Social Media Discussion

Last week we were lucky enough to have a guest speaker in our strategic corp. comm. class who spoke about (among other things) social media.

Dan, who by his own admission wasn't too comfortable with social media until recently, was amazed at how Facebook in particular brought a whole new level to corporate communication. What emerged in class was a discussion around how social media not only gives corporations the targeted audience they desire, but also serves as an instant source of feedback for the organization. In Dan's case, people at the foundation he was working for thought that they knew what their audience wanted. The organization believed that they understood the kind of material their audience would respond to. They were wrong. It emerged during their foray into social media that they were mis-reading their audience and what they in fact wanted was information that was much more personal, local and practical rather than theoretical, global and impersonal.

Dan also spoke about the maintenance of social networking within an integrated communication model. Someone asked how a small company with limited staff could fully utilize social media. Dan said that they shouldn't try - his reasoning being that it needs to be an ongoing discussion - not just a tweet here and a status update there. Will smaller companies hire people only to do social media? Who knows.

Finally, something that Dan said really stuck with me. He said that there are no Social Media gurus and those claiming to be so are to be avoided. "We're all learning as we go along", he said. Too true. Social media is a complex ever-changing thing which seems to take on a life of its own. In some respect it's the closest thing we have to a tangible social consciousness - and who could claim to know how to control that or even to understand and utilize its potential.