Social Media and the Enterprise
I work on the agency side of the business, which means I’m the guy trying to convince the other side of the marketing world to loosen up and start talking with their customers. It’s easy enough for me to say, right? My job as a marketer is to come up with the big dreamy idea and tell our clients it’s going to be spectacular. Nervous about their job, most clients back off and forget about the latest, and still untapped, world of social media.
My account team gets particularly nervous when I start to talk about social media, viral marketing and community building. I stopped counting the times I looked across the table and asked the nay-sayers, “do you have a Facebook account? LinkedIn? Twitter? YouTube?” I’ve heard it a hundred times, “Yeah, I was planning on getting around to that.”
Until they get around to participating, don’t expect them to bring the ideas to you. In fact, be prepared to defend your position all along the way. It’s a hard sell, no matter how you look at it. It’s going to remain that way for a while.
Time and time again, our big ideas are met by a big list of legal requirements, stipulations and regulations aimed at mitigating risk. I don’t blame them for being nervous. If you’re not in the trenches, it does seem like a scary place. If your career has been lead by controlled messages, mission statements and one-way communication, you might not be quick to change. I’m sure there are a lot of inner-voices asking what happens when your customers say something bad about you, your clients or their products.
What could go wrong?
The better question might be: What could go wrong if you don’t start talking with your customers?
If you ignore what customers are saying about you, you’re ignoring the opportunity available to hear what they have to say, react to their concern (and praise), while creating an authentic conversation. Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll explore the topic in depth; give you some advice that might help you in your battle — explaining the virtues of transparency, building an authentic voice and who’s message is paramount.
There’s a good chance that by the time I publish this series a good portion of what I have to say will become obsolete. We’re already witnessing a shifting landscape. Just a couple of years ago, people were starting to ask, “what is social media?” Now, we’re faced with the larger and more complicated question, “how can I harness the power of social media to enhance my brand and sell more product?”
At the end of the day, what we’re really looking at is the digital analog to the water cooler of yesteryear. The significant difference is that the world has expanded and the conversations are bigger and the chatter has become more sophisticated in nature. Buzz is no longer limited to a tight group of associates, but rather a massive group of like-minded thinkers. If you’re not participating in the group, it doesn’t mean the conversation isn’t taking place. It simply means that it’s taking place somewhere else — somewhere that you don’t have control or credibility.
No company has figured it out yet. There’s no right or wrong answer. Ok, maybe there is a wrong answer.
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Really thought provoking. I love the analogy of an expanding water cooler conversation…and the fears that come along with these suddenly universal dialogs. Also, your emphasis on an “authentic conversation” is so well placed. Nothing’s more condescending than the company or candidate who “embraces” social media with endless scripting and safe guards.