By Erik Qualman
Whether you’re a CEO or student, at some point you’ve pondered the decision of whether to have multiple social media accounts (business vs. pleasure). Some have had success doing this, but these examples are dwindling fast.
Facebook’s new privacy policy allows more individual controls, but it also allows for more openness at the same time. Facebook, like other social media tools, realizes that openness is king to be more useful to its users and (in the end) effectively monetize their platform. Ironically, as individual users of these tools, we often want the best of both worlds when it comes to the hotly debated topic of privacy.
Members of Generation X and older have most likely spent most of their lives in “separate” worlds. You took on a different role or character depending on where you were or who you were with.
Most of us had at least two personas — normally a work persona and a non-work persona. Many of us had several personas: social, work, family, coach, charity, and so on.
Image Source: Laurel Papworth
For instance, your behavior at an event like Woodstock or Burning Man was much different from your behavior at the office the following Monday. “Al the Accountant” may only be known by his coworkers as “Meticulous Accountant Al,” while his bowling pals would know him only as “Al-Valanche” because you better get out-of-the-way when he’s on a weekend bender.
Social Media has Changed the way we Live Offline
Even if you believe that life with social media is worse, you can’t argue that social media has forever changed the way we live. With this change, people are best off being comfortable in their own skin and not pretending to be anything that they aren’t.
Author Marcus Buckingham’s (“Now Discover Your Strengths”) philosophy of playing to your strengths is further played out in a social media world. Transparency demands it. With so much information at our disposal, it’s extremely difficult for a well-rounded person to stand out in this new world.
Without a doubt, it’s somewhat daunting to always be on your best behavior. It’s mentally taxing to have fewer avenues to blow off steam or to always maintain a perfect persona. Perhaps “Al the Accountant” is more effective at work and dogmatic on the details because outside of work he can let it all go and doesn’t have to burden himself with the details.
While there are downsides to such 24/7 personal openness, overall it’s easy to take the side of arguing that appropriate transparency is in sum a good thing for individuals and society. Without question, it’s much “cooler” to say you’re bungee jumping off a remote mountain pass overhang in New Mexico than updating your status that you’re watching the latest episode of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.”
Imagine a world that encourages people to live their own realities, rather than watching someone else’s. Perhaps people have come to the realization that, in reality (pun intended), it’s much cooler to lead their own lives.
Businesses Need to Find Their Niche
The same holds true for corporate behavior in social media. For corporations, trying to be too many things to too many people is costly.
Historically, we’ve seen the “we are the best at everything” messaging come out of many marketing departments. In a 140-character world, if you want to have a chance at helping the consumer retain something and eventually pass it on, it’s crucial that you focus on your strengths or particular niche.
There’s also a need for continuous information exchange across the entire organization; in particular, it’s critical for production and marketing to be in constant contact. It’s one thing for marketing to listen to consumers’ complaints, but it’s an entirely different thing to respond to their complaints, look for trends in product deficiencies, and work closely with production to develop solutions.
To stay relevant, businesses or individuals must:
- Realize everyone is watching — just ask Tiger Woods.
- Be true to your brand, whether it’s your personal brand or company.
- Realize we’re all human and make mistakes. Hopefully people are forgiving when each of our times come.
Two keywords when it comes to social media: fun and common sense. Have plenty of both.
Erik Qualman’s international best-seller, “Socialnomics,” is available for sale at all major bookstores.
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From what I can see, the number of companies (small, medium and large) using social media is growing by leaps and bounds. And your blog advice and that covered in your book definitely helps making that easier and smoother.
Sometimes for a company owner, it just comes down to taking “baby steps.” First get out there and observe social media at work, then enter social media where you feel the most comfortable and build from there.
Two accounts for something like Facebook just complicates it. Then you don’t want to use either account. After using both, I’m just sticking to one account for business/personal.
James:
I agree with you – you need to be one person/personality and go with it! Thanks for the comment.
Great post, Eric! Definitely some good things to keep in mind, especially your point about focusing on your strengths and finding your niche. Once you’ve got your focus it’s even more important to be respectful & responsible both online and off, and remember that what happens offline doesn’t always stay offline…
Sharon:
Thanks for the kind words – let me know when you have your niche and any success that results!
Cheers, Erik
These are all nice advices, and I agree companies that follow them will very probably be successful. But, unfortunately, there are few of these “ideal” companies.
The real challenge in social media marketing is NOT to tell companies what their ideal behaviour might be, but how they can be successful in social media without revolutionizing their entire company (something they just don’t).
It would be great to read about solutions to such, let’s say, “real world examples”, instead of constantly repeating things we’ve all read about social media a billion times by now.
Anonymous:
Great suggestion – I will try and get more “real world examples” if you haven’t seen this ROI video this has a bunch of success stories in it and is a quick view:
http://socialnomics.net/2009/11/12/social-media-roi-examples-video/
Happy Holidays!
Yes, I have seen the video. Once again, it’s a very good work – but mainly fits for people only starting to understand social media.
Personally, I consider myself a social media expert. My problem is convincing customers that social media marketing makes sense for them. I’ve tried facts, I’ve tried emotions – most bigger companies are so scared by “the big unknown” that even a guarantee for heavy sales doesn’t get them to dive into social media.
The one type of people are those that are afraid of all the things that can go wrong when actually TALKING to your customers. They prefer to lose all the revenue from social media sales as long as they also avoid the risk of losing their brand value by using social media.
The other type of people are those who simply don’t understand social media, consider it “that strange, modern hype-thing that’s got nothing to do with my business”, and that don’t WANT to take a closer look, simply because they personally “don’t like it”.
By now, I haven’t found a way to convince either of the two types of people. Would be great if you come up with ideas