Is Social Media based on Community Engagement principles? 

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A lot of businesses and organisations place social media and community engagement in their Marketing or PR department (or if they are on top of their game they have a specialist social media team or community engagement department) Now if you look at the basic principles of Marketing and PR, you soon realise that the concepts of social media and community engagement are a pain in the ass for both professions.

As Marketers we ultimately want to sell you a product, experience, event etc.  As a PR professional we want to manage the message and ensure you hear what you want to hear.

It is hard for us to come round to the fact that people want to start their own conversation, thoughts and views about our product, experience, event, company etc; it’s our role as marketers and PR professionals to control that message.  Although ultimately this is great, when we get bad reviews or feedback we can no longer just push them under the carpet.

As a Government or local Council it must be the same experience.  Traditionally you were voted in by the people, you have the knowledge, the big picture; therefore you can make decisions without talking to those same people who put you there.  The only ‘problem’ is that they now want a say in the day to day decisions.

Now I believe social media is a positive concept for Marketers and PR professionals, it now actually means we have to have a good product, experience, event etc and be transparent in our message, if not then by lunchtime there will be 20,000 ‘likes’ on a page all about how bad your products are, 8,000 negative blog posts, 2,000 I hate you YouTube clips, 16,000 Tweets all informing us of where we went wrong.

Community engagement is a positive concept for Government and local Councils, it allows for an open and transparent process in decision making.  If you don’t engage the community, then you will have people tying themselves to trees, picket lines outside your offices, 20,000 likes on a page set up to complain about your new development, 8,000 blogs informing you where you went wrong.

Both social media and community engagement tell us that by engaging with our communities and involving them in the decision/communication process then we can create meaningful relationships and the right outcomes.

When the two come together, they are a very powerful tool.

Written by BHC Associate and guest blogger, Daniel Procter