Social media: eavesdropping with consent
There’s a lot of buzz around social media at present. And it’s a space that every company feels it should be in. But, first things first, what exactly is it?
Social media is a term that has come to represent the ways in which the internet is being used to connect people in a two-way, conversational style. It allows any individual to generate content and share it with the rest of the community. This content can be text, such as comments, questions or opinions, or it can be photos, videos, audio files … anything that someone can create on their computer—or mobile phone, for that matter.
Think of a traditional website as an online brochure. It is a one-to-many form of communication in which one person talks, and everyone else listens. “Come and read what we want you to read. Now give us a call or go away.”
Telecom’s website is a classic example of an online brochure. Visitors can read what Telecom has to say about itself, but to interact with the company they then need to leave their computer and pick up a telephone, or send an email and wait up to 24 hours for a reply. Telecommunication companies should be doing better. I am already at your website, I want to engage with you now! Help!
This kind of website is like a deaf and blind person yelling from a soapbox and handing out business cards. Social media is a barbecue where you can invite your friends and customers to talk with you, while other people eavesdrop. And this eavesdropping is the major difference.
Social media is a many-to-many broadcast style. This is typically thought of as the big networks, like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. Services like this are indeed the most social of social media networks. They are entirely composed of user-generated content and, depending on your privacy settings, this information can be instantly viewed and shared all around the world.
However, the term social media should not be limited to just these services. It should also be used to describe any website where people can post their thoughts and have them read by anyone else. Forums and (most) blogs invite visitors to comment, question or debate. Some corporate websites do this very well too.
By publishing content generated by visitors to your website, you can turn your online brochure into a social media portal. You are allowing social interaction through the media you have provided. This can be done by building the functionality into your site, or by embedding it from existing sources.
The point is social media is not just Facebook and Twitter. Any website can be a social media portal. You just need to be lucky enough to have people who care enough about what it is you are doing to want to interact. And you have to be brave enough to publish what they want to say about you.
That is not to say you should be publishing anything anyone wants to say, but it is important to acknowledge people’s frustrations when they arise. You may be amazed to see your brand champions jumping to your defense, particularly on fan pages on Facebook, or through Twitter. These kind of set ups can be very self-moderating towards negativity, but you do need to consider a system to control offensive and incorrect comments. More on that in a future post.
So, if I had to define social media in three words they would be: “Eavesdropping with consent.”
That is how I define it anyway. Maybe you disagree? If so, send me an email. I aim to reply to all emails in 24 hours. Just kidding. Abuse me in the comments section below, or catch me on Twitter, or Facebook.
Footnote: I don’t know if social media is still the correct term, but it is a hell of a lot better than the extremely esoteric and self-empowering “Web 2.0”.
- Anthony Gardiner will write about some of the ways social media can be measured in his next installment for StopPress. And, for future musings, be sure to check out his Socialmedihuh blog.
Jennie Leng
March 30, 2010
Hi Anthony
As a part of the team that develops this site I'm well aware it isn’t perfect, and we’re working improving it, however you may be interested to know that it's not all brochure-ware and certainly has some of the elements your article refers to, e.g.
- Online Chat has is available to customer throughout our key product and self-service pages enabling customers to initiate a two-way conversation with one of our customer services team, from their computer
- Video is being rolled out on the site progressively, as shown here http://www.telecom.co.nz/mobile/yourmobile/personalise/mobiletraining
- Telecom is actively engaging with customers where they are, and has been cited as a 'good example of corporates doing social media' by a number of media commentators including Lance Wiggs
- Further educational content is being developed to enable our customers to get more out of their relationship with us including regular eDMs about great sites to visit online, interactive tutorials of how to set up your broadband and demos of mobile phones like this one. http://telecom.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1672
We’re working hard to make a concerted effort to engage with our customers in a personal way, and using our digital channels. The journey will take some time, but it's well underway.
Jennie Leng
Telecom Digital
Lilly
March 30, 2010
Jennie, I fell asleep at Hi.
Tom
March 30, 2010
@Lilly: lol
Anthony
March 30, 2010
Good to see Telecom is making an effort.
Although online chat is definitely engaging, it is private and one-to-one, like a phone call. Does that count as Social Media?
rs
March 30, 2010
You might like to expand your research and see what we're doing in the SME segment for Telecom. http://www.hubcommunity.co.nz is a wordpress based video channel that is open for comments. It also uses Twitterfeed to deliver views to the Tips and Tricks. Oh and we also comment and input to the XT facebook fanpages. Just saying.
Anthony
March 30, 2010
That definitely could be social, it has the functionality. However, in 20 minutes of trawling, I only found one user generated comment – from the Technical Director of the company in one of the videos.
Without two-way, visible conversation taking place, even this functionality-rich section of your site could end up being a brochure with moving pictures.
Could I post my own video on this section talking about my experiences with Telecom?
I am just a regular ol' consumer though, not an SME, so I did not find this section. Could I please have the same functionality on the rest of your site? And will you publish what I think so other people can hear my thoughts and contribute?
It would be cool if I could ask what a handset was like, and have reviews posted from consumers like me who had actually used it…