Our Desire to be “Social” Should be Good for Companies…Right?
4When I started my undergraduate program at Baldwin-Wallace College I had every intention of majoring in psychology. I liked the idea of being able to help people work through issues they were having in their lives. Well, a C+ in my introduction to psychology class quickly put an end to that dream. Probably for the best anyway, especially if you know me in real-life.
At any rate, some of what I remembered (and can recall) from that course came streaming into my head over the weekend. There are just volumes of research that indicate humans have an overwhelming desire to be “social.” Much of that research suggests that interaction with other people is essential to ensure the orderly development of children, and to prevent the onset of psychiatric disorders in adults.
So enough with the psychology lesson…what does this mean for companies thinking about engaging in social media? You would think our desire to be social with one another would make social media “easier” right? Wrong. Human beings want to be social, but they want to be social with other human beings and not inanimate objects like corporations. This is why the most successful brands in social media are putting a “human” face on their interactions with stakeholders. Think Scott Monty (Ford), Frank Eliason (Comcast), Southwest Airlines, etc…These brands are successful because they have made people feel that they are talking to a real person and not a logo.
But how did they know their stakeholders wanted to be social with them on Twitter, or another social network? Ahhhhh, here is where we get back to what this blog is typically about. I don’t know this for a fact, but I’d bet a significant amount of money that these three brands did quite a bit of research before engaging stakeholders in this way. Do they want to have interactions online with us? Where do they want to interact with us? What kinds of things do they want to hear from us? Maybe after we conduct research we’ll realize that stakeholders want to be social with us offline (the horror!). All the sorts of things we should be trying to answer through research BEFORE we start our social media program.
Humans want to be social, and it’s our job as brand managers, PR directors, social media managers, etc… to figure out how we fulfill that need if we ever want to be successful using social networks.
Anyway, what do you think? Is this need to be social a stretch for social media? Interested in your opinions!
The Conversation
Rob Berick on August 04, 2009
Don Bartholomew on August 04, 2009
Good post, Chuck. Research via listening to online conversations is a great place for any corporation to start. Are people talking about the brand? Where? What are they saying? Do they appear to want engagement? etc. Too often companies make the classic Ready, Fire, Aim mistake. Research up front helps put the Aim before the Fire.
-Don B @donbart
Chuck Hemann on August 04, 2009
Hey Rob! thanks for dropping me a line! I hadn’t thought about the IR angle, but it’s a good one.
@Don - thanks! I agree. That was a sub-plot to this post, but primarily I wanted to highlight that just because we have this desire to be social, doesn’t mean we all flock to the net, which in turn means that not all companies HAVE to engage here.
Chris Sledzik on August 04, 2009
Chuck, good point re: the human need to be social. Social Media is all about social interaction—with people. I’m not sure it takes much research to figure that part out.
Understanding who your stakeholders are, where to find them and what they’re talking about is an entirely different challenge and is definitely something that takes research. It’s this LISTENING portion of SM engagement that presents the largest challenge for most folks. Think back to the first time you signed up on Twitter and had that “What the Heck is this?” feeling.
Sadly, engagement w/o listening/research is the worst thing a company can do, but it’s what most companies are doing.
Based on the Journal’s piece yesterday about Twitter and the Street, the same question could be asked to IROs as well.