I was reading the part 1 and 2 articles from CMSWire about Goodbye Corporate Website – Hello Web Presence Management Framework? They are very interesting articles, but they are lacking of one very important point which may still take a while to have such thing happening.
Senior bosses are not engaging themselves in social media personally
There is a resistance from corporations to engage themselves in the social media. The reason is very simple. That’s because most of them are managed by senior bosses who are not very savvy about (or even opening themselves into) social media, but on the other hand, they are very used to watching and listening to televisions, radio, newspapers and magazines.
In fact, most of the older generations are anti-socialmedia actually
One very simple question to ask: How many uncles and aunties – do you know of – are using the social media actively without conservation? Most of the people, I do know of, are simply refusing to open a Facebook account. And when I ask them of their reasons, I always don’t get any honest answer at all. But I do believe it has to do with their conservative thoughts; They don’t like to share their thoughts with the world. And if they open a Facebook account, they will not want to befriend strangers. Many of them don’t want to befriend with their colleagues as well. Or if they know of this friend who will befriend with everybody he knows (I am a good example), they will not want to befriend this friend because they are afraid of being exposed to other uninvited friends.
I simply wonder… How long will it take for the older generations to embrace the social media gracefully without reservations? I believe it has to do with the culture and habits that they have been living with.
The problem is that the senior bosses are the final decision makers in the corporations
With the senior bosses (of the older mindset of anti-socialmedia) in place, it is very hard for the corporations to move into the new media effectively. We can’t really blame anybody actually… That’s because they are not familiar with the environment (or actually they are just being anti), it is very hard for them to decide to buy into the unfamiliar idea.
Moreover, the very reason for them not to engage personally into the social media is because they are afraid of being exposed to negative comments. They thought that it will only “ruin” their career advancement. They have been hiding behind their brand for so many years, and to ask them to stand in front of their brand it’s like asking them to “open a can of worms”.
Many companies are very used to thinking of selling their products from the positive perspective. To ask them to participate in social media, it’s like showing the whole world what other consumers are really thinking – which will definitely involve negative perspectives. They are not used to handling negative perspectives openly because they are now handling the media (the consumers have effectively become citizen journalists now).
Another problem is that the corporations are not catered to such social media needs
Another interesting part to note is that the entire corporations may need to restructure completely just for the social media. Because the consumers are now citizen journalists, it is not only belonging to the job of a customer service officer but to the public relations officer as well. There is a cross-linked problem that who should handle such a customer who is complaining on a public domain.
Many corporations chose to ignore such a problem. It’s not because they don’t want to handle it, but because they don’t have such a personnel to handle such a complaint! For those complaints on newspapers’ forum page, they have PR personnel handling it. But for those complaints on Internet, they are unofficial most of the time. By default, they should be handled by the CS officer, but on the other hand, it is also a public complaint no doubt. Or, should it be the role of a Customer-Relationship-Management officer to handle the Internet media?
Solution: I believe a new internet department may be the solution to manage the web presence framework… But how many senior bosses really see its justification?
Can social media courses really help?
There is a rise in the number of people taking up social media courses. Many people thought that the social media courses can help them to understand better about social media.
I think that is not very true. In my opinion, social media courses are more like helping you to understand what is available in the market today, but not about tomorrow! They will show you the choices to make for the social media today and what you can do to help in your grand plan about internet marketing.
What really works is that these participants must have a brainwash about the social media first before they indulge themselves into it. It’s like asking them about the pros and cons of using the television ads, radio ads, or newspapers ads. Many of them are already so familiar with such things simply because they are believers themselves! They read newspapers… They watch televisions… They read magazines, etc. In other words, they should start participating in social media themselves! (But again, it’s quite against their conservative policy…)
No choice? So you need to outsource to agencies to help?
Social media marketing is a growing process by itself. If you need to outsource to an agency to help you, the agency will definitely do a good job in the end by leveraging on your monetary resources and learning how to do a better social media marketing strategy. It’s either you learn it, or your agency will learn it. If you have a huge budget, you can have a quick turnaround time to create a social media marketing strategy with your appointed agency. But that will mean that you are dependent to your agency for the rest of your life. That’s because you will never know how to maintain the growth of the social community by yourself. Everybody makes mistakes (including your agency). It’s either you make mistakes now while your community is very small, or you make mistakes later when you have a huge community. It’s your choice!
At the very least, I would think that you should be the one handling your customers in the social media directly or indirectly!
Web presence management framework is a long term strategy
Whether you are going to work on it yourself or with your agency, creating a presence in the social media is a long term plan. There is a timeline to it, but this is usually a never-ending plan. Don’t you think it’s a waste to close a campaign when you have built up a community of more than 10,000 fans? If it’s really a short-term campaign like a Product Launch (with only 1 year’s lifespan), bring it forward and invite them to another Product Launch campaign again and again!
As for the long-term campaign (such as building brand awareness), there is really no such thing as termination clause! I have ever asked a couple of web agencies about such a clause, none of them is able to answer me properly because the only way out is to cross sell them to another campaign (if your campaign needs to terminate definitely).
Corporate website is still necessary
At the very least, corporate website is a symbol of trust to the consumers. They confirm the consumers that they are going to get these products for sure. It is still a representative for any company who treasures their branding for both online and offline world. It may be possible to ask your consumers to go to your Facebook page for more information about your products, but it is really for the branding presence to tell them your domain name only. Why would you want to advertise for Facebook? Moreover, we will never know if Facebook is going to last forever or not. Before the Facebook days, we were all still using Friendster for years! I thought I will be on Friendster for the rest of my life… But now, I am thinking of terminating my Friendster account because I don’t touch it anymore even though they are still alive and kicking!
Make a combination of both Corporate website and Web Presence Management Framework
Both are essential in our online marketing strategy.
Social media is necessary to build brand awareness to the potential consumers. Some of the experienced social media users are actually thinking that it is useless to start a Facebook fan page. I would like to think of it in the perspective of building awareness more than anything else. I can still remember in 2004 when I was doing sales, my sales manager was telling me that I need to give my name cards to as many people as possible. Whether or not they are buying from me, it is still important because of the awareness and to remember me when they need to buy in future.
Corporate website is also necessary because it is the headquarter to go to for any references. Basically, it has to provide brochures for the visitors to understand what they can buy from you at least. With the social elements added to it, it will reinforce what you have been doing for your corporate website! Contact form will be helpful for both pre-sales and after-sales. Email addresses with your own corporate website will always be good for your company branding as well.
I started learning online marketing since 2007. I have a couple of online projects which I am working on part time with an elite team such as