Our thinking - what underpins our approach
Our thoughts about Social Media underpin Our Approach which in turn helps define the Our Services that we offer.
Social Media - our definitions
Social Media is a label used to describe those web based tools that do some or all of the following:
- Support individuals or groups in:
- Finding others with common interests.
- Connecting to them, and possibly.
- Organising to achieve common aims.
- Support people in having conversations with others that are open to any in their community to join in, without explicitly or implicitly requiring them to do so (contrast with email).
- Enable people to connect with those that they trust and share their views or ratings of some or all of the following:
- People that they trust or rate e.g as experts (friending or connecting).
- Knowledge they regard as practical and useful, or fun, or thought provoking (bookmarks).
- Things that they like – music, books, pictures etc (favourites).
- Support collaborative working within and betweeen organisations.
Web based tool attributes
Because Social Media is based on web technology, the tools inherit attributes of the web which can have high significance. The main significant attributes are:
- Magnification: Whatever you say may be heard/read by millions, the web may magnify your voice. Sod's law says that this means that things you say will get to people you'd prefer did not hear them.
- Memory: Whatever you said once, cannot be removed from memory - some record remains.
- Connectedness: It's all connected, you cannot say one thing in once place and another elsewhere and hope that the inconsistency is not discovered, it will be.
Moral consequences of Web attributes
The consequences of these web attributes are that certain personal and organisational moral attributes are rewarded, or at least their converses are discouraged. The attributes encouraged are consideration, courage, consistency and honesty.
Consideration because the impact of magnification is that what you say will get to many places, andin some of these, it may cause offence. It may get to many more people than you originally intended. If you do offend some people, you will be regarded as a dangerous provocateur by some, or socially inept by others. So when playing on the larger stage it makes sense to consider the consequences of your words.
Courage, because the power to unintentionally offend could cause you to disengage. However, not engaging is not an option for business. So you have to engage knowing that you may offend.
Consistency is the main factor encouraged by Web based tools. Inconsistency will be discovered because of connectedness and memory. The need for consistency of message encourages you to be honest, as it is easier to remember the one story, but it does not compell you to be honest. Nor does consistency mean not changing your story over time. "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do sir?" said John Maynard Keynes.
The other web attribute compelling honesty is an aspect of magnification. There are many places on the web where people may be talking about you. You cannot engage in all of these places with the limited resources of your Marketing and PR departments. But if you can engage, you should in order to influence your brand. PwC say (as do others) "Our brand is what people say about us when we are not in the room". The web provides many, many rooms for people to talk about you, the only way you can influence those discussions is by empowering all of your people to engage on your behalf on the web. This raises a number of risks, all of these can be addressed, but more importantly it addresses the risk that you lose all influence over your brand. However if you empower your staff to speak for you they, will tell it as it is - the truth as they see it. If you brief them to tell a different story, your briefing will be published on the web eventually, and memory and connectedness will damage your brand more than the occassional mistakes your staff might make.
Or you can decide this Social Media thing is going away, can be ignored.
We are not here to persuade you of its value, that's your decision. If you think it has value we can help you steer your organisation towards maximising the benefits you get from it.
Our services
- Maximise Benefits
- Manage Risks
- Develop Social Media Strategy
- Plan & Deliver Changes
- Coach Individuals & Groups
- Engage The Organisation
