Is Social Media for Everyone?

missyka04: @LaurenDiLieto @halavais I’m not convinced that social media works for all companies. I’m looking forward to reading the diff plans #icm506

I couldn’t answer this within the 140 word quota.

Not sure what you mean by “works.” Social media affects every company. So, the question becomes, do they engage or disengage. Do they think strategically about the way they interact with the public, or do they ignore the public. I suppose that if you are a secret society, you don’t need a social media strategy (though it would be smart to have one for your members), but any organization that deals with a public this is online needs a social media strategy. In the US, the vast majority of the public is not online.

There was a time, not long ago, when companies said “the internet is a major trend, but it’s not something that affects us.” The idea that the internet doesn’t “work” for what you do is pretty much irrelevant today. You either ignore it, or you engage it.

The term “social media” is a bit confusing. Basically, I guess it includes every form of media that is (a) online and (b) not designed to be one-to-many. It’s hard to point at examples of online media these days that aren’t social, but clearly, for example, google.com (the main search site) isn’t, and neither is citibank.com. Of course, both are heavily influenced by social media, and both pay a lot of attention to social media, but they aren’t social media sites.

For that reason, not having a social media strategy is simply poor management. Sticking your head in the sand and ignoring the changes that are happening right now means more than your head gets buried. Companies that decided the internet “was not for them” lost out to those who found ways to leverage it. Of course, plenty of companies that engaged the net also lost out, but deciding not to play was pretty much a guaranteed fail. The same is true today of any organization that decides to ignore social media–because social media won’t ignore you.

Lauren mentioned the Department of Homeland Security. The Obama administration has been urging all federal agencies to engage social media, and the DHS is no exception.The DHS twitter accounts (@DHSJournal and @HomelandSecurit) frankly don’t make very innovative use of Twitter, though they provide another outlet for information. And to be fair, like the CDC’s use, it is intended mainly for timely release of information during a disaster. And their blog could use some tips from the TSA Blog. I am not a fan of the TSA, to be sure, but I have a lot of respect for their blogging efforts.

In sum, the absence of a social media strategy is, in itself, a strategy–a strategy for failure. I’ve yet to learn of an organization that could do without a social media strategy.