’ve also sat down with financial advisers and covered that very topic, and we worked it out:
1. WHAT they say is regulated, not WHERE they say it.
2. As long as the corporate office approved the content they produce, all is well. (They have a blog now.) This took some time and lot of meetings, but they got it done.
3. Keyword monitoring using SM channels. They’re doing it now.
And most importantly…
4. Agents now use LinkedIn and Facebook to stay in touch with their clients. They don’t talk business. They just engage with them on a human level. They share photos of their kids, of their pets, of their fishing trips, they invite people to parties and events… They use SM to create and deepen their connections with people, NOT to do business.
So I respectfully disagree, Jay. EVERY organization in EVERY industry can use Social Media. Even tightly regulated ones. 😉
Between this post and the video from the panel you were on recently (http://bobbyrettew.com/thoughts/34-2008-written-blog/266-video-smc-greenville-september-meeting-panel-discussion.html) I had an idea.
Spike Jones mentioned Wells Fargo (as an example), and how if they used Twitter they might find tons of people complaining about their company. If that were the case, and there were issues with confidential/financial data or “official” company representation, if I were the management of that company I think I would want to empower my employees to go online as themselves, at the social platforms of their choice, and “listen” (monitor) as you say, for brand mentions/issues/what they’re doing right. A person who says something about your company, especially if they have a complaint and you can route them in the right direction to help get it fixed, is going to see you/your brand in a whole new light after a friendly, helpful exchange. You don’t have to put the logo on your avatar and the name in your screen name and all that. You can just be there, as a person, interacting with other people and talking about work-related things when appropriate.
Organizations could help themselves tremendously if they instituted social media training on a broad basis and encouraged employees to recognize opportunities and learn how to help customers and prospects online in this casual, real-time information environment. 1000 employees online, vs. 1-3 PR folks or “social media directors” might be even more effective. It doesn’t have to be so “organized” if there are great guidelines in place (ala IBM’s) and employees embrace the new ways to communicate and help people via various online channels. Everyone from financial to legal to defense/military sectors could bring benefit to their companies in this way.
Bingo. Absolutely. 🙂
I was interested to read this commentary re. the use of social media in the financial services industry. Olivier’s understanding of the procedures that must be followed is generally correct. I’m in financial services and have been exploring the use of social media. I also have a strong background in compliance having been a Chief Compliance Officer. Using social media is generally more cumbersome for those in my field as business related communications must be pre-approved, monitored and retained. That being said, we’re used to these procedures. I use tools like Facebook and Twitter to expand my personal network and make few if any business related posts. Basically, I enjoy it, I manage my time on these platforms, I’m making friends and I assume that eventually something good will come of it from a business standpoint; it always has in the past when I’ve grown my network through traditional methods.
Great post, as usual. It seems its getting popular to bad mouth corporate social media use. Thanks for the ammunition. 🙂
I’ll bake more batches. 😉
Totally unrelated to SM but speaking of baking. Puff pastry and nutella empanadas, easy and tasty. Try it!
“not a loss in control, but a gain in understanding”
That quote alone is worth the cost of admission. Great viewpoint to help all companies, big and small, understand the latent value communications has – with social media being part of the “tool kit.”
@KimBrater
There’s a price of admission? I wish! 😀
Good Day Olivier,
I think the issue of control takes on many meanings to business owners, and they have never had to really listen to consumers like they do today. They say they are listening but it’s still all about them, they market in an outbound way rather than inbound. They tell and manipulate, lead you in a series of mini-closes. I’m not saying that will change but the difference now is, they have to allow the consumer to qualify themselves in some cases, it’s really just an extra step in qualifying a prospect 🙂
Also, being open and transparent is very confusing to business owners, they just don’t know how to let that happen, this is the place where the fear of loss and control shows up I think. They can’t hold the cards close to the chest and keep information from you as in the past, it makes it much harder to manipulate a prospect.
Telling a business owner that his business has to be more open and transparent immediately triggers the loss of control emotion.
I could go on and on, this comes up alot here in my area. You start talking about it and they look at you like you’ve completely lost your mind.
Thanks for fighting the good fight, we need to keep talking about these issues and help educate those who are struggling with the many complexities of Social Media and what can and will mean to Marketing & business.
Owen
Right. Which is why I focus so much on monitoring and listening. Not every company is going to be comfortable using SM like IBM and Starbucks do at first.
So it’s important to find a place within the context of the Social Media universe where these companies feel a) completely in control and b) safe for risky exposure. How and when they choose to engage once they feel comfortable enough is up to them, but initially, just learning to listen eliminates that threat completely. 🙂
Learning to listen is the secret, but most businesses are not very good at it because they only want to get the turn-over of inventory and or tell you what you want.
Our job is to teach listening, if they do that and learn how to glean the data that comes from listening…they’ll be golden. Then engagement is easier 🙂
Later on 🙂
All financial people claim that same thing – it’s their favourite whine about their marketing. It gets them off the hook every time.
“I can’t be imaginative, the SEC regulates me.”
My advice- find one who thinks that the regulations are the reason to be imaginative and you’ll have a dynamite client that you can really work with.
Good stuff, Olivier.
My question is how companies can “hire” SM positions. That is, how do you hire someone to perform your SM functions for you? It seems the owner is the only one who can truly display the right culture and attitude of the organization to the public.
Do you think that is true?
Can you hire out, delegate or subcontract your SM functions?
Thanks for the good writing, and the time you put into it’s creation.
Jason Blumer
That’s the question, isn’t it.
Ideally, you want to identify individuals inside your organization who fit a certain profile conducive to managing an SM function (monitoring, engagement, promotion, community management, etc.) and then train/develop them.
The training and program build can be done by an outsider while the execution, fine-tuning and “voice” are owned by insiders.
The alternative is to hire people with specific experience on the execution side, and turn them into insiders. Their street cred within the SM community and their resume should speak for themselves. 😉
I don’t recommend outsourcing engagement or community management. Monitoring and measurement are easier to outsource, but that’s as far as I would take it.
Good post – particularly the fad analysis.
I was hired as Web Content Editor (but with lots of webmaster type responsibilities) – within six months I was made Online Community Manager and shifted to blog management and started engaging with social media… our MD writes all his own blog posts and comments, but I do all the management, including managing social media profiles etc.
I am now in the middle of rolling out a social media strategy for the whole company, I do tweet direct and represent the company on facebook etc now that I am fairly comfortable with being ‘on message’ (or is that now that PR/Marketing/Sales/Customer Service and the MD are comfortable with me?) 🙂
My advice to companies wanting to start engaging in Social Media by recruiting would be to find someone already employed who is savvy and promote them. Ideally – you wouldn’t have just one person doing everything (that isn’t scalable) – but you need one person to develop a strategy and lead a team of ‘normal’ staff to participate.
You’ve done a good job in shredding some pretty common misconceptions about SMM. I’m first time on this blog, looks really nice, I can see you put a lot of work into your writing.
Thanks!
Just listen. And wait. And listen some more. Listen and learn. And then listen some more.
Our job is to teach listening, if they do that and learn how to glean the data that comes from listening…they’ll be golden. Then engagement is easier 🙂
Later on 🙂
Absolutely, and I’ll quote Nathan Gilliat one this: “You have to perceive before you can protect, participate and project.”
Olivier — an interesting post (as always).
Yesterday’s lesson plan in the class I teach at Kent State was largely about the research and writing that Dr. Dean Kruckeberg (et. al.) has been undertaking for some years, applying theories regarding communities to public relations. I see very clearly the relationship between the formation, support and maintenance of communities in the traditional sense and the process of creating community in social media.
Communities help people create meaning of the world around them, though usually those communities are tiered (with one dominant community identification), require participation, are diverse, ordered by geography, are often preceded by institutions, and develop their own culture.
In social media, many of these same conditions apply (though presence within social media networks might be considered geography…). This leads to a fairly useful means of understanding the appeal of social media in general.
I asked the students to come up with the limitations of the community theory as explained in the text — where such a theory wouldn’t be particularly useful or relevant — as well as potential applications for the theory.
We talked about the connection this theory has with Excellence, the two-way, symmetrical theory, and how these two theories together might seem to refute the asymmetrical concept of persuasion.
The key point, however, is that as with any means of creating a unified theory of public relations, the objectives of the organization should govern the application of any theoretical foundation.
Social media may well prove to be the end-all of PR (and of marketing) — but to say that any organization can benefit from social media overstates — any organization that develops objectives that can be attained by use of social media in cost effective and efficient fashion can use social media.
The development of social networks is only part of the puzzle — supporting and enlarging the networks may rely on different means outside of social media in order to reach some kind of efficiency.
As for whether it’s a fad — well, only time will tell that!
Thanks for another stimulating post.
sean
@commammo
I really liked your emphasis on listening rather than controlling. I think Social Media has the potential to push customer/company interaction into a much more authentic space. Or maybe I am too much of an idealist. Also, I think many people/companies forget that you don’t have to have a Twitter account to listen to the conversation. I am a big fan of Twitter’s Advanced Search http://search.twitter.com/advanced. Great post, as always.
Fad analysis is priceless. Will be using that to help some folks see the light. Thanks…. !
The listening is hard for some businesses. They get this inkling they “ought to” be in social media and (because entrepreneurs are just this way) they jump in. Perhaps you could spend some time on how to listen? We all treat it like it’s a no-brainer, but I think many companies, especially smaller companies, have literally no idea HOW to use SM to listen. What are the best tools, best practices, do you need to listen in different places for different types of feedback, etc. Just a thought 🙂
Thanks for this post. Working with Government and Higher Education, I need more people writing about how this is not industry specific…this applies to any organization. It’s time to board the train.
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