These days it goes without saying that selective involvement in social media by companies and aspiring individuals is an important element of an effective marketing strategy.
But it strikes me that effective involvement in social media must often be contrived and, at times, is down right anti-social.
For example, take the person who likes to talk about his or her daily activities on Facebook. You know, “At deLorenzos right now and I’m lovin their espresso macchiato – wonderful!”
This is the equivalent of “small talk”, I know. But I think this is not the kind of thing you would normally announce to your friends and hangers-on – except through a medium like Facebook. At least you would be selective who you would make such an announcement to – perhaps one or two of your best and most chatty friends, but that’s about it.
To broadcast something like this seems contrived to me – like you have an ulterior motive. You want to impress your friends with your taste in restaurants, or you are just trying to make your quota of Facebook status updates.
It is even more obvious in the business case. Small talk by business people is not usually appropriate on Facebook – perhaps moreso on Twitter (I don’t know – I still haven’t found a good use for Twitter.)
So what is appropriate Facebook chatter for business people? Well, this is where it gets contrived. In order to do engage without alienating or putting your “peeps” off you need a strategy – what to say and what not to say. What to focus on and what not to focus on.
I guess most “social” intercourse is contrived in one way or another, but the difference with social media is that it pretends not to be. This only applies, however, if you are a relatively chatty, and I hesitate to add, relatively shallow person. Or at least can pretend to be.
You can be yourself in social media only if you don’t say controversial or awkward things. And above all, you must not be critical of anything – especially other people you want to maintain a relationship with.
Problem is, many people don’t fit this mold. They can’t open their mouths without being awkward, critical or controversial. Face-to-face we are usually able to allow for this awkwardness and place the critical stuff in its proper context. But on Facebook it’s a different matter where there often (usually) is no context.
Being real people
In the good old days, company reps were not really people. They were mouthpieces for the company line. When you talked to a salesman for, say, an office copier, you weren’t really interested in their family life, what they did on the weekend, or what books they were reading.
Things developed that way for very good reasons. When we buy an office copier we aren’t usually interested in the home life of the salesperson. And certainly the salesperson’s employer does not want him or her to waste time with idle chat unless it contributes to making a sale.
This is perfectly appropriate “social” behaviour on the part of both the salesperson and the purchaser. It may seem stiff and impersonal to the social media generation, but that’s probably because they haven’t done much face to face selling.
Cramping the style of business
Social media has changed (at least some of) our perceptions of what is acceptable business behaviour. Online is now important, and online means being “social”.
This puts the sales or marketing people in a bind. On the one hand they are encouraged to be “social” a la Facebook – that is, let their hair down a bit. That means less out and out promotion and more chit chat about the weekend.
But on the other hand, not so much chit chat that you start to reflect badly on the company brand. Call it contrived chit chat. Hair down is good. Hair up is good too.
There’s no end to the advice out there on how to do this. In fact I’m sure there are social marketing coaches who will come to your company and teach your people how to strike the right balance between hair up and hair down.
The irony, like I’ve already said, is that this is contrived and therefore calculated and manipulative. That makes it anti-social in an important sense. You can’t just be yourself (your salesperson self) and sell your copier to your prospective customers.
No, you have to find the right balance between what your company wants you to say, and what they definitely do not want you to say. That isn’t always (or ever) easy, and I suspect many people will turn out to be pretty bad at it.
