During the NCAA basketball tournament I heard announcer Jim Nantz telling viewers to go to CBSsports.com for “tournament related social media.” A week later I noticed a category at Maria Shriver’s site for “social media.”
Strange thing is I’ve never heard a non-tech person use the phrase “social media.” Normal people mention being friends on Facebook or reading someone’s tweets on Twitter. They don’t say, “I want to get some social media.”
It’s a good reminder of how easy it is to get caught up in industry jargon and how we talk instead of how they (i.e. customers) actually think/talk. The phrase you use internally isn’t necessarily the one you should use with the outside world.
Matt Oakes
on 25 Apr 11What is the term you use when talking with consumers then? Is there a term other than social media which covers Facebook, Twitter and all others?
Anonymous Coward
on 25 Apr 11The part that makes no sense is “media”. People understand talking with their friend is a social activity. But who thinks of talking with their friends as “media”?
Brandon Hansen
on 25 Apr 11People are guilty of that in so many different professions. I often hear other programmers talking to clients about all of the technologies that they are going to use. “And the site is going to be fast because we have a caching proxy sitting in front of 10 nginx servers. And then we will implement Cassandra to…” Clients and customers just don’t care. Will my site do the things that I need it to do? Will it stay up? Good. Make it happen.
Ellen Watson
on 25 Apr 11Yes, this is an endless problem. Back before we had “Social Media”, that homepage tab was called “Chat Room” or “User Forums” or “Message Boards”, all names the Marketers learned from the company providing the software to drive these areas.
IMO, the best name for this section is “Community”.
Steve
on 25 Apr 11When I worked at an architectural firm, we used to have no acronym day once a month or so.
It’s absolutely poison going into a client interview and then dropping industry jargon. There will usually be 1-2 people that you’re meeting with that will understand it, but the others won’t and will feel isolated.
By having that day off once a month from just acronyms, it helps make you aware of some of things you say and take for granted. Most people don’t know exactly what all the acronyms stand for, so you find yourself explaining yourself much like a teacher. That way if you get asked to be part of a client interview, it’s not an entirely new way of talking about a subject you’re so close to.
Scott
on 25 Apr 11Matt, you should recommend a term? Don’t point out a problem without also recommending a solution. What noun should be used instead of “Social Media”?
Suzan Bond
on 25 Apr 11I’d call that tab Get Social. My second choice would be Community as Ellen suggested.
ML
on 25 Apr 11@Matt and @Scott, the question is what term do consumers use? If they say Facebook and Twitter then that’s probably what you should say too. Converting people to your terminology is an uphill battle; If people don’t know what they’re clicking on, they won’t click on it.
Jed
on 25 Apr 11Matt’s original recommendation is right on: just say “Like me on Facebook” or “follow me on Twitter” whenever you can. The language should focus on the behavior you want someone to take. It should use terms (like brand names) that normal people will recognize.
As far as the name of the tab, “Follow me” is probably the most accurate language, given that it simply points to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr.
Ian
on 25 Apr 11Right observation, ironic interpretation.
Do a search on Google News and you’ll see a huge variety of publications, including Fox News, using the term - their readers are all tech people? There are 119 million regular Google hits for the term - all tech? Its Google Trend shows serious upward momentum.
“Social media” is a term that’s entering the mainstream. Being a front-runner in an ongoing process is not the same as getting caught up in industry jargon.
MichaelLloydW
on 25 Apr 11Customers don’t care about the the tech behind the scenes in most products or services. They are buying a package of benefits. Not features.
Describe what it is they are getting in terms they already know and (this is important) already use.
Sharing is understood, somewhat. That term has not yet been fully absorbed to mean just one thing by the general public. It probably won’t pass the Grandma test. But sharing what, with whom. Tell your friends is a benefit. Then tell them how. “Share this with friends on Facebook or Twitter” comes close.
I’d bet someone can polish this apple.
In the article Matt cites big, dumb CBS and Maria Shriver’s website as his examples.
CBS doesn’t have a grasp on this, yet. They have lots of smart people working there. They have many large audiences with many sub-markets to contend with. What an opportunity for them if and when they get it right. What a stumble if and when they get it wrong or worse, get it AFTER the other networks and have to play catch up.
Enough ranting.
In short:
Know your customers. Know how they talk. Know their likes and dislikes. Know their language.
DRoss
on 25 Apr 11We as “web people” usually come up with these terms. We use them for a few years and as we talk/write about them amongst ourselves the general public picks up on them.
Once they get too popular we think of other words and acronyms which only we understand.…the cycle continues.
Jeff Croft
on 25 Apr 11If you heard Jim Nantz use the phrase “social media,” then you’ve heard a non-tech person use the phrase “social media.” :)
David Minton
on 25 Apr 11Maybe we have reached (or passed) the tipping point, and the term “Social Media” has made it to the mainstream consumer?
Ron Sarver
on 25 Apr 11On our website and in our email signatures we use the phrases “join our community” or “become part of our community.”
Jenny Zhang
on 25 Apr 11I am an average consumer. It is fair to say that for young demographics, the term “social media” is already mainstream. When people were asking around their friends “do you have a facebook? do you tweet?” they are thinking in their minds of those questions as social media question. I have also seen more and more non-for-profit associations started to realize the power of social media as tools in raising awareness, especially of general public and regular customers.
Therefore, it is no stranger to public any more. When Scott questioned Matt about which term to replace “social media” for a “non-jargon” format, I think it is absolutely no need for it. Social media, by its own right, means consumer-created content. IT’s simple enough for every average person to understand, so why creating a new term?
It’s just my humble opinion. I am a PhD scientist, 37signal is a great company. I just started following this blog- never too late to learn new tech from the leaders. Thanks for keep it up for all of us!
-Jenny
Peter Wiley
on 25 Apr 11“Sharing Sites” or “Sharing Media” might be better terms.
Joe Sak
on 25 Apr 11+1 to @jeffcroft and @jennyzhang
It’s true that we should avoid industry-jargon in our communication with customers, but “social media” is definitely not tech-jargon.
Having said that, I think the “Contact” page is the best place to put your social media links.
Ryan Jenkins
on 25 Apr 11Socialize
Martin Edic
on 25 Apr 11I have recently seen a tech blog writer (can’t remember who) write about writing for the ‘normals’, in other words regular people. I think it’s an important distinction as so many techies assume knowledge on other people’s parts. For example, Storify launched it’s public beta today with no clear instructions on how to use the service. Simply crazy.
Joe
on 25 Apr 11With all due respect Matt; “Twitter”, “Facebook”, or “Twitter and Facebook” fail for that link. You’d click on “Twitter and Facebook” to get to the choices of “Facebok | Twitter | YouTube | Flickr”?
The question people are trying to ask you, Matt, is: besides referring to them by name, what do consumers call these tools? What’s the word(s) you would put there to describe these tools as a collection?
Dakota
on 25 Apr 11My family and I have had some small debates/discussions about what phrase or terminology is best to use for various parts of my website. Social media has become another household term in today’s market. Knowing ‘who’ your audience is, makes a difference. One of my grandmothers wouldn’t know how twitter and facebook works, my other does both. Does that make one ‘normal’ and the other not? I’d have to say I agree with your commentor, MichaelLloydW on this one.
ML
on 25 Apr 11what do consumers call these tools?
@Joe, I think it’s worth asking if consumers generally group these tools at all. If not, you can’t force them into thinking of them as a unit. If I sell teapots and hammers, I can’t be surprised when people fail to click under some umbrella tag (housewares?) when they don’t know they’ll find teapots and hammers there. It’s not that I need to find a better term. It’s that customers don’t think/talk that way.
That said, if it was up to me, I’d consider breaking out these social media items into the header or footer in a non-intrusive way (assuming they are crucial for keeping people in touch). If I had to group them, maybe “follow me” or “stay in touch” or one of the other choices mentioned by other commenters could work. Or, if you have the resources, you could A/B test various ideas or actually talk to customers to see what they have to say.
Hugh Briss
on 25 Apr 11The correct termonology is “social networking” not “social media” and I’m sure anyone who uses Facebook and Twitter would know what social networking meant.
Dan Jaffe
on 25 Apr 11Matt, Totally agree. Here in SF somebody must have passed out a memo that if one doesn’t t use the term “social media” in at least every other sentence, somebody will figure out he/she doesn’t have a clue what they are actually talking about.
Maria Shriver’s “Social Media” tab is just a header for a concealed drop-down menu. I agree that the best label would be something along the lines of “community.”
Stan
on 26 Apr 11One simple, all encompassing term…. wait for it….
COMMUNICATE
KISS!!
David Andersen
on 26 Apr 11Let’s talk about something more important, like a campaign to eliminate the usage of ‘My’ in front of everything on the web that’s supposed to be personal. That’s so 1998.
Now excuse me while I go downstairs in My House to open My Refrigerator and see what’s there to snack on.
Branden Harvey
on 26 Apr 11If I were to have a section on my site, I’d call it simply “Social.” Media doesn’t make sense unless it’s talking about social media as a whole, but when it relates to me and my brand it’s just me being social.
barry
on 26 Apr 11I only ever hear non-technical people speak of “social media”, same goes for “web two point oh” and “SEO”...
Arcanys
on 26 Apr 11Agree. “Social” might be forgivable but not “media” term. With all of those words being followed everyday on twitter and facebook no wonder people started to use this.
elias shams
on 26 Apr 11It’s no brainer to see that social media is here to stay for good. Given vast variety of the existing channels to choose and stick with, it’s time for such a hot space to enter into a new category. There is a need for a portal to provide a quick and intelligent decision for both the consumer and the enterprise about their online connections.
A Platform to Help us to Distinguish Our Quality vs. Quantity Friends, Fans, Followers, and Companies
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube, Flickr and others have been doing a decent job of providing additional marketing exposure and even in some cases, additional revenue. However, as more and more social networking sites pop up, how do you manage your brand across all these channels? Maybe more importantly, which one of these sites should you select as the one that will help you best reach your target audience? The proliferation of the social media avenues is becoming overwhelming.
This glut of information reminds me of the early 90’s when WWW was adopted broadly by the general public. Every company rushed to have a presence, to the point it became literally impossible to find the right information on the Web. That’s when a better generation of search engines – at first the Yahoo! and then Google – entered the market and helped us find the most relevant information by just typing simple keywords in their search box. If you had asked before Google launched, if there was a need for another search engine – most would have said no, we already have those….
Then came Web 1.0 & 2.0 – Youtube, Flickr, myspace, Facebook, Twitter and countless others have turned everyday people into content producers, influencers and experts. We basically tripled down on the information overload How do you know which channels to select for deploying your social media strategy? How do you know which one is the right channel to let your fans and followers to find you, your products, and services? Most importantly, who is Joe Smith that is recommending that person, that company, that product?
I hope my awesomize.me can accomplish such a mission. The site is not another social networking platform. Yet the portal to all your existing social media channels. The platform helps you, your fans, your potential clients to make an intelligent decision as to which company to connect to or follow via which social media channels and why? It’s free!
Elias CEO & Founder http://awesomize.me
Jon Huther
on 26 Apr 11I think the simple term “Connect” easily describes all those activities no matter what media or medium you use to do it.
Jim Scott
on 26 Apr 11Happens all the time. As designers/developers, we discuss concepts and/or system features in terms of OUR names.
Sure enough, these names and acronyms show up on user screens. Users don’t use these terms, but developers do.
Screens and applications must be created in terms of the user, not the designer/developer.
This discussion is closed.