Defining Social Media
So, what the heck is Social Media anyways? Why is it important for a business? We’ve been doing a lot of consulting work with our clients lately on how they can turn the big scary concept of “Social Media” into actionable metrics and tasks.
We define Social Media as anywhere online that people have conversations which are:
- Publicly visible
- Easily sharable
- Easily searchable – by Google and others
This means recognizing that Social Media is more than just Twitter, Facebook, or whatever the flavour-du-jour is in three years time. Under our definition, “Social Media” also includes community weblogs (like Metafilter), blogs with an active commenting community (like BoingBoing), link sharing communities (like Reddit) review websites (like Review Centre), and good old-fashioned web forums (like UK Business Forums).
What do all of these things have in common? They’re all places where users form a loose community and have conversations with each other. Those conversations are visible to the public, easily shared with other members of the community, and easily found by Google.
We’ve found that this working defition of “Social Media” gets the businesses we talk to in the right frame of mind to be successful – whichever social network or website they use.
Beyond Facebook and Twitter
When businesses ask us for help with their Social Media presence, what they usually mean is “can you give us a Facebook page and broadcast our twitter feed?” Well, sure – but we think that’s the wrong way of thinking about Social Media.
Social Media is just another way for you to speak to your customers and potential customers; and fast becoming as indispensable as a phone line or email address. The only difference is, as above, it’s all hanging out for the world to see.
If you treat a customer poorly, they can share their experience quickly. If you strike the wrong tone, you can alienate an entire online community. This stuff can make or break a business, and it’s only getting more important.
Our Social Media Consulting service, and related services like social lead generation and reputation, are designed to get businesses thinking about social media as a set of processes. It doesn’t matter if your main community is on Facebook, Twitter, or some niche forum – it’s a clear and coherent process that matters.
