I came across a blog that responded to another blog post that recently caught a lot of attention last week. In an article written by Peter Shankman, a Social Media Entrepreneur writes "that he will never hire a social media expert and neither will you." When I hear that heading I am a bit baffled as to why a man who probably considers himself to be a social media guru or expert would say such a thing. Now for the interesting part, if you actually read the article he defends his statement perfectly. Perhaps he entitled this particular article the way he did to get a bit of a reaction to those reading over their RSS feeds or to get other people involved in the discussion.
The term "Social Media Expert" in itself really can be demeaning. Anyone can really say they are a social media expert. The thing that Shankman goes into detail is that just because you can put .com or have 1,000 followers has no indication you have any real skill set that would be different from anyone else in the business. From that statement I feel he is right on queue. When I say that I mean there has to be a purpose for tweeting or posting on facebook. If you are posting for the sake of posting all the time consumers will not pay any interest. They will feel like they are being force fed information. I mean take a look at TV. One of the sole purposes that Tivo was ever created was to eliminate the commercials.
Shankman does not count out Social Media as pointless, which he really can't because he calls himself a social media entrepreneur and CEO. He just clarifies that it takes more than just being a user and posting stuff everyday to say that you know what it takes to have a social media realm succeed.
The three things he mentions as important keys to Social Media success are:
(This is just brief condensed summaries of what Shankman wrote, Go to the Link at the bottom for more information)
Brevity-Many of the people on Twitter can not write to save their lives. 140 characters is perfect for most people because that way they have an excuse to not worry about grammar and fluid sentences
Relevance- I mentioned earlier above about not posting every time a deal or new policy arises
Transparency-You have to be straight forward with your customers. Shankman makes the comment "You can't just use Twitter to get a sufficient apology across, that just isnt going to cut it." Many companies loose focus of customer service and when they do that have no idea to handle crisis without causing more chaos.
Knowing Your Customers-Tweeting back consumers is not enough. Before technology exists rolodex's were a big tool in networking. They were full of addresses and in any given day a businessman could call 10 people up and introduce himself and get his name out their as a personal first name basis. Today its short and sweet and that is not going to close any deals. Being personable always helps and Twitter is somewhere were that should carry over as well.
Visit Peter Shankmans Blog at Shankman.com.
Have a Great Holiday and Take Care Everyone,
Corey.
Regarding your comment about social media users not being able to write to "save their lives", I wonder whose fault is it that social media posts via Twitter and Facebook typically lack proper grammar and sentence structure? Do social media users simply lack these basic writing skills or has social media enabled people to become lazy and not care about grammar and proper writing because we are confined to 140 characters (in Twitter)? What does this teach our future generations?
ReplyDeletePersonally, I become frustrated when younger people communicate with me using text and social media like language, such as "LOL" and "TY" and other phrases. Initially, I thought this was a sign of immaturity and laziness on behalf of the sender. However, I have since realized that individuals are only a product of the environment and society for which we live and they learn from. They are so used to using this type of language and communication skills that it is how they know to communicate. Who I am to fault the younger generations for utilizing the skills we have taught them in society and social media?