Social media is fast becoming a medium of choice for those in urban areas, for making phone calls, using the internet and just informal chatting. The advantages of using the medium are many, ranging from ease of usage, low fixed costs of production and higher media efficiencies.
But marketers’ investment in social media, though growing, does not do justice to the promise that the channel holds. Let us look at some barriers that inhibit the adoption in a corporate set-up.
New medium
First is the unfamiliarity of the medium to the senior management. Most top management personnel have grown up with traditional media such as television, radio and print. They find it difficult to learn these new skills so late in their lives. Some even consider the knowledge of navigating social media a waste of time and would rather delegate it to the younger ones in the organisation. This approach does more harm than good.
A double-edged sword
Social media has the powerful double edge implication of ownership versus control, that is, the more brands throw open communications and campaigns to the public — making them interactive, shareable and inviting comments — the higher the management risks losing control of the brand.
A classic example would be the social media campaign Dove undertook. Titled ‘real beauty’, it encouraged consumers to upload candid pictures of themselves without make-up, thereby encouraging them to accept themselves for the way they were. In contrast to the huge public admiration of svelte figures this campaign celebrated ‘inner beauty’.
The campaign was a smash hit, rapidly increasing Dove’s market share to over 25 per cent in a few months. The brand imagery scores too began climbing at a healthy rate. The organisation, in this case, was willing to give customers the ownership of the brand and reaped the benefits generously.
The point is: social media is risky, but by not embracing it, organisations risk alienating potential consumers or losing out on word of mouth opportunity for their brands. Whether the companies have a social media strategy or not, consumers will continue to write/opine about various brands. So, it is advisable for the senior management to take active interest in social media.
Embracing social media
This can take place in two ways: through personal learning or organisational learning. The first one requires top management to start being more active online: blogging and making profiles on social networks such as Twitter or Facebook, personally or professionally can be a good starting point. These will give them hands-on experience and help them understand the difference between social and traditional media.
The second approach, organisational learning, is even more important. Many examples come to mind: Unilever makes its senior management interact with the top echelons of tech companies such as Facebook, Google and Twitter to exchange notes on technology and its possibilities.
They also have a reverse mentoring process where the top management is mentored on social media by the younger employees for several weeks. They also have a ‘swapping’ arrangement where employees spend a couple of weeks in the social media organisations and vice-versa. In fact, one such initiative has resulted in an online campaign for the detergent brand Tide, which went viral and garnered some good reviews for the brand.
The other barrier that impedes social media adoption is the difficulty of measuring its reach . While there are GRPs, readership and listenership numbers available for traditional media, social media still focusses on engagement through reach and clicks that don’t reflect spend efficiencies holistically. And this becomes a deterrent for organisations.
Overall, organisations should not use social media to impress people but to engage with them. They should work along with the medium to create great brands.