Fog of Eternity | Website design and discussion

My own interest and involvement in social media has seen a change of role at my own company. They’ve asked me to provide advice and recommendations on how they can use social media for their own success. But there’s a limit to how much can be done through advice and recommendations.

Social media continues to increase its profile in the traditional press. And as companies notice this profile they are looking at how best they can use social media for financial gain. The trick is pretty simple, but are companies going to make the required changes in their behaviour?

Corporate sites offer no networking benefit

The benefit of social media comes from all users adding value to the networks. A corporate site that merely looks to sell adds no value to the network. It would be pointless to add amazon.com to a social network, for example. Its an effective sales site, but there is no content likely to bring in readers or users.

Neither do corporate sites update their content on a regular basis. They don’t publish articles, they don’t generally publish opinion, and they don’t invite open commentary on their site and services.

Companies are looking to use social media to drive traffic to their own sites. But they’re also looking for that traffic to stick, and be converted into customers. That’s not going to happen if corporate sites remain static portals.

So they need to start adding value

And by this I mean value to the social network, not in terms of a wider service. The social network is something that is ongoing and interactive, whereas the current use of corporate sites is generally to visit, find the product or service you want, purchase and leave.

If companies want to pull in potential customers from social networking then they need to fully embrace the idea of social networking. That means making significant contributions to the network - through corporate blogging, engaging with interested parties on other sites within a particular niche. Doing what most of the people visiting this site do - actively networking.

Not likely to happen…

For many companies this is very difficult to achieve. The decision makers or opinion leaders are rarely keen on taking the time to produce content themselves, the kind of content that would encourage visits to the site. Even if they do it’s unlikely to be regular enough to provoke repeat visits. It’s also unlikely they’ll be active participants in discussions in other portals.

Two reasons for this. Firstly the obvious time constraints that company employees have, particularly if their primary role isn’t technical or internet based. Secondly there’s no direct measure of financial benefit to social media. It’s difficult for them to make a business case for blogging, commenting and social networking in general.

What options do they have?

There are obvious exceptions to the above limitations. Many of them are demonstrated by companies already knowledgeable about the benefit of online networks. I’m talking about things like the development blogs for Microsoft or Google, or individual blogs from industry leaders.

Those are great if they can be achieved. But for smaller companies or those less familiar with online benefits, who need to develop that regular content, a collaborative blog seems to be a good option. Encouraging staff to highlight that blog when networking in person and online can bring traffic and provide a strong profile. Suggest to staff that they use social networks with a professional focus, rather than focusing on stopping them using “entertainment” networks like Facebook.

It’s still going to be difficult for many companies to adjust. And companies are going to have to approach social networking with a different focus. They’re going to have to provide value to people for nothing - and that’s not the usual corporate mindset. Providing that value will pay itself back, but in a difficult to measure way.

Right now many companies have a very limited understanding of what social media even is, let alone how they can benefit from it. I’ve provided some ideas, what other methods can they use to leverage networking for their value.

Filed under: Comment, Social Networking by Robin Cannon

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