The Social Media Age and Humanizing Companies

This is my first post, so bear with me here.

It's more than just a way to connect with friends, social media. Of course, that might be the most important part of it, but how do we harness the power of social media? Presence on social media puts you and your company on the level of the consumer, and that is a privilege, not a right. You use this privilege to talk to them about 'the newest and best deal' you have to offer and the public will see through the marketing and see your company as just another person trying to sell them things.

So how do you avoid looking like you're selling things while getting your product out there? That is, almost literally, the million-dollar question. Viral marketing has been trying to do this for the entirety of its lifetime as a strategy. Get people to notice your product. Get people to notice you. Hope you look cool or stupid, nothing in between. And that is the fatal flaw of Viral marketing. It is too dependent on the timing of the release of your video or campaign. It is too dependent on luck, as it may take a hundred tries (a potential exaggeration) and really, it's also potentially too expensive, even as a guerrilla tactic.

So here's a novel idea. Stop selling. Start being human and acting like it. It's one thing to use your page to advertise about deals that you think mean something to your customer base. It's another to actually discuss what your customers care about and if you can do that, your customers will listen. Being a personality rather than a company is what the current age responds to. Social media managers take notice. It is about time that companies switch from cold-call to open-ears. The company can no longer talk to the consumer and assume that the consumer won't go off to a competitor thanks to bad reviews.

The difference between Rogers and TELUS, for example, is staggering. Rogers' page is almost exclusively concerning what their services are and have a very corporate feel. And it shows. Rogers has started losing ground in the subscriber battle. While still leading the race by a nice margin, Rogers has lost almost 53,000 subscribers in 2014, with Bell and TELUS catching up quickly. And it's not hard to see why on their Facebook page. Almost every single post has a link connecting it to an offer about Rogers Smart Home Monitoring, a channel on television you have to subscribe to, or taking advantage of the NHL deal that they've procured. It also shows on their follower count, only 566,000 likes, far less than TELUS, and any comments they do have on their posts are angry and about poor customer service.

Meanwhile, on TELUS' page, it feels like whimsy and a genuine concern for their consumer base is prevalent. A link like this that TELUS connected users to, an actual concern that their user base has, allows the company to show empathy and respond to any complaints on a positive beginning rather than yet another cold call to try to sell the consumer another product. In addition, most of the posts are simply pictures of animals and calls to ask what consumers want, which starts a yet another conversation.

The key word here is conversation. Whatever you want to call it. Two way communication, listening to the customer, brainstorming with the customer, without interaction, social media is just another way for your consumer base to gripe about the latest botch. TELUS managed to gain almost 300,000 subscribers in 2014, and smaller companies which focus on this method of communication on social media are seeing the fruits of their labour as well, finally starting to gain traction in the market. WIND already almost has half of Rogers' followers on Facebook and gained 120,000 subscribers in the same time, bringing them one step closer to competition.

This is just an example of a phenomenon I like to call Social Marketing. The concept that it's not enough to sell on social media, but it's necessary to connect and converse. The concept that your company needs to, whatever brand identity you use, make it clear that it is about being close with the people. Think of Rogers, in this analogue, as that guy who won't shut up about his fancy new car. Sure, he might have something to offer, but his incessantly annoying personality doesn't make up for it. He's not a team player, so to speak. Whatever name you decide to call it, it's clear as daylight: if your company doesn't develop some personality, your competition will and the only thing you will develop is less customers.

Pei-En Hwang is really just a McMaster Commerce Student that has moments of inspiration regarding business. He's always curious and his studies tend to give him audacious thoughts that  he sometimes just has to get down on paper.

All numbers come from the CWTA.