We’ve been working on a public relations project for about 7 months, and it uses social media a lot. It also has confused some people because it is not the typical road map of how they’ve achieved success in the past. So, it made me consider why social media can be confusing to some, and I think it’s the terminology.

Look at social media in the business place as online networking. No one has to think twice about the benefits of networking–you’ve got to see and be seen and build relationships. It’s a business term we’re comfortable with. Social media sounds more like talking too much at the water cooler and wasting time. That soft term social gets people hung up.

Business networking (social media) means you engage with various communities to develop a brand or professionally represent your company. It’s not a waste of time when focused with a clear goal in mind. So many business terms are war terms, and social just sounds weak…but it’s not. It’s powerful. Maybe that’s what we do–instead of online networking, we give military terms to social media:

search: reconnaissance (recon)
blog: daily intelligence summary
customer service tweeting: decentralized execution
spam alert: burn notice
market research: basic intelligence

You get the idea. Remove the word “social” and substitute familiar business terms and things start to fall into place when explaining how using social media gets business results. It builds more of a bridge between traditional and non-traditional tactics.

- Sonya (sbeckley@labov.com)