Scott Nelson

An online community that I am part of has been having an interesting discussion on their personal and professional use of social media, especially Twitter. The discussion was started when one member stated that he was not going to user Twitter any more because “there wasn’t much in it for him.” The conversation expanded to include other sites such as Facebook and Linkedin as well. And as expected, the debate split into the normal list of pros and cons. But what caught my eye was that every-one’s comments, whether they liked a site or didn’t like it, revolved around what was in it for them. Comments such as “I don’t find anything interesting/useful”, or “it takes up too much of my time” were common.

I realized that this is the problem that many companies have in assessing and developing a social media strategy. They worry too much about what is in it for them and there company. No one ever thinks in terms of what they can do for the community in general, and their customers in particular. What if firms started to think about giving customers easier access to customer service channels? Or allowing customers to get faster responses? Or giving customers better visibility into marketing efforts? Or helping them to feel closer to companies they feel a closeness to? If firms thought that way, would they find social media strategy so difficult? I suspect it is a matter of not worrying so much about what is in it for you, and worrying more about what is in it for your customers.