Organizations have traditionally thrived in a particular way of communicating with the world – using middlemen (PR/ advertising agencies), and in a language that, after the levels and silos, is quite different from the way normal people talk and understand.
Social media is simply a platform which allows normal people to talk and discuss about anything and nothing in particular. Its a simple realization for companies – that there are people available at one place now, instead of their own houses, restaurants, malls, roads…and that they are willing to talk.
The only thing missing is the evolution in the language of communication from corporates – they continue to use their legacy language, full of jargons, a lot of ego that they ARE the ‘company’ and an annoyed disregard for that single customer.
Now that the word ‘groundswell’ is truly possible in real life thanks to social media, its time to cut the BS in communication and talk straight and simple. How difficult is that?
Turns out that its indeed really very difficult. I was in a press interaction for a client which was bent on announcing something rather insignificant, on a grand scale. I felt completely helpless since it was beyond my mandate to change things – it was much bigger compared to my minor protest. So, I went with it.
It only made things worse – the media that arrived was mighty disappointed at the non-newsworthiness, at least for the time and effort to make it to the venue physically. I also got a mouthful that all the event required was just a well-drafted press release – and that was what I thought, in the first place.
It’s just so sad!
Coming to think of it, social media tools are perhaps overpowering the communication-change agenda itself. They are not worth the focus here – rather, it is the fact that companies/ brands need to start thinking differently when it comes to communicating anything with the outside world.
To put it in perspective and put the tools in their place, think about it this way – when mainstream media ruled the roost, there were ‘X’ voices. With social media, there are ‘X to the power of infinity’ voices. Time to listen, learn to talk like them and in a way that interests them.
Picture courtesy: Thomas Hawk via Flickr