Maybe I’m a cynic but companies taking part in social media has become very calculated.
Companies now have social media strategies, policies and plan meticulously how they will implement social media in their organisation. The whole point of social media is that it’s social. It’s not about making money. It’s not about advertising. It’s about sharing information, communicating, collaborating and connecting with people.
Companies only want to share information about their products and services. They don’t want competitors to know what they’re doing but technology has forced them to face the fact that customers have a need to know. Everyone and his dog now use technology to find information. Who doesn’t surf the net from their phone? Who doesn’t Facebook from their phone? No one under the age of 30 anyway but have you ever looked for a company on Facebook and there’s nothing there? It’s unusual for companies now not to have some sort of social media and different companies have varying levels of social media commitment.
There are only 2 ways to introduce social media into an organisation. Top down or bottom up. Top down is when the company leaders use social media and then tell employees to do it. You know the kind of thing. The owner of the company starts blogging and wants you to read their blog and feedback comments. You might read the blog the first time you see it and then every time you get an email to say there’s a new one you just delete it. Why? Because it’s forced on you. Top down implementation of social media ensures that the company keeps control over what employee’s use and how they use them. You’re not interacting. You’re being forced to read something that you’re not really that interested in. It could be the most interesting, witty, informative blog in the world but you still won’t be that interested because you didn’t find it on your own. Fickle people!
Bottom up implementation is when the operational staff, the people who do the job, use social media and tell others about it. You know how it goes. You’re doing your job and then discover a much easier way to do it. You tell people about it. Show them how to do it and before you know it everyone is doing it that way. The boss is usually the last to know. With social media you might be able to identify tools that are useful but you’ll still need the boss’s permission to use them. It has to do with how your actions reflect on the company. If you want to create a social networking page the boss has to know that you won’t do anything to damage the company reputation.
Social media has to be implemented in a way that aligns strategic objectives of the company with personal goals. At the end of the day for social media to succeed the culture has to encourage technology utilisation in an intuitive manner. Social media can make life easier but it can also cause problems too. There’s always someone out there who will bad mouth the company or try and get through security to post inappropriately or steal personal information.
It’s not as easy as it sounds to use social media well and that’s probably why not every company does it. Some companies just don’t understand social media at all. They are completely unaware of how they could use it and they don’t want to learn. It has to be said that these organisations are usually ran by people who are more mature and all this new fangled stuff is beyond them. Like the TV remote. They don’t have the ability to change so will remain outside and in the modern world are seriously under threat.
Other companies could understand what social media is but are too scared to try using it. Social media is not easy. You can get it really wrong. Chrysler had an incident when one of their employees made an inappropriate remark on Twitter. They didn’t have the same opinion as their employee and ultimately they fired the individual but their name was sullied by the mention.
Some companies look for opportunities to use social media and some know what the tools are and use them to great effect. The Comic Relief campaign in 2011 raised over half of their funds through social media. They are probably one of the best examples of social media engagement.
Comic Relief created a virtual community to raise awareness of the charity. They use lots of different kinds of social media such as social networking, blogging, pod casting, RSS feeds and mashups. If you want to know how to use social media in business look no further. It’s not forced. It’s not advertising. It is truly how it’s meant to be used. Part of everyday life.
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