We Bloomers consider that Social Media IS the future for (Digital) Media.
Indeed we believe that what is called by many; ‘the web’ or ‘the internet’ will soon be a social media dominated domain and marketplace; giving much more ‘control’ and influence to your audience as opposed to your ‘corporate’ office.
Being a high growth opportunity, it’s also a ‘bandwagon’ that many traditional and digital agencies seem to be attempting to jump on without properly understanding (or perhaps believing in) its potency …. and associated risks. Clients are also hesitant to engage without a more tangible appreciation of its benefits. This results in dabbling, that ultimately debases the business case and credibility in the approach; particularly when the provenance in such a revolutionary technique is limited and clients hesitate with RoI not easy to identify … quickly!
I may be rightly(?) considered biased in this view, although would suggest that, as one of the Media Agencies that already has a number of social media client campaigns running (together with a Dadi Award for a social media campaign), we have a privileged insight that provides an experienced perspective.
We only have to look at recent media history to identify the power of social media campaigns …. or perhaps the catastrophic lack of them; that really stand out to emphasise our view.
Take for example, the troubles Toyota had with its car fault recalls, the Catholic Church with their scandal of child abuse and much more topical at present, BP (and its CEO!) and their (public) ‘trial’ in the Gulf of Mexico.
We can assume(?) that its not arrogance or ‘care-less’ that inhibits their engagement, so I would consider that each of these has quite powerful traditional media agencies fighting on their behalf (albeit, one may question the Catholic Church’s abilities here!) Even with these powerful lobby groups, their corporate reputations and images have been hugely tarnished with the result that their ‘value’ and pulling power has been fundamentally debased.
Today, there is nowhere to hide, yet the tools and techniques exist to pro-actively engage with and openly address such critique. Effective Social Media campaigns could and would have made such a positive difference to these enterprises and their challenges; even if simply considered from a Corporate Social Responsibility perspective.
The bottom line is that, the traditional ‘push’ mentality of corporate messaging is no longer good enough (on its own) to engage with your marketplace and stakeholders to maintain brand, image and reputation, particularly in tough times, let alone promote products and services.
Engaging with your stakeholders and creating effective digital dialogue with them, whatever their views, is vital for future enterprise sustainability. Obviously this is easier done when the message(s) and engagement is positive as opposed to critical. However, treating the audience with due respect and engaging with debate can be so powerful not only for image, brand and reputation management, but also for new product/service development, strategic market positioning and even simply growing market share.
Clients must be prepared to change their approach to their marketplace and provide professional resource to effectively engage with the dialogue created. Such a challenge must not be underestimated.
I for one, long for the day when we get beyond those mind-numbing (and cosmetic) TV Ad campaigns with a related call to action web-site where we are supposed to have fun with some kind of trivial engagement.
Lets stand up and be professional about it.
And clients ….. please start to appreciate that ‘push’ is no longer good enough on its own; even though that is what you have traditionally been comfortable with. Your target audience now has a voice to which you are called to respectfully respond and engage …. ie ‘pull’.
Ignore it at your peril, because ‘pull-push’ IS the way forward and ‘dabbling just doesn’t cut it.
Just take a look at the Wikileaks debate today ….. so who is in control?!? ……….
“effective Social Media campaigns could and would have made such a positive difference to these enterprises and their challenges;”
You give the example of the Catholic Church. How do you think Social Media could have helped them prevent the child abuse scandals being so damaging?
As for today’s wikileaks debate; the white house and our own government are trying to engage with voters via social media all the time. I can’t see how they could have prevented or softened this damage using any on-line techniques.
Ultimately, a corporate mess up is a corporate mess up. If their public Social Media face is friendly and their private face is evil, that is not going to prevent fall out from any negative revelations about the company. To the public, the social media will just seem like another shield protecting the bosses in the same way as when you can never get through to a manager when you call to complain about a service. It will just be PR fluffers manning the fort on Twitter and Facebook, not those with responsibility.
Social Media works against unethical business practises because it gives the public power to protest with a few button clicks. Which is great for the public, but I can’t see how it can soften negative revelations about a business. (In fact, I’ve seen it damaging far more companies reputations than used for damage limitation – this month alone Gillian McKeith and Dr Pepper have been stung by bad use of social media and they will have giant advertising budgets)
Surely the people power of social media just means that if a company is behaving dishonestly, they are less likely to get away with it. Surely taking responsibility for their own actions and behaving ethically is the only way of preventing this – so they have nothing to hide, not engaging with the public in frivolities.
Hi Rhys (Good Welsh name!) ….. I’m not sure if its the cases I used that provide you with such consternation or the fact that Social Media can’t help? I certainly do not believe that any of my three examples has a private face of evil and I believe that I could present a cogent and pursuasive argument in each of their defence; not for excusing their misdemeanours but for acknowledging them and engaging properly with their maligned audience in a manner that demonstrates appropriate due care, attention and respect. Yet that is not my objective here.
The point I make is that; as you say, a corporate mess up is just that, yet we all make mistakes. The focus is therefore not to shy away from acknowledging the mistake (particularly when catastrophic) but to engage with the criticism and enable your ‘audience’ to voice their anger, frutration or whatever and show respect for this voice by responding positively and proactively. An action that all 3 failed to take.
In each of these cases a powerful lobby group was thus enabled to voice their (biased?)critique via every media forum without proper response or acknowledgement, only by defensive and reactive tactics. Tactics which clearly failed.
Social Media defies rhetoric and ‘spin’ (from either an attacking or defensive perspective) and that is a large part of its power. Therefore enabling a proper debate on the reality of the emotions, facts and issues. Again, in each of these cases, I would contend, these have not been clearly presented from a balanced perspective, to the ‘audience’. Albeit, that does not ‘excuse’ the original misdemeanour or try to justify it in any way. Rather, it provides the opportunity to establish a better balanced perspective and also to demonstrate real concern for corrective action and reparation.
I therefore disagree that managers and business reputations can hide behind PR ‘fluffers’. Social Media actually enables Corporate Social Responsibility in a manner that is far more powerful than any legislation.
Regarding your final comment on ‘frivolities’; I absoultely agree …. we have yet another example appearing on our TV screens over the last week …. Vote on a BT website to decide the outcome of the next stage of an ongoing TV Ad saga …. ‘Tripe’! …. I am much more interested to let BT Openreach know that their ‘broadband’ service stinks and they should use their copper ‘infrastructure’ to pull through fibre optic cable so as to enable the delivery of real (20MB+) broadband to every door ……… and then go make pots and pans with ‘their’ copper ‘waste’ … thats what a real social media campaign should be telling them about their product and service development!
Finally, thank you for engaging in this debate … the more veiwpoints and arguments that are presented on Social Media, the more polished and potent will be its use and deployment. I therefore emphasise that these are my personal views and recognise that within an emotional environment there will be conflicting arguments and perspectives …. such is the nature of Social Media.