Mistakes Companies Use When Leveraging Social Media

The Social Media examiner recently interviewed Jason Falls about the mistakes companies make when embracing social media. The interview is definitely worth listening to. Jason highlights the following mistakes big companies make:

They don’t listen first. Companies are still getting used to the fact their traditional form of communication no longer is valid – they now need to listen to what their customers are saying and what their competitors are doing.  .

They must add to the conversation – again, social media is about adding to the conversation. It is not enough to simply respond – companies must understand the context and must be seen to be adding to the conversation in a positive way.

They must participate in the conversation – companies must remember that social media has radically changed the “communications game” and by participating in both negative and positive conversations the company has the potential to multiply the good vibes around their brand.

We really enjoyed Jason’s video. What was missing for us was the employee. For us, here are the big mistakes companies make from an employee perspective:

They focus TOO much on the customer – social media is about listening to and fostering conversations on both the outside and inside of the company. In our opinion, too many companies are not learning from their employees – who truly understand how to improve products and services and the brand.  

Social media is about increasing engagement – again, in our opinion, social media has the ability to create a more social business by enabling employees to meet in ways that were not possible before. By openly meeting in various online forums and sharing ideas, employees can participate and feel more connected to the company. And we all know what happens when you have engaged employees!

We are looking forward to the time when companies start to focus on the enterprise benefits of leveraging social media tools from the EMPLOYEE perspective!