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So being the avid readers you all are (;) you have surely seen my last post and the one before that regarding Ontario Parks and their slow and steady exploration of social media. In my last point I posed the question: were they, in fact, listening to what I had to say?
As it turns out, they do listen! Late last week I was graciously contacted by a member of the Ontario Parks staff who looks after their web based interests. He informed me that Ontario Parks had nothing to do with the Facebook contest I spoke so highly of (I appreciate the honest admission, even if it did mean I was mistaken)! The contest instead belongs to Ontario Tourism, so good on them as well.
We ended up having a great dialogue on the importance of social media, advocacy and conversations, all of which this individual clearly understood and respected. We also discussed some points I slightly (though not entirely) overlooked, such as the difficulty in maintaining consistent, relevant and high value communications with audiences, particularly when the individual parks themselves may also be in the social media mix.
In my minds eye, the importance of social media has less to do with providing “value” to your audiences and more to do with simple communication. We have long observed business in their ivory towers; their faceless voices only ever heard with the next sales pitch. But social media offers a chance for organizations to engage with their audiences in a way that can be meaningful to both sides. It is a chance to humanize a brand, to converse with and learn about your audiences, and to push yourself away, sincerely, from pure profit motivation.
Twitter is a perfect example of this. Sure you can promote initiatives and new products, but if you fail to somehow engage audiences so that they actually want to hear about such things, your promotion will simply fall on deaf ears. By showing true interest in the environment in which your business functions and conversing with those interested in that environment, you can start to become one of them. This can be achieved through advocacy, listening and retweeting, simple conversation or numerous other ways. The trick is to be sincere, push away the profit motivated bias, and interact as a human being. And the potential benefits, both from the positive perception and financial standpoints, are almost limitless.
I am incredibly impressed that Ontario Parks is listening to those who care about the services they offer. This blog may not be far reaching, but if nothing else I am one of Ontario Parks’ caring customers. And by them reaching out to me – through my medium no less – shows they clearly have some appreciation for what their customers have to say.
And that is more than you can say about many organizations out there.
P.S. Check out the Ontario Parks Blog!
