I’ve seen presenters, tweeters and bloggers talk about the keys to social media. The list includes transparency, credibility, authenticity, etc. This is all true. Sort of.
If you are a content creator, all of these things are important. Take me for example , I’m being transparent, I’ve implemented a blog in a Fortune 100 company (credibility, I hope) and I write what I think (authenticity). Check, check and check. But, there’s one important idea that hasn’t been discussed.
If you’re looking for people to consume content, I’ve found the most important idea is value.
I came to this opinion after watching session after session at the SXSWi conference. Speakers talked about their programs, thoughts and ideas. And, it all came down to value. Value was driving success. The most interesting sessions were those with professionals who had implemented social media programs. There was tremendous value in listening to the experiences and lessons learned.
Recently, I’ve been in the process of training a global organization on a wiki platform. The immediate feedback I receive is, “this is an awesome tool, but it will be interesting to see if people come back and use it.”
They do and they are. Why? Simple. Value.
As people see what others have placed on the wiki, they are amazed at how easy it is to access information that once had been hidden away on hard drives, networked shared drives and folders tucked away in filling cabinets.
Users are placing value on this information and that’s why they come back. Not because of credibility or authenticity-but because of value.
I will continue to explore “value” as it relates to social media. I’ll provide my examples and anecdotes. I’ll also look for yours too.
3 responses so far ↓
Liem // March 21, 2009 at 9:35 pm
I agree completely Matt. Seemed 3-4 years ago transparency was the watchword. Don’t fake it, be straight up. People will then be more inclined to accept the content.
Now, does it matter if the content’s any good without the perception of value? If nobody feels it’s worth going to a site, nobody will read the content. Value is the meaning behind the meaning.
mattceni // March 22, 2009 at 1:09 am
I think value is different for everyone. Content is king. If it’s not easy to consume content, the perception is that value does not exist, even if there is plenty.
I also think social media lends itself for group think in a way. Meaning for community to be built, people have to think lots of people belong to that community, i.e., twitter, sxsw, a group wiki.
MW // May 4, 2009 at 3:50 am
Love all these posts!!! So educational!