What does 'Social Media' mean? (and what does it mean for my business?)

What does social media mean(and what does it mean for my company?).

This presentation seems long, but isn’t. It’s going to explain:

• What social media means• Why it’s important• And how it can benefit your company.

First, the phrase ‘social media’ is misunderstood.

This term is generally used to refer to tools like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.

These tools aren’t so important for our explanation. They could change as time goes on, or as others become popular.

They are just the symptoms of the changes that we’re concerned with here, not the cause.

The cause is the vast increase in the scope and speed of communication between people.

The cause of this, is technology.

Communication to many people needs technology.

Technology used to be big, slow and expensive.

Unless you had space, time and lots of money, you couldn’t do effective mass communication.

But now technology is small, fast and cheap.

So now it’s easy for everyone to communicate with everyone.

Anywhere.

Doing anything.

Before this change in the use of technology, a small group of people controlled mass communication.

They had control over our perceptions; of brands, of the news, of people, of governments.

Now that control is gone.

Now if someone has a bad experience, they can tell everyone.

They can do it quickly, cheaply and very effectively.

They can easily find groups of people who think the same as they do, and co-ordinate and act together.

They can all share their same bad experiences in public.

• Using a cheap video camera and YouTube• A phone camera and Flickr• A computer and Facebook• A blog and Wordpress/Tumblr/etc• Anything and Twitter• etc...

So what, at the start of this presentation, we called ‘social media’ you can see are really just the tools used for mass communication. Communication which is now having an impact on society because of better and more widespread technology.

Companies panic because they focus on the tools, and not the change.

They then think about making a ‘viral’ for YouTube.

Or ‘engaging via Facebook’. Or ‘starting a conversation via a blog’.

They look for ‘hidden rules of success’, copying what others have had success with. Not copying the principles behind the success, but copying the ideas literally.

This is wrong.

Instead of focusing on the tools, focus on the change in communication.

Focus on the cause, rather than the effects.

Increased communication between people means increased communication between your customers, or potential customers, or both.

For example.

This communication can be a valuable

resource for brands, leading

to improvements, innovation or new

and unexpected sources of revenue.

Like Wispa.(Check: http://www.marketsentinel.com/files/marketsentinel-cadburywispa.pdf)

Complaints in public about brands can’t be stopped.

But they can lead to improvements and the solving of problems which you didn’t before realise were a problem, without expensive and time-consuming customer surveys or focus groups.

You can then turn a public complaint into a public solution; making a virtue out of fixing these issues.

Like Dell.(check http://www.docstoc.com/docs/23282777/Case-Study-Dell-Hell)

Improvements in technology allow experimentation, quick response and reaction at a low, low cost.

The money you previously spent on getting your ad on TV can be spent creating something better, something more likely to strike a chord with your customers and be shared.

Like Old Spice.

(check http://wearesocial.net/blog/2010/08/wieden-kennedys-spice-case-study/)

By looking at things the right way, brands can see:• opportunities rather than risks• good rather than bad• sense rather than panic• insight rather than noise

Increased communication through better technology is something which brands can easily and cheaply listen to, learn from and experiment with.

The future of your brand depends on looking at this change the right way to get the insight, see the opportunities and generate the revenue.

In summary: Focus on the change, not the tools.

That’s it...

...although...

...if you do want to discuss any of this further, get in touch:

robd@northerncomfort.co.ukwww.northerncomfort.co.uk

And if you enjoyed this presentation, please pass it on.