Posts Tagged ‘forums’
Business, Society - Written Thursday, October 8, 2009 by Gautam Lamba - 6 Comments
Road Rules: Interpreted For Social Media
Organizations are recognizing the need to expand into the social media space to better understand their customers. Stories like those of Jet Blue, Whole Foods and Dell are becoming more widespread as these firms show concrete, quantifiable measures of success. With the ease of access to product and brand communities (corporate and 3rd party) companies now want a set of operating guidelines. How do you actually manage the interaction? And, what rules must guide the conversations and behaviours displayed by employees on such message boards?
Stemming from other posts and discussions about this very issue, I put forth the following list of simple guiding principles that I think can provide a starting point for organizations entering this sphere of communication.
Although, there is no one single, policy structure that can fit all situations and organizations, the one thing I do take a strong stance on, is the need to keep the rule simple to understand and relatable, which is the reason I chose to use the rule of the road as my reference point.
Rule of the Road |
The Social Media Interpretation |
| Don’t drive through amber and red traffic lights | Obey forum rules, play on an equal level as your customers; remember that participating is a privilege not a right |
| Give advance notifications and signals when turning or changing lanes | Make sure your online customers know of all changes in policies and procedures. Don’t give unpleasant surprises |
| Maintain distance from cars around you | Customers want you to listen to their opinion; they do not want you to record and chart their every move. i.e. keep your distance |
| Driving while distracted | Don’t attempt to solve all problems at once. Identify areas where you can provide the most value |
| Perform maintenance checks at regular intervals | Take time to evaluate the results you set out to achieve and the actual attainment thereof. Also, check on adequacy and relevance of your capital resources (people, conversations and servers) |
| Practice patient driving | You need to wait for results (after putting in your effort). Plan on being active at least until all avenues have been exhausted
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| Use your mirrors to constantly scan your surroundings to position yourself on the road | Opinion mining, feedback, and sentiment analysis (your ‘mirrors’) help to keep a track on your customers’ basic intent. Use the data to align your product with their needs |
| Yield to other cars | If you and the user are both responding to a query, sit back and let the user give answers. User generated information has a higher value for customers |
| Communicate with other drivers
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Indicate your followers of all changes in strategy. Don’t leave anything to assumptions and unsaid |
| Pull-over for Emergency Vehicles | Prioritize your customers according to the urgency of their concerns |
| Do not partake in street racing | Don’t compete with other users for accolades or reputation |
| Be prepared for collisions and report it to the authorities ASAP | Plan for situations of conflict; notify supervisors to mitigate the damage |
| Obey law enforcement personnel | When participating on 3rd party forums, make sure you play by their rules as an equal participant |
Most Importantly, Don’t drink and Drive…well that’s just good advice
My point in putting up this list is to mainly drive discussion around the subject of, what constitutes ‘good’ social policy? Hopefully this provides a springboard from which to launch this much needed debate.
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