In other words:
How social media changes our communication
A growing number of brands naturally result in a stronger courting for attention. Based loosely on the concept: the more communication, the higher the brand differentiation — many communication budgets also increased along with the growing competition. Nevertheless, according to a study by Batten & Company, 64% of the respondents believe brands are simply interchangeable.
So the promise and the magic of social media are very welcome: with little effort and even less budget, one could anchor the brand identity deeper into the user’s (aka customer’s) mind. This seems to be a good and fairly simple plan at first glance. Also as numerous studies in recent years have shown: the more involvement, the more interaction with the social media presence of a brand, the higher the disposition to buy.
That’s why there are no more campaigns without social media. For every poster, there is an appearance in the social networks. That usually means: a Facebook page. And that does not only involve big brands and companies. Even the hairdresser at the corner thinks he gets free advertising with his Facebook posts, spreading virally like wildfire and that customers will stampede to his door the next day. However, in reality, more and more trivialities and crude advertisements clog the social channels: from notorious cat pictures to iPad sweepstakes to boring press reports.
To stand out is not only a necessary goal but the responsibility we have as communicators. Respect your communication & don’t litter!
By now we see that “We must be on Facebook” is not a valid communication strategy. We might have done it before, but now we know better that it is not a particularly good idea to burden the young intern with taking care of the social media activities.
Just because someone is a digital native (more on buzzwords later) and knows how to use social networks as a user, there is no guarantee whatsoever that he/she recognizes communication needs or has learned the principles of communication.
So we need more. Immediately, buzzwords such as content marketing and storytelling are humming through the room and are proclaimed to be state of the art. We can very well play bullshit bingo with these terms, but that doesn’t make them new. Because stories are what move us since the early days of humanity. We love stories and we buy stories.
Stories are essential to interpret facts. Because it is through stories that we can relate to situations, understand connections and context and thereby understand the world.
A simple example?
Just compare the following two sentences:
(a). The King dies, the people rise.
(b). The King dies, the angry people rise.
It’s just one word that makes the difference. The difference between pure facts and a story that we can comprehend.
Social media is nothing else than another (and a very powerful) communication channel for our stories. Just as newspapers, radio, and TV have changed storytelling, just as every technology imposes a structure on what has been communicated and thereby changes its contents, so is this kind of change currently happening in social media.
We gradually (and sometimes painfully) become aware of this: This new channel is not free of charge and our messages do not spread by themselves either. We need to tell powerful stories with a sensible strategy. And we have to pay for their distribution. This is becoming more and more obvious ever since Facebook started tinkering with its algorithm every few months and is showing fewer and fewer messages in the user’s (Attention: buzz-word!) news stream.
Facebook is not an altruistic hobby of Mark Zuckerberg, but a business model. It is changing the world just incidentally. If Facebook offers free internet access for less developed countries, it undoubtedly helps millions of people to get easier access to information. But there is a business rationale behind this as well, which is not objectionable for a profit-oriented company per se.
That Facebook is just a pioneer in terms of “Let’s make money from our users” and sometimes is making moves that are not particularly likable or may not even work in the long run, lies in the nature of things. But Facebook has two big advantages in its experiments: More than 3 billion users (= 2/3 of all people online) and the American courage to fail.
But this transition has been predictable. More and more users and thus more and more content inevitably leads to increased filtering. You could, of course, let the users do the filtering. That would be congenial. But that would not be Facebook.
Therefore, the following realization will be generally accepted this year: Facebook is a communication medium like any other. Some content does spread well on its own, however, the vast majority of the content does not. And as a company, I must, therefore, pay for my advertising.
Other social networks are copying to follow suit with the industry leader. From Twitter to Pinterest, all pursue the same and obvious goal: Just having users is of little value, the aim is to make money.
Social Media is not a miracle tool, but “just” one additional channel (and one of the most important marketing tools of the future that has already begun).
Unfortunately, it is not conducive to Zuckerberg’s goal that the advertising possibilities on Facebook are constantly changing and becoming more complex, and that the results don’t have the accountability, relevance, and validity like Google AdWords, for example. Therefore, the following also applies here — as well as in other media — you can experiment yourself and chase after the monthly changes, but a quicker way to success is to hire professionals who know how it works.
Besides all these disadvantages and the permanent beta phase of the networks, one thing has definitely changed social media. Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter or Snapchat today, or a network tomorrow, which is being programmed by a small start-up in the Valley right as you read these lines. Social media has changed the way we as a company communicate with our customers. And this does not only refer to the two-way communication, and thus not only to the change in the role of our customers from recipients to publishers of information.
No, the change is far more profound: What is happening here and now through Social Media is a loss of the communication monopoly. And this is accompanied by the loss of control over communications.
The changes in social media are reflected also in the hierarchy of communication which had been in place for a decade. It is the death of the Kings. And the uprising of the people (who are not always angry, fortunately). In the future, it will work less and less, that some corporate department decides on communication and stubbornly broadcasts it. Our customers are now on equal footing. They can no longer be fooled so easily, they cannot be patronized, and certainly cannot be lied to. Because they immediately give us feedback — even if we have not asked for it.
Many brands see this as a threat. Like the unknown that you should fear or have to contain. However, some see a fantastic new opportunity in this. We were never able to communicate in such a direct and immediate way as today. We have never been so close to our customers.
It is perfectly fine (and even inevitable) to make mistakes along the way. This is the only way we learn. Skillful communication is no longer perfectly planned in detail and carried out according to plan without change. It must be authentic, it must be agile, it responds to the customers. They do not expect flawlessness, but to be heard. Communication is about listening, about answers, and about co-creation. This requires a great deal of courage. The courage to change.
With the arrival of Social Media the time has come to bring communication to the executive floor if it is not there already. Because without communication there is no cooperation, without cooperation there is no success. And thanks to social media, we finally have the opportunity to work very closely with our customers.
Because we sell less and less products or services: we create stories about our brands and businesses that sell.
Stories in which our customers not only play the most important role, but they actively co-design from now on.
TG (Mag. Gergely Teglasy) is a communication inspirateur with passion.
He teaches at the Department of Communication at the University of Vienna and at the University of Applied Sciences (Media. Information. Communication); He is the head of the Diploma Course Social Media Design Vienna, advises institutions & companies on their communication strategy, lectures on creative communication, and wrote Zwirbler, the 1st Facebook novel in the world.
Feedback welcome (yes, you will be heard)
