| Pandora's Box of Digital Communication ? rAVe [SMB]

By NC?Nwoko

I just now had the immense plea?sure of read?ing Amy Fulton?s most recent blog about how over?whelm?ing social media can be ? espe?cially for B2B play?ers (which is most of us in AV) ? and it prompted me to [attempt to] answer her ques?tion, ?Social Media?Does any?one really know the answer yet??

Six months ago, every?thing on this web?site was up-to-date and rel?e?vant. Now, it?s in need of a huge face-lift. Why? Because social media is lit?er?ally THE Pandora?s Box of the dig?i?tal world. You open the door to one change, and sud?denly? you?re inun?dated with every vari?a?tion or every form of Inter?net inter?ac?tion you can think of. From shiny new tools to ways to man?age them, every?day there?s some?thing else that claims to be the next dig?i?tal game-changer in the way we communicate.

It def?i?nitely gets overwhelming.

But with every new tool (and even some of the old ones) you have to keep this in mind: social media is just a term to describe the ways we use to com?mu?ni?cate online ? and com?mu?ni?ca?tion is a very sub?jec?tive?term.

Ask your sales and/or mar?ket?ing staff how they com?mu?ni?cate. Ask your engi?neers, installers, upper-level exec?u?tives how they communicate.

Bet you?ll come up with a dif?fer?ent answer for each of them, but the one thing that will be con?stant is (hope?fully) RELATIONSHIPS. And that?s what B2B social media com?mu?ni?ca?tion should facil?i?tate. Noth?ing more noth?ing less. I don?t care what tool you choose to use, if it?s not ulti?mately being used to build rela?tion?ships and inter?act other humans, con?sider a dif?fer?ent option (you will NOT run out of options).

Ask your?self how you can trans?fer the nor?mal means of com?mu?ni?ca?tion and relationship-building that you cur?rently use (tele?phones, email, blog?ging, lunch meet?ings) and trans?fer that to some other social medium that your clients-customers-partners use. Do you blog about edu?ca?tional events or cre?ate a ton of edu?ca?tional con?tent or white papers? Con?sider YouTube, Twit?ter or Face?book to reach out to peo?ple in a more inter?ac?tive ways. Com?mu?ni?ca?tion didn?t start with email and tele?phones and it won?t stop with Twitter.

Tak?ing that a step fur?ther, there?s a rea?son why Amy Ful?ton chose to post that [super-cute] pic?ture of her daugh?ter on Face?book ? it?s where the com?mu?ni?ties that would appre?ci?ate that kind of post would be able to appre?ci?ate it the most. Arguably, she could have used Insta?gram, but would there have been the same level and inten?sity of response from her friends and fam?ily? It depends on how THEY com?mu?ni?cate with the same tool that AMY uses to communicate.

rAVe uses Twit?ter to keep up with indus?try news, dis?trib?ute it and keep in touch with #AVtweeps. We?ve devel?oped a very unique way to inter?act with indus?try pro?fes?sion?als in a way that makes sense; man?u?fac?tur?ers, inte?gra?tors and other AV play?ers use it in their own?ways.

So, to answer Amy?s ques?tion: no one knows all the answers.

Com?mu?ni?ca?tion is sub?jec?tive. My advice would be to find out where the peo?ple you want to com?mu?ni?cate are, and look at how they com?mu?ni?cate while you?re at it. With each new social media tool, think of how it might help you com?mu?ni?cate with them suc?cess?fully. You should want to be where YOUR audi?ence is ? and when you?re there, make that com?mu?ni?ca?tion the next best thing to being there in-person.

If you treat the peo?ple you com?mu?ni?cate with using social media the same way you?d com?mu?ni?cate with some?one in-person (and it?s not only strictly busi?ness, you show your per?son?al?ity, too), you?re doing it right. The spe?cific ways you go about doing it is up to you and the dynam?ics of your company.

Why? Because B2B social media is about build?ing long-term rela?tion?ships rather than short-term impacts. So find?ing the tools that work won?t always be easy. But keep at it! Your cus?tomers and clients are worth it (and they?ll appre?ci?ate that you?re try?ing to reach out to?them).

In the mean?time, there ARE resources spe?cific to? the AV indus?try that help us become more socially savvy together:

Do YOU have any tips about how you com?mu?ni?cate or any other resources for AV?ers? Let me know in the comments!

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Source: http://www.ravepubs.com/ravesmb/socialmediablog/pandoras-box-of-digital-communication/

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