My colleague from Australia, Matthew Gain, has outlined it more than adequately, in his blog, but I assume an Indian equivalent may be useful too.
Here are a few snapshots that best present the Indian social media story.
Exhibit 1
Trust in information sources – social media, in particular, is up. Not just that, even trust in ‘online multiple sources’ (other than social media) is up.
The CEO, the first choice for any PR ‘spokesperson’ is down, in terms of credibility – from being the person with top credibility, in 2011. The ‘technical expert in the company’ retains his/her position at No.2, while the most dramatic rise is by ‘Person like me’.
To build trust in a company, some of the most required facets include,
1. Listens to customer needs and feedback
2. Takes responsible actions to address an issue or a crisis
3. Communicates frequently and honestly on the state of its business
The inferences from these are not rocket science, but most often, it is common sense that people seem to miss, perhaps because it is right under their nose.
Let me present a simple example.
You are looking to purchase a new car.
A decade ago, this would mean you check with,
1. Your family and extended family
2. Car showrooms
Now, you do the same, but have included another one to that list,
3. Google
It is a different story that you check with extended family not over phone or snail mail, but via an email or a Facebook message. But, let’s focus on Google, now.
You Google the brands you have added as a rudimentary shortlist. Why? Because you may want to make it into a solid shortlist of 3, so that you could move your butt physically and check them out in real showrooms. This part is quite cumbersome these days – and it requires time and a lot of effort, unless you happen to stay next to a car showroom.
How do you make your shortlist?
You Google and land up on assorted reviews and customer views of the brands you have in your mind. This is definitely not the same as your brother-in-law giving you feedback on Car A – to be clear, these are from complete strangers. But just imagine that Car B (towards which you have a positive bent) is reviewed by multiple people in a leading Indian auto portal and you go through them with a lot of interest. These may not be full-fledged reviews, but snapshots of opinions from people reacting to a full-fledged review. When you notice 10 not-so-positive opinions back-to-back for Car B in that auto portal, the equation actually changes. No, you may not decide against buying that Car B, but it goes further down the shortlist in your mind. Think of it as the power to overhear a few people outside the car dealership talking not-so-positively about that brand – assume you had the power to overhear them. Now, remove time (assorted people saying assorted things over a period of time) and effort (your effort needed to stay where people are talking) from that assumption and you have the opinions posted on the auto portal as a result.
When did you start trusting strangers? It’s not as simple as that, however. It is more to do with availability of opinions whenever we need them, with limited effort. Getting such a range of opinions on any given topic was massively cumbersome earlier; not in the social media world. (For more on this, check my older post on ‘Opinion Economy‘)
That explains exhibit 1. As an information source, traditional media still rules, in India, but social media isn’t far behind either. If traditional media is a collection of controlled, curated opinions from people who are doing it as a full-time occupation, social media is opinions from normal people like us. Why? Because we can! As simple as that! We have always had opinions on many things/everything, but before the advent of social media, we did not have the platform to air them. Social media not only allows us to air them, but also to amplify, archive and discuss them.
This also explains exhibit 2. Where the CEO was THE voice of the company/brand (a largely PR-led effort), now, brands notice almost every employee is a spokesperson on his/her own. Why? Because they can! If a quality conscious traditional media still seeks a CEO’s opinions and perspectives, there’s a massive parallel platform in the form of social media that welcomes anyone and everyone with an opinion to offer perspectives.
That leads us to exhibit 3. To put it bluntly, social media enables two-way communication and if a brand continues to treat it like a one-way communication tool, it is akin to keeping quiet when someone is asking you a question or giving you feedback. It is as annoying online as it is offline. The power of a two-way communication tool is not just in listening to people and responding to them but also in crafting your messages and communication to adapt to the dynamism of that medium. We approach one-way communication platforms with a different mindset in that we do not include the fact that our communication could (and needs to) change as people talk about it and that we need to be prepared to change it as we move along. Compare this to the way we prepare for a one-way communication medium – we prepare, based on what we think is right, deliver it and move on. It is static, like a school text book that changes once every year, at best.
To sum it all up,
1. There is an opinion economy, thanks to social media. You cannot wish it away – it is impacting your business and perception.
2. There are no preordained set of spokespersons for any brand anymore – every employee and every customer is a spokesperson, whether the brand likes it or not. Deal with it.
3. It is not enough to listen to your customers and others’ opinions – it is equally important to adapt what you say based on that. Listening is a given, these days. What you say and how you say it is the point.
Here is the complete deck – Edelman Trust Barometer 2012 – India Results.