As a social media guy representing a large retailer, I am lucky enough to speak at various conferences and meet some really cool people. Chatting to people from American Express, Barclaycard and Tesco last week though, made me realise that many people still don’t understand what social media is… But this is not a rant about the role of social media because social media has been around for ever.
We're obsessed with "engagement"
Pigeon post, smoke signals, emails, letters…. Anything that has ever generated a conversation can be called social media. It is not new. (So in case you wondered, having a Facebook page and Twitter account does not a social media strategy make). No… The thing that worries me the most is that people talk about “building a community” as if it is no more complicated than replying to every tweet, comment or post. That is not building a community – that is ENGAGEMENT.
And because many people fail to understand this small but significant distinction, I think we’ve stripped “community” of all meaning. If you really want your brand to stand for something beyond price (and you want to build a community of advocates and evangelists), you need to examine what community really means…
According to Wikipedia…
The term community has two distinct meanings: a group of interacting people, possibly living in close proximity, and
often refers to a group that shares some common values, and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household. The word can also refer to the national community or international community.
I think that to understand what a community is, you have to look to Europe a few hundred years ago when everyone lived in small villages and huts. There were no windows or doors, so everyone knew everyone else’s business (for better or worse). People helped and supported each other. They shared everything that they had. Of course a hierarchy existed so that there was some degree of order, but everyone was treated equally and they all had a voice that could be heard. Imagine an online community acting like that… That WOULD be revolutionary.
Mark Zuckerberg thinks Facebook genuinely will open up the world and “revolutionise the universe” and he’s clearly not in it for the money as he’s turned down so many multi-million dollar approaches. So whilst we are all very sceptical and rightly suspicious of Facebook’s privacy policy, what we can’t deny is that Zuck probably has more in common with medieval European villagers than he does with his Silicon Valley contemporaries. Thoughts?
That’s a pretty savvy insight, Jeremy. Agreed that “Engagement” and “Community” can overlap, but are distinct entities unto themselves. I think we can engineer engagement, but community either happens or it doesn’t. What I’ve found is that instead of trying to create community from scratch, you can sometimes discover, engage, and participate in community that’s already in full swing, community that has grown on its own organically. I’ve had the honor of witnessing community in the realm of auto enthusiasts, from race car drivers to car designers. And it’s a beautiful thing, really, to be around people fully immersed in what they’re passionate about. I think the Internet makes accessing these folks all the easier. Good post, mate.
And a fine comment post there as well. Cheers Matthew. Glad you liked it. It’s a prickly issue and one not many people get – but those of us that do, will surely go home with the most marbles at the end of the day!