One additional point: this mistake was made before social media, and it will be made 100 years from now. It’s just easier to see them making it now, when it’s in a very collaborative channel, than it used to be.

The most arrogant brands serve up products, services, and advertising that are irrelevant to the needs of the customer, patting themselves on the back for how great they are. The good ones listen and innovate based on a need or a desire, and engage in a dialogue with the customer that makes them feel valued. This was as true for a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman in the 40s as it is with an electronics store’s Twitter account today.

Thanks guys! Keep up the good work!
Nathan

Great article! Thank you so much for writing what I have been thinking for months now in terms of social media needing to be owned throughout the company at all levels.

And as I work with clients on a brand level in social media, I’m seeing the truth of your “Story” statement below becoming all the more important to having success. It’s also key to somehow show the brand that their customer will still be interested in their brand even if you start a conversation that has nothing to do with selling the product. If you can genuinely sell “The Story” then you’re closer to having success with the client and their customers.

“I’ve become convinced that pioneering social media integration needs more than a strategy – it needs a story.

If you’re a typical social media evangelist, you already know the story, but you probably already know it so well you forget to start at the beginning. Chances are if you’re in a fairly large organization that’s been in business for more than a couple years, the culture isn’t conducive to transparent, real-time communication.”

Nice post and yes, Trust Agents is an inspiring and challenging book to read.

‘Social business’ is something I’ve been talking and thinking about – and your right that we must not stifle it by putting all these roles onto one person.

As far as I am concerned, social media is changing the way we do business, and by making it more social, our offline habits are changing, our attitudes are changing, etc.

Thanks for the insights, very useful

I’m not exactly sure what you mean by “social media”. It means a lot of different things to different people. Blogs are social media.

You’re right, social media is not a discipline, but adopting them changes the tactics and delivery of the same old disciplines that focus on monologue/one-way delivery of information.

I think social media facilitates word of mouth online, but tying online and offline experiences together is where they’re most powerful. To use your word, social media is one “channel” where word of mouth can take place — an important channel.

I would be interested to know where you get your data to support your position that, “social media is one of the least-used channels by customers for engaging in brand-related word of mouth.” That contrasts sharply with some numbers I’ve seen.

I have just a little bit of experience with social media ;) What I meant by sexy is that it’s very appealing right now. Everybody’s talking about it, writing blog posts about it, setting up social media programs. In my opinion, it is viewed as a discipline, rather than a channel by which word of mouth is facilitated, as you suggest. For example, many companies have created the posiion of social media manager/strategist/evangelist. Do those positions report to a word of mouth manager?

In my observations, companies are substituting the term social media for word of mouth, to the detriment of their own organization. Because, as it turns out, social media is one of least-used channels by customers for engaging in brand-related word of mouth.

That is not to say that social media cannot be an important part of a word-of-mouth marketing plan. It obviously can. Just not the most important part.

“I see businesses fail at social media when they forget that they aren’t in charge here.”

You’re very right to point this out – the key is collaboration – with employees, customers and stakeholders of every sort.

Thanks!