Do you have a fundamental understanding of what it means to be a “social” company? I’ve linked through to a few articles throughout the post here today. Click through and invest a little time today in order to better evaluate your use of social media and where your strategy either may, or may not fit in.
“It’s gotten to the point that the meaning of “social media” today doesn’t relate to issues like social housing, social policy and so forth. It’s social as in social life, social butterfly, social house and social disease. It’s social in the sense of two or more people gathered together and interacting. It’s not social in the sense of recognizing that where two or more people are interacting, society has something to win or lose.” – Alexandra Samuel in The Devolving Meaning of Social Media
Yesterday I read a very interesting post by Tom Fishburne entitled the antisocial network. Illustrated in his cartoon about Facebook and explained in his post was the observation that there exists a widespread disconnect between brands that are using social media and brands that actually understand its true value and largely untapped potential. Tom utilized a great YouTube video of the LIVESTRONG Chalkbot campaign as an example of social media done right. Watch the video and ask yourself afterward if your understanding of social media is the same as that of Nike’s here:
“…business owners have an opportunity to define and inspire what social media is going to be. There’s a huge responsibility with that. And I don’t think social media was ever supposed to be about linkbait or one-time campaigns or proving the cost of engaging with a customer on Facebook. That’s just what we’ve allowed it to mean.” – Lisa Barone in Back When Social Media Was Human…
“Businesses that are supporting their outward facing social media efforts with a true underlying philosophy are the ones that will win in the long run. That means your campaigns need to be representative of broader goals…” – Amber Naslund in Successful Social Media is More Than A Campaign
It’s refreshing to see that several industry leaders/thinkers have addressed this topic over the past several weeks. I hope that in clicking through the links here today that you’ve learned more about the shift that is taking place. More importantly, I hope that you will allow what you’ve learned here today to influence your perspective and change the way you aspire to grow your business using social media. Please do leave your thoughts in the comment section, I’d love to hear them.
