Social Media – It is not about the platforms, it is about enabling digital living.

Photo by ajmunn

What I like about #SMChat is the fact we go beyond network tips and tricks and look at deeper issues. This is important as we are increasingly discovering that it is not all about the networks. It is about being enabled and the data and insights we gain from how people are living digital lives.

Our mobility series looks at cross platform integrations and how we use social tools on the move. The social change series seeks to understand how social tools open up the social change agenda and allow for change to be effected quicker, more efficiently and across the different stakeholders and stakeholder objectives. The customer service series is a wonderful illustration of how social tools can be used with purpose and structure to radically alter how we address customer needs and achieve our business goals.

What all of these have in common is that they may talk about how we use different platforms, but the focus is on objectives, people and digital living. When we say digital living, the living comes first and the digital integrates into our daily lives, versus controlling it. As consumers we don’t wake up and say ‘how can Twitter help me get through my day?’ Rather we have objectives or tasks we need to perform and we seek out the most efficient, practical and accessible ways in which to do so.

This is not to say there is no need or place for a platform specific focus. Within marketing and PR we do need to understand and optimize our marketing and PR vehicles. However this is just one area of use. I suppose we need to look at our digital strategies in three broad areas:

• Digital tools to market/advertise/engage
• Digital tools to facilitate functions or enable satisfaction of needs, for example customer service, sharing, search, transactions, action etc.
• Digital tools to inform the entire organization. Data gathering, analysis, insights etc.

The people participating in this chat are all device connected. It is fair to assume we are all living in environments where digital tools enable us to go about our daily lives in a more efficient way. Digital tools and devices have altered the way we research, make decisions or even carry out daily functions and this is the same for large numbers of people around us.

Similarly digital has changed the way in which we conduct business and commerce. We could discuss at length which came first, or which one leads in these changes, but ultimately they have come about, and continue to evolve, because of behavioral change, adjusted expectations and, some would argue, increased efficiencies.

In this chat I would like to explore the theme of digital living and how we, as business people, marketers, PR professionals and purveyors of digital strategies, can provide value in that context.

Q1: What do we mean by digital living?

Q2: Have digital tools & platforms transformed the way consumers make decisions? If so, how?

Q3: How do businesses need to change in order to adapt to ‘digital living’?

Q4: How might social data analysis be used across a business?

 

Join us Wednesdays at 1pm ET. I am looking forward to your ideas, comments and contributions.

Have something to say before the chat? Leave a note below

Tagged: BigData, digital living, Digital tools, mobility

Posted in: Customer Experience, Marketing, Social media, Strategy