We’ve all heard it time and again… Social Media is about conversation! Says the new guy in the room. Everyone nods in unison. It sounds mysterious and innovative. We’re not marketing to consumers, we’re having a conversation with them! However, conversations end with Goodbye. If that’s not how you want YOUR social media program to end, I suggest you chiggity-check yourself and get with the real program. Social media is about driving business results. Period.
What does that mean for the 87% of social media flacks out there clamoring social media is about conversation! as loud as their blog and panel seats will allow them? It means that if you’re considering hiring them… Don’t. Save your money. The business translation for this statement is I haven’t figured out how to drive business results through social media yet. This is probably because most social media experts are little more than well-versed social media consumers. Social media consumers partake in social channels on their own time, as part of their personal lives. In this regard, social media IS about conversation. This is personal social media. This is just like personal email. Personal email is about conversation. Company email is about driving business results. Likewise, company social media is also about driving business results.
Social media is a fantastic new business opportunity for companies. It can drive sales, awareness, messaging, recall, branding, and any number of other business objectives. It is also a fantastic new business opportunity for PR professionals who have a natural proclivity for the space. However, gone are the days when a company can be successful in social media simply by “doing it’. It’s no longer impressive to host a blog. In many instances and industries it’s expected. As the luster fades from doing social media for the sake of doing it, so does the impetus for companies to dedicate resources to it. Social media can no longer be about “just giving it a shot”. Much as its traditional counterparts, social media is now about driving business results.
So what role DOES conversation play? asks the new guy much more timidly now. Conversation is one of many means to achieving business results in social media. It cannot stand on its own, however. Conversations end with goodbye. If social media is to succeed in the corporate world, it must end with a “good buy”… Ok sorry, that was terrible. Point made, though. Before engaging in any social media campaign it is important to identify your target business objectives. At the end of the campaign if you have a lot of Facebook friends and almost as many unmet objectives, it’s time to retool. This is not personal social media for your company. It’s company social media for business results.
Tags: Business Results, Conversation, Paul Dyer, social media
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September 13, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Michael
Social Media is about conversation and no not all conversations end in Goodbye.
A lot of conversations end with “See ya soon”, “Can’t wait to see whats next”, “I’ve changed my mind”.
Look at companies like HP and AMD who have embraced the conversation, taken the “Goodbyes” with the “See ya soons” and the “I’ve changed my minds” and have wowed their competition.
Two years ago maybe a little less, you couldn’t find a tech related site which would recomend an HP or Dell system to a visitor, most of them would say “Build your own PC it’s better”, now because of conversations that did not end in Goodbye these same sites recomend HP or Dell systems.
A lot of people at HP credit social media for their double digit revenue this past quarter and a lot of people at AMD have listened to the conversation bloggers are having about them to make changes that hopefully will turn their company aound.
Now lets take a product like Norton Anti Virus, use to be bloat ware and crappy, now a great produt. But because Symantec has not engaged in conversations, people still call it a crappy product.
September 13, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Paul Dyer
Thanks for weighing in, Michael. You’ve identified a great example in HP - a company that participates in social media for business results and does so with above average success (not great but above average).
That does not, however, mean that HP conversed with consumers for the purpose of having a conversation. It means HP conversed with consumers to sell more product by deliberately changing the opinion that building your own PC is better. That’s not conversation for the sake of conversation. That’s a marketing strategy.
It is interesting that you would choose Symantec (of all the CarryOn clients) as your target for the last statement, however. Symantec is a client that wisely remained above the fray while their products went from bloatware to excellent. In the last 9 months, however, Symantec has launched one of the most aggressive social media campaigns in the software industry and has enjoyed nothing short of miraculous changes in consumer sentiment as a result.
In that regard, Symantec is a fantastic example of how conversation is not the point of social media… It was a wise decision to refrain from conversing with consumers while the AntiVirus product was what you describe as crappy, and to then aggressively engage consumers with a well messaged campaign that has clear business objectives once the better iterations were launched.
I’m sorry Michael, but companies can no longer afford to live in the “just do it” phase of social media. Social media is about driving business results. Not conversation.
September 13, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Michael
I did know Symantec is one of your clients but I didn’t chose them because they are I chose them because in my opinion they are a good example.
1994 - Norton was probably the greatest AV available, Norton System Tools a great product also.
Fast forward 10 years, people were saying Norton AV and System tools could possibly do more damage to your system than a virus. That is how bloated and how much of a resource hog the Norton programs became.
But after 2005 maybe before, Symantec started listening to what people were saying and I am the first to say that the 2009 version of Norton is a fantastic product.
But one problem Symantec stopped listening. Because while 2009 is a great version of Norton one of the coolest features isn’t available in the 64 bit version of Windows, a version of Windows which according to Microsoft sales have tripled and even sold more than the 32 bit version this summer.
I am not saying that social media is just about the conversation, it’s more than just the conversation but I do believe the conversation is a big part of it.
Nor am I saying that companies “just do it”, I think that is wrong and I’ve seen companies just do it and they’ve done it wrong.
Going back to what you said “It was a wise decision to refrain from conversing with consumers while the Antivirus product was what you describe as crappy, and to then aggressively engage consumers with a well messaged campaign that has clear business objectives once the better iterations were launched.”
I think it would of been a better decision to engage the customer have a conversation when the product was at its low point, admit they messed up. Because then they would of fixed it sooner rather than later, and it would of been public knowledge that they were fixing it, and today people who could benefit from the 2009 version of Norton wouldn’t be afraid to use it, and people who haven’t even tried it wouldn’t bash it.
I thank you Paul for allowing me to have this conversation with you, and I hope we can have some more and maybe you will disagree with my post and I will disagree with your reply, but that is what makes social media in my opinion so great. People having more than one view and sharing those views, and while you may not change my mind or I may not change your mind. Someone who reads what you and I have written here can probably see both points of views and decide one way or their other.