Social media has transformed the way we see ourselves. Humans are connected by technology to a degree that has never existed before. In Australia, more than half the population has a Facebook account, and the number of smart phones exceeds the number of toilets. Every minute, more than 2 million videos are watched on YouTube, more than 650,000 updates are made on Facebook, and more than 200 million emails are sent. We are a technologically conversant society. And in this festival interaction, we have begun to receive influence from, and lend influence to, relationships unlike anything ever before.
We use social media to airbrush our lives. We post updates that show the best of ourselves. We create a public narrative that can be very different to the actual happenings of our lives, in the interest of competing with the narratives our friends and contacts publish. We look, in an ever widening sphere, for approval and acceptance. The destruction of traditional communities has led us to create new ones, built around interest and hobby, spread across geography and demographic, and for us to build our own sense of self (and sometimes, self-worth) from the way we interact with these communities.
Part of this is the rise in continuous partial attention. We are now so connected that we absorb messages and communications from multiple points simultaneously, and often in a very superficial way. Focus is becoming more difficult to measure, as people are simultaneously engaged in building multiple connections or narratives within their lives. We have evolved into a society of connected people, each using technology to further our own happiness through social interaction, and always attentive for the next missive, the next text, the next email. We are continuously more defined by our intense understanding of, and ability to derive benefit from, the platforms that connect people through technology.
Nowhere is this more relevant, or less understood, than in the search for a career. We are all searching for meaning, and as we have shifted away from traditional views about work (ie a job for life) the meaning has become about doing what makes us feel happy. We are driven to find careers, and employers, and workplace cultures, that reinforce our self-identity and give us the largest possible benefit. We want to do great work, with interesting and fun people, that benefits us both at work and in our private lives. And how do we find these opportunities? We look in the place where our access to people and information exists. We go to the internet.
People are more than nine times more likely to accept a recommendation from a peer or a member of their chosen community than from an anonymous source or an advertisement. People are more likely to view a brand favourably that interacts with them than one which keeps them at arm’s length. People who are comfortable with technology are more likely to use that technology to start conversations with brands. And people who have no historical model to use on ‘how this should be done’ are more likely to do what feels natural. In short, graduates who are comfortable using social media and the internet are more likely to connect and absorb a brand’s message than anyone in history.
Companies have an undiscovered, and almost universally under-utilised, resource around finding and building an emotional connection with people. Brands can listen to the chatter online and address misinformation. Brands can join the conversation around their offering to people. Brands can build sites that let the public ask questions. Brands can share information faster, and more broadly, than ever before. Brands can create lasting, self-sustaining emotional connections with potential talent. And most importantly, brands can become part of the desired self-image of the talent they’d like to hire, and make the move from being ‘on the list’ to ‘being the list’ of companies to work for.
Sadly, many companies, particularly in Australia, don’t do this. Instead, they build token presences and websites, and do not address the point of social media – connection. It’s not enough to be on Facebook; companies must be as energetic, interesting and responsive as people are. It’s not enough to have a Twitter account – it must be interesting, opinionated, regularly updated and genuinely build conversation. It’s not enough to have videos on YouTube – they need to tell a story, not just record a graduate talking at the camera. Social media is about narrative. It’s about telling stories. And, done correctly, it’s about having people identify with those stories, and voluntarily either share them, share their own story, or want to join in.
Using social media as a brand is about attitude. And it’s about having the attitude that every story has an audience waiting somewhere, an audience that genuinely wants to know more. It’s about having the attitude that people share great stories, and that in order to connect with the hearts and minds of potential talent, the content must be about people, must be easily shared, must be great and must tell a story.
Rather than talking about the tools, this is the first list we use to determine whether a company is ready to use social media properly.
- Are we comfortable being exposed to the opinions, thoughts and comments of real people, knowing they may be positive or negative?
- Are we committed make finding social content a priority for our brand? Are we prepared to invest time, effort and money into building our brand on social media?
- Will we make our values transparent online, and be prepared to live them when attacked, derided, criticised, harangued or protested against?
- Is our brand strong enough to accept public vitriol or public affection without the risk of being derailed or diverted from our purpose on social media?
- Do we have a plan in place to deal with negative and positive feedback that takes the emotional reaction of our Community Managers out of the equation?
- Will we listen, respond and give the same consideration to our brand on social media that we would give to press releases, corporate videos, shareholder announcements and any other public communications?
- Will we make it a priority to give all our staff the learning and development necessary to use these tools, and to be comfortable with our use of them as a brand?
