Busy changing Social Media to lowercase and getting ready to replace the entire phrase with the next big buzz.

Perhaps someone can just add to the definition of Air in Wikipedia …using social media is now a lifestyle like breathing and a link to join here.

Tom Swift’s last blog post..Know Where Your Customers Are In The Social Web

Juliann hits a point home. Many companies have and still operate under an illusion, a facade of image. Transparency does not need to be 100%- as there is proprietary brand knowledge. What is happening is that social media is shining the light on companies real values. It literally is en-light-en-ing them and consumers. This is why some companies are scared. Their core values don’t truly go all the way down to the core. It’s only a thin veneer of paint.

Just jumping into social media is not what I prescribe for any company. A company should not just get a blog or a twitter or a facebook account because they MUST have one all of a sudden. Starting and maintaining a social media presence is a two-pronged approach- short term and long term.

In the short term you are fielding problems and questions from current and future customers. This is part customer relations and part crisis management. The long term is where it gets more nuanced. This is where you need to sit down with your communications strategists and figure out how your core values, brand message and campaign message translate with the technology online.

If you find that you JUST need to get online and start fielding questions ASAP it may be necessary to answer all questions under an anonymous official account that reflects the whole company at first. In time you will figure out who should be communicating via social media whether it be a Senior level executive, an intern, a customer service rep, a rotating cast of characters, or just an anonymous corporate entity. No strategy is bolt-on.

There’s no excuse not to be in social media. It’s communicating, plain and simple. If you don’t know how to work the technology then Google it OR hire someone to teach you. Pretty soon we’re going to stop talking about Social Media and start talking about how social media works for us.

But as for businesses, many fear loss of control of the message – it’s like the wild wild west to them. I say that in reality, they never really had control of the message, it only appeared that way. Up until recently, companies were not privvy to the water cooler talk that is now available in digestible digital formats. The conversations happened, they just never heard them. Active listening was never part of the equation, it was more organized listening like focus groups and user communities or we would count actual responses. Those tools are available now. I can only imagine what this landscape will look like in years to come, but I do think that it will be second nature to future generations as the quote from Charlene Li indicates. Thanks for the post.

Juliann Grant’s last blog post..6 Ways to Retool Your Marketing Budget

Toby Cummings’s last blog post..I’ve Got the SoDak Blues