At Incept, you can basically group our Conversational Marketing Experts (CME) into three groups when it comes to social media and using it to interact with the company:
- Active Users (CMEs using social media - mainly Facebook - to interact with Incept as a company)
- Potential Users (CMEs who have not yet been exposed to social media, but are willing to take the plunge with guidance)
- Non-Users (CMEs who refuse, for one reason or another, to even consider using social media at all)
Generally speaking, when I talk to people in the third group (non-users) about joining Facebook and interacting with the company, they give me this kind of blank stare that just screams, “What? You lost me!” However, once I explain what I’m talking about, the next thing I’m likely to hear is, “Why would I want the company to watch everything I’m doing? I don’t want my entire personal life all over the Internet for my bosses to see!”
FIRST THINGS FIRST: There are two issues I have to tackle ASAP. The first is simple: I merely have a quick conversation and explain that you don’t need to put your entire personal life all over the Internet. In fact, I don’t think I want to know what most people are doing every second of every day. The second issue, consequently, is a bit more complex: I have to break down that wall they’ve built around themselves, as a security measure.
BIG BROTHER: Most of the time, it is this type of person who thinks/worries that by creating a Facebook page (we haven’t even gotten to the point of talking about networking with the company yet) “they” (the bosses) will be watching them. People have this built in fear of “Big Brother” that seems to be lost on my generation, but sets off alarms in the heads of anyone over roughly thirty years of age. Of the people I’ve spoken with, many of them are afraid that by adding people they work with as friends, or even worse, by joining the Incept page they are opening themselves up to be spied on. I can say with complete honesty (as a member of Incept’s Social Media Team), I don’t want to spend my time looking at your personal page unless you’re my friend. And in that case, I’m there personally - not for business.
BREAKING DOWN THE WALL: Once the entire situation has been put in the appropriate light, and all the myths and rumors have been swept away, I’m faced with this “wall” to knock down. On one side is the CME I just empowered to use social media with confidence, and on the other side, I stand ready to chip away. I always start with the simple step of signing them up for a Facebook page (or, at least, explaining how to sign up). CHIP! Then we move on to finding friends, both work and non-work related. CHIP! Then the big step of “liking” the Incept page. CHIP! CHIP! Lastly, they take the big step on their own and expand their social network freely. COLLAPSE!
The wall falls apart just that easily. All people need is someone to show them how to use social media platforms. Afterwards, adoption doesn’t seem like such a bad idea. It’s all about taking little chips out of the wall to bring it down!
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