Why companies don’t really get social media

Trevor Young, the PR Warrior, has a great blog post titled Forget Twitter: Start Acting and Caring Like Human Beings – which is all about how some companies really need to step back from the whiteboard and actually think about why they’re using social media.

…getting confused between simply using social media tools because, well, everyone’s using them, and leveraging them strategically to open up your business and communicate with people in ways that are meaningful, respectful and that have impact on an ongoing basis.

Forget the tools for now. The moment you start thinking about channels specifically – around ‘what’ platforms you should be on – your social media efforts will be severely compromised.

Instead, start asking why you should be on Twitter? Why should you have a Facebook presence? Why should you produce videos for YouTube?

I’ve worked for several organisations in the past that thought quite fervently that they just had to be on Twitter or Facebook, mainly because execs had seen a really snappy powerpoint presentation at a conference but really in essence they didnt really understand the why.  They were too engrossed in the what.

Companies whose social media presence just doesn’t add value to either the business objectives or more importantly address how being on social media enhances their customers experience of interacting with them online are really missing the point.

Out of these two issues, I definitely think that it is the second one that is the most important when considering social media. But for many organisations the “why?” question is just not considered, they are too concerned with just doing what everyone else does or says that they should do.

To my mind, there isn’t a lot of mental rigour or strategic oversight going on when you do something without thinking “why are we doing this exactly?”

In our hyper connected world, our lives are increasingly spent online where we are exposed to countless adverts and promotions that try to leverage old world marketing techniques in the new world of digital.  What I am increasingly feeling when I am online on either Facebook, using mobile apps or just browsing the internet is that the way that the majority of companies approach using these platforms for advertising just doesn’t cut it with me anymore.

I was bemoaning just the other day the intrusive nature of sponsored posts on Facebook and how updates my own friends were being drowned out by sponsored posts advertising all kinds of things that I am JUST NOT INTERESTED IN.

I know Facebook needs to look to monetize it’s gazillion members for it to be a profitable publicly listed company, but I am not sure that the way they are doing it is right, especially in the mobile space.  I am sick of seeing ads and promos that just dont give me any real reason to interact with them.  They’re flat, boring and totally one dimensional.

More importantly, I dont want these posts to take precedence over my friends posts just because someone has paid $2.50 to do so.  I would rather pay to use Facebook, free from ads than have my “social” feed polluted with adverts for stupid game downloads or ads for Jeep or whatever else is popping up in my feeds today.

As Trevor points out in his post, instead of trying to be on every social media channel, brands and companies really need to think about what they are trying to do with social media as opposed to just being on all platforms because that’s what everyone is doing.

Because of this gold rush type of mentality, I am actively considering downgrading my usage of certain social media platforms and starting to ramp up usage of social media that I can exert more control over by choosing to interact with brands on the terms that I want.

In my opinion, online marketers need to be careful not to kill off the golden goose of social media by making it just a carbon copy of all the previous forms of media that have drowned in advertising.

LinkedIn endorsements compared to Facebook’s “like”

The one thing that I love about LinkedIn is that it is a business focussed network platform, exactly the opposite of Facebook.

LinkedIn is for real business people to network with peers and organisations that they relate to, do business with or are targeting. The platform has continued to improve it’s functionality as it matures.

However, LinkedIn’s latest endorsement functionality has people are starting to doubt the use and veracity of the endorsements people are making, which directly undermines the whole networking concept

But as this article in Business Insider outlines, LinkedIn does need to watch that it doesn’t fall into the same trap that Facebook faces with it’s “Like” functionality, namely the network marketing effect.

So what’s an endorsement? LinkedIn automatically pulls keywords from your profile and suggests several skill areas that others can endorse with a handy one-click, accept-all option. Now when you sign into LinkedIn, you might be greeted with a suggestion like this: “You know Kevin. Is he an expert in Business Development? If so, endorse him.”

Since endorsements involve a single mouse-click, I can endorse 60 people in 10 minutes and not break a sweat. Click, click. Then the network marketing effect takes hold. The person you just endorsed will receive an email that you’ve done so and suggesting that, perhaps, he or she would want to return the favour. Why not? Above your profile LinkedIn lists a few of your connections and their many skills and specialties. And off you go: Click, click, click. “Look at me, being nice.”

Then what’s the difference between LinkedIn endorsements and hitting the “like” button on your cousin’s Facebook status update about taking Rover to the dog groomer? In my opinion there isn’t any. Depending on the endorser, it’s become either a nice little hello from a friend or an awkward form of self-promotion.

I totally agree with the writers perspective.  The value of the recommendations is that they are like little references that are posted online on your profile.

I dont really care for the endorsement functionality much at all and hope that LinkedIn scales this back and puts more emphasis back onto the idea of real recommendations from real people that you have worked for or with.

Everyone can be an internets nerd… and maybe a millionaire too!

A Facebook friend posted this (H/T – Shelley Barnes) and I was intrigued by what potentially Zuckerburg and Gates were saying about learning.  If these guys learnt it, I wanna too…

I remember coming out of the theatre after watching The Social Network and wanting to just code my butt off and create!  I was so stoked about the potential that the online world can present us, as individuals, as a people and as a planet.  The possibilities are completely infinite.

If you have a child, get them into computing as soon as possible.  Have you seen a child use an iPad? Amazing but not surprising, since the intuitiveness of most online products are designed to be just that way.  Steve Jobs once said making something simple is hard to do, but they do it everyday.

But don’t be afraid of technology.  Embrace it, use it teach yourself and then to also solve any problem you run into along the way.  I use a learning service called Learnable, which is a great course based site.  It helps you learn anything from the basics to the most complicated topics.  But you have to drive yourself, just like all of those great people in the video below.

Most importantly, in the words of legendary Hawthorn coach John Kennedy Snr – “Don’t Think, Do.”