{"id":5560,"date":"2014-08-13T00:38:45","date_gmt":"2014-08-13T00:38:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/?p=5560"},"modified":"2014-12-20T16:39:49","modified_gmt":"2014-12-20T16:39:49","slug":"real-trumps-perfect-stop-worrying-so-much-and-engage-via-insidecxm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/real-trumps-perfect-stop-worrying-so-much-and-engage-via-insidecxm\/","title":{"rendered":"Real Trumps Perfect\u2026 Stop Worrying so Much and Engage!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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There are several reasons why I think businesses hamstring their social efforts. First, there\u2019s an overriding, if misguided, pressure to get things \u201cperfect\u201d on social, which is sometimes used as an excuse to avoid getting involved at all. The permanent nature of anything that\u2019s posted on the web tends to freak out the \u201ccontrol the message\u201d crowd who has their fingers poised over the delete button to instantly erase ill-advised comments or content. We\u2019re never far removed from the latest social snafu by a public figure, or the next one to come, and that fear can be paralyzing.<\/p>\n

Second, there\u2019s a certain amount of mistrust of employees by corporations on social channels. What if they say something stupid? What if they take a photocopy of their posterior at the company Christmas party and post it on Facebook? What if our perfect reputation is trashed by one Tweet? What if, what if, what if?<\/p>\n

On top of all that (or in some instances because of it) marketing departments are more concerned than ever with putting out the\u00a0perfect\u00a0<\/em>message rather than concentrating on responding and engaging effectively. When the onus is on perfection, a single tweet or status update can take weeks to craft\u2014and being human takes a back seat to what they think is \u201cbranding.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can see why anyone with a brand, a career, and a social presence might feel the need to get things perfect. The concerns listed above are all real and worth keeping in mind (but that\u2019s it) as you delve into social, but they shouldn\u2019t stop you from getting involved. Even if you are new to the medium itself, you\u2019ve still got plenty of experience interacting in face-to-face social settings. That doesn\u2019t go away simply because you are socializing in a new format.<\/p>\n

Your traditional, face-to-face experiences should also give you some comfort regarding the risk of getting things wrong on social channels. Sure, you\u2019ll run into trouble if you say something insensitive or are intentionally misleading on social, but that\u2019s nothing new. You\u2019d get in trouble acting that way in public, too, yet most of us manage to avoid it simply by being respectful and real toward the people we encounter.<\/p>\n

Social mirrors real life. It\u2019s not as if we suddenly lose our concept of human interaction when we sit down to a keyboard or turn on a tablet! Too often, though, all of the worrying and red tape built into social strategies leads to a message that\u2019s been dehumanized. If people want a sterilized vision of your products, services, or brand, there are plenty of places they can find that information online. When it comes to social, though, people want to interact with real people, not robots.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where you enter the picture. Roll up your sleeves, get involved, and show off your personality. Instead of concerning yourself with getting each interaction pitch-perfect, focus on treating people with kindness and respect.<\/p>\n

Building a social brand is dependent on allowing people to connect. While advertising and analytics are still powerful tools, social interaction and conversation is the best way to humanize your brand. You just need to provide that real, human presence.<\/p>\n

None of this is to say that you shouldn\u2019t worry at all about your image and interactions on social, or plan content ahead of time. I\u2019m certainly not saying that you shouldn\u2019t have some rules in place for social, on personal, employee-related, and marketing levels. By all means, have a social governance policy in place and educate your employees about how to effectively use platforms. They\u2019re going to be social anyway, so why not empower them to be better at it, and give them the tools to advocate for you when they wish to do so?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to take your company\u2019s social back.<\/em>\u00a0By humanizing your brand, you allow yourself and your employees and partners to build real relationships with customers. Remember that relationships are like muscle tissue\u2026 the more they are engaged, the
\nstronger and more valuable they become.<\/p>\n

All you\u2019ve got to worry about is following the golden rule, which applies to social as well as it does anywhere else \u2013\u00a0Treat people how you\u2019d like them to treat you<\/em><\/span>. So take a breath and stop worrying so much. Social is all about how you connect and build relationships.\u00a0 Concentrate more on getting it\u00a0right<\/em>, and less on getting it\u00a0perfect<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Originally posted at InsideCXM<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0JULY 26, 2014\u00a0BY\u00a0<\/span>TED RUBIN<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are several reasons why I think businesses hamstring their social efforts. First, there\u2019s an overriding, if misguided, pressure to get things \u201cperfect\u201d on social, which is sometimes used as an excuse to avoid getting involved at all. The permanent nature of anything that\u2019s posted on the web tends to freak out the \u201ccontrol the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,7],"tags":[1370,32,358,479,30,1899],"class_list":["post-5560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-tedrubin","tag-ronr","tag-marketing","tag-relationships","tag-ror","tag-social-media","tag-tedrubin-3"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5560"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5563,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5560\/revisions\/5563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}