What makes social media so important?
For one, it is not one-way communication. The audience can always talk back to you. Audience-feedback is instantaneous, direct and... Well... Often surprising.
For the audience and the holy grail of communication - audience attention - this presents a wonderful opportunity. When engaged right they can feel so empowered and cared-for, that the right use of social media can create loyals out of casuals and fans (a short form for fanatic) out of loyals.
Take the LCSS Facebook group for an example. Did you notice that fans kept posting and discussing even when the show was almost a year in the past, and even though we hardly engaged them?
This also presents a wonderful opportunity for the communicator. It's like the difference between the actor on the stage who instantly knows about her performance from jeers and cheers, and the screen actor who gets to know probably a year later from the phone calls, mails and public reviews. No wonder, almost all big Hollywood actors tries the stage out at the height of their confidence.
But social media seems difficult. So many groups and like-pages and network-pages and individual profiles exist. So many options. And... Really... Haven't we seen most of these pages and groups failing?
For instance, take a look at those dozens of groups Nokia created in Bangladesh. All are floating in limbo from the very outset.
Okay. The first step is simple - START.
Yes, just go ahead and start. Until you ask that boy out, how are you going to find out if he's going to turn you down or not?
Then keep the conversation running.
Have you ever noticed how much sweet nothings float in the air when people are trying to bond, to forge a relationship, to get to a consensus? It's not necessarily what you say, but also how you say it.
Doing that with your boyfriend or your friend is probably not as difficult as conversing with thousands of unknown people. No, you wouldn't know the participants/audience of your facebook group personally. Not always. Not if your group is successful. They come from different backgrounds and with different expectations.
So how do you keep the conversation running?
Three principles:
- SEEDING: give them something to
discuss about, as in create content - images, videos, events, posts,
discussions, comments (yes, more than 80% of Facebook content are just the
comments)
- FEEDING: keep the conversation
alive, be responsive (laugh, rebuke, cheer, jeer, inform, educate,
motivate... It's community after all)
- WEEDING: don't tolerate or create
junk, spam or disruptors
Nurture the group as you nurture your on-line circle of friends. If you
don't know what an on-line circle of friends is, check the comments you make,
the messages you send, the pictures you upload and the time you're on chatting.
Do you meet all these people more often on the virtual world or the real world?
Be friendly. Be interesting. Be informative.
On social media, you don't target your audience. Rather you become the target for your audience.
Assign at least two resources to dedicate some time to social media. Obviously, one can only preach. Discussion starts with at least two people. Be sure that those two people are able to do more than uploading pictures and pressing the like button.
They have to be able to TALK, through images, videos, words and more.
Did they put in caption to the image uploaded? A title to the video? Did they tag anyone to draw attention? Did they put in the necessary information in the event invite, or dress it up with pictures and videos? Are they sending too many bland messages to all members? Please, be friendly, interesting, and informative.
But, everyone at the communicator’s side need to chip in. If you don't belong to the community you create, why would you expect others to belong to your community?
Did you invite your friends to the group? Did you comment on anything? Did you make a wall post, or create a discussion? Then what are you doing on the group? Even the common fans are doing more than what you are doing.
Some of those groups or pages have additional advantage. Like the LCSS group, which has previous winners as members and officers. They are wonderful opportunities for seeding and feeding... After all the community is full of their fans. With some effort put into it, this can obviously be taken further. For example - updates on their career highlights and posts and comments from them.
Social media is constant engagement, unlike the thirty-seconder. And it's growing. Let's make things more interesting from where we stand. It's not too difficult.
And, of course, have someone to pay for the efforts and resources. :-)
I wrote this in 2010. Back then Facebook was no business platform, with pages and verified pages and promoted posts and in-stream ads and what not. But, with all the advertisement stuff, that is the same as TV or print, only more frequent and better targeted, we have essentially lost much of our conversation.
The LCSS group was shut down by the client without even notifying us,
all the assets built up over a decade was lost because of a client – Syeda Bushra Sania Faiz – did not have enough brains to care.
