Comments on: C-level Social Media Ignorance

By: The Short List : Blog Posts that made my must read list last week -

The Short List : Blog Posts that made my must read list last week - — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:40:17 +0000

[...] Ron Ploof – C Level Social Media Ignorance [...]

By: Kim White

Kim White — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 21:12:58 +0000

Totally agree. Everyone in the company needs to be aware of what's happening in social media. They don't have to be the ones tweeting, but they need to know what it is and how the company plans to use it.

But employees can't wait for C-level to 'get it'. That could take 10 years. Education will most likely have to be from the bottom up.

By: jeremyvaught

jeremyvaught — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:26:43 +0000

Crazy Twitter kids.

By: Links: Happy Sweet 16 2010 Edition | Meryl.net

Links: Happy Sweet 16 2010 Edition | Meryl.net — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:42:05 +0000

[...] C-level Social Media Ignorance: Do you know what your marketing and PR folks are doing in your company’s name? [...]

By: shorespeak

shorespeak — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:31:18 +0000

So true Ron. I worked with dentist last year who abdicated all social media to his “staff”. They spend their time on Twitter posting two things. The latest special at their ecommerce site and the news that their latest post is now live on the blog. When I challenged their lack of engagement with their followers the leader of the pack (not the dentist who owns the business) chimed in defensively that that's what a 'consultant' had instructed them to do. Perfect.That means it was the right approach, right?

By: ronploof

ronploof — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 21:49:30 +0000

Thanks Oscar. I agree with everything except for the generational part. C-levels are smart. They just haven't had someone connect the dots for them in their terms.

They're only getting the partial story of new/social media--depending on who's "doin' the 'spain'n." A PR person will see it one way. A marketer another. Add sales, customer support, product development, legal and human resources, and C-levels must juggle disjointed opinions.

But there is a light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. With the death knell of traditional media ringing loudly in the distance, C-levels won't be able to keep their heads in the sand much longer.

By: Antonio Montoya

Antonio Montoya — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 21:44:44 +0000

I would argue though that in addition to the C-level, all employees in the company need to know about the implications of social media. With a plethora of social media outlets available, and the sudden increase in their popularity many company staff are joining these networks and running around with an AK-47 (as per your book) thinking it is a fun toy to play with.

By: Andy Warner

Andy Warner — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 21:37:04 +0000

Oscar, so true. I work in the automotive industry and experience this "strategy" every day. The dealer principal is now "aware" of various social media applications available to increase their brand, but is still adamant in producing the same pathetic vomiting like marketing they used in the past.

Response for Twitter: Let's tell our customers once a week they can visit with a print out of our tweet for 5% off an oil change.
Response for Youtube: Let's tell our customers to rreate a video telling us why we are your preferred dealership.
Response for company blog: Let's tell our customers to print a comment to receive a free t-shirt.

What's missing? You guessed it. The (ownership) customer-company engagement. The (ownership) customer-company conversation. The (ownership) customer-company relationship.

By: Oscar

Oscar — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 21:21:25 +0000

Great story, it is so true too. There's the other side of this, when the C-levels get someone to help with social media, or new media or whatever you want to call it… but direct all tasks to be done on the new media, in the same way that they've done marketing for the past 30 years with old/tradidional media. A lot of the times they just don't get it, but just want to jump on the bandwagon and then drive it. I think its a generational gap really.

By: mikekilroy

mikekilroy — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 03:15:46 +0000

Great post, Ron. CEOs are beholden to many stakeholders and leaving such a huge part of their communications program unsupervised and unchecked borders on corporate negligence. No excuse for it these days but it is still the norm, unfortunately.