Social Media, no pussy cat

Over the years I have been fascinated at the way we latch on to terms and sayings as if they are brand new innovations never seen before. Remember “TQM (Total Quality Management)”, “BS5750”, “Quality circles”, “Just in time”, “WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get)”, PowerPoint presentations and Multimedia, 
prefixes like “Instant (whip, coffee, dry, messaging and on and  on…)”, Automatic, Motorised, Rapid, Natural, Organic, Original….
The list just goes on and on.

Most of these were being practiced and delivered by quality and innovative organisations long before the term was ever thought of, others have lost their original meaning.

What they stand for are things that we desire or aspire to. This has not changed over thousands of years, we just have got better at it and technology has enabled us to deliver in much more effective ways that were hard, or even impossible to do in previous years.

Lets face it we just like new labels that we can latch on to and although this is important, sometimes we can miss the real value by not understanding what it really is that we are getting involved in.

Take for example the term “PowerPoint presentation”. This really means a slide presentation with the only difference is it’s digital rather than a 35mm slide. The word “multimedia”, which is seen as a presentation that runs on a CD-ROM, has lost its true meaning. Multimedia is the use of “multiple” forms of “media” brought together to create a dynamic form of communications. The original multimedia industry, who used multiple forms of media, had to re-position the term as “True Multimedia” in order to differentiate. Unfortunately along the way the market has lost out on experiencing a real multimedia experience. Back in the 90’s, I set up a “True Multimedia” demonstration suite in Manleys prior to PowerPoint and video projectors. It created a dynamic “wow” factor, rarely seen today where the whole room came alive and sales were made “instantly”. Something which we fully intend to bring back into the market in an affordable way… watch this space!

In Ecclesiastes, written by King Solomon in 950bc, he states; “There is nothing new under the sun”. He is really talking about human nature and that we keep making the same mistakes and the same assumptions.

The term “Social Networking” really means networking with other people on a social basis. This is not rocket science and never has been. What social networking is perceived as today is Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and so on. The only difference today is that we are using technology to do what we have done for thousands of years…. networking, gossip, third party endorsement, word of mouth, banter, opinions, sharing, advice, recommendations, buying & selling, community and much more.

This is a dynamically and radically more powerful way of doing what we have already been doing since the world began but we need to be careful that we treat it like that. Unfortunately we tend to dive into the next trend without fully knowing what we are getting involved in and can come out with a lot of scars.

In the ‘good old days’ if you said something nasty about your friend to another friend it hurt a small number of people, it took you a few weeks to recover and you lost a friend from time to time.

The same today can take your business down, lose you that new career opportunity or even put you in prison! Why? Because you tell the whole world and you tell it “in writing”. When we say “can I have that in writing please” it means it is very important and you might need to reference it in the future.

Examples where it has gone wrong for multi-national corporations:-

Nestle:
Greenpeace put up a video campaign to urge the company to stop using palm-oil in their products. People put up anti-Nestle slogans as their profile pictures and left negative comments on the Nestle facebook page. The Nestle PR team couldn’t cope with the barrage of negative comments and they left responses such as “Oh please… it’s like we’re censoring everything to allow only positive comments”. Eventually Nestle had to apologise for how they reacted; “We’ve stopped deleting posts, and I have stopped being rude”. They did stop but still today there are 1000s of negative comments on their fan page.

Honda Accord:
Honda launched a Facebook page dedicated to the release of their new vehicle that was overwhelmed with negative comments.  Many people hated the design and they let Honda know exactly what they were thinking by posting negative comments.

Microsoft:
Just recently Microsoft launched a Twitter campaign using the disaster in Japan as a way to boost Bing. After a backlash they had to apologise and donate money to the Japanese disaster relief.

On the other hand, social networking used wisely, understanding what you are getting involved in plus using the correct expertise can be a vital element in your marketing communication mix that your company gets involved in “if” it is right for you.

So lets talk about social networking, is it just a new term for “Word of Mouth”?

• An estimated 19% of online users log onto social networking sites at least monthly or more often, while 41% of youths ages 12 to 21 visit social sites daily.
• Sites like Facebook and MySpace gather product information and recommendations. As many as 4 out of 10 participants use social sites for these purposes.
• 64% of internet users in Western Europe rate personal recommendation as the most important source of product information.
• 67% of Twitter users who become followers of a brand are more likely to buy that brand’s products.
• 60% of Facebook users who become a fan of a brand are more likely to recommend that brand to a friend.
• 74% of consumers are influenced on buying decisions by fellow socialisers after soliciting input via social media.

Nothing new here, just the technology. Human nature is just the same; we believe our friends, we are loyal to our communities and we like to help others.

In most instances social community projects like these become more and more commercial as we are seeing by the explosive growth in online advertising now hitting these sites. Advertising on social media sites increased by almost 200% on a like-for-like basis in 2010 over the prior year. This inevitably changes the dynamics and can lead to a significant shift in personality that needs to be considered in your use. Always apply common sense, challenge any new “big thing” and ask the questions “is it a boom or a bubble” or is it just the “new way”?

Does anyone remember Second Life? Where we were told that we were mad if we didn’t start a new life in the virtual world. Launched in June 2003; Microsoft, IBM, BMW and others set up expensive offices to run training programmes and opened showrooms; rock stars played virtual gigs; and ‘Web 2.0 consultants’ offered to put your company on this exciting Second Life virtual world. You could set up a business presence that would draw customers through novel activities, use avatars as promotional vehicles and ads in the Second Life publications. There were even virtual advertising agencies!

It grew rapidly to over 20 million registered users but in June 2010 it laid off 30% of its workforce. With the most popular areas developing in gambling and adult-only, it became unattractive to companies like IBM and Microsoft. The developers implemented policies to clean up the virtual world, the people left and the rest is history that hardly anybody talks about. We can’t control what people will want to use a ‘social world’ for and we can’t control what people say about you.

In my article last year, I talked about a new approach Manleys are developing for our clients which we call the “Me Media”- putting the “ME” back into “MEdia”. In my next article, I will talk more on this in relation to “True Social Networking” and how it can significantly increase the effectiveness of your marketing activity.

In conclusion; word of mouth, third party endorsement and referral are very powerful tools for your business, select the platform that suits you – understand the path your customers walk. If they are not on social networking sites then you don’t need to be there. Use the best advice. Be wise and tread carefully as you have a tiger not a pussy cat at your fingertips, just make sure it is tamed, on a lead and on your side!