My colleague Jeremiah recently posted about why some don't need to join the conversation. He makes two key points:
- Brands can and should use a combination of social computing tools can help brands engage individuals - e.g. voting, tagging, and sharing - which are not "conversational."
- All people do not want to participate with you in the same way.
About a week ago, I blogged about how it's what's on the inside [of an organization] that counts. That means people, i.e. individuals on your payroll must be ready to participate in social media.
Your brand can't blog. Unless you're going for comedy, you shouldn't have a corporate mascot like Aunt Jemima, Jack In The Box, or the Brawny Man blogging.
If you or someone in your company is thinking of blog authorship behind the curtain of a corporate logo, stop and make sure that your organization is actually ready to get social with the outside world. Because a company can't participate in a conversation, only individuals representing a company can.
This thinking comes naturally to individuals in firms who understand this internally. Fortunately, it can be taught. (But some will never learn - all people do not want to participate in the same way.)
