A responsible social media evangelist knows what not to do

Photo by Dubaddict

Earlier this week, I raised the question 'How can you be an effective and responsible social media evangelist?"    The word "evangelist" with this definition in mind: an enthusiastic advocate.  Someone who can see the possibilities of integrating social media, but was not blinded by their enthusiasm.

Emily over at Not Exactly Roughing It really captures the idea of a responsible evangelist when she says:

I think that sharing awareness of common pitfalls is a huge part of being a responsible social media evangelist.  It shows that it’s not a brand-new, completely untested idea.  It shows that you’re informed and honest.  And it provides a more complete map to guide our organizations.

It is hard not always to find stories about what didn't work, but recently I came across a couple of posts describing what doesn't work.

This post by Marshall Kirkpatrick on Read/Write Web "Corporate Social Networks Are A Waste of Money" describes a recent study by Deloitte on the  corporate use of social networks, and finds that most are
small and inactive.  Marshall asks "Are company-built social networks for customers to socialize in really smart?"

Marshall points out that according to the study's author, the biggest problems are the following:   

• Overpriced, shiny features.
• Insufficient and inexperienced community management. (See Read/Write Web's post on community management earlier this week.)
• Bad metrics and criteria. Though Moran says most companies can talk the talk, saying they are looking for engagement and word of mouth, they end up measuring in page views. He says that's bad. It probably wouldn't be so bad if they were getting any page views.

Marshall is especially critical about this online community focused on cat litter.

Emily sums it up the problem as:

The fate we’re all trying to avoid is that of Michael Scott, who unthinkingly follows his car’s GPS straight into a lake and then insists that technology tried to kill him.

What's your advice about what NO to do as a social media evangelist?

Comments

[Steve Nimmons]

I would use traditional consulting wisdom and advise:
1. Not over-promising
2. No black box methods (i.e do it with the client, not to them)
3. No 'blank page' methods (i.e. come with an approach, ideally one that you are tailoring with lessons learned)
4. Don't forget to measure results - blundering on without realised value is folly
5. Be careful with the libertines. In my view some are playing with fire in their views on security

Remember that all technology is a potential waste of money if requirements are not understood, met and appropriate functionality delivered. Social Media in the enterprise is really not much different to other investments, although perhaps it is a little harder to quantify collaboration benefits etc. for business cases.

[Maddie Grant]

I think it's absolutely crucial to start by listening, to know your audience before you jump in, to fish where the fish are, so to speak. To have an understanding of where your customers/members/potentials hang out, what they talk about, how they talk. To remember that the technology is the easy part, nurturing the garden is hard and takes time. To remember that this new world demands honesty and openness and if you're not prepared to be that, don't bother - because people will see right through you.

[francois gossieaux]

Hi Beth - as it turns out the article was based on a mistake. It was not 60% of the participants that paid $1M for their communities, but 6%. I also wrote about it here - http://bit.ly/261sXz.