Humans are social creatures. The only way any social program can achieve success is by understanding its ability to connect on a social human level. What does it mean to be human in social media? The issue lies in how people interact with one another.
The implications of this in social media are massive. Social life today already comes to blurring the line between professional and personal. Combined with people's nature to code-switch, or switching languages as they speak in a single conversation, means that there is a criteria of approach to enter the social minds in a human level.
Code-switching in how people speak, not only shows the fact that they like to express various aspects of their personality at different times, but it also reveals that all of these aspects are at all times fundamental parts of their social life.
All of these components of their personality come together to affect their actions, preferences, and decision-making.
Businesses need to embrace this fundamental nature of user behavior; namely, that people act, engage, and respond not solely as professionals, but as ordinary human beings with personality and feelings.
People are not simply potential sales. Businesses should build the connectivity with users on a human level, and not wholly defined by their professional status.
The Art of Authenticity
Understanding the complexities of code-switching users and the need to connect on a human level doesn't mean that businesses now are abandoning their marketing objectives. Entrepreneurs still have businesses to run and revenues to generate.
Approaching customers with social media is to talk, speak and think like how people communicate. And present brands, being social is one of the most effective marketing engagement.
If connection needs to take place at a human level, then brands must also become human.
Connection only occurs when there is a communication between two parties with something in common. If the user is approaching from a professional-and-personal perspective, and businesses only approach from a professional one, the business is already showing its limit on how effective its engagement can be.
Being a 'humanized' brand means to understand the art of authenticity. Being genuine and passionate about the brand the business is selling and the services it offers. Just like in everyday life, people respond most to others who are perceptibly and consistently real. This makes communication an "art", not just a theory.
Every businesses, companies and organizations, from small to medium sized and large corporations, has their own unique personalities. Being human in social media, then, involves identifying all aspects of that personality and embracing them as a whole. From there, the approach in business, from tone and language to aesthetics will be easier to define.
There's always a place for a brand's personality to expand and express itself in its own new ways. Just as various parts of our individual personalities can evolve, brands can similarly introduce concepts and experiences that reveal more of what they're passionate about, without deviating from their key values, objectives or principles.
Although the approach can be difficult, discovering how to be authentic and to be genuine, is an exercise that will help a business thrive.
As people connect with others with real human approach, social media that is now becoming a culture, allows businesses to connect easier and more frequently than ever before, making it the good place to start.