Why Can’t We Teach Sociability?
By Lon S. Cohen
There is a great post on the Direct Marketing Observations blog that perfectly illustrates a problem in Social Media and companies. See the post here.
In a very easy to understand and striking way, it really does address the problem most people have with Social Media. You can learn the mechanics of the tools but putting them to use is a whole other ball game. Of course, the post probably hits on the failing of Social Media professionals more than the people who they work for. Shouldn’t we also teach people not only how to use Social Media but to USE Media Socially? Meaning, can’t we also teach people to be social? Follow up with them? Coach them? Isn’t that an untapped market in a way?
This incorporates some psychological and sociological professions. We Social Media professionals sit back and shake our heads because we seem to “get it” but we don’t understand why no one else does. I think it’s time we also offer to teach sociability to company managers so they can use Social Media and in turn encourage their employees to be social as well. I don’t mean we have to make every shrinking violet the life of the party but along with discussions about return on value and the next Twitter application, we should be teaching businesses how to be more social. I am sure that we can adapt plenty of other fields on study into this discussion to develop a set of accepted guidelines.
In Beth Harte’s post “19 Things Social Media Consultants or Agencies Can’t Teach You” on the MarketingProf’s Daily Fix blog she lists the things that companies will have to learn to do for themselves. Now it’s true that you can’t teach someone to “have a personality” or to “desire real relationships and conversations” as Beth says, we can point out to business managers that these things are important and that if they truly want to learn them, then there are steps to take to help. While you can’t teach personality, you can help them see the personality within their brand or to recognize that there may be a personality on staff who’d be great for representing a brand.
Some things on her list you can teach by example. For instance it’s easy to show someone that they should “want to implement internal systems to track all of your social activities.” You can inspire and then follow up on progress. There are ways to change behavior but only if you can see results. Putting Beth’s list in order you may be able to show someone why they’d want to “really care” and “commit to transparent communications” if they see that this will help them “get the benefits of being an ‘unmarketer” after they “embrace the value of having a measurable plan.”
According to Beth in a Tweet David Armano gave a good start to this conversation in his post, “Debunking Social Media Myths” on the Conversation Starter blog, which I highly suggest you take a look at.