Ignore social networking at your peril

Very recently I had the opportunity to make a presentation to the local business group. As with any presentation about eBusiness, the discussion soon turned to social networking and in particular, Twitter.

No sooner I had mentioned the ‘T’ word, that the audience were all a-twitter themselves. It seemed as if I’d suddenly dropped a magic word.

When the noise had finally subsided, I asked how many were actually Twittering. Of the 130-odd people I counted three hands.

But this reaction from the audience made me feel as if I had three heads!

It appears that among this group at least, Twitter was something so new and weird that it seemed completely out of place at a business lunch.

But here’s the thing they’re not yet realising.

We’re all in this together!
Like it or not, every single business in the world, in all but the remotest community is part of the Twitter (and MySpace, Facebook, et al) phenomenon.

Because, anything remotely gossip-worthy about our products, services and service itself will soon end up somewhere on a social networking site or service.

Take my local Italian restaurant for example.

Around this time last year I was trying to find their details to make a booking and so Googled their name accordingly.

Right there, amongst the top listings on the very first page of Google was an excerpt from one of the most scathing restaurant reviews you could hope to see.

You didn’t need to click or scroll to see this outburst. It was up in the top few listings and stood out like the proverbial.

Clicking on the list revealed an even worse scenario. At least two other reviews paid out on this unsuspecting small business.

Unhappy customers gang up with great effect
It appears as if the reviewer had also got his/her mates to join them in writing their own scathing review and thus made the impact far more prominent than perhaps warranted.

Which in one fell swoop illustrates both the power and the danger of the web 2.0 phenomenon.

Unlike the old days where word-of-mouth was limited by the relatively slow technology of phone and ‘in person’ word-of-mouth, these days sloppy service will be online before you can say “My bill please waiter”.

Devices realise really rapid reviews
Now, with web-enabled devices like iPhone and its ilk, you don’t even have to wait to get home to spread the word.

Luckily 12 months later said restaurant has been able to convince enough patrons (by fair means or foul) to write good reviews about its capabilities, drowning out the complainants and pushing them out of the picture – for now.

In the meantime, who knows how many prospective customers saw the review and decided to dine elsewhere as a result.

Phenomena like Twitter provide yet another fast and powerful channel via which to either vent your spleen or tweet your delight at the service of the business in question.

And unlike the plentiful restaurant review sites, these reviews are about anything you care to mention.

Anyone taking even a cursory glance at Twitter will find a healthy percentage of ‘tweets’ commenting on the capabilities – good, bad or ugly, of all kinds of suppliers.

Unprecedented people power
Of course, what all this conversation generated by web 2.0 has done is shift the power of publicity away from the media with all of its cost and logistic barriers right back, literally into the hands of consumers.

Their comments can be as loud and widespread as a published critic who may have taken years to achieve their desired notoriety in the old world.

Which is why Governments so used to controlling what their constituents could say are panicking. The horse has well and truly bolted.

So the message for business is clear. Like it or not, if you let a customer down you run the risk of earning what can be a very lengthy and damaging word-of-mouse campaign.

Therefore simply by existing, your business is part of the social networking world without even lifting a finger.

Don’t say you weren’t warned!

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Craig Reardon is a leading eBusiness educator and founder and director of independent web services firm The E Team which provide the gamut of ‘pre-built’ website solutions, technologies and services to SMEs in Melbourne and beyond.  www.theeteam.com.au