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As
an organization, when invited to work with a client,
although we may not initially feel one way or another
towards, let’s say, the medical device
industry for example—we do feel strongly about the real-life
people, friends, and partners that we support with our
efforts. So, when a client asks us to engage their audience
because they don’t have the expertise, the resources, or
“bandwidth” to execute their social media strategy, we lend
a hand.
In my mind, this new “digital ghostwriting push” is actually
nothing new: popular brands have been doing it for years—via
customer service “response” letters, pre-recorded phone
calls, emails and direct mail pieces. This is just the
latest version of busy people outsourcing their surplus work
to others who they have trained and who they trust.
Do you think that Teddy Roosevelt (or any President for that
matter) really replied to every letter he received during
his time at the White House? Do you think that the Beatles
really penned back responses to all their swooning teenage
followers? Do you think that the President of Ford, Toyota,
Coke, or (Fill in Big Corporation Here) always respond
directly to letters, emails, or tweets that they receive? Do
you “believe” that it is absolutely from them if it has
their name on it?
Bottom line: the average person only has so much bandwidth
with which to process and reply to the information coming at
them—and if you’re @THE_REAL_SHAQ (a brand in and of
himself), for example, there’s just no chance that you can
reply to almost 3 millions followers’ messages and maintain
any semblance of a life… yet someone is taking the time to
reply to his fans every day…
Not only is it naive to assume that big names and small
companies are executing 100% of their own Social Media—it’s
also a bit silly to get offended if you find out otherwise.
Social media opens up avenues of conversations that
customers and fans have never had before, but it also opens
up the virtual floodgates to companies and people who are in
the limelight, and if you don’t know how to manage this,
don’t have the time, or the expertise—then you’re liable to
get burned, unless you have the right (and properly trained)
“support team” behind you.
I’ll even take it one step further in my argument and say
that if you aren’t outsourcing this task to an internal team
or someone externally that “gets it” – then you are actually
doing a disservice to your audience and providing poor
customer service. Most conversations with a brand don’t
require a response directly from Oprah, Guy Kawasaki, or the
CEO of GoDaddy.com (@DrBobParsons) for that matter. Your
trusted sources can help your audience by responding to
their questions, suggestions or needs.
One thing that I will admit is that you need to think
through this outsourcing process or it can backfire. The key
lies in the conversations you have with the team you
“outsource” this process to (this could be a bunch of
internal staff members or an outsourced team):
Here are some things to consider…
-
Is it a 2-way conversation between you the outsourcer
and the outsourcee?
-
Do you trust these people to understand and reflect your
thoughts and values?
-
Have your spent the time training these folks?
-
Are you accessible to answer questions in near
real-time?
-
Do you take the time to sit down regularly and review
the process and the requests coming in?
-
Are your reactive in your approach or are you being
pro-active about avoiding problems and building a system
that responds to the needs of your audience?
You also absolutely need to take time to integrate social
media into your life—it might be sharing something you find
funny or responding to and commenting on issues that you
feel need your personal input or opinion. There are some
things you just can’t fake.
So, with plenty of ideas to digest in the above paragraphs—I
leave you with this final question: if you are looking for
an answer from an organization or from a person with a super
social media presence like Guy Kawasaki, Oprah, or Scott
Monty the head of social media at Ford Motor Company —
- Would you rather receive a well-crafted response that
reflects the true beliefs, opinions, and thoughts of an
individual or organization—that might be from a “trained
responder”
- OR would you rather not get a response at all?
Source:
http://usefularts.us/2010/02/09/altaf-shaikh-social_media-ethics/ |
