Social media and sociological impact on communities

Social media has clearly shown how the communities are being impacted and a shift thats visible. Traditionally, we saw communities built on the basis of region,language, religion and caste to name a few. Later, developmental factors/technologies such as education, transportation facilities, telephone helped build new communities and maintain them better. For instance, either of these factors would be important for me to keep in touch with my school/college mates often. And as we all experience, these chums are close to us and influence our decision making at various aspects of life.This was an important shift because, these communities were built completely based on one's will and choice and were not sort of "imposed". Many times, our relatives are nothing but extra and unwanted baggage that rarely come to any productive use. So, my friends, for example were my  source of strength and inspiration and what empowered me most that I made a choice to build my own community. Then came the web and it has fast paced and overpowered all other developments in community building. So the reason of building a community was to get the "best of the lot". For example, I may not know someone for a long time but when it comes to taking decisions on traveling, I would trust his opinion since he is a frequent traveler. This, according to me is a radical shift in terms community building compared to earlier times. Because, you are valuing a person based on his knowledge and giving a lower priority to acquaintance. There may not have been much of sharing of information and getting-to-know between you and him ( which is how, traditionally, communities were built). I would still trust my friend's opinion more ( which is to say that the importance of the traditional concept of community has not diminished), however there is a chance that he may not know much about the place that I want to travel. Therefore, I resort to the Mr. knowledgeable. I am not suggesting a specific person in this, in fact, it could be a community on Facebook or My Space which could be live and offering discussions, interactions on the topic of my choice. Another aspect of community building compared to earlier times is that no one wants to maintain a community for long and kind of be "attached". This again goes contrary to the earlier ways, when there was a lot of thought about "long term relationship building" and "we would be there for each other"  for ever. Its more of build-use-exit. You may or may not exit but there is no strong intention not to exit. So communities would be transient, temporary and only "for now". Another reason that choices are becoming more specific and specialized that no one community can suffice one's needs. For example, a person may offer great advice on travel to the UK and the do's and dont's. But how far would he know about, for example, Coventry Cathedral in West Midlands and its history and his own experience would be questionable. So I would then ask someone/community who knows about this piece of information better.

So to summarise, the take aways are that a. there is a dramatic shift in communities building b. communities are not built to last c. information is going to be very important to build a community and sustain it.

Considering all these factors, social media has a big role to play and there is no doubt that it is till evolving.

Five questions you need to ask before you THINK about social media

Its really become a cliche' to speak about social media by all and sundry especially by those with some basic knowledge of Facebook and Twitter can one profess to be an "expert". And to make matters worse, social media is free-so to say. Therefore, attaching a value to social media for marketing can be difficult; I have experienced that people find it difficult to comprehend the reason why one has to pay when its all "free". For many, ( including those offering social media services) the conversations start and end with opening profiles on Facebook and Twitter and getting people to "follow". Understandably, this is the most visible output that one sees so getting someone to cut through this impression initially can be difficult. However, whatever perceptions people have about social media and its application, its important to reason whether there really is a need and what should one ask oneself before adopting this new age media.

 Here are some five questions that one needs to ask oneself before thinking of using social media for marketing.

1. Do you really need social media and if yes, what are your goals?
2. Have you done an online marketing audit to understand your company/brand's online presence? What mentions do you see of your company/brand? What message is being communicated, if any?
3. Who is going to manage social media once its set up? Its a no brainer to open up profiles but you need to manage it and clearly you shouldn't employ an intern for this job.
4. Do you have a social media plan in place or you are doing it just because everybody does and its "free"? Are you aware of the results that can accomplished?
5. Do you have a social media policy in place? Are your employees, customers and other stake holders aware about your social media plans and whether you intend to educate them about it?

I think before jumping on to the social media bandwagon and doing it like you could be losing out on something really important, it would be helpful if you ask these questions before you think about social media. Once this is done, I think one could have a better perspective and then, social media could be an important ingredient in one's overall marketing plan.