What Is Social Media Really All About? Who Knows

When The Financial Brand wrote an article titled “Why Social Media Is a Waste of Time for Most Banks & Credit Unions,” it sparked a fiery debate about the role of social media in the retail financial industry. One of the most striking facets of the discussion was the general confusion about what social media really is.

For starters, people can’t even agree on which tools are part of social media and which aren’t.

“I think there is a lot of confusion about what social media is in this debate with no clear definition,” commented Tim McAlpine, CEO/Currency Marketing. “Is it just monitoring? Marketing? Part of an integrated strategy? Sales? Blogging? UGC? Contests? Facebook? Twitter?”

Checking the Wikipedia entry for “social media” defines it as “media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques…which allows the creation and exchange of user-generated content.” But then when you scan the rest of the web, you quickly realize there is little consensus among social media experts and evangelists regarding what social media is about. For instance, a Google search for “social media is really about” produces these results:

  • Social media is really about conversations
  • Social media is really about listening
  • Social media is really about telling stories
  • Social media is really about building relationships
  • Social media is really about customer service and treating people better than they expect
  • Social media is really about persuasion
  • Social media is really about raising awareness of your company
  • Social media is really about connections
  • Social media is really about community
  • Social media is really about being social
  • Social media is really about relinquishing control to the consumer
  • Social media is really about creating content
  • Social media is really about catalyzing moments of serendipity
  • Social media is really about trust
  • Social media is really about reducing risk by reaching out to like-minded peers
  • Social media is really about sharing useful content with your audience
  • Social media is really about creating credibility
  • Social media is really about people
  • Social media is really about engaging
  • Social media is really about transparent and honest communication
  • Social media is really about hanging out with your friends in an online setting
  • Social media is really about passion
  • Social media is really about getting backlinks
  • Social media is really about networking

How about taking a look at the definition from the other direction, what social media isn’t. Searching the web for “social media is not about” produces results that include:

  • Social media is not about conversations
  • Social media is not about your company
  • Social media is not about you
  • Social media is not about your brand
  • Social media is not about building relationships with a brand
  • Social media is not about the technology
  • Social media is not about marketing
  • Social media is not about achieving sales
  • Social media is not about return on investment
  • Social media is not about money
  • Social media is not about CRM
  • Social media is not about broadcasting
  • Social media is not about direct sell
  • Social media is not about pushing your product service at anyone
  • Social media is not about being in control
  • Social media is not about Facebook or MySpace or Flickr or Twitter or blogs or YouTube

Conclusion

So to paraphrase: Social media isn’t about the media, it’s about being social. It’s about listening but it’s also about conversations and telling stories, just as long as those stories aren’t about you or your brand. It’s about raising awareness and creating credibility (even though it isn’t about marketing), but don’t expect it to lead to sales, new customers or ROI. It’s a networking tool about people, but don’t use it as a prospecting tool. It can be used to build relationships and enhance customer service, but it isn’t a Customer Relationship Management tool.

Huh???

Bottom Line: It’s no wonder bank and credit union marketers have mushy, murky social media strategies when even the so-called experts can’t agree on what social media is or isn’t about.

For Discussion: What’s your definition of social media? What is social media really all about?

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