How do you explain the point of social media?

This video does it well we think

Earlier in the year, I described how consumer brand Burberry communicate their vision for how they seek to use social and digital media to transform their company.

Recently, I’ve seen another good example from B2B technology hardware and services company EMC (See their Social @EMC hub). Take a look; it’s tackling the tough job of convincing sceptical employees who ask “what’s the point” in a light-hearted way. As you can see, it shows that social media is nothing new, simply that technology now helps us to communicate in a way we always have, since the time of the caveman and cavewoman...

I found out about this video on the blog of Keith Paul (@Kempipa), the “Chief Listener” at EMC. It’s an interesting blog, if you’re working in a large company and dealing with big company issues. In this post, Paul discusses how listening needs to evolve to action. As use of social media marketing in a company grows it’s natural people will want to judge success on their social counts. As Keith says

“Fans, likes, followers, follows, subscribers and Bitly clicks are common measures we like to hang our hats on. We like the good, fuzzy feeling of seeing those Twitter and Facebook counters get bigger and bigger”.

But you need to encourage thinking which asks about outcomes:

“What are you doing to engage with, or at least understand, your social audience? Are you encouraging (and answering!) comments on your blog? Are you thanking followers of your Twitter account? Do you allow fans to post to your Facebook wall? Do you encourage interaction? Are you tracking click-throughs to your web site? Are you converting social visitors into leads?”