Social Media Best Practice

Image courtesy

I've been tagged by Dino on a meme for 'best practice' in social media. It's a little uncomfortable trying to pick out one behaviour or characteristic if I'm honest - most of it feels like it should be pretty intuitive. Like Dino, I prefer not to think of social media as a channel, but more of an approach. And like Dino, I think the challenge is strategic not tactical.

But if I had to pick one thing, I think it would be 'Be Human'. Seems like I'm not the only one who thinks this is what it's all about. But I have a particular reason for picking this, and that is because I believe that this (above all else) is what is central to what social media is all about. Bad practice in social media usually happens when people forget it.

There's something else I'd like to say about it. Somehow, in the rush towards mass communications, in the realisation that it was possible reach millions of people at one time with one message, in the assumptive grouping of millions of people into a singular target audience, in our desire for consistency, automation, standardisation, in our wish to de-personalise, corporatize and anonymize the interactions we have with our customers - business lost some of it's human side. Social Media is arguably the greatest opportunity that business has to get it's humanity back.

I'm tagging Eaon, David, Willem, Jamie and Dan.

Comments

[davidcushman]

Cool, thanks for the tag. Will enjoy this. best dc

[Dino]

love the yellow card!
well said neil, nice post.
makes you want to work for brands that are willing to do the right thing and be more human, doesn't it?