This week I came across two articles that helped clarify an issue I've been pondering for many months: why is it hard for so many companies to make the leap into the new world of social media?


The first piece was on the art of digital small talk (social media discussions) in the Wall Street Journal. The second article was about the futility of selling via social media platforms, by John Dvorak.
These two articles have nothing to do with each other. But together they help me think through The Question from a little different angle. The answer revolves around the mindset in which we approach social media in corporate America; in short, we're trying to sell and market when social media is about people, not products.
Social media is all about giving, engaging, connecting–and yes, small talk. But our typical corporate management style clashes with this. How can you fully engage with an individual when your total focus is on meeting "deliverables," adhering to processes and showing results?
Small talk is a great example. It's usually glossed over in most companies. Sure, we use it to break the ice in starting meetings and smooth over working relationships.But for the most part its value is far less than in the social media world, which is fueled by small talk.
That's too bad, because as the Journal article stated:
".. small talk is actually serious business. Small talk is a form of social insurance, explains John T. Cacioppo, the director of the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience at the University of Chicago. "If I'm going to need to rely on you, then if we stay in touch on meaningless things, we can eventually work effectively together," he says. "It's like team practice .... a basketball team has to practice together to win."
I see small talk as a sort of barometer of how far we've come with social media–or not come. Many companies are still trying to shoehorn social media into existing marketing paradigms. This often means "driving messages," or trying to employ social media platforms as PR or marketing tools. In other cases, companies are trying to drive their sales using platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
There are exceptions of companies making money via social media platforms and sales models based on selling to friends and relatives are as old as the hills. But I've always been leery of them, and believe they actually backfire in social media.
Dvorak estimates that, out of his 55,000 followers, he'd be lucky to get more than 0.4% to buy something, or 1/5th the results of a typical direct mail campaign.
As he says, "For some reason, people always want to associate social networking with the ability to sell something when we should take all social networking at its face value. It's about socializing, not about selling stuff to your friends."
Of course, companies are different than individuals–or are they? Actually companies need to also walk a fine line between spamming customers, media and employees. They also need to create conversations and provide real value.
This means giving first–providing real value to your customers, employees, partners, etc.
Blogger Dosh-Dosh captures this nicely in his post on giving:
"Give them helpful free content. Give them answers to their questions. Give them a freebie. Point them to tools they need and things they should know. Give them tips they can instantly use in their lives/business. Give them pleasant surprises. Give them interaction. Give them promises you can keep. Develop a history of giving. Be known as a giver."
Small talk, in a sense, is giving–giving advice, giving your ideas, giving your time. Ok, much of it is just chatter on Twitter and Facebook. But at its best small talk can build bridges and strengthen relationships, something most companies desperately need.
I've been impressed with big companies like Cisco, where CEO John Chambers has regular town-hall type meetings with employees and people are free to blog and express their views. Other companies have made strides in breaking down the walls that separates them from their customers and employees. But these examples are few and far between, and much work still needs to be done.
At the end of the day, social networking–and success in marketing going forward–will always be about people. The only difference now is they're in the driver's seat.
Think people. Think small.