Spend a little time reading social media blogs and you will soon hear the following.
“Social media is about the conversation.”
It’s not at all, but it’s important to say this, because if you tell people what it’s really about it confuses people.
Social media is really about persuasion.
Persuading people to:
- Trust your brand
- Give you feedback
- Pass a message on
- Link to a website
- Believe the message
- Talk about the brand
It’s possible to take the argument further and argue that all communication is persuasion, but I understand why banging on about the “conversation” aspect is important, even though it is wrong.
It’s because social media is counter intuitive to how most people do business and dragging a business away from PR people and the traditional way of communicating with consumers is vital
The old ways are dead.
Explaining to the old guard that “social media is about the conversation”, enables them to take a step towards the truth. If you told them it’s about persuasion they will exclaim, “Great, lets use it to boost sales!”
Increasing sales or optimising sales, (I will talking about the technique of sales optimisation later) is the goal we want to aim for. You can use social media to do that, but it’s indirect. You have to aim at a different target to hit the bullseye.
The way you communicate with consumers is more conversational when you use social media. But that doesn’t mean that that is what social media is about.
It’s about persuasion, making people do what you want them to do.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Social media IS about the conversation. It’s about people talking to other people. Social media marketing is where the persuasion comes in.
That’s all about harnessing the power of that conversation to influence people’s perception and behaviour.
Social Media Marketing is not all there is to social media, not by a long chalk.
Though provoking piece. Part of the conversation is influencing people’s behaviour. Whether that’s as an artist to influence people to come along to your show; a charity to influence people’s opinions and get them donating or a brand to get people engaged or talking about it.
Below you join the conversation, you need to understand the various outcomes you desire. There’s no point rabbiting on, if you don’t know what’s the outcome of that other than to say ‘well great chatting’ Personally I don’t think there’s enough of that.
I disagree with the pursuasion arguement. What social media can do is allow two people to talk across long distances or 1,000s of people to engage in a conversation in the same building.
Yes, some of my tweets/posts are pursuasive, but many are not. Some actively filter out people or offer help/advice that’s not linked to anything commercial or relevant to my business.
By being helpful, I’m not pursuading anyone to do or believe anything, I’m just being helpful. Yes, that might help ‘my brand’ but its not the objective nor is it the aim.
equally, when i ask for help or a question, I’m not looking to pursuade anyone. I’m getting information that’s useful.
A conversation is only valuable if information is exchanged – this is not an attempt to pursaude someone of a position, it’s a discussion of ideas.
A good idea only becomes a great idea when it is batted about between two or more people. Silicon Valley has this approach. why discuss good business ideas with rivals and competitiors. it is not to pursuade, or sell the brand, it’s to improve alll businesses that get involved in the process.
Your view is a little ‘closed’ in culture that we are trying to do is push messages for a commercial aim. There are many social users of the media as well don’t forget.
That said, it is an interesting read and certainly challenging. The perspective is certainbly something to think about next time I tweet or post.