How many businesses really ‘get’ the social web?

Written on August 15, 2008 – 9:11 am | by Shana Albert |

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This Featured Guest Post is by James Duthie of Online Marketing Banter.

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How many businesses really ‘get’ the social web?

Rand Fishkin recently wrote a post on SEO Moz about ‘getting it’. By ‘it’ Rand was talking about the web… and he guesstimated that just one person in every million truly gets the Internet. My first thought after reading the article was that based on Rand’s estimations, there must be a hell of a lot of online marketers out there that don’t get the web (there’s a scary thought for you…). My second thought was that if so few people get the web, which has been widely accessible for over a decade, how many actually get the relatively new phenomenon of social media/ social networking (clue… not many). And my final thought was if so few people really understand social media, how many businesses have their finger on the social media pulse…? The answer it seems, is not many.

When the social web goes wrong…

By now, we can all probably recall the most infamous corporate social media disasters off the top of our heads. Brands such as Dell & Sony immediately spring to mind. But above all else, it’s probably Wal-Mart that sticks out above others as the worst exponent of social initiatives on the web. The two most documented disasters are:

Wal-Mart attempted to create its own social networking site targeted towards school kids entitled ‘The Hub’ (ala MySpace & Facebook). However, the project was abandoned just 10 weeks after it was launched due to a lack of usage.
Wal-Mart was at it again (along with PR firm Edelman) when they published a fake Wal-mart blog called ‘Walmarting across America’. The suspiciously pro Wal-Mart sentiment of the blog set alarms bells off in the blogosphere and it wasn’t long before the blog was exposed as a fraud.

If it achieved nothing else, Wal-Mart has set a fine example of how not to adopt social media technologies. However, despite the fact the ‘The Hub’ imploded well over two years ago, it seems fellow marketers refuse to learn from Wal-Mart’s social networking mistakes. The Wall St Journal recently painted a somewhat frightening picture of the state of social networks and communities within the corporate world. The key findings, which were taken from a research report developed by Deloitte, include:

35% of corporate online communities had less than 100 members
25% of corporate online communities had less than 1,000 members
6% of businesses spent more than one million dollars establishing their community! Let’s hope these 6% aren’t amongst the 35% of businesses unable to attract more than 100 members to their community!

So what exactly is the corporate world doing wrong when it comes to social media…? Why have 60% of corporate social networks failed to attract more than 1,000 members? The answer is quite simple. They’ve failed to recognise the fundamental principle of the social web - that it’s not all about them.

The social web is about people, not brands or technology!

It seems as if the marketers behind many of the corporate social networks/ communities operated on the premise – ‘If you build it, they will come’… particularly if you make it really shiny. Unfortunately, many have had to learn the hard way that this simply isn’t the case. The fact is that unless you’re Apple, people really aren’t that interested in your products or services. Deal with it. One of the primary features of Wal-Mart’s social network ‘The Hub’ was the ability to generate shopping lists. Hmmm… how many teens do you know that are interested in making their very own shopping list? Not freakin’ many. Wal-Mart made ‘The Hub’ about them. And that’s why it failed.

For the ultimate example of a self-centred social networking initiative, check out David Hasselhoff’s personal social network. Sure… everyone loves to have a good laugh at The Hoff, but does he really think people care enough about him to make his page their social networking home…? You do know people laugh at you Hoff…right…?

Social initiatives can go old school… if that’s where your audience is

I recently wrote a social media strategy practically devoid of technology (some would even say it was positively old school). The strategy was for the Australian arm of a major global organisation, with a budget stretching into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. If I wanted to, I could potentially have sold them on the development of their very own social network. But I didn’t. Because I know that social media is not about the technological platform… it’s about the people.

Instead, my first recommendation was to begin monitoring and participating within existing online forums. Yes… that’s right… forums. How very 90’s of me. But the fact was that a community of over 60,000 people had already formed to discuss this company and their products within online forums. Indeed, they were lucky to be one of the very few companies with a customer base passionate enough about their product to create an online community around it. So… instead of trying to host the conversation, why not just simply join it (at least initially)?

My second recommendation was to establish a company blog. Sure… a blog isn’t as feature laden (or shiny) as a Facebook clone, but communities can form around blogs just as effectively as they congregate on social networks. Just look at Tech Crunch. A blog provides a cost effective way for the organisation to establish a social media presence without spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on development (thank you Wordpress!). And who knows… if the blog takes off we may consider implementing some more advanced social networking capabilities. But that’s the last consideration, not the first. After all, if the audience are happy in forums, they don’t need all the bells and whistles yet.

The social web mind shift

The reason most corporations don’t ‘get’ the social web is quite simple – success requires a shift in marketing methodologies. Traditional marketing principles just don’t cut it in online communities. Amongst the most fundamental shifts in thinking, marketers need to recognise that:

You don’t need to own the traffic, you just need to own the relationship
You can’t control the conversation, all you can do is listen and respond
One size does not fit all, and nor does one message
Actually talking to your customers isn’t such a bad thing. You may even learn something from them.

Until marketers ‘get’ these principles of the social web, it seems we’re destined for more corporate social networks built around shopping lists… or worse… washed up celebrities.

Author Bio
James Duthie is an Australian online marketing expert. He writes on all things social media, blogging, SEO & online marketing at his blog - Online Marketing Banter. Subscribe to hear more of his ramblings.

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8 Responses to “How many businesses really ‘get’ the social web?”
By Michael E. Rubin, Blog Council on Aug 15, 2008 | Reply

James,

Here’s what you left out: Walmart has gotten it right.

They admitted what they did wrong, apologized, and then came out with a blog that does everything correctly. It’s called Check Out, and it’s a blog written by the gadget people at Walmart and Sam’s Club. It’s not written by shills — it’s written by real people with real jobs. Their mission, taken from the “about us” section, is admirable: “[Our] jobs are centered around helping people save money and live better.”

Forgive the pun, but you should check it out here:
http://checkoutblog.com/

It’s very easy to write about companies that don’t get it. It’s just as easy — and much more fun — to write about companies that do.

—-
michael@blogcouncil.org
312-932-9000
Walmart is a member of the Blog Council, my employer. This is my personal opinion.
By Shailesh Ghimire on Aug 15, 2008 | Reply

Brilliant.

You hit it on the nail there “The social web is about people, not brands or technology!”

The challenge that many marketers face is not so much that they don’t understand the web but that they are under pressure show results quickly when it comes to the web. Managers assume that since its the web things can happen quickly. This is not the case, when people are involved.

It takes time to develop relationships, trust and all those ingredients to converting sales. Hence, even on the web things take time and you can’t make things up or force things on people. Hence Wal Marts failures and Hof’s self centered-ness.

It’s always about people. The social web exists not becuase of the technology but becuase of the people.
By James Duthie on Aug 17, 2008 | Reply

@ Michael - Thanks for your input. I wasn’t aware of the checkout blog, which I agree is a step in the right direction. And the fact that you’re monitoring Wal-mart’s reputation on their behalf is another good move. But there’s a hell of a lot of lost confidence in the brand, and even if they’ve got the mix right now perceptions will take a long time to change.

@ Shailesh - The accountability of social media is indeed one of the biggest challenges facing corporate adoption. And I suspect brands will have to work that little bit harder to earn trust and build relationships with wary consumers. Only the most dedicated organisations will commit to the cause despite the fact that immediate benefits will be difficult to quantify/justify.
By Roland Hesz on Aug 25, 2008 | Reply

“and he guesstimated that just one person in every million truly gets the Internet.”

Which is just a nice way to say that those who get it are the ones that actually does not get it.
From 5 million users only 5 get it. Just think about it. That means that the 5 is living in an illusionary web, because the fact is that the Web IS what the other 4 999 995 people think is.

The statement “only one in every million” is like the joke “every one is crazy, driving in the wrong lane!”

I think this is something that we should think about, the “experts” who “get it” it seems to live in a parallel universe.

Lets face it: The Web IS what the MAJORITY makes it, not what the MINORITY think it should be.

And if we think about the fact, that more than 95% of the population on Earth has never even heard of social media, one should start to wonder: why is it sooooooo important?

Just a fact: I work in IT and at the previous company I was the only one who ever heard of Plurk or Twitter, and blogs were treated as a curiosity.

Reality check is due time to time.
By Tom Lindstrom, The Home Business Archive on Sep 8, 2008 | Reply

Excellent post.Many people get it wrong.Many people submit only their own content to the social sites, or they submit useless crap just to cheat the system.

Instead, build your profile and make friends. Research the web and submit truly interesting content.This will build your profile and people will start visiting your blog.