Often when we talk about social media we focus on its ability to help us develop relationships with others and build communities surrounding our cause. Though at first glance this seems achievable, a deeper look at the requirements of these processes is warranted. Does research in the area really support the idea that social media is redefining how we do business and interact with our clients/customers?
Social Media is Not Too Social After All
Several researchers investigating social interaction online have offered several perspectives concerning online communications technology and its ability to support such interactions adequately. Here I’ll be briefly mention two of them and explain some of the issues they highlight that you should definitely sit up and take note.
Firstly, media richness theory developed by Draft and Lengel (1986) aims to helps us communicate more effectively by assisting us in choosing the most suitable communications medium to send a particular message. For example, if your spouse caught you kissing your cousin (who is of the opposite sex and is unknown to your spouse), this theory would recommend you choosing a ‘rich’ communications’ medium (e.g., FtF) to explain the situation rather than via a text message which is by far not as rich.
You see, media richness is said to be a function of a medium’s speed in providing feedback (think instant messaging versus email), the amount of cues available (e.g., verbal, non-verbal, tactile), and the extent to which the channel allows the message to be tailored for the receiver. The more a communications’ channel meets these criteria, the richer it is considered to be. However, I am sure you can appreciate that not all messages require the richest communications’ channel to be well understood. So for instance, if you want to alert someone of your current location, sending a text message would be absolutely fine. How good do you think social media channels are at communicating complex social information?
Along this line of thought Short, Williams and Christie (1976) put forward social presence theory. Social presence refers to the extent that you feel another person is engaged in communication with you. These researchers believe that as feelings of social presence diminish, social interaction becomes less personal. Now considering that computer-mediated communication largely lacks many social cues (e.g., nonverbal and tactile cues) it is easy to conclude that it is very low in social presence and therefore more impersonal and less intimate than FtF communication. So again, how good do you think social media channels are at communicating complex social information?
Where We Often Go Wrong
From these theoretical perspectives we can see where social media comes up short as a communications platform to support social interaction. Take for instance the online micro-blogging service twitter where users primarily use text to communicate with each other. It is fine when we use it as it was intended (i.e., saying what you’re up to), however, as it affords us many alternative uses, some of us attempt to capitalise on every one of them to do our bidding (e.g., ‘building relationships’) and more or less do so in vein.
Many social media services though convenient are not largely intended to be a substitute for FtF communication but rather a communications medium that supports and maintains offline relationships. More importantly though, I am asking that we bear in mind its limitations when trying to form relationships and otherwise communicate complex social information via these mediums.
Now You Know, We Can Move Forward Smartly
Yes, there is definitely empirical evidence (e.g., Parks & Floyd, 1996; Parks & Roberts, 1998; Whitty & Gavin, 2001) that shows that relationships can indeed develop online. However, forming those close online relationships everyone are raving about takes commitment from BOTH parties and time! Of course, if you are an Internet business and you don’t have FtF interactions with your customers these findings may be a bit discouraging to you as you may need to work harder than those with physical store fronts to reach the same levels of relationship development with your customers. Take this as a challenge! Though difficult, it can be done!
