Personal versus Professional

There has been a lot of discussion online about the new generation publicizing their private world and not understanding the dangers of this blurring of public and private personas, but there is another blurring going on less discussed that is even being encouraged with the development of social media. Social media marketing is founded on a person to person style approach, a presentation of businesses as personal friends. How does a business maintain their professional appearance in this atmosphere? How much of that distance and polish should be held to, if any? And how does a company maintain the appropriate balance without unintentional crossings into the fake friendly “neighborhood” business, the over-sharing sales clerk, or the slimy “I know just what you want” used car dealer?

The first sad truth to deal with is, you’ll never please everyone. No matter how careful you are, there will always be someone who takes offense. What one person finds offensive another may find courteous. For instance, calling your waitress by name after reading her nametag; some think this the considerate thing, the customers have taken the time to notice them as an individual; others grit their teeth and bear it because it’s part of the job, the customer acting like they know you without ever having introduced themselves. The best you can hope for is to minimize the damage. Take note of the current conventions in emails and network introductions; on Twitter courtesy suggests you follow people who are following you, on Facebook or LinkedIn don’t try to friend people you don’t have a connection too. Get an introduction from a mutual acquaintance or send an introductory message. Avoid computer plug-ins of names and usernames especially in combination with titles because computers can rarely recognize that Miss Greatandpowerfuloz isn’t really a name. Besides computers don’t do personal- people do. Your social marketing campaign should be handled by a real live person who cares about your company.

The advantages of engaging in this personal style marketing have already been proven. Beyond the well-explored statistics of people turning to their friends for advice and recommendations about products and services, passion and excitement are better carried through personal connections, and passion sells. A little of that personal passion leaking into the email, tweets, or posts is good for business. Likewise, though there is a myth of the cool professional being able to deal with anything from the perspective of distance- it’s only business after all. In actuality, it is that human connection, that tiny bit of intimacy, that encourages better business. That connection makes it easier to accept the imperfect and deal around our foibles instead of letting little things become a full-blown rant to friends and a campaign against your business. The truth is we use that professional distance to protect ourselves from hurt, not to sell products. To bring out that personal side is to risk rejection, personal insult, and unwanted connections (many find it hard to draw the line in personal connections and so they avoid offering any invitation to more intimate interactions). It takes a particular personality to handle the personal nature of social marketing.
On the other side of things, with Tweets and status updates and the feel of a personal forum made public, it can be easy to forget the public and get caught up in the personal. Private jokes and in-speak on the message boards between people who know each other can be intriguing in part, but can also be alienating to newcomers. It’s important to always be open to new commentary. If there is chatter about an event most of your followers didn’t attend, be clear about what event it was, maybe turn it into an invitation for newcomers to attend a future event, or if it is an exclusive event create a side forum for discussion rather than making your public feel excluded.

Some obvious but important things to remember in striking the balance and maintaining a social and professional attitude:

Avoid negative language. Speaking ill of any person or thing could quickly backfire. You likely won’t avoid all negative commentary, but try to keep the overly sarcastic bites out of your language. A surprising portion of the population does not understand sarcasm and many others will automatically empathize with the victim rather than you. If you have venting to do, do it elsewhere. However personal this space seems, remember it’s actually professional space.

Be honest about how close or not you are to your connections. Assuming a closer intimacy than they have offered will turn people off and make them feel defensive. Actually, be honest about everything. Companies have been bitten before by trying to pretend they were just outside appreciators instead of admitting their connections to various blogs. Internet junkies are pretty good at sniffing out the truth so always lay your cards on the table and don’t prevaricate.

Allow interests outside of the company to show through. It makes your social identity more human and you never know when those alternate passions may feed back to improve your business. Does your company have a favorite charity or do they have a baseball team that competes against other companies- it’s all interesting and makes for new avenues to connect with people.

Relax and be human, show some personality. You may make mistakes and you may alienate some people, and true with the internet those people and their connections could do some damage- but, as a human, you can always apologize. Social media is about finding your business’s place in the school lunch room. That identity won’t make you friends with the whole population, but it’ll connect you with the groups who will care the most about the things that matter to your business and the people who need what you have to offer. Those connections will offer more per person value than you can get from bland mass appeal advertising.

What do you do with social media?

Do you know the difference between Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Gather, and Myspace? Social media is the hot new thing; it is web 2.0. This means it can be overlooked as a fad that won’t really make a difference, or it can be over-hyped. It may be unclear how this platform can help your marketing and what strategy is the best to adopt. With the following breakdown of the most commonly used sites, we hope to clear up a few issues.

Facebook: Originally a college social site, it’s open now to the public. Facebook’s design encourages increased networking, constantly suggesting further possible people and groups with whom to connect. Options are available in the setup to create fan connections as well as friend connections. Likely an effect of its original manifestation, Facebook has a more severe aesthetic, lacking the bright colors and originality of Myspace page designs (There are options for color and “tattoos” for home pages, but these are not network wide.) Quizzes and games abound here. Created by third parties, many applications are designed as marketing opportunities. Personal referrals are still the best advertising and Facebook has a built in referral method showing friends what companies and people their friends are connected to. Facebook is one of the most widely used and respected social networks. A page here is fundamental to a successful social network campaign.

Myspace: Suffering from an association with internet predators, many college bound or parentally restricted teens were directed away from Myspace. However, its bright aesthetic allowing for strong independence in page design and its easy and active music play options have kept it popular in some circles, especially with youth oriented bands and their fans. Not to be confused with internet radio sites such as Pandora, Myspace is still an ideal spot for band promotion. Fans and potential fans can sample music offerings, research upcoming shows, and connect with other fans. Myspace doesn’t actively press networking. It requires more direct work to build a network here.

LinkedIn: Is marketed towards job hunters and business people. An excellent interface for business connections and resume sharing, it isn’t designed for stronger and broader ranging social connections. There are discussion groups available and strong connectivity possibilities within professional spheres, school or organizational. Inversely from the potential of more lightly social connection sites, LinkedIn might be best taken advantage of by use of targeted and personal connections rather than an all-inclusive fan building strategy. Joining and actively commenting in group conversations is one of the best ways to take advantage of LinkedIn.

Twitter: has a lot of buzz going around about it, and it can be a highly effective tool for marketing, but it does have deficiencies. It is a short line communication, updating connections with a brief updates, rather like what a Facebook update may seem like. The difference is in how these updates are used, and the frequency of postings. Marketing gurus have taken advantage of viral aspects of Twitter by posting coupons tied to a mention of the product or company (Consider if real value is not offered in these coupons, or if a company is not prepared to meet the generated demand, this strategy could devastatingly backfire). Twitter is work intensive requiring regular updates in order for a company to stay on the register. Those updates need to feel personal, be entertaining, and still hold to their marketing purpose. Updates containing links to other content are also a good use of space, but remember the Tweet then must hold all the interest of a headline, drawing its audience into the material. If your company is capable of generating a continuous flow of engaging short updates and links, then it may be convenient, otherwise another social media may be a better option.

Digg: This site is an aggregate for blogs and other media content. In this venue, participants can submit particularly interesting content and have it voted on for entertainment value. Votes are accomplished by the functions Digg or Bury (this option of disliking a viewed site is a nice counter to the mathematical programs that equate popularity only with number of visits.) Achieving notable success here is a popularity contest with participants swimming upstream until they reach a certain level of success at which point popularity is easy to acquire for new submissions.

Technorati: More often referred to in marketing blogs with greater respect, Technorati is designed along similar principals as Digg. Popular submissions rise to the surface for greater visibility thereby further increasing their popularity. There is no obvious voting system on the Technorati site, but it has a more professional newspaper style design well organized for surfing. With both Technorati and Digg the social marketing strategy would necessarily focus on the commentary- interaction with other similar postings and actively engaging in conversation with the readers.

Gather: This site advertises itself as the adult option for social networking. It lacks the games and quizzes that abound on both Myspace and Facebook, and has no real options for personalizing your homepage with Myspace style decorations, however in keeping with it’s adult persona, it is an excellent spot for following and connecting with blogs and interest focused conversations. It may be an ideal place to host conversations regarding market specific topics, keeping in touch with customer concerns and proving your company to be up to date in the conversation.

Giza Page: offers an aggregation of each individual or company’s online identity. It is not uncommon to have multiple accounts on several of these social networks. Giza Page provides an application for managing all the accounts from one network.

“Advertising always works when you have the right message sent to the right audience with the right media,” says John Crowley, President of Biznetix. “It’s all about the right time and place.” How people are looking for the services your company offers is one of the most important questions for a marketing strategist to ask. Included in the answer is almost always--they ask their friends. This means social media is not a platform that should be overlooked. Biznetix is available to assist with your social media strategy questions. Watch for future articles on getting the most from your social media campaign.