Social Media Goes Corporate ... 140 Characters at a Time
05/14/2009 10:54
Social media has opened a new frontier for corporations seeking to build their brand and meet their customers’ needs. But taking the social media party that’s been made popular by friends and families and applying it to the corporation needs to be done with a transparency that doesn’t fit cleanly into the traditional corporate paradigm. The etiquette of a casual, party-like conversation where attendees roam from conversation to conversation meeting new people and exchanging ideas and opinions doesn’t always mix well with the traditional corporate structure and protocol of human resource departments, PR firms, IT departments and corporate communications. For years, companies have succeeded in managing well crafted messages in a scheduled monologue spoken directly to their customers (aka the audience). Now, companies are in a dialogue. To succeed, they need to be the courteous host of their own party as Josh Bancroft so well describes it. They need to be the nice host who provides the location, sends out the invitations, encourages interesting conversation, and takes care of the messy issues and unruly attendees. Mostly it’s about listening and not talking too much – just like real space. As the telecom industry moves its branding, communications and customer relationships to the social media domain we are faced with several paradigm shifting questions not the least of which is, “Who really owns the conversation of your company?” Companies that nurture their company’s conversation and keep their party fun will attract the big crowds and will succeed. And the pace of change seems frenetic where the popularity of sites such as Twitter can more than double every 30 days and new social media apps seem to pop up weekly. The low barriers required to launch online technology start-ups and the ubiquity of Internet access combine to make fertile ground for social media popularity and innovation. A recent Oregonian article highlights this trend in Portland, Ore., and blogs such as fastwonder post multiple entries daily about the latest social media app or spotlight the latest social media faux pas. Listen up corporate America, your audience is talking. Party on. Post comments on your ideas for how a business-to-business telecom can succeed in hosting its own social media conversation. John Nee is vice president of corporate communications at Integra Telecom. Prior to joining Integra in 2000, Nee held management positions with Sequent Computer Systems (now IBM) and Creativepro.com, where he managed sales, strategic partnerships, application services development and marketing.
User Comments !
More and more often as people find more and more ways to twittle away their beautiful summer weather with some dopey screen in their face.... bla, bla, bla.....
Of course if the huddled masses are going to actually look at trees and streams and the beautiful outdoors on a 3" screen on their Blackberry instead of actually looking up at their natural surroundings...
You bet that there will be someone selling them something, and why not? It is capitalism after all. AND yes the trick is to sell them something by making it fun and entertaining, and pretending to be their friend and follow them on Twitter...
Oh I could do an entire thesis on this alone... Therefor I will stop here...
Posted by: Lori Dell | May 20 2009 10:16:06
Lori makes a great comment about making it fun and entertaining. This is something that most business owners overlook. People buy from other people. They don't want to buy from big generic corporations. They want to buy from a person who they like and trust. This is Selling 101. And if Twitter helps establish a strong bond between a business and its customers...then even better.
Posted by: Chris DiRe | May 31 2009 18:58:22
Twitter is a novelty. At first I did'nt like it as it provides so less space to communicate one's ideas. But Once a person get used to it, it is really wonderful tool.
The purpose of twitter is completely different from any other available media. It is like SMS. You write one and send it to whole of your network for short updates on work, business or even leisure.
I think, business communication can just go one level up by changing from mailing lists to "twitter" list. It is really very useful.
Posted by: Michael Langel | June 16 2009 01:48:10
Social Media for today is a great art. It helps lot of businessman to market their products and sevices.
Posted by: Arlene Myers | July 01 2009 22:25:05
Businesses need to make it engaging, and need to get in touch with their consumers - I see a future for internet and tech savvy positions within corporations in the future.
Posted by: Kyle Fresh | October 05 2009 13:35:21
Social media is great, just look at twitter and the number of companies that use it! In the enterprise culture 140 characters is more than enought especially when time is so important.
Posted by: drunk girls | November 11 2009 11:22:17
Very true... I agree with the writer.. It could have been done long ago...
Posted by: Andrew Nelson | November 29 2009 04:16:02
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