Now that social media is a regular tool in the marketing arsenal, bringing customer relations to the forefront (where it belongs IMHO) there’s the issue of: How human do companies want to appear? That is, do they tweet from a corporate account where the tweeter has no name or do they add a face to the name? If someone mentions Scott Monty I automatically think Ford. I couldn’t imagine Scott not being there. Their names are now married in my head. On the other hand, Sony Electronics doesn’t bring anyone to mind. Their tweets are personal and they answer questions so they are definitely engaged in “the conversation” but there’s neither a face or a name to the account.
In today’s hi-tech world people don’t stay at companies the way they used to. No one is expecting to receive a gold watch after 40 years of dedicated service. If you stay somewhere longer than 7 years you better have started as the mail sorter and ended as the CEO when you leave. Or you were the one who started the company. Otherwise, the average employee in hi-tech lasts between 2 – 5 years. However, will that be for the best of the company once a face goes with the name? People like familiarity, familiarity breeds trust and trust builds sales. It makes sense to invest in the face of your company, so will this mean a lower turnover rate for companies in general as people begin to be known not only for who they are, but the companies they work at (like Zappos COO Alfred)?
Will social media change organizational behavior?
Shira, this is such a rich post – so much to comment on. I think about the fact that I associate Radian 6 (paid online listening systems) with @ambercadabra on Twitter, and that she makes me “feel” like the company cares. If Amber were to leave, what would that do to my trust in the company? Even more than that, Twitter is different than Facebook: on Twitter being the person is so much more relevant than being the company, but that’s not true of Facebook Pages. Lots of food for thought here.
Nice post!
SM is definitely influencing and changing organizational behavior everyday.
It is an inevitable evolution within the ethos of virtually (no pun intented) every organization.
People’s perceptions along with roles associatied with an organization are being transformed.
The future is getting pushed into the perpetual concept of “augmented reality,” whether we like it or not. It should be interesting to see what will start to stick…