Crashing the Dinner Party
Ever been to a dinner party where everyone knows each other, shares common interests and the group is engaged in a conversation where everyone is involved and allowed to participate? Now imagine that how you would have felt if someone you did not know had entered the party, occupied one of the seats and interrupted the conversation to tell you all about how they were doing, about their great job and all the wonderful things that they were up to.
To say the least you’d be put off by such an intrusion. Regardless of what this individual was really like as a person, your first impression of them would be that they are rude, ill-mannered and completely self-absorbed because they have shown no interest in easing themselves into your group, gracefully entering the conversation and becoming a part of the overall group dynamic.
While very few of us would ever act this way in the real world, many PR professionals, members of the media and marketers find themselves making these types of social faux pas on a daily basis in social applications all over the Internet.
It’s the Conversation Economy, Stupid
In his article on BusinessWeek’s Innovation blog, David Armano writes in his article “It’s the Conversation Economy, Stupid“:
It’s the conversation economy, stupid. One of the engines that is driving “2.0″ growth is the fact that communities are forming around popular social platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Flickr, Ning, Twitter—the list goes on and on. These platforms facilitate conversation. Conversation leads to relationships and relationships lead to affinity.
In other words, too many traditional marketers, media and PR professions are participating in selfish, one-way conversations in a medium that requires inclusive interactions. They are talking at their audiences instead of talking to them or better yet, engaging them in conversation and forming relationships with them.
Journalists adding insult to injury
If we use the dinner party analogy and consider which appropriate social graces apply, incidents like what happened last week in the aftermath of the horrible events at Virginia Tech — when journalists eager to scoop their competition left blog and MySpace comments on the personal sites of VA Tech students, soliciting exclusive comments — can be avoided. These comments were widely derided and viewed scornfully by other individuals who had dropped by to offer their support and condolences.
If we strive to have a relationship with our target audience, we have to set out the way we would form a relationship with anyone else. We need to be prepared to listen to and care about those we seek a relationship with. It can’t be all us all the time or it will end up having the opposite effect of what we intend.
.chris{}