How can we best support our social media community and our peers knowing full well we’re often competing for the same clients and client money?

Tags: #SMCQ1, #Coopetition

See the Social Media Club Question of the Week blog entry.

From a Fearful Perspective

There are people and companies who still believe certain information should be concealed. This is certainly true for trade secrets, things that yield a competitive edge.

However, given American’s low level of trust with corporate executives, a prevailing trend is for greater transparency. Along with that, people desire authenticity from brands and the people behind them.

For many years I have been a supporter of professional associations in my field of public relations and business communication. You could guess that those associations are PRSA and IABC. I have dedicated untold hours to the local, regional and national advancement of those organizations, serving on all three levels.

A common theme during local board meetings was how to get the support of the community for programs when, in fact, many in the organization were competitors and fearful of giving away the shop, so to speak.

The discussions that ensued inevitably addressed ways to structure programs so as not to divulge specific business practices but to still provide value to those attending.

It’s a fine line: disclosing business secrets versus discussing best practices.

Be Professional

In my experience, professionals are good about sharing what they can and careful to withhold competitive edge information.

Be Open

Coming from the world of PR and marketing, social media seems to demand a more open approach. The very nature of social media is collaborative and just as much about listening as informing.

This is another reason why I enjoy social media consulting. You teach others how to listen to conversations, then join the conversations and be a contributory member, not just a fly on the wall.

Share Best Practices

Sharing best practices only helps further the profession. Knowing which social media tools to use in certain circumstances should be relatively easy to figure out. Plus, if you’re curious to know what the competition is doing, it’s not difficult to find out.

For example, if you were enamored by the way Blendtec used YouTube to secure a 700% increase in blender sales, you may also want to use YouTube for your videos. But chances are if you took a blender and started chopping stuff up with it, people would recognize your videos as a Blendtec knock-off. And your videos probably wouldn’t have the same sales effect.

So even though you’re aware of what the competition has done or is doing, you really can’t copy the specific tactic. You can replicate the strategy though. You can learn from their example and use a social media tool to share something unique about your product.

Do As I’m Doing

Here’s another argument for sharing best practices.

Buyers of social media should look to what you’ve accomplished, either for yourself or for your clients. If they like what they see, they’re likely to hire you.

So, in a way, actions speak louder than words, and in a much more open way than traditional marketing communications.

Our democratic society appreciates competition. If you’re worried about someone else taking your gig, try focusing on being the best at what you do so your work speaks for itself.

Contribute

To truly serve as the voice for social media, the Social Media Club has to be good for the professional — and by that I mean the person engaged and making a living through social media — and good for the profession.

The only way to advance the profession is through collaborative efforts by social media professionals.

Just like America succeeds when individual political parties work together for the common good, so will the Social Media Club effectively serve as the voice and standard for social media when its members contribute to the organization’s mission and goals.

Tags: #SMCQ1, #Coopetition