Nick Hannah, MD of Marlborough Trust in Guernsey, writes his first blog post about how and why one of the Channel Island’s most forward thinking Fiduciary Companies have embraced social media. Appears he has coined his very own acronym for the guru’s out there!
Did you ever struggle to come up with an original idea in Drama class and end up improvising a scene about a group of Drama students trying, and struggling, to come up with an original idea? I know I did. My group was then told that EVERY Drama class anywhere in the world will, at some point, do exactly the same.
Well, this is one of my first blogs and I’m left wondering if I’m doing it because, to extrapolate the thought above, at some point everyone with access to a computer will construct a blog post? Maybe only the one, but they will do it – or they will comment on another’s blog post thus effectively creating their own. But the point is this – did this stream of consciousness of mine become an inevitable consequence of the corporate “space” that they say “Social Media” now inhabits?
The answer is “yes” by the way – but who are “they” anyway? Well, I guess it’s the self styled, self appointed Social Media Gurus out there (let’s call them SMeGs for short – and I’m not talking funky retro refrigeration here).
And they’re not wrong at all actually, it’s just I’d like to think I’m doing this in a more co-ordinated and structured fashion than random crowd following or bandwagon jumping – and actually, I think I am.
You see I have my own SMeG. A proper one.
One that works for and with me. One that understands my brand and works sympathetically with my traditional marketing channels. And like refrigeration, you must choose your SMeG wisely (I like mine frost-free by the way, which is generally fine but Monday mornings can be a bit testy). Some SMeGs spend all day Tweeting and generally broadcasting about how good they are, about how much they know – how they are a “thought leader” in their chosen field. That’s great. Honestly, it is. I’m really, really pleased for them. It’s just, well, can they now start doing some real work like my SMeG and add some value to corporate communication? You never know, they might even make a living out of it…
Structured co-ordinated Social Media strategy will become as common place in the corporate armoury as the “dad dancing” drunk is at the office Christmas party (not that they’re in the armoury you understand – or if they are they would need to be deployed very carefully).
I could bore you with stats but suggest you do your own research. It’s coming, and if you’re reading this you probably know that. If you don’t, or disagree with me then all I can say is “ignore it at your peril”.
But then I would say that, wouldn’t I?