What Social Media Should Be…Collaborative | Part II

What Social Media Should Be…Original | Part I

Social media experts create engaging content and have adapted extremely well to the idea of influence and the need to motivate share-ability. Yes, social media offers advantages.  Most notably, ease of convergence across platforms, but can social media support loyalty simply through engagement?

People are changing and everyday life will never remain suspended, even briefly…ever again.

People are increasingly involved in brand activities and are seeking opportunities to co-create. They sincerely take pride in having had an effect on the process.  We believe co-creation will support lasting social media connections, create successful dialogues and in the process accelerate continuous learning.

Two brilliant market research firms offered a look at engagement.  Gallup debunked social media myths and offered direction for companies using social media to acquire new customers/people.

comScore promoted the idea “Early and SUSTAINED engagement predicts effectiveness”.

Each share thoughts on capturing attention and the ability for brand messages to become social.  The findings are compelling, yet difficult for many to understand. For instance, “sustained” implies connected, a step beyond engagement, and a key part of the collaborative process.

Social Media must be thought of as a means: a tool, for observation, listening and most importantly…responding.

The purpose of social media is to communicate, understand people and how they see your offerings . Social media should also support collaboration, but to do so, requires a very different mindset and almost humble positioning. Preparing a sustainable system of information sharing and extraction is challenging, but certain to become a permanent source for business decisions and future strategies. It begins with a quest to learn, absorbing every element of data available and across disparate sources.  Allow for a very natural process of discovery and growth.  If disrupted, users are more likely to confuse popularity/engagement for conviction, thus offering a very different outcome, fragile connections and inadequate information.

Consider the absolute value of social media…Loyalty and Learning.  Next, add this perception: “People” are defining their personal value by what they share. Social media acts as a connector, an enabler of dialogues and information, and perhaps more important supports collective confidence.

An Enabler of Co-Creation…

Original ideas can re-invent your business or create a new business on their own. People are keen to play a stronger role in influencing brand performance, and absolute in their demand for relevance. This leads to collective ideas and future innovation.

Personal creation of products, ideas, content and services will lead to emotional connections and brand experiences. If this is to be the new course for future innovation, brands need to embrace and enable original and collective.

Encourage the collective and natural evolution of ideas…embrace diversity

Diversity expands thinking… 

When diverse backgrounds and perceptions are focused on specific interests, ideas are expanded within adjacent spaces and are also more creative. Collaborative prototyping also removes the worry of what may be missed.

All of these original ideas are unique and influential.  When groups of “shared-passions” express distinct originality, a trusted relationship is formed with an obligation to collective progress, and a source of inspiration for what is to come.  The contextual and emotional make-up of these groups is extraordinary.

Filtering IN progress…

People are filtering content based on how they feel about its origin.  These filters are created from shared passions, information and trust.  Alert listening develops an ecosystem of learning.  Integrating with disparate data sources at the same time creates immediate sources of social media stimuli and a prepared scenario for response.

Response IS required…

When people invest their time and attention connecting with a brand…a response IS required. Responding supports social connections and is often a welcome form of reward. Essential elements of response: Authenticity, Conviction and Flexibility.

The ability for companies to enable people, original content and true connections will create a powerful force for future design.

So…Allow social to inspire imaginations, to encourage direction and to then Think-Out-Loud!