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Demystifying Social Media
(in 7.5 minutes)
Katy Lindemann
Naked Communications

Mashup* Social Media 09 – 12th Nov 09

I’m going to try and demys0fy social media in record breaking 0me – we’ve got about 10 mins including ques0ons, so ready, set, GO!

SOCIAL MEDIAʼS ALL ABOUT BLOGS,
FACEBOOK, TWITTER ETC - RIGHT?

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/stabilo-boss/
So there’s a hell of a lot of buzz about social media. You can’t get away from it. Everyone’s obsessed with it. That’s why we’re all here today. 
And when people talk about social media, they usually mean social publishing like blogs or wikis, or social plaJorms like TwiKer, Facebook and 
the like.

ITʼS TIME TO
CONFRONT THE
ELEPHANT IN THE
ROOM…

Except that I think it’s 0me to confront the elephant in the 
room

THEREʼS
NO SUCH THING
AS SOCIAL MEDIA

IT SUGGESTS THE MEDIA - THE
PLACES - ARE SOCIAL
http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/rainofwonder/
It suggests the media – the places – are social. It makes it all about the ‘where’.

But it’s not the media that are social. It’s the ideas and the behaviour (‘what’ and ’how’).

WHEN REALLY
ITʼS ABOUT

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/cayusa/
Social ideas are ideas that get people talking – that spark conversa0on, which get shared and passed on

…AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR

Most importantly however, is the dynamic of social behaviour 
I think it’s worth unpicking what we mean by social behaviour in a bit more detail, but essen0ally it’s about two‐way behaviour, engaging in a 
dialogue.

SOCIAL IDEAS HAVE
ALWAYS BEEN
ABOUT GETTING
TALKED ABOUT

Social ideas aren’t anything new. It’s what brand communica0on has always been about.  The ul0mate goal has always been to create a 
product, service, or piece of communica0on that gets people talking. It’s about being talked ABOUT.

Lots of great adver0sing has been about crea0ng lots of buzz. And lots of really successful brands are brilliant at social ideas ‐ geVng talked 
about. But just geVng talked about isn’t enough to be social

SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR
MEANS ACTUALLY
JOINING THE
CONVERSATION

Social behaviour is about actually joining in
 
And it’s an important dis0nc0on. 
 
For example, Apple do a brilliant job at geVng talked about.
 
But in terms of their behaviour, they’re incredibly an0 social. It’s all about one way communica0on They’re happy to be talked about, but they 
have zero interest in engaging in any kind of dialogue. And maybe that’s OK, because they’re Apple (although if any other brand behaved the 
way Apple did, they’d be slaughtered). But let’s not confuse being talked about with being social.
 
And really that’s what the fuss about social is. It’s about interac0on, par0cipa0on and dialogue.

ITʼS ABOUT BEING SOCIAL
NOT SOCIAL MEDIA

So let’s stop thinking about social media. It’s a really unhelpful term.

It’s just about being social. Social isn’t about what you do on Facebook or TwiKer, it’s about how you behave.

So let’s think a bit more about social behaviour – what does it actually mean to be social?

CONVERSATION *

* THIS MEANS LISTENING AS WELL AS TALKING
Tradi0onal communica0on was about brands talking and people listening.  One‐way broadcast. 

Conversa0on is two‐way. It’s about listening as well as talking. Being human and authen0c.

People don’t want to be “communicated to” – we’d much prefer to engage in conversa0ons about the things that maKer to us.

We want to be listened to and acknowledged. We like to exchange views and ideas and values.  We like to have our ques0ons answered.

Being social means par0cipa0ng in all the above in equal measure. Be interested as well as interes0ng.

SHARING

People share stuff they like with other people

We share stuff for a number of reasons. Some0mes it’s simply because we want other people to enjoy something amazing we’ve found, and 
think they’ll like too. Or it’s something that’s really important to us, and we want people to know about it.

Some0mes it’s about status – looking good because we’ve found something awesome and reflec0ng in the glory of people finding out about it 
from us.

Whatever the mo0ve, at the heart it’s about great stuff, generosity in sharing this great stuff, and feeling good about sharing it.

CONNECTING

People are connec0ng with other people – their family and friends, their acquaintances, and other likeminded people who share common 
interests or values

For brands, it’s not about just trying to connect with as many people as possible. It’s about meaningful connec0ons.

It might be about ﬁnding common interests and values with your customers. And then seeing to forge a connec0on in the places they’re 
already spending 0me.

It might be about facilita0ng connec0ons between likeminded people.

But ul0mately it’s about remembering that rela0onships are based on reciprocal give and take.

COLLABORATING

People are collabora0ng with other likeminded people to achieve shared goals.

Social technologies are enabling people to self organise to come together to collaborate and co‐create more easily and rapidly than ever 
before

For brands it might be about how you can help people achieve their goal

It might be about opening up your brand and invi0ng people to collaborate in developing your business, and rewarding them for doing so

The key thing is that collabora0on is about working together for mutual beneﬁt – you’re all in it together

AND BEING SOCIAL ISNʼT JUST
ABOUT MARKETING

If you truly put your customer at the heart of your business, then social principles shouldn’t just be conﬁned to the marke0ng department.

CUSTOMER
SERVICE
Some of the most successful social brands are using social communica0on to deliver excep0onal customer service
Now, it goes without saying that you should be delivering excep0onal customer service through every touchpoint. 
Because if someone has a bad experience and they decide to share it online, it can spread more rapidly, to more people, than ever before.

But the real 0me social web oﬀers an amazing opportunity to resolve queries. Be there to help. Answer people’s ques0ons. Go out and 
proac0vely help people. 

Everything you do as a brand communicates, and what you do is more important than what you say – and excep0onal customer service is 
some of the best marke0ng you can’t buy.

PRODUCT
DEVELOPMENT
People have a preKy good idea what they want from a brand or business, so why not ask them?

This could be about product and service innova0on, business prac0ces, or simply a small change to something you already do.

The social web enables open dialogue and communica0on, so use this to your advantage.

Whether this is knowing that your customers are really miﬀed that you’ve stopped serving lemon drizzle cake (like Starbucks did) to the 
development of new products (like Dell did) or ﬁnding out what people really want you to focus on (like Barack Obama did), the possibili0es 
that being social can open for your business are endless.

RELATIONSHIP
BUILDING
Being social isn’t about saying something and running away. It’s not just about collec0ng followers that you can sell to. 

It’s about building rela0onships, having an ongoing dialogue, rewarding people and giving them a reason to want to spend 0me with you.

RESEARCH
It might be that your organisa0on simply isn’t yet set up to ac0vely partake in open conversa0on and collabora0on. If legal have to sign oﬀ 
anything you say, then you might not be set up to start joining the conversa0on.

But you can listen. 

Listen to what people are saying, thinking, feeling. Understand your customer. Understand what they think about your brand. Understand 
what they want. Understand what you’re doing well, and where you could be doing beKer.

Listening to the conversa0ons taking place shouldn’t be a subs0tute for tradi0onal research, but if you’re not listening to the conversa0on, 
you’re missing out.

AND FINALLY…

BEING SOCIAL IS SOMETHING
YOU DO WITH PEOPLE

So I hope this has helped to demys0fy the world of social.

It’s not about the plaJorms you use, or how many followers you have, or many views you got.

Social’s about how you behave. It’s something you do WITH people and not TO people.

And if you can get that bit right, you’re well on your way.

Thank You. Any Questions?
Katy Lindemann
Naked Communications

email: katy_lindemann@nakedcomms.com
blog: www.katylindemann.com
twitter: @katylindemann

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