If your heavily entrenched in social networks across the digital world then you’re probably having a great time. Friendships are strong, conversations are frequent and it’s generally a great place to be. Who wouldn’t want to connect with hundreds and thousands of people with every tweet or have your Facebook ‘friends’ discuss your latest status update?

Last week I discovered the answer to that question – business doesn’t want to know about what we’re all up to. Business doesn’t care how great it is that I can connect with thousands of people in less than 5 seconds, because right now, and i know this is a generalisation, it just doesn’t get what the hell we’re all doing.

After discussing this issue with over 50 companies across the last 12 months there are well known key issues organisations face:

• Time to learn the intricacies of each network/platform
• Time to spend in the social space to listen, engage & communicate
• What exactly will the return on investment be after this time has been spent
• Who should manage/control the content
• Approval of content is impossible in the time frames required therefore outsourcing is nearly impossible [In house is equally difficult because of the reasons above]
• if listening is so important (this is what we tell prospective clients) then how much will listening cost? When do we get the payback
• If business joins in then what happens if we become embroiled in complaints & negative reaction to our products & services?
• How does it all integrate into all other marketing & communications activity?
• Why get involved now when they’ve managed to get by without it

I could go on but that’s pointless. I know that many of you will have your own case studies to prove it’s worth but that is still proving less than convincing to the vehicle contract hire company, the software development house or the alcoholic drink company.

But companies  still feel they’re better off without the pain and frustration of getting involved. Without social media they have time to complete their already detailed marketing plans & press campaigns. If that’s all working well then putting the “social” world to one side will do just fine for the next six to twelve months.

So what do we do about it?

The answers are straight forward. A process of clear and simple education is crucial. Business needs to understand how social media works before it pays for it, and why it adds huge value to all of their propositions while benefiting their products & services.

We must stop telling them how great it is and start showing them how essential it is. Organisations will not pay to be in a place where fun and good times are being had but they will invest in a place where

• New and current customers are engaged and held onto
• lost leads are rediscovered
• Negativity & issues are dealt with with ease and speed
• Communities are developed
• New products & services are launched, reviewed, discussed or promoted
• Feedback on all aspects of your industry can be collected (including competitors)

All of this is how it should be. This is how I handle the discussion about why someone should get into social media.

In short – they shouldn’t!

Instead help them get involved in adding new platforms into existing marketing and communications strategies. Highlight how Twitter & Facebook will work with their new marketing campaigns or news releases. Prove that web traffic will increase with an integrated online approach. Demonstrate how a blog with opinion, discussion and knowledge sharing will open up a whole new world of contacts and customers to them.

It’s never going to work if we fill the platforms with rubbish and idle links. It must be about everyone being able to have a voice and communicate with friends and with brands or companies.

A hundred years ago they called another growing industry ‘show business’ … not show fun!

Food for thought!

What are you going to do to make sure we don’ t end up eating ourselves?
How will you approach your next discussion around this subject?
What do you feel will improve the approach to business?

Please leave me your comments. I’ll carry this post on next week.

They say the best ideas are the simple ones! I’ve worked for over 20 years now and across all the marketing disciplines I’ve been involved with I must have come up with or shared thousands of ideas for products, services, events, brands, concepts and communications.

None of them have made me rich (Yet! but my day is coming) or provided me with as much pleasure as what happened when a friend and colleague of mine (the legend that is Mark Jennings from D8 in Glasgow) and I came up with something.

Let me explain…

If we build it…will they come?

Both Mark and I work in the online world. He runs a successful web development, design and marketing company in Glasgow. I run Cowbell, which tries to clear up the confusion surrounding social media and integrate digital marketing with traditional. The key to the story is that we both like to work hard and by god – we both like to play hard, which in our world means having a beer.

After a few chats over the odd beer (again!) we felt that social media needed to stop with all the ‘Top 5 ways twitter will make you a billionaire’, ’100 ways that social media will cure all diseases’ and ’43 reasons to have to have a Facebook account or your house will burn down’ and well how else can I say it – get social!

About 30 minutes later #themeet140 was born and our connections and others all became part of & shared owners of our dream.

The premise was, and is, simple! Anyone from within the social media world is invited to a pub or bar in a town near you to meet up, have a few drinks and mix with people who have similar interests and lives as you and everyone can ask others to come. I know that most of you reading this can do that at any time across your week but for some reason this is special.

Ask anyone of the 100 plus people who’ve already been to one and they’ll tell you about the special atmosphere, the way that no one sells to anyone else (this is an unwritten rule and will not be tolerated), and how they immediately felt welcome and part of the whole group from the minute they walked in.

My epiphany for on all of this happened on Wednesday night during the amazing #themeet140 in Glasgow. Before it began I knew one person, by the end of it I had 30 new friends and everyone of them has connected with me again since the event. I looked around the room at about 9.30pm and all I could see was groups of people who had never met each before engaging, smiling (actually, laughing most of the time) and drinking.

There are no presentations, no agenda, no egos and no bullshit.

Happy Days

Instead there’s a sea of people connecting, engaging, sharing and all wanting to know when the next one comes back to town.

Glasgow’s night was full of special people who all brought their own essence and flavour to the night. London and Cheltenham did the same, and as I said to Mark later on Wednesday night

“there’s nothing better than following the hashtag the next day and seeing the impact the night had on everyone’s mood and week”

Those who were at the London and Cheltenham events have said which was better out of the five or six so far? The truth is none of them and all of them. Each one has brought something completely different because each  brings new people.

Both Mark and I are passionate about these nights. They bring great people together. #THEmeet140 is a case study for social media success as it’s supposed to be a communications tool where new connections are made, or repaired, listened to and engaged with. Business can never think it can only sit within the status updates, 140 character messages or network activity. We have to get out there and meet and communicate directly with people.

As Mark said to me yesterday

“If it ends tomorrow…then Twitter has been worth it!”

Let’s hope more and more people and businesses can say the same thing over the years to come.

The future

There’s no agenda and there’s no plan because if we do that then it loses everything it has become – a fluid and fun night that changes as each conversation is in full flow. If our accidental events are something you might want to go to then can I suggest that you follow us on twitter and keep up with the hashtag.

More nights out across the country will be happening soon. For those of you who’ve been before then let us know what you love or hate about them. For those of you who might come along then by all means introduce yourselves in the comments and keep in touch.

Details

Follow me or Mark on twitter

Follow the hashtag – #themeet140 or the twitter account Themeet140

Social media is about bringing people and communities together, whether it be companies and their prospective market or simply people to people. One of those people that I came across, and now engage with on a regular basis is Marta Majewska. We immediately clicked and have forged a strong working and personal relationship. I consider her someone I can talk to professionally and a friend.

Nothing pleases me more than to have her a a guest blogger. Here’s her post.

Will You be my….brand?

Before I start, I just want to say that I am a BIG fan of Chris and adore his blog so I couldn’t have been more honoured when he asked me to write a guest blog post here.

During my recent trip to California, I went shopping in San Diego (before you start wondering why I would talk to you about my shopping, don’t worry, I do realize that nor Chris nor his readers want to hear all about my new dresses and shoes but I promise this is going somewhere One of the shops I visited was a boutique chain where I bought a gorgeous white dress. Not only was the service truly amazing, I also got a great gift as I was leaving the shop.

I felt so happy when I walked out of there that I caught myself thinking ‘Oh I really do hope they have a Twitter account so I can tell them all about my great experience and thank them for the gift’.  I couldn’t believe how excited I was just thinking about connecting with them. I felt in love. Yes, IN LOVE. And I was thinking to myself – I really want to have a relationship with this brand.

So when I was back, I went online to check their website and was thrilled to see the Twitter icon on there. I followed them and sent them a tweet. I was excitedly awaiting the reply but, to my disappointment, nothing happened. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that brands don’t have time to answer all tweets directed to them but as I said before I was in love and I’m sure you all know the feeling of meeting a new person you really like and checking your phone every 3 seconds in hope to see a new message on there.

I went back to their Twitter account and I was relieved to see that ‘IT WASN’T ME’. No. This brand didn’t want to have a relationship with anyone. How do I know? Because although they do encourage people to send them tweets in their Twitter bio, I haven’t seen a single @reply sent from their account. Not a single one. It turns out they use Twitter to broadcast information. Not to communicate. Not to create relationships. Since as I always say, a relationship is a two way street so if communication comes from one side only, it will never last. Not in real life…not on social media.

Relationships are all about a dialogue, NOT a monologue. So are social media. And the boutique shop I so eagerly wanted to have a relationship with is not the only one having problems understanding this new approach. Looking around the Internet, I can see a lot of companies struggling with the new world where they no longer control mass messaging and where the one-way broadcast was replaced by a two-way communication.

The world where consumers want to have a one-to-one relationship with brands and expect a certain level or honesty and ATTENTION from them.  Yes, attention – that’s all I wanted from that boutique store. Attention is what many consumers want when they communicate their satisfaction or dissatisfaction towards a company – we don’t necessarily want them to change their entire product because we suggested so on Twitter. No. Just like in any relationship, sometimes we just want to be listened to. And acknowledged.

So dear brands, as much as I understand that your business was not built to have trusted friends and loyal followers – please try to adapt to the new reality and I promise you will win a lot of hearts.

What are your experiences with brands online and through social media? Do you want them to talk to you or are you happy that they stay at a distance?

As I write this post the UK General Election 2010 has just happened. 45 million people will have either cast their vote, be thinking of who they’d have voted for or be glad they didn’t get involved in all that nonsense and then moan and whinge for the next few years.

Sound Familiar? You’ve think you know what I’m talking about… but can’t quite put your finger on it.

Let be put you out of your misery. The UK electorate behave in exactly the same way that many businesses and organisations do towards social media. Bingo! My guess is that you’re now either smiling at the screen you’re reading this on or groaning in the realisation of what I’ve just said.

When it dawned on me I felt like a leader of one of the main parties; someone who needs to facilitate change in how we, as the prospective MP’s of the social media world, behave and act towards our constituency of potential clients and communities.

MS v MP: members of social v members of parliament

Look deeper at some of the similarities. Both sets of representatives have many who:

• Talk the talk but don’t really want to get their hands dirty with work
• Fill the media with puff, spin and rhetoric
• Communicate with the same people all the time – but rarely talk to the communities that matter or who want to hear
• Alienate the very people who want our help and create a backlash because of our behaviour
• Never get round to actually changing things

So as leader of the Cow Bell Party (I’m messing) I’ve decided to look at how we change. How we change from allowing ourselves to believe that we’re the Messiah’s of a so called social media revolution and how we change into an industry that shows results and change instead of just talking about it.

Scott Gould has recently provoked a number of intelligent and thought-provoking blog posts. I was particularly taken by his, and his communities, views on comments and how he sees a blog as a home where you welcome people in and to put it simply – engage and collaborate with.

He is, of course, right! and this approach should play a key role in the Cow Bell manifesto.So let’s begin. Let’s make a social change and really do something special.

This is now not rhetoric or puff. What I’m saying is let’s just do it. I know a lot of people who are making things happen and who work on successful strategic campaigns to integrate social media into a marketing plan for both B2B and B2C.

Business Needs

This is what businesses demand. From their point of view simple answers to simple questions.They want

• solutions and answers to their problems
• to know how to get involved and which networks to join
• How long to spend in social media
• To understand the tools of the trade
• see how it integrates into other forms of communication and marketing
• watch their communities (tribes if you prefer) interact, engage, collaborate and …. BUY something

Some may feel these are too general and can’t be answered without more depth. This may be true, but if we can’t deal with the simple things then there’s no hope when it comes in wanting to write wonderful strategy documents and communication plans; or thinking about how amazing it would be for customer service, product development or actual sales if we just implement that 12 month campaign across twitter et all.

This is the bit where you come in. I need like-minded people to join in with this.

My feeling is that we need to simply the offering and make it clear that this isn’t magic. We need to ensure that we don’t bamboozle potential buyers with jargon and show how integrating social media into their organisation will bring about huge change – for the good.

This is a marketing and communications tool. Every single person in a company is responsible for how a buyer perceives that organisation. They market that brand, product or service with everything they do. Convincing the cynic or those who fear walking in our doors is all about distilling this down to its simplest form.

So, in true Social style I need you to engage and collaborate with me.

Questions

What’s the best thing about the social landscape? Is it feeling wanted & talking to friends?

Are your followers, friends and those in your network helping you do business through either knowledge sharing or in-depth collaboration?

What Now?

The point of all of this is for some of us to now engage in a discussion about helping business understand. Please add your comments below and mention you interest  in discussing this further if you want to  share knowledge and ideas or just want to be a part of us all helping business develop and understand their social potential. The next stage is to share good & bad experiences – maybe via a [Google} Wave where we can all collaborate or possibly through Linked-In or Facebook.

Please pass this on to others you feel can add to the discussion.

More passionate and enthusiastic conversation with Molly Flatt (@mollyflatt) from 1000 heads. I hope you feel as motivated and as energised as I did after our chat. Watch it and then go make some changes in what you do for the better…

Here’s part two of the interview:

Agree or disagree, you can’t fail to love her passion and enthusiasm for her work and her life.

What do you think?