Over the last approximately six months that we have been in business as a Social Media Agency, we have notched around 20 client engagements. Very interestingly and without intention, the clients are very diverse, from business vertical, size, geography as well as business focus (B2B vs B2C). In the process, we have had the singular good fortune to work on a variety of assignments, and have that rich experience being built.

But today I wanted to share with you, the diversity of attitudes of these clients.

What is the common factor amongst all of these clients, is that they are all early adopters. For almost none of them, was Social Media “necessary”. In the sense that today, their business would have had little impact whether they were engaging on Social Media or not. The reason then, that they ventured out and decided to get into Social Media, was because they thought bolder, they thought for the future, they are truly visionary as individuals. And we are glad to be associated with many such clients.

But other than being early adopters, in most other respects, the clients are quite different from each other.

There are few who have total trust in us. They are happy to hand over the reins (which means, the complete Social Media presence for their companies) to us, they are happy to let us run it. It does put a HUGE responsibility on us, to handle their brands with a lot of care. And perhaps, in that responsibility, we are obliged to handle these brands most diligently.

Then there are clients, who are large brands, and who know that a single wrong step could cause a lot of brand damage. Working with these brands involves vetting every single word that goes out into the Social Media space. The process is slowed down to an extent. Even after the material goes online, there are occasional corrections or changes. Sometimes we wonder if it is a bit too much. But then we realize that there have been such large investments that have led to these brands reaching the positions that they enjoy. And they can only err on the side of caution, and hence we do not mind the scrutiny!

Then we have this absolutely wonderful brand. A very prestigious brand with extremely high stakes. They have given us an elaborate set of dos and don’ts. From the language to the tone, everything has been specified. But at the end, we have been given a very categorical message. That they are convinced that we know more about Social Media than they do, and that they will like us to challenge them whenever we find them not getting it right, from the Social Media point of view. Extremely gracious and heartening.

A recent example with another client convinced me about how it is really early days in Social Media, still. And this is nothing personal, and I hasten to add this, since she may also read this blog! But I believe that a lot of folks in many organizations are grappling with the very same transition challenges that we experienced with her.

We have been working with this client for a while now. And doing the routine Social Media deliveries like Social Media Monitoring and their Twitter and Facebook accounts, but under their guidance, most of this has been restricted to a minimum level of engagement. When we recently suggested to her that Social Media is about mingling with customers, and where a brand needs to come out looking very human, and in that respect, we need to be a bit more open and more candid, perhaps even sharing the company picnic photos, or those birthday celebrations once in a while, she was hesitant. She was frank enough to let us know that while all of this may be true, she is yet to reach a point, where she can be comfortable about opening up in this manner. Or about mixing the official face with an internal more personal view of the company.

These may just be the transition challenges. Of going from the traditional world, to a ‘new’ world, or going from traditional communication channels to the new media challenges. And this may well be the hump to cross.

Different clients, different attitudes, different concerns..

Businesses are learning – nay, grappling – to cope with the realities of Social Media.

What about your company? Where do you see yourself fit? Or if you are an agency like ours, where do your clients fit? Would love to know your thoughts.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 25th, 2009 at 11:54 am and is filed under General, Sanjay, social media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.