This week, I discovered this powerful video, “Bigger than TV? Social Media’s Power Shift” produced by Radian6. I’d like to pass along and summarize my interpretation of that message here.
Is the Social Web really all that revolutionary? Or is it a fad?
Make no mistake, we’re in the midst of a revolutionary shift in how brands and customers do business. If you don’t start taking this seriously, you will find yourself lonely and without a voice.
Let me explain.
If you’ve studied marketing, you’ve heard the phrase: “The medium is the message.” This is stunningly true. The medium itself has a significant social impact on business and in our lives regardless of the message being communicated through that medium.
Think email.
It’s changed our work lives. And, it’s not because of a particular email that we’ve received. It’s just the fact that we have email that’s changed the way we work and how we do business.
Here’s the thing. Up until now, the medium has been owned and sold by the gatekeepers who controlled it.
Think TV, radio.
It came at a price. With your purchase, you got to tell the story the way you wanted to tell it. And for a long time, that worked. But the Social Web is very different because it’s owned by the Community. No one controls it, you can’t buy it, and everyone is an equal participant.
Now, a customer has as much of a voice as the brand. That is a revolutionary shift in power.
The messages are no longer controllable.
The days of sitting in a room with your Executive, PR and Marketing teams, defining a message and pushing it out there, are over.
Your brand is defined by the conversations that are happening about it. Communicated in the language, shaped by the voice and in the words of your customer. You can influence it but, ultimately, your customers will shape it.
The reign of the dominated, one-way conversation has come to an end.
And you’re better off for it. Because when you isolated the conversation, you never really knew what was happening on the other end, whether people believed and trusted you, if it struck up a conversation, if it inspired an action or idea.
Now, in real time…at your finger tips…if you choose to tune in…are all the reactions, all the ideas, recorded and living here on the Social Web. Right. Now. You have the opportunity to talk directly to your customers.
But…
You’ll have to humanize your brand. You’ll have to be more authentic and more engaging to earn their trust. You’ll have to care enough to listen, and do so fanatically. And, you’ll have to be ready for disappointment, be open to change, because what they tell you may not be what you wanted or expected to hear.
If you do, and if you are, one day you’ll look back and see that this single medium has revolutionized the way you do business.
I’d like to invite you take action now and join us in Dallas on February 24th and 25th for TR Live: Designing Your Companies Social Media Strategy.
written by Amanda Hite
[video]
Today’s “TR Live: Social Media Q&A” is with Kat Cole, Vice President of Hooters Restaurants and widely-sought Communications & Leadership speaker and consultant.
TR: How long has your company been using Social Media, either for marketing or recruiting?
Kat: “Hooters has been utilizing Social Media, in some form or another, for the last three years.”
TR: Did your company develop a strategy first?
Kat: “No, we were very experimental in that we would place an add here, and post an update there. When we started, there wasn’t an abundance of guidance available like there is now.”
TR: What has been your biggest challenge with Social Media?
Kat: “It’s been minimizing risk while maximizing benefit to guests, employees, and the company. Also, getting people to really understand it takes authentic engagement, which takes time. In some ways, it’s no quicker than face-to-face marketing or recruiting but it is less expensive, and when done right, it can reach more people across a larger area. Like the entire globe.”
TR: Who has helped or influenced you in regard to leveraging Social Media for business, either for recruiting or marketing?
Kat: “Several groups. There’s Talent Revolution and Amanda Hite, spreading the message of authenticity as a strategy and method of execution. Claim Jumper and Avery Block truly lead by example in reaching out to guests and employees. Women’s Foodservice Forum and People Report were bold enough to highlight Social Media in marketing and recruiting early by bringing speakers and consultants to their members in order to elevate recruiting and marketing practices.”
TR: Do you have a success story or example you would like to share?
Kat: “Countless. Some are small scale like when I was on Twitter once and saw a conversation about our restaurants. I engaged with the guest, and it ended up making them happy and directly creating a restaurant visit and additional sales. Similar scenarios have happened repeatedly in various forms such as recruiting, where people have found me on Facebook and LinkedIn to get jobs. We’ve found great managers who first sought us out through Social Media.”
TR: What “first steps” do you recommend for companies looking to utilize Social Media?
Kat: “Get key executives engaged individually, so that they have an understanding of what Social Media is and what it is not. Bring in someone with experience and passion to highlight key opportunities and share best practices. Think Globally, Act Locally – simply stated – realize the massive potential, but understand the potential is only realized through local, real-time interaction in your online communities. Only then can you reap the wide-reaching benefits.”
Our very special thanks to Kat Cole for her time and generosity! If the time has come for your company to develop its own Social Media strategy, please visit:
http://talentrevolutionlive.eventbrite.com/
Hypothetical situation. Let’s say this guy…
works for your company.
When he isn’t living the new status symbol of “Crazy Busy,” he maintains a fairly visible presence in social media. He’s (mostly) professional in what he chooses to share with the world because he mentions the name of your company in every one of his bios. But, he’s also a self-proclaimed “big deal when it comes to doing the weekend laundry” and tweets songs when he should be is working. He tried drawing a line between his personal and professional brands, but there’s now an unending high tide quickly washing over those tracings in the sand.
So, through the eyes of some of his online connections, his avatar doesn’t just show them the face of a friend. In their eyes, his avatar, his online presence, has become the face of your company.
Let’s say you’re okay with all this. You say to yourself (remember, this is hypothetical), “I don’t mind a few people seeing him as the face of the company. He usually says the right thing at the right time. He’s loyal and does really good work for us. Also, I secretly think he’s one of the coolest people I’ve ever met, regardless of the fact that he wears jeans to work way too often.”
Then, you see a potential problem. He works exclusively in the marketing department. And, the marketing department isn’t always aware of everything that’s going on in operations…or in recruiting…or in training…or in HR. And, he’s especially not aware of everything those departments are doing in social media.
Potentially, you could have five conflicting messages being presented in social media on behalf of your company. And, all of those messages are being presented by completely different employees who are perceived by completely different people as being the face, the voice, of your company.
So, what do you do now? Do you quickly draft an addendum to your social media policy? Do you ask all of those employees to remove themselves from social media, even though they include your company’s name in their bios because they’re proud to work for you? Do you represent your entire online brand through one account, with your company logo as the avatar? Do you focus only on spreading the message of one department and not the others, missing out on all kinds of opportunities in the process?
It depends.
Remember that line attempting to be drawn between a personal and professional brand? Those same lines in the sand were once, and perhaps still are, drawn between the various departments within your company.
Whether or not your company is jumping into the social media wave, those lines are being washed away by a high tide over which none of us have any control. The need for one shared voice, the need for proud faces of your brand, the need to internally collaborate, the need to be aware of what’s happening on the other floors of our buildings, and the need to take advantage of opportunities to easily join in the initiatives outside of our departments are all needs that have become readily apparent for the future success of our companies, our brands, as a whole.
You have many faces working for you, many faces representing your brand. The question is, are they all speaking with one collaborative voice?
If the time has come for your company to develop a social media strategy to navigate the rising tide, join us in Dallas on February 24th and 25th for Talent Revolution LIVE. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if I can be of any assistance, or visit http://www.talentrevolutionlive.com to register.
You’ve heard it before: Much like a work-related function versus a happy hour with friends, there are different rules of protocol with a LinkedIn interaction (professional) versus a Facebook interaction (personal). In fact, according to this recent poll, 43% of people believe personal and professional social networks should be kept separate.
Good luck with that!
While common sense dictates that I don’t post photos of my kids on LinkedIn, and I don’t post my resume on Facebook, the belief that your personal life and professional life are separate is pure fallacy. It’s just augmented online. You must treat every public online interaction, whether in a Tweet or on your Facebook wall, as available to anyone, and permanent. “But wait”, you say, “Facebook is for my friends, not for people at work.” OK. Then what do you do when your boss friend requests you? How about a critical client? Are you going to ignore them? Like I said, good luck with that.
The thing is, it isn’t daunting to blend the personal and the professional, if you are authentic and exercise good judgment in all facets of your life. That’s the real reason for authenticity; if you are fake, and you have any kind of online presence, eventually you will get sniffed out. If you lack good judgment, well, that’s going to bleed into your professional life also.
You also need to get used to it. The successful knowledge worker will seamlessly weave work and personal throughout their day, and the most successful will find the proper balance between the two, embracing the flexibility it provides in their lives. Whether you are answering e-mail while you wait in line at the bank, or having a conference call while you drive to your parent’s house for dinner, every knowledge workplace trend points in this direction. The sooner you embrace it with our 2009 tools, the more prepared you’ll be with the tools of 2012 and 2015.
[video]
Welcome to the Talent Revolution Live 2010 Events Page