The Same Only Different

By: Mike Chirveno, An Expert of FreshXperts

Hundreds of millions of people have embraced social media as their preferred method of connecting with friends, acquaintances, business associates and even businesses themselves.  This shift in communication mediums is rapid and far-reaching.  In 2009, Boston College stopped giving out email addresses to incoming students and is communicating via social media.  Coca-Cola receives eighty times more hits on their Facebook Fan Page than they do on their website.  Starbucks receives ten times more hits on their Facebook Fan Page than they do on their website.  With this shift, it's incumbent on business owners and managers to learn how to manage social media communications.  As I work with clients on their social media strategy, I'm always struck by the fact that even though they have a long track record in building great relationships with clients, these new mediums paralyze them.  They don't intuitively know how to connect with customers on these new platforms.  Connecting with customers using social mediums is the same as traditional mediums - only different. 

To get to know someone, you need to engage in two-way conversation.  For years, we've been convinced that if potential customers knew just a little bit more about our goods or services, they would buy them.  So, we make our website bigger with more information, hire more salespeople to make more sales calls and print fancier brochures all with the hope that this additional information will push them over the edge.  We push more and more content "at" them.  We'd never handle a personal relationship that way.  When we meet someone in person and start to build a relationship, we ask questions back and forth and exchange answers, quickly discovering each other's interests and values.  Building a relationship in social media works that way.  We ask questions, learn about current and potential customers and deliver information that is valuable to them - even if it's not about our brand or product.  The unique thing about social media is that we get to build these individual relationships in front of hundreds or even thousands of others.  Social media tools are perfectly suited for these conversations.

You have to admit your mistakes.  Every company screws up.  And thankfully, customers don't expect you to be perfect.  They just expect you to make it right when you do make a mistake.  Companies that are successfully navigating social media understand that publicly owning up to mistakes is part of the process.  There are companies that expunge all "wrongdoing" from their social media outlets.  If a customer complains about a service error or gives an unfavorable product review, they delete it.  Customers intuitively know that the absence of all negative content on social media sites is most likely contrived.  Companies are better off letting customers share their concerns and then apologizing and making it right.  Doing it in social media platforms makes this part of the process a bit more challenging because you're "confessing" in front of the entire online community.  Since customers and potential customers already know that you make mistakes, they can evaluate not the mistake, but your efforts to remedy it.  Document, on the social media platform, the physical steps you take to correct the problem so that everyone can see the thoroughness of your response.

Be who you are.  At the risk of playing in to a couple of stereotypes, I'll never forget what a grad school professor told me, "Statisticians are people who like to work with numbers, but don't have the personality to be accountants."  That joke works because we expect people to be who they are.  Nobody likes a phony and social mediums are quick to flush them out.  If your company culture is serious and contemplative, you should probably pass on posting the "joke of the day" on your Facebook Fan Page.  On the other hand, if you have the reputation for being edgy and fun, then a YouTube video of a crazy skit from a sales meeting might be perfect.  In face-to-face business relationships, we call on the people who have a culture that resonates with us personally and who have earned our respect and trust by displaying subject matter expertise and performing consistently over time.  In social media, customers gravitate to companies that have successfully extended their "in-person" personality to their online presence.  I'm in favor exploiting every social medium that makes sense for a company, but the key to making it work is faithfully reproducing the company brand and culture in that medium.

Social media are not hard.  Mastering the tools might take a bit of work, but the bigger challenge is faithfully reproducing, on this new platform, the offline culture that a company has built.  As your company's online presence becomes more involved, you can access more sophisticated tools that will allow you to analyze and measure these interactions.  Like all budding relationships, connecting in the online world requires time and effort.  Will you make some missteps?  Without a doubt.  But learn and readjust your efforts just like you do in your offline relationships.  In no time at all, the interactions will be natural and easy.