There are several reasons why I think businesses hamstring their social efforts. First, there’s an overriding, if misguided, pressure to get things “perfect” on social, which is sometimes used as an excuse to avoid getting involved at all. The permanent nature of anything that’s posted on the web tends to freak out the “control the message” crowd who has their fingers poised over the delete button to instantly erase ill-advised comments or content. We’re never far removed from the latest social snafu by a public figure, or the next one to come, and that fear can be paralyzing.
In his new e-book There is No B2B or B2C: It’s Human to Human: #H2H my good friend Bryan Kramer gives some wise advice to brands: “I don’t care what language you speak, who your brand is or what message you’re trying to send, we all need to speak more human.” I love that statement because it so perfectly reminds us that in the midst of all of our increasingly complex digital sophistication, making the human connection is more important than anything else. Because of the power of social to inform and educate consumers, companies need to be a part of the social scape, and that’s means functioning in the world on a human to human scale. They can no longer afford to hide behind a logo. They have to converse with their market and above all, listen.
