Accessibility

[Nor Cal Social Media]

Yesterday I wrote a bit about having some pet peeves for effective social media- transparency, accessibility, and currency. Starting with transparency, I pointed out that it’s increasingly important to relate to people for who you really are and what you are really doing. As a Ning network creator, you need to be careful when you brand as a business because people will often choose to see through that. There’s a fine balance too. If your intentions are to profit either directly or indirectly, then it’s also important to be honest and straightforward about it because far too many people out there are taking advantage of people on the pretense of networking for genuine relationships. It’s something I’ve been refining into my own network for a long time. I have transparency in terms of presenting my consulting business right on my landing page, and within the site I have prominently placed information about who I really am, what I’m really doing, and what I really want. In some respects I have worked to represent myself professionally, demonstrate the business and social network with more formal branding, and I even make available my business plan as an e-book type attachment. In other ways I’ve personalized what I present about myself, offer some honest self-disclosure, and conceded some of the professional quality tone for my own personality, preferences, and taste. This constituent mix can work against me in some respects. Sometimes people want more or less of what you are putting forward. Subjectively you can come across as too business-like or not professional enough. People might not care for all the personal details or they might feel they don’t know enough about you to trust moving forward.

This brings me to my next core principle in accessibility. One of the things I noticed during my many years of researching and developing ways to help get businesses online better is a conspicuous lack of accessibility. Often in directly correlates to what I was saying about transparency- business people often hide behind the anonymity of a brand. So you see some company, but who is it really that is behind it? When I go to a site these days and don’t see who the people are that drive it, my first impression is often that they might actually be a scam. More recently, in the emerging social media environment, I see more businesses putting forward the owner or key staff and this goes a long way in establishing the basis for trust and relationship building.

At the same time, I still see a lot of walls put up that make it hard to reach out to these people. For example, contact forms. It’s not surprising when so many businesses are over-solicited, that they view any contact other than a sales transaction to be a waste of time. Some business owners just think it looks more professional, or it’s a feature their web designer thinks make them look more professional. Some of the defining characteristics of forms are that your correspondence is often predefined to a specified purpose, limited in length, presentation, and attachments, but most notably you usually cannot see “who” you are e-mailing. On the other hand, you get a far better impression of accessibility when someone puts up their branded e-mail with their name and invites you to contact them.

It’s interesting for me to relate this to Ning creators, because as we know you sign up with an e-mail, but your interactions can be reserved to those who have access to the interface. So access to people is often a matter of access to the site. In general, and this has more to do with sites other than Ning networks, when I encounter a sign up form as a condition to access I usually decline and click away. Once again, I think there’s actually a lot of concern that anything you are being asked to sign up for and that you do not know could be a scam trying to steal your personal info. The thought that crosses my mind more than that is I usually do not want to be a part of all that’s being offered in whatever membership. Usually, I just want to contact someone and talk to them about it first, perhaps ask some questions, and then make a decision to join or not.

Sharing your e-mail can be a really scary thing. I choose to do it and for that I do have to have reliable security, strong spam filtering, and smart discretion. I saw a Ning network recently where the creator offered a serious tip for people to specifically not share their e-mail because it was a public site with tens of thousands of members. Quite a valid point. I realize to an extent what I do, and in turn what I recommend, may be contrary to the common logic people have about social media and online presence. Privacy control is a primary concern for applications like Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, etc,- it can be rather hard to find and contact someone you don’t already know. A lot of times, the people you can access that are “open networkers” are often out there hunting leads- not interested in really networking, getting to know you, and establishing a mutual relationship- just wanting to close a sale or hook you into their sign up.

So while privacy is just as much a value promoted to Ning network creators, there’s a distinguishing characteristic you have to offer in accessibility that these other social networking platforms do not necessarily offer. You can have a public site where everyone involved can easily be seen, discovered, and accessed. This can be reserved to members, but from a business perspective I actually suggest making e-mails available. Just keep in mind that at the end of the day, what a business needs is to have people contact them. You can do a lot to control with social interfaces, but those can also just as much be obstacles people very well might not feel like overcoming or exposing themselves to. Sometimes I look at the social interface as more of a container for e-mail interaction. Besides posting and viewing content, when I network with people it’s usually happening through my e-mail. sometimes the only difference is the extra steps in clicking through notifications.

Accessibility is also something that can be mitigated by policies and controls. For example, on my network, I’ll be encouraging members to post their website and sign off whatever they do with their e-mail address. That’s not something you see accepted on a lot of social platforms…Ning Creators for instance. I’ve mentioned before I think it’s a disservice to creators here not to have their profile answer to “What is your Ning network?” shown. It’s locked by default for the sake of privacy, yet I bet most creators don’t even realize this. The vocal majority too with the popularity of white label are quite happy with privacy, but I think there’s actually more of a silent majority who would actually like to get their networks more exposure- especially here. As a community guideline, and as a matter of keeping the overt unwanted solicitation from ruining the spirit of the community, we might find ourselves challenged to be as accessible as we want to be.

Finally, one of the most important aspects of accessibility in my opinion is responsiveness. When someone reaches out to contact you, you would be wise to return the courtesy in a timely fashion. I generally try to apply “same day personal service” meaning people who contact me are not left out in the cold, left hanging, and get engaged on what they contacted me for. Of course, I do have some conditional discretion on this. I don’t respond to blind advertisement or people who show no intelligent reason for contacting me. I actually have a very healthy workload of e-mails throughout my day. Between contacting companies I find accessible, or dealing with people that enjoy access to me, I do quite a lot of networking nobody can actually see. My web assets are mainly set up for this process, and it’s one of the reasons I don’t promote my Ning so much as a social network. I think networking directly is preferable, and it opens up new opportunities for what you can do on a social website…perhaps making it into more of a social media environment where it’s more about having control of your online presence and content.

Feel free to comment although not expected here. If you want, it should be easy to learn more about me, my site, and to contact me. You will find I’m exceptionally accessible!

Best, Anthony

FOLLOW UP: Interested in learning more about my thinking on accessibility in social media, how I'm applying it to my network, and perhaps how it can relate to what you are doing with your Ning site? I just posted a discussion to expand upon this article on my Ning Creators group A Social Media Dojo- http://creators.ning.com/group/a-social-media-dojo/forum/topics/acc....

[HELP SEEKER]

huh?

[Nor Cal Social Media]

Accessibility- as in making yourself available for contact, approachable, responsive, giving people direct access to you as a real person instead presenting yourself as some sort of anonymous brand and making them jump through hoops like filling out forms or signing up to your network just to contact you- accessibility.

It's a principle of effective social media I recommend to businesses to help them get online better, that I recommend to Ning creators, and that I use by example on my own network.

Does that make what I was saying more clear for you HELP SEEKER?

[Rowald]

Your post was very clear without any extra explanation but I am amazed by your patience and trying to be even more clear. 

[HELP SEEKER]

great, can you give me the contact of marc zukerberg as i'm so annoyed with being added to FB groups all the time, also I cant reach out to google support for a month now, do you know if Brin's on holiday ?

[Nor Cal Social Media]

Well put HELP SEEKER, lol! Check this out...

Now when I saw this I seriously thought about e-mailing Dan. I didn't have a real good reason for contacting him, so I decided not to clutter his inbox. Wouldn't be surprised if it was a dummy acount that went to sales, but if he's really that savvy I thought it an extremely intelligent risk. Why would the CEO of such a large company make himself that accessible?

Well to me it has a lot to do with a rebranding of the company. In fact, this was several years ago, and I think I came across an actual corporate driven social community they were rolling out to support their products and clients. You see the person. He seems friendly and approachable. He's telling you that he's got a common sense idea and wants to know what you think. None of these were traditionally things you would associate with a large telecommunications company. In fact, most are notoriously innaccessible. So this rebranding with the new CEO, the corresponding media, and the attention to accessibility were all pretty innovative in my professional opinion. The only thing I question about it is recognizing this is what people really want, how well would they deliver? Often corporations have the power to market effectively, but delivering the personal service and following through is a real challenge.

Regardless, what we have as Ning network creators is a comparable advantage. everyone wants to talk to Mark, so it just reaches a point it's untenable for certain people. That's when you have intermediaries to sort through contact requests and are extremely selective in who you respond to. However, if you don't have millions of people knocking at your door, then it's a lot easier to give them the personal attention they want. I can essentially do the same thing Dan is doing in that commercial and actually deliver with no problem. I have a social network my community can find comparable to Facebook but better- it's niched specifically to our area and they have direct access to me. They don't have to worry about vesting in social applications driven by a corporate giant like Google who may be very innaccessible at times, because they've got my personal support "on-demand", and I'll just let them know and make arrangements for coverage when I do go on holiday.

Thus "accessibility".

Best, Anthony

[Patrick Chappelle]

Ning should make it so that we can remove certain responses from our discussions.

This is well written, and on point, Anthony.

[Nor Cal Social Media]

Thank you Patrick and Rowald,

If the "question" were a criticism to the contrary I would take it. In general, it's better to give people the benefit of the doubt.

For example, they may already have their e-mail posted on their network, but under different reasoning. So I'm interested in discussing.

One of the aspects of inviting e-mail contact I like is that you can focus your presentation just enough to get interest and then meet people in the middle to fill in the blanks on how it would apply for them. Sometimes you can define things too much, and the prospective member may decide there are things they don't like or don't understand. So if you have your network committed to closing the deal and getting people to sign up on first encounter you could be missing out on a lot of opportunities.

Coincidentally, a useful analogy to this might be dating. Sometimes it's better to only give enough to make a positive impression and garner interest. Less information and a little more mystery can be a better way of overcoming initial objections. That first encounter gives you a chance to gauge your own interest, learn about that person's interests, and select what you present and how for better results.

In business this is actually relevant to a sales process called "trial closing". The idea is that a lot of prospects are initially on the defensive about buying whatever it is you are selling. So a traditional sales tendancy is to try to close the deal and get people to make a decision. Putting people on the spot to "take it or leave it" can sometimes pressure them to be more decisive, and depending on their process they may purchase even if they were not really sure that was what they wanted. It's nature at work- a lot of people are instinctively predisposed to not letting opportunities slip from their grasp. On the other hand, a lot of people who may have had nominal interest and eventually could decide to buy are inclined to reject the offer if they sense they are being pressured or not satisfied they are 100% for it. So trial closing involves talking to someone from a problem/solution standpoint and fitting what it is you have to offer to their needs and wants. You learn what their frame of reference is such as "price and style" or "utility and feel" etc. You try to give them the information they value only and not the peripheal details they might weigh as negatives or non-positives. Then before you get them to make a decision, you walk them through what it would be like in making the decision, to see their satisfaction with the product/ service after the sell, etc. At some point when you can talk to people as if they've already joined, then the actual sign up is more of a technical formality. However, if you read them as not completely bought in, instead of seeing them leave with the ultimatum, you have another chance to inquire and adapt to meet them.

So a lot of accessibility has to do with giving people a chance to approach you on their terms. I've actually been approached with criticism or complaints in some situations and turned those into qualified leads. The very fact someone would take the time to contact you should always be appreciated because they could just as easily have clicked away and never given you the opportunity to clarify. In any case, if they're just trying to proxy attack you in a social setting then that usually turns around and discredits them in the community. Giving them the benefit of the doubt also affords them an opportunity to clarify.

Next I'm going to write about my third pet peeve in currency. So thanks to those that took the time to read and participate in this discussion. I appreciate the show of support!!

Best,

Anthony

[Nor Cal Social Media]

FOLLOW UP: Interested in learning more about my thinking on accessibility in social media, how I'm applying it to my network, and perhaps how it can relate to what you are doing with your Ning site? I just posted a discussion to expand upon this article on my Ning Creators group A Social Media Dojo- http://creators.ning.com/group/a-social-media-dojo/forum/topics/acc....