Recent Posts
- Racing the rainbow.
- Google+/- (and why I’m holding onto hope.)
- Automotive Inspiration for Friday
- Thinking Out Loud: Taking a look at what’s here now, not just at the horizon.
- The “Dark Side” of Typography (Inspiration)
Categories
Subscribe
Monday, February 13, 2012
Is your business as social as it could be?
This month I took a look at what I had written about and posted on my blog last year. I was a bit surprised by a few items. First, I didn’t write as much as I thought I had (or wanted to). Chalk that up to not enough time, too many projects, or some other excuse (because that’s what they are). The other glaring omission from last year was the low number of social media-related posts. Again, I could come up with reason upon reason (read: excuse upon excuse) as to why I didn’t more about every online marketers topic du jour, but it all boils down to one. I thought people and businesses had it figured out.
I follow many brands and organizations through my social networks. I do so for a variety of reasons and from different perspectives. First-and-foremost, I like these companies and products. I enjoy using whatever these companies produce and want to stay in the loop with what may be coming down the pipeline. Second, I want to see how they maneuver and exist within these various online communities. Do they engage? Are they responsive? Do they care? While I do believe that people and organizations can use social networks in any way that they see fit, there are some basic, neighborly interactions that have become commonplace. If you direct a comment to someone, it’s common courtesy to respond (unless the comment is meant to antagonize or troll).
It’s amazing how many valid questions and comments can go unanswered or unnoticed by brands that have a presence online. These aren’t small brands either. They’re big, household names even (in some circles). Yet questions and comments from their customers seem to go unnoticed. If you’re in charge of a brand’s face online, you need to remember one crucial element of a successful social experience. Be human.
This, above all else, is main key to success. Listen, respond, interact, engage. Be human. This sounds like a broken record, and I know I’ve said and written this very message before. I get it, I’m being repetitive. The sad thing is, I need to be. Here we are, years after social networking grabbed the hearts of marketers and brand managers everywhere and whispered sweet nothings of a blissful nirvana. Social was the key to everything. No, it WAS everything. If only we remembered the rules.
Social media, at it’s core, is easy. Be human, no matter how large a corporation you might be behind. Just respond,learn, and make those interacting with you feel that they’ve been heard. Trust and relationships are built from those things. They are the cornerstones of any great relationship in either the physical or virtual world, yet some brand and community managers seem to have forgotten that. Instead of using social networks to their fullest potential by building rapport and conversing with the people that buy their products and services, they’ve chosen to turn these channels into nothing more than a dumb pipe to spew out their latest announcements (and nothing more).
Again, I get that, if that’s what you’re intending to do, but please disclose that up front. If you tout an account as being a “customer service” channel, the least you can do is comment back to someone that says good things about your product. Chances are, there are other companies who produce similaror competing products, and are more than happy to interact and treat individuals as people.
