SOCIAL IMPRESSIONS

As social media users, we are constantly exposed to a variety of opinions that don’t necessarily align with our own. With so many people from various cultures, backgrounds, beliefs, religions, and political affiliations are interacting with each other, it is inevitable that they will clash at some point. I have witnessed a variety of reactions to offensive stories on social media sites. There are users who will turn a blind eye, users who upmod or bury stories, some who offer comments and those who file reports with host sites. Based on that, I decided to evaluate the importance of sharing independent viewpoints and the ethics of managing a social media site.

Before the growth of social media, people got their global news by traditional mediums like the newspaper, television and the radio. However, there is a major shift happening where an increasing number of people are pulling information from the internet exclusively. Social media has effectively democratized information. It allows users to share news and provide input. It is now rare to only receive a one-sided story. And because of this medium, users are more apt to share their perspectives. As in real life, this causes conflict between users with opposing beliefs.

The moment an opinion is shared online, the subject is opened up for the world to respond. Users will receive instantaneous feedback, whether it is for or against their position. They should also be prepared for exposure to stories and comments that are against their beliefs. There is minimal censorship occurring in social media, so tolerance is imperative. If you want to come and play online, be ready for a variety of viewpoints. It is exciting, interesting and above all, educational.

An important question to ask is whether or not the social media site should get involved in a conflict occurring between users. Often, site managers are asked to intervene in a complicated situation where people are arguing about very sensitive subjects like religion and politics. In order to avoid a catastrophic public reaction, it is wise for the site to stay clear of arguments amongst their users. It should show that it respects the viewpoints of both parties. If the managers sway in one direction and show preference to a single user, it will only incite a larger problem. As long as the story does not incite hate or harm, the site should remain neutral. The only role that a social media site should have is banning those who violate their Terms of Service. Obviously, they also have every right to reprimand those who harass and threaten others.

Users need to learn to be socially responsible and open their minds to different points of view. By joining a social news site, you are accepting the fact that you are going to see all kinds of stories. If you don’t agree with them, you have the right to downmod the story and write a comment stating your own viewpoints. The point, after all, is to be heard in a public forum, no matter where you stand.

Thanks to XKCD for the image.

While reading my Twitter feed, I noticed repeated mentions of Keith Olbermann’s commentary about President Bush. As any Twitterer worth her salt would do, I rushed to see what the fuss was all about. To my delight, I watched the best verbal thrashing to date. Countdown’s host, Olbermann, passionately pointed out all of Bush’s flaws as a leader. In a recent Politico interview, Bush noted that electing a Democrat for president was a horrendous idea and would be equivalent to “another attack on the United States.” I believe that the most memorable part of the commentary was Bush’s admittance of giving up golf to revere and empathize with the families of the fallen soldiers.

As you become increasingly active in social media, you will find a wide variety of competitiveness across the board. Some want to be regarded as A-list bloggers, to reach a top status on social bookmarking sites, and to have the most number of friends on Facebook. While some can maintain genuine relationships with people, others see them as part of their massive network. Competition is usually healthy, depending on the amount of competitiveness involved.

Although there are many gray areas between each level, I have observed roughly five main levels of social media competitiveness and involvement.

Lurker

Lurkers exist online; they just aren’t visible. These people don’t actually participate. They quietly watch the activity on their favorite sites. They may identify core sites and users that they admire or enjoy and follow them religiously. Even the most offensive of posts won’t incite a comment from them. Although these lurkers might sign up for an account on a social site, they are usually the users without an avatar. Their activity on these sites is minimal, and their contribution is non-existent.

Dabbler

Dabblers are active in social media just for the fun of it. They don’t care if anyone knows them and only interact with a minimal number of users. They go to Facebook to connect with real life friends and go to social news sites to vote on stories that intrigue them. They will only tag stories for personal use. These users are usually those who use social media sites, but don’t realize how much they can grow within them. Dabblers make up the bulk of social media users. They are absolutely oblivious to the various tools, applications, and help forums that are available for the sites they are active on.

Part-timer

Part-timers have a few accounts that they are active on. They subscribe to their favorite blogs and make sure to check them out when a new post has been published. They participate when they have the time to, but real life intrigues them much more. A part-timer will assist others when needed but isn’t always accessible online. Part-timers are the users who will submit their blog to Digg and wonder why they only got two votes; these users still have a limited understanding of how to best use these sites.

Hard-core user

This person is invested in social media and usually spends a few hours a day participating in the space. They are involved on many channels and are major contributors to the community. They want to share knowledge and add value. These people typically interact with anyone in the space, regardless of their level. They believe that the exchange that they have with various users is fulfilling. Although these hard-core users are extremely driven and would like to have top user status, they will avoid taking advantage of other users to get there. Due to their high involvement, these users will install and rely on user-scripts and alerters to simplify their online experience.

Pro

While not all Pros are uber competitive, most uber competitive users make it to the Pro level. They will duplicate a submission if it means it will increase their popularity rankings. They enjoy the attention they get from being on the top of the totem pole and will continue to invest time, effort and money into building it. They constantly check their statistics to ensure that they are still ranking very high. Immersed in the social media world, the pros are usually the first to know about breaking news stories and technology innovations. They are privy to technology short cuts and will utilize them to assist in maintaining their status. They have a wealth of knowledge about the various spaces and will only share it with those who have proven their worth. However, trade secrets are only shared with their tight circle of top users.

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Update: The “Pro” section has been updated to clarify my intention.

Thanks to Tanner Hobin for creating the image.

Only two years ago, corporations were hesitant to ride on the new wave of communications. Launched yesterday, Conversations Matter is a blog that proves this trend has since changed. Michael Brito, social media marketing manager at Intel, saw a major gap that needed to be filled in the blogosphere. He noted the abundance of blogs written from consultants’ perspectives and identified a need to help educate professionals new to social media. Brito created Conversations Matter to engage a variety of audiences about the internal marketing process that happens at Fortune 500 corporations and facilitate the necessary conversations between companies and agencies. In an interview with Brito, he explains his vision and hopes for Conversations Matter.

What is Conversations Matter?

It’s a collaborative blog authored by in-house marketers who touch social media in some capacity. The contributors include Fortune 500 social media marketing visionaries like LaSandra Brill from Cisco, Tac Anderson from HP, Kelly Feller from Intel, Tom Diederich from Candince Design Systems, and Marc Levin (formerly at Yahoo!). We hope that this blog will provide a greater understanding to what corporations are tasked with when launching a social media campaign.

What inspired you to create this blog?

I felt that there is a lack of representation (or voice) in the internet today from in-house marketers who manage/execute and define social media strategy across an organization; similar to that of in-house SEO, which may be a future project as well. We want to share our knowledge with our readers. Quite honestly, there is nothing like this online today. It’s unique and provides a point of view that is not represented enough. We don’t just talk about social media. We live it everyday…all day and we are held accountable. Besides, if we don’t produce, we lose our jobs.

According to the “About” section, there are social media managers from Fortune 100 companies contributing to Conversations Matter. Tell me more about why you selected these individuals.

I think that those who work in big organizations have a unique perspective of the industry; and the variables associated with social media are not visible to agencies/consultants who normally write about this space. Examples of topics we will discuss are: legal repercussions, getting customer support involved, IT and the web infrastructure, accountability of results, and evangelizing social media; and also just to provide a different point of view of social media in general.

What is the main purpose of Conversations Matter and how do you hope to impact the readers?

Our purpose is not to define social media. Others in the industry have already done an exceptional job at that. Our main purpose is to help educate and inform other marketers about the challenges/opportunities/learning/best practices of driving social media from a corporate perspective. Long term, we would like to facilitate workshops, webinars and networking events.

As an in-house marketer, please give me a brief description of your day-to day activities

Let’s see, after my morning java boost (not the programming language), I usually log into my blog(s) to see if there is any activity. I then open Twhirl to see whose hoot’n and holler’n in Twitter; and then Facebook to check the feeds. I then open Outlook and start plugging away – emails, then conference calls, then more emails, then more conference calls. It’s a daily ritual for me but I love it.

How does your perception of social media strategies differ when working ‘from the inside’ as opposed to an agency? What are the advantages/disadvantages?

My perception (and speaking entirely for myself) is that many agencies (not all) approach social media from a promotional perspective (i.e. web traffic, links, rankings, downloads, Digg effect, etc.). Internally, we rarely ever talk about this; it’s more about asking ourselves, “How do we create, join and facilitate conversations using social media? How do we create value in these conversations? How do we empower brand ambassadors? How do we increase usage of our products/services?” The promotional element of social is indeed important but it’s not the end goal for social media. In other words, everything I have ever done in social media has resulted in a two – way interaction with our audience. On the other hand, we may very well use “promotional social media” tactics to help drive traffic to these conversations. There are no advantages/disadvantages to these perceptions as long as they are both used in defining a complete social media strategy.