SocialMedia404

I am coming across more and more situations these days in which institutions are telling me they have issued gag orders on their staff regarding direct contact with customer through blogs, forums and so on.

This despite all the research that points out how much customer want to be in touch with the companies they deal with, and how opinion improves once this happens. Check out this post by Michael Brito for a full discussion, but the stats he uses from a recent study (you can download here) tell the story.

Out of the 85% of people who want companies to be present in social media:

• 34% want companies to actively interact with them
• 51% want companies to interact with them as needed or by request.
• 8% think companies should only be passively involved on social media
• 7% think companies should not be involved at all.

More on customer service via social media:

• 43% would like to see companies offering customer service through social media, 41% would like companies to solicit feedback
• 37% would like companies to provide new ways to interact with the brand via social media.

So what’s going on here? Why are the folks that run corporation putting gag orders on their staff, when their clients want them to speak?

The obvious answers are

• That they don’t want customers to say anything bad about them “in public”.
• They don’t want their employees to do the same

Woops, too late. These folks are missing two things; 1) people are already saying bad, and good things about them, and 2) the definition of “public” has changed. We all have access to public now and have for a while thank you very much.

So, what else is going on, could it be control? Hmm, I think so, but here comes another woops. Control is an illusion. Institutions have lost a lot of control, all most have these days is our attention and that’s on a good day. If they thought they had control witness the fall of GM, Ford and Chrysler, three of the largest corps on the planet. Think they have control?

Obviously there are real challenges facing leaders. It is not easy to simply open the floodgates and let anyone say anything they want. But wait, isn’t that what is happening now? No one has come back to me about any e-mail I have written since 1990 and I’ve written lots, so I don’t think that’s the issue either.

I think the issue is this. Institutions do not know how to establish themselves in the conversation “out there”. “Out here” is where their stakeholders, clients and employees live. Out here is where the conversation is happening. I think the problem is that they do not know how to behave and establish their place in the conversation. They know they can’t just show up or bad things will happen, people will think they are rude. But yet, not going feels wrong too.

The work to be done in this space is not just about tools and technologies and widgets and so on, although they are important facilitators of much of the magic. The fundamental work to be done is to take the corporate by the hand and walk “out here” with them. Help them find a place, help them learn how to act when someone says something bad, or throws a tomato, or tells you your Board of Directors dresses you funny.

Their real aversion to entering into the space is they simply do not know what to do, how to act, what to say, how to behave. They need a social media charm school so they can participate and learn. Figure out how to speak and listen, how to roll with the punches, take the good with the bad and basically be part of the community, dare I say it like the rest of us.

Posted on Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 at 6:14 pm and under Big business category.