From the beginning, Groundswell has put an emphasis on not only talking with customers, but listening to them as well. Keeping this in mind, chapters 9 and 10 provide ways as well as case studies of companies that are doing both--they are having a conversation. "[B]y embracing the groundswell, you can move more quickly" (Li, 183). While there are still some members of society that are unfamiliar with social media, the majority of the world are active members on social media sites. Most people have a Facebook account, a Twitter account, a MySpace account or all three! Being familiar these sites, and being participants on the internet, when companies do something that we love or hate, most of us do not hesitate to start leaving comments, tweets, messages etc. demanding change. The case study of Dell provided a prime example of transparency as well as conversation. When their laptops and computers kept breaking down or even catching on fire combined with less than par customer service Dell customers stormed the internet with furious comments. In order to save their image Dell created their own blog.They laid everything out as well as listened to customers. "For Dell, listening and then acting was the crucial first step for its new social strategy" (207). So, what does all this have to do with Facebook?
Facebook is the number one social site. Almost everyone has a Facebook account. However, while we have no problem voicing our opinions and demanding change from other sites, we are rather passive when it comes to Facebook.
 |
| Old Facebook Layout |
 |
| New Facebook Layout |
It seems that for being the biggest social media site--the voice of the people--it actually is the least transparent. Usually once every few months Facebook changes their site layout without consulting their 200 million users. Once the site layout changes, the users are in an uproar, everyone's status and wall comment is in regards to how much they hate the change, hate the new layout. However, Facebook never changes the site back, and they continue to change the layout randomly every few months. They are not listening to their customers. This being said, they don't have to. We don't leave, there is not a mass exodus. Facebook doesn't need us, we need it. They know they can do what they want because Facebook has become such an integral part of our lives that we'd rather be inconvenienced time and time again than really truly demand change. Furthermore, Facebook's privacy settings are always on the news.
Since Facebook started in 2004, it has been plagued with privacy issues. They are constantly getting in trouble for violating the rights and privacy of their users whether by selling their information, creating less than adequate privacy settings or by merely stating that any content posted belongs to them, Facebook is not exactly "user friendly." All things considered, is it me or is it strange that while we demand transparency and conversation for most corporations, we are willing to let Facebook run the show? I don't know about you, but that doesn't sit right with me.
You make a great point about Facebook, ironically, not fitting in the Groundswell. You say Facebook doesn't need it's customers, though, and I beg to differ. With the ways social media are changing, I suspect that if Facebook takes its fans for granted, it may eventually loose its power (much like how Myspace did when Facebook came on the scene). Still, I don't doubt that the people running Facebook are smart enough to see that. Maybe they're "listening" to us in other ways.
ReplyDeleteI agree how it is really crazy how much attention Facebook receives once they tweak a setting on their site (even if it is the smallest change)! And they never change it back because people never really end up leaving, so yes, "Facebook doesn't need us, we need it."
ReplyDelete