The far-reaching impact of social media is at best, only partially understood. Almost daily, new ways are discovered by which a “bottoms up” means of communications flow and control fundamentally alters communication dynamics in commerce, culture and daily life. At WordWrite, we were early proponents of social media and their appropriate use in commercial communications.
But we are also very heavy proponents of authentic business communication. We believe that trust between businesses and the markets they serve generally needs to be strengthened. So more authentic forms of business communication seem relevant and well suited for this important task. But what also may be needed is a reconciliation of the core question: Does social media help, hinder or simply neutralize authentic communication? In short, do newly minted social media channels (important tools) undermine or enhance authentic business communication?
Consider some of the characteristics of social media, whether it’s the omnipresent Facebook and Twitter forms or in some other channel. Do the following qualities help build a more authentic form of business communication?
1. Invitation to Use a Persona or avatar. In some channels, the social media communicator never has to play himself. Under the guise of a persona or even anonymity, one can contribute to a social media dialogue. This doesn’t mean this is done with sinister intent (although sometimes it clearly is) but it does offer the chance to psychologically disconnect from the true “self” in creating a communicating self. In this sense the social media communicator is not channeling inner views as much as one is role playing — a characteristic that’s great for starring in a community theater production and more limiting in terms of creating communication authenticity.
2. A New Dialect not Universally Understood. The inevitable shorthand of social media messaging through emoticons, phonetics and other shortcut or symbols means a certain group of users are missing the point, literally. While in a way this is no different than engineers or lawyers or doctors relying on technical jargon that limits their communications effectiveness, well, it limits communications effectiveness. What does it really mean to be heard but not understood? Or worse, completely misunderstood?
3. Super Brief Shelf Life. Social media messages many times lose relevancy almost as rapidly as they are formed. A reader comment that might yield prescient insight is rapidly double-, then triple-, then quadruple-stacked under successive comments. It’s great that everyone gets their time with the talking stick on most social media channels, but it makes separating the content “wheat from the chaff” either near impossible or pointless. This has been most true for Twitter, though it can affect other channels as well.
4. The Lack of Context. One of the charms of many social media channels, and in particular, Twitter, has been a limit on the length of communications. Twitter’s 140-character limit ensures a message makes a quick point. It also means message context has a hard time within the medium’s brevity. Not only is it hard to tell the whole story in 140 characters (even if you link to a blog or other channel for deeper content), it’s hard to wade into the “Tweetstream” and put together any context if new Tweets are rocketing in at the rate of several hundred every few minutes.
5. It’s Idiosyncratic. Much of current social media practice appears a lot like jazz musicians jamming on open-mike night. The communicator (or musician) is trying to channel something internal, perhaps even primal, into a point. What is the point? Hang around and the musician (or communicator) will noodle it out in the next so many messages or posts or tweets. Sometimes this works in creating a shared meaning — the root of all communication. Many times it doesn’t. It is frequently original and offered largely as a self-expression exercise. Self-expression should always be admired but in the context of authentic communication building, I believe it must be tempered by what facilitates understanding. If I can’t figure out what you meant, what’s the point of all the noodling around? And why should I hang around for it?
Social media is here to stay. Depending on the channel, there are robust opportunities for business communicators. But to be an authentic communicator — and one fluent in social media — you may need to do a periodic reconciliation between the form, function and intended meaning of your social media activity. We find it helpful to think of social media as a 21st century communications toolbox. When you dig in to the toolbox, it’s important to pick the right tool. If you don’t have the right tool, you may just be piling social media brick upon brick haphazardly, instead of creating communication that has foundation, purpose and authentic meaning.
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John Durante is a senior marketing associate for WordWrite Communications
