Social Media and People
My blog entry on The power of social media generated some interesting discussions on both Linkedin and this blog about what the true power behind social media is. Most people agreed that the true power is people themselves, but several people argued persuasively that technology was the power behind social media.
In a discussion I had on Saturday with a close friend of mine, I pointed out that the role of technology is really to solve problems people have. Sometimes we think of these problems as technology problems, but underlying the surface issue of a buggy application or a leaky faucet (both are examples of technology) is the human problem. The fact that the buggy application doesn’t work or the leaky faucet is causing a higher water bill ultimately impacts a person on a personal level, if only in the sense that these problems have impacted the person emotionally. In fact, it’s fair to say we make our decisions based off our emotions, and after wards rationalize our responses with a layer of intellect that explains the issue from a cerebral perspective.
And how does this apply to social media? The choice for a business to get involved with social media is ultimately based on a perceived need for social media that originates on an emotional level. That emotional can be as primal as wanting to survive or as sophisticated as wanting to enjoy the company of others. Business that want more clients in the door want those clients because the income the clients bring in pays bills and continues to allow people at those businesses the lifestyle they prefer to live. Social media is one method for reaching out and connecting to potential clients.
But what people forget, caught up as they are in their own problems, is that every person has a problem or emotional need that informs their motivation for doing what they do. And forgetting that very important facet of business can ultimately harm you, regardless of what medium, you use to connect with clients.
Social media provides businesses an unprecedented ability to stay visible to the public, but the methods for staying visible involve much less advertising and a lot more engagement with the people they are in touch with. Businesses need to realize the medium of social media puts them in touch, closer than ever, with the very real problems and needs people have.
