Scott Nelson

I can’t help it. I am not just an analyst by training, but also one by nature. I naturally tend to group people and concepts to try to find an order to it.

I say that because as I have been talking with clients, I have realized that while there are a lot of reasons why firms get into social media. Some are good, and some are not motivated by the best strategy. But there are some natural groupings. This list is not exhaustive by any means. In fact, I would be interested in know what other categories people see.

1. The first group are the Lemmings. These are where I think most firms are. They do social media because everyone seems to be doing it. They have no strategy, and usually their use of the media shows it.

2. Next, we get the Airline Flight Magazines group. These are firms that are doing it because someone in senior management told them too, usually because they read an airline flight magazine about it so they figured that they should do it too.

3. The third group is the New and Trendy group. These firms just love to do stuff while it is new. If it is more than 6-12 months old, they have lost interest and moved on.

4. Fourth, there are Money Makers. They see revenue in social media, and want to use it for Sales and Marketing. They don’t see much else, but the dollar (or euro or Yen signs) are driving them

5. Fifth, the Service Nuts. They don’t care as much about making money. They want to take care of customer needs. They are driven by immediacy of response, and care the most about customer satisfaction.

6. And finally, the last group are the “We just want to talk to our customers”. This group has no particular expectations. They are interested in creating a dialog. They throw comments out, they respond to comments back. And they want to learn.

I am most encouraged by the last group. There is a sense that says any reason you are on social media is good. And I do not disagree. But the fact that the last group knows they will make mistakes, and want to learn, means that they will go the furthest. Let’s hope more firms want to learn and are willing to make a few mistakes.