Blog

After failing miserably at my A-levels many years ago, I attended South Bank University. One of the most interesting subjects for me was always Organisational Psychology (every Tuesday morning), it’s probably called something far more fancy now. Here we touched on all aspects of how individuals, groups and organisations interact.

Browsing the raft of information from social media experts, I’m always struck by the sheer volume that is written. The shocking aspect, given this volume, is the lack of real debate on any given strata of social media and the subsequent theoretical norms that are created because of it.

I’ve been reading blogs for a while now and, in the main, I ignore the comments. I can’t recall the last time I saw a lively debate or a commenter adding anything of worth to the subject being discussed.

Here’s how it goes… blog post is made, comments fill with people nodding sagely saying that they said the very same thing on their blog (grabbing a bit of link equity and reflected glory). These kinds of replies run into the hundreds on some posts. This is where the Tuesday morning lecture reminiscence kicked in, bear with me.

Irving Janis had a theory that concerned how groups come to poor decisions. He concentrated mostly on US foreign policy – Cuban Missile Crisis is the most (in)famous – analysing the dynamics of the groups’ interactions, coming to a conclusion that poor decisions which seemed ridiculous to an impartial onlooker (i.e. let’s invade Cuba) were, in these cases, borne out of Groupthink. He defines Groupthink as:

“A mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when the members’ strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action.”

Where Groupthink occurs the outcome is poor decision-making by the group. I decided to apply this theory about how groups interact to the social media debate. Janis used an eight-point symptom test to determine the presence of Groupthink:

1. Illusions of invulnerability creating excessive optimism and encouraging risk taking.
2. Rationalizing warnings that might challenge the group’s assumptions.
3. Unquestioned belief in the morality of the group, causing members to ignore the consequences of their actions.
4. Stereotyping those who are opposed to the group as weak, evil, biased, spiteful, disfigured, impotent, or stupid.
5. Direct pressure to conform placed on any member who questions the group, couched in terms of “disloyalty”.
6. Self-censorship of ideas that deviate from the apparent group consensus.
7. Illusions of unanimity among group members, silence is viewed as agreement.
8. Mind guards — self-appointed members who shield the group from dissenting information.

Clearly the social media debate consists of a massive group, so applying this directly has issues but looking at these eight points some really do hit home when applied to the social media debate, or my perceived lack of.

As an agency we’ve been working in this field for over 10 years now – back then we managed fan clubs, message boards etc, and it was called community marketing. So I’m not here to deride the industry that we’re intrinsically part of. What I think it lacks is any real debate about the key issues. Saying “yes, I agree” and putting a link to your blog in the comments serves no-one other than yourself.

Over the coming weeks I’ll be touching directly on some of the eight points above in individual posts and adding some quantitative analysis so feel free to disagree. No, really, please do.

I was recently asked to contribute to a piece on customer service and social media measurement for the IAB Social Media Handbook. As usual my piece went way beyond the 500 word limit so you can see the abridged version here or the full one below.

The Customer Service ‘Iceberg’

Consumers are using social media to share, complain, praise and recommend on a daily basis. The vast majority of customer service issues occur and are dealt with via “closed” channels such as the phone, email, etc. These issues are below the water line where the wider public and media can’t see them, and this is where companies currently fix their gaze and resources. This is natural and correct. Who wouldn’t put most of their resources where the majority of the activity is taking place?

However, there is a large opportunity for companies wanting to tackle the above the water line (tip of the iceberg) issues that occur in the “open” channels of social media (Twitter, message boards, blogs etc.)

Publicly helping consumers with issues not only serves the individual, but the positive viral effect to their network and beyond can be tremendous. Most companies, however, are some way behind their consumers’ behaviour. There are several intertwined reasons for this disparity:

1. The plethora of social media channels where a consumer might express an opinion means companies require a tool to capture this conversation and an understanding of each of the media to enable them to converse effectively with customers.
2. Even with an understanding of the breadth of media, getting people to work across departments and tying new customer interaction data in with existing legacy systems still poses significant hurdles.
3. The vast majority of the interaction between the consumer and company happens in the public domain. The enforced transparency and openness of communication forces company cultures to be customer-centric rather than simply say they are. Cultural change takes time to permeate.
4. Customer service as a function has long established metrics and can be input/output driven. For some reason, people are letting social media muddy the waters. Return On Investment (ROI) in this instance is actually fairly simple.

When answering consumers via social media it’s key to remember the dual audience you are playing to. The primary audience is the person with the issue that needs to be addressed. The secondary audience is the network of the person with the issue. With mainstream news consistently using social media for content, this network extends beyond their immediate friends and can be vast in size and impact.

Setting Appropriate KPI’s and Benchmarks

Customer service is not always about handling complaints. Each interaction with a customer is an opportunity for the company to engage and influence, so the objectives of the activity can be varied.

All KPI’s should ideally start with a business objective; something requiring change that intrinsically affects the company’s performance in some way. Without this it will be difficult to make the activity relevant to the wider company.

Below I have placed some typical objectives in relation to customer service in social media, common associated metrics and some ideas on possible benchmarks, these being the key to making the data meaningful within a company, especially within social media. This is not supposed to be an exhaustive list but it should provide a framework to relate your own experience to.

When reporting on any activity it pays to remember who the report is going to and what their frame of reference is. Senior management will want to see the business effect of what you are doing, whilst the PR Manager may be more inclined to see the narrative of conversations. Jeremiah Owyang does a great job of explaining this here.

Customers increasingly prefer to rely on their own networks for advice and recommendation. Instant answers from people they trust being infinitely preferable to a telephone call to a scripted, non-empowered environment. This is a trend exacerbated by the interconnectedness that social media propagates. The key for the company is to replicate this helpful, friendly, open and empathetic approach to their customer service whilst proving its worth in hard financial terms.

Could you be our next social media superstar?

We’re an exciting award-winning digital communications agency and we’re looking to hire a Social Media Manager to join our growing team.

You’ll be working with an exciting list of clients, find out more about who we work with by watching our showreel here: www.outsideline.co.uk

We’re looking for someone with the following skills and experience:

- a proven track record of delivering successful social media campaigns
- an active personal profile across social media channels
- a creative mind and enthusiastic approach
- a sound practical knowledge and interest in social media and technology

If you tick all the boxes above then we’d love to hear from you directly (no agencies please).

Please send us your CV with a covering letter telling us why this job is for you to marketing@outsideline.com