What do I mean by “Social Communications”?
Definitely NOT the social media we have seen evolving up to now – marketers have stepped in, applied outdated methods, like they’ve been using for decades, and are expecting to get the results of advertising of the past. They won’t.
We don’t buy newspapers in the volumes we used to. We time-shift much of our TV viewing, due to life & work pressures, to a time that suits us better, with the added-value spin-off that we can fast forward through the commercial breaks. So adverts will not work the way they used to. So why oh why do “marketers” think they can blurt adverts at us on Twitter and Facebook?
We have reached a point where we are beginning to say “No, no more.” The #ConnectedConsumer is now in the driving seat – they have the disposable income, they have the gadgets and smartphones to run their life with, and consume information on, BUT they are very selective. Brands have to realise this and re-align their efforts towards helping the busy professional, or stay-at-home worker, to come to their own conclusion that they want to buy from a brand – they will NOT be sold to anymore.
Social media has to be able to revert to it’s roots, in connecting people, and giving them the opportunity to talk to each other, exchange views, collaborate on new projects, make the world a smaller place. Communication is the key, and mobile, or face-to-face, are still the preferred methods. But on mobile, again because of the busy lives we lead, more & more of this communication is taking place on OUR terms – NOT by voice, but by text or email or our preferred social platform. This is commonly known as “asynchronous”, because the reply is not immediate as it would be in a voice call, it is “whenever we can fit it in”. That may be close to immediate, if we have time, but it may also be 10 minutes, half an hour, or half a day, later.
Understanding the need for conversation, and the technology and platforms now used for the process, opens up a whole new approach, which businesses will have to master, because the ways of old are not going to work much longer, if indeed they do right now. There is a need to #GetHuman – businesses are made of of PEOPLE working towards a common cause. Those people need to be encouraged to come to the fore, tell us their names and stories, should we wish to know more about them, to be identifiable within the business, as representing the business, with a human touch.
That is “Social Communications” – some are already starting to do it, and do it right.
It is a major shift away from the corporate silos and institutions of the past 50 years – it is about people getting to know people again, wanting to help, not wanting to just “sell”.
#SoComms