Unregulated Social Media vs. Regulated Mindset

The blogosphere has been glutted with opinions on company social media policies ever since the NLRB challenged some of them to be an unfair denial of the employee right to organize. We may debate the political aspects of non-elected government officials taking sides on such issues, but for most part this is a moot point since it is a non-issue for most companies. There are many companies that are their own worst enemy and need no outside antagonists to create drama. Some large companies have embraced social media and have kept up with not only the legal aspects but also the trending ability to foster a new era of communication. At the opposite end of the spectrum are those that have chosen to ignore social media altogether because senior management is totally clueless and not motivated to learn. In the middle between those two extremes are those that are not convinced of the return on investment into social media compared to the risk. They live dangerously close to giving social media lip service while not fully grasping its power and there is no shortage of excuses for the lack of commitment.

Many industries are highly regulated and have been conditioned by government agencies and the courts to toe the line with regard to dictated requirements. One such industry is Pharmaceuticals because of the tight FDA restrictions placed on everything from approval of a drug, manufacturing standards and marketing. There is always a fear that someone representing a company will misrepresent a product or procedure. A violation of the rules can take a profitable drug off the market. Multiple violations can tarnish a brand and even force closure of a company. Realistically, the risk of exposure through social media is no greater than the telephone or email, but it is used as an excuse by the paranoid-regulated mindset to shun the whole idea. It is probably more a matter of trust than it is about compliance.

Generally speaking, social media advocates in such companies can often force the powers-that-be to feign interest even though they remain very cautious about adopting a full dialog with their customers and others in the general public. This half-commitment is evidenced by the fact that in most cases there is no dialog established. There is only outgoing communication which is the direct opposite of being “social.”

 

 

Similar numbers can be seen in these company’s Facebook Pages and LinkedIn accounts. The Facebook “Talking about this” numbers show even lower engagement ratios than Twitter, and their use of LinkedIn appears to be mostly outlets for job postings and marketing communications. Giving them due credit, there are multiple sites for most of these companies which is the beginning of actually using social media by channel, but they have a long way to go. Merck Pharmaceuticals corporate Twitter site has a 4.308% engagement ratio on Twitter, but the Merck Jobs Twitter site is 0.000%… the last posting was 10 months ago. Novartis Oncology business unit was posting jobs on Twitter with 0.008% engagement and the last posting was 8 months ago.

Other companies seem to recognize the power of dialog in their social media connections. Sodexo is still the gold standard for careers on Twitter with a 66.373% engagement ratio. Ford Careers on Twitter engages at 42.328% and Ford overall is one of the most mentioned brands on social media. One argument against allowing the dialog with the public is that the company loses control of the message. Don’t look now, but you need to hear the message before you can control it and outside forces can post whatever they want about your brand as long as it is not slander or libel.

 

 

If the external comments are brought into the company sponsored accounts, the negative will not be erased but can be countered in real time by a company spokesperson. Remember the Pfizer engagement ratio of just over 6%? The Twitter account for Shame on Pfizer has an engagement ratio of 115.169%… following more users than are following them. I hope some of those followers are people from Pfizer.

This is a very simple sampling of data as of the date of posting this article and is not intended to point fingers at any bad guys. The telephone was new technology at one time, but most company restrictions for its use have been softened. There will be a day in the near future when the social media mindset will come of age and the communications will be honest, instant and two-way.

 

Image credit: Monitor with Megaphone yanc / 123RF Stock Photo