A Little Social Media Whine September 28, 2009
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Life, Chatter & Politics, Rants, Social Media.Tags: blogging, digital media, google, online media, Social Media, twitter
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I have noticed something interesting. This something interesting is also something a little… irritating, to be honest. With the blogging world and digital media world obsessed with social media sites, you could be forgiven for thinking that everyone has jumped on the twitter and social networking bandwagon. You could be understood for presuming that everyone is punching out witty one-liners (witty 140 - character-ers just doesn’t sound as cool) at the drop of hat, that blogs are de rigour in media savvy companies and that google is old hat and completely understood by the business world.
What did I notice?
I noticed that none of the above is actually true.
Firstly, twitter. Many companies use it well – publishing companies chat about new book releases, big companies host twitter competitions based on re-tweeting and more. A lot of people have twigged onto the fact that twitter reaches an instant waiting mass audience, easily and efficiently. More companies, however, do not use it well. Recruitment agencies, for whom twitter should be an invaluable tool, generally fail to publish new jobs to a captive and interested audience. Social media companies forget to link simply and clearly to their twitter feed, which seems rather hypocritical to me.
Then take blogs. Perfect for technological and forward thinking companies to show how much they understand their industry, and to boost their SEO returns to boot. So many, however, have a neglected pitiful creature of a blog, or never even set one up to start with. The static, unchanging, boring content of their website is deemed enough, yet not even a digital savvy sloth would stay around for more than 5 seconds. Hmm, what a crap metaphor!
Why are so many companies bucking the trend? No, scratch that… why are so many digital, social media conscious companies missing the potential. Are they rebelling against the power of the internet, or are they stuck in print for promotion even though what they promote is online? Have they simply forgotten to add their business result to google businesses, or is it an ommision of choice?
Come on people – put your media hat on and use it wisely, it has so much potential!
I know it isn’t necessary for all companies to blog regularly (social networking is not a fix all band-aid) but I am always shocked when companies and organizations fail to create fresh online content on a regular basis. Do they not want to increase brand awareness and grow their customer base? Do they not realize that consistent publishing increases “Googleability”?
As a blogger, I’m probably biased, but it seems like such a no-brainer…
Doesn’t it just!
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think everyone should publish online all the time, or even on every social media network. But maintaining a cohesive and comprehensive online presense is vital in the real world, and far too many people are resisting the change!
Perhaps they’re just too busy doing their jobs… their core business. It needs to be part of a job spec. to be updating the blog, feeding twitter, etc., etc.
Or, it needs a whole cultural, company-wide approach. For example, the BBC website(s) look like blogs but most presenters and correspondents also maintain blogs. Its the way they do things.