Dialogue vs. Monologue: The real use of Social Media in 2010

Companies not using social media to correctly engage their customers is the biggest problem online today. You see it all the time, whether it be from large mainstream brands like Wal-Mart or smaller niche places like a local tv station. There seems to be a lot of broadcasting and not a lot of interaction with the consumers.

Brands are stilled chained to the early 2000’s and the view of a using their website to just get a message out or using it to define their brand online. Times have changed in the past few years and we have seen that broadcasting model get turned on its head. Now it is all about how your site can integrate into Facebook, Twitter, etc. If your site can’t be shared or if you can’t share something from your site on a social network then you are way behind the curve.

But again, creating a dialogue with consumers is more than just giving users the ability to share. You have to find a way to engage those consumers and be willing to listen to their complaints.

All companies need to have someone that is dedicated to social networking and managing their brand online. If you don’t you are more than likely to loose out on the conversation. Become fans of your consumers when they become fans of your brand. That means doing more than just setting up a twitter account and populating it with an RSS feed of your company news. It means being active and talking to people.

Recently Google announced that it was going to start presenting live search results. Live search results you may say? From Where? The live search results come from everywhere, but you will see a LOT of twitter results in there. You should also expect to see a lot more results from Facebook as well. It is all going to be about what is going on right now and who is saying what. If you don’t have someone monitoring that stream of live data then you are going to miss out on a chance to engage with a consumer. Missing out on that opportunity may cause you to not only miss out on a conversation, it may also cost you a customer and ultimately your brand image online.

Google live stream examples:

Black Eyed Peas

Wal-Mart

Google

Facebook

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