WhatsTheBuzzAbout.com

Social Media’s Version of Home Shopping

We all sign onto sites and buy products. We are fast becoming a global world of on-line shoppers and find it convenient, even though it is sometimes more time-consuming to consummate online than to purchase in person or call in a telephone order. Why then, do certain solicitations to purchase send us wishing that we had never connected to that individual or that a company never discovered our email or just were less in-your-face to buy its merchandise? Let’s consider a couple of examples and think about our purchasing preferences and habits.  

Companies to which we are loyal

These are companies we frequent and have agreed to receive email. Some of these companies will blast us once a week, some once a day, and others, well, even more frequently.  One well-known upscale department store seems to think that at least two blasts per day are needed. These same companies don’t expect us to want to receive snail-mail (postal mail) every day—what makes them believe that we want to receive email from them daily?

What is your reaction to this constant influx of email? You may be like many of us and opt-out of email even with these companies because the companies have abused the privilege of corresponding with you.

Companies we have heard about or purchased from but we have no loyalty established with them

These are companies we have used on occasion, but are just as likely to use their competitors for whatever reason. Some of these companies will keep us on an email list and contact us periodically after we purchase something, but then the email stops. It seems that if we did not opt-out of email, we wanted to receive it. How wasteful it is for companies to take subscribers off of email lists when it is far more difficult to find potential consumers to add.

Could it be that these companies are using purchases as the only gauge of email effectiveness? Haven’t they heard of referrals? Don’t they realize that our needs may not be continuous but sporadic?  

Individuals who know us and want us to buy through them

This is another more difficult situation.  You connect with someone. Next thing you know, you are on their newsletter list and then comes the hard sell, the query as to why we are not purchasing their tape, their training, their latest gadget. After all, we connected. In some people’s minds, a connection means that we are their customer. These are probably the same people whom we hardly know and yet ask us for references, referrals, and testimonies.

How about someone with whom you have a service relationship, e.g., they cut your hair. Now they email you and want you to sign up on a shopping service they joined which will pay them something if you shop through their site which will take you to most major online retailers. By the way, you are informed that you can join this multi-level organization too and make money if you sign people up and they shop on the site.

Do you really want your hairdresser to know the book you bought at Amazon or the detergent at a grocery store through the site or to make money from these purchases? Doesn’t it change the relationship with your hairdresser from one of comfort to potentially one of discomfort if you do not sign up on their shopping web site or, if you do, rarely make a purchase?  

How much loss of privacy and many tiers of revenue sharing is enough before we say, let’s just buy from the source.

What is your buzz about?

Is it OK to Test Drive Social Media?

There is nothing inherently wrong in test driving social media. It is expected that individuals will test drive social media, and some will become customers and users and others will move on as a result.  In fact, the more individuals try out various social media offerings, the deeper knowledge they obtain, while the social media sites and products become more customer centric.

Social media users are all ages, and represent all skill levels, and all interest levels. Many individuals just join one network as their main social platform. Others use social media for business, for entertainment, or to share photos and videos with loved ones, etc.  Still others are in the “social media business,” frequently as providers, consultants, bloggers, watchdogs, gamers, developers, etc.

Most social media users have no difficulty in shifting loyalty from one platform to another when their social or business needs dictate a shift or the providers no longer provide the services  upon which they have come to depend. However, in some of the smaller groups, you will find people who are relatively naïve in the use of social media and who make their decisions to participate based upon following another person around as that individual participates in or creates groups or forums or purchases certain products. These same individuals may find it difficult to abandon that group or forum because a specific individual leads it or has been the one to introduce them to it.

Individuals who have been exposed to media for a long time become comfortable gravitating to the latest or biggest networks or services. They try out social media platforms and groups just as they try out and replace PDA’s/Mobile Phones (smart phones).  Sometimes, individuals have to actually join a group or forum or platform in order to understand what it does and what it does not offer.  Some people would like to join more groups on a particular platform but are precluded for various policy reasons. These individuals can still receive invitations, but are not able to accept them.

Some people join a group in order not to offend the individual who extended the offer, who usually is notified or can determine if his or her invitation was accepted. Leaving a group immediately is usually not detected by the person who extended the invitation, particularly if the group is very large or pseudo names are generally in use when someone joins that group.

It is perfectly acceptable to exercise independence and join and leave any platform, group, or forum, as you decide and in keeping with any “membership” requirements, just as it is perfectly acceptable to replace any product at will. Kick the tires and let others know what you find that works for you.

What is your buzz about?

To Pay or Not to Pay?

With the beginning of the new “calendar year” many individuals, organizations, and corporations are evaluating whether the media services and providers they use are really providing them with value. Their evaluations not only include the consideration of monetary requirements but also the amount of time spent in interacting, contributing, or responding as a result. New media jargon includes terms such as “pay it forward” which does not connote a dollar exchange but the investment of time. It also includes discussions of “relationship capital” or the value placed on relationships which may have been established or enhanced through media interaction and the value that an individual brings because of certain relationships and relationship management.

Some will find that the payment of currency has more “value” than the investment of time. Others subscribe to the concept of “time is money.” Regardless, the currency that is important to you or to the organization or business is the criteria upon which the media is evaluated.  This currency could be something as nebulous, as the decision to participate in a particular media in a particular fashion regardless of whether a pure “cost benefit analysis” or “time benefit analysis” would yield a positive result. It also would include media advertising decisions.

Examples of determinations include everything from the corporate commitment to changes in design found on Google’s home page each day, to an individual’s decision to have a presence in both Facebook and MySpace. A corporate determination may include the level of the individual assigned to manage a corporation’s blog. It will include corporate advertising decisions, such as being a significant sponsor in various electronic media or putting a streamer on a smaller website. It can include the decision to standardize an individual’s profile to the extent possible in all social networks to a blogger’s decision to provide an RSS feed for his or her blog. It includes the decision to be active in a group or to just step back and watch the group for trends and opportunities. It may include a concerted effort of a corporation or individual to assist another individual or corporation without an expectation of an immediate reward.

As we commence the review of our financial and time participation in each activity, we need to think of both in terms of the future and not of the immediate.  Our evaluations should consider the relationships we have with our colleagues, customers, vendors, etc. and the extent to which we want to continue to nurture and sustain those relationships and create new relationships.

 Media is merging, synergies are growing every day, and people seek to ensure the connections once made are not lost in the electronic maze.  We need to use our best judgment in committing our financial and time resources.  The good news is that media builds in flexibility and we can adjust our commitment going forward.

What is your buzz about?