Acid test for social media: The lunch lady blog

Tac Anderson at NewCommBiz just posted the true test for companies working in social media: Will they let the lunch lady blog?

Tac says he often poses a question to audiences when he talks about social media: You talk to a CEO on a flight and ask him about his company's recent poor results, and get one answer. Then you run into the CEO's lunch lady at a kid's soccer game and ask her the same question. Whose answer do you believe?

One thing that we've learned about social media is that we all trust 'people like me." Whenever I give this scenario and ask the question I have NEVER had anyone pick the CEO and I've even posed this question to a room full of CEO's.

There are so many companies that are doing great things with social media right now but we haven't taken it far enough. We've enabled our marketing teams, key communication groups and our engineers and product developers but we have not yet pushed social media all the way through the company. 

We will have finally reached truly social businesses when we let the lunch lady blog.

Amen to that, but two quick comments:

First, although a number of companies are indeed doing great things with social media, we're still very early on the learning curve and even more companies are just barely getting started.

Second, the lunch lady may well already be blogging!

Photo credit: specialkrb

Comments

[Tac Anderson]

I sure hope some lunch lady out there is blogging :)

But really the "lunch lady" is just my archetype that represents all levels of the company. Lunch ladies rarely get the respect they deserve and often aren't thought of when we think of business employees.

I think there are many great companies that are really close to social media ubiquity but they are the exception and I don't think anyone is all the way there yet.

[Rob Leavitt]

Thanks Tac -- I actually did a quick look for lunch lady blogs, and only came up with foodies instead. I'll keep looking. I certainly get your point, though, and totally agree. It's about creating an open culture that encourages social connections at all levels. Certainly some small and Web 2.0-type companies are built that way already, and some big companies are working hard in that direction, but it's a big chasm to cross. The mindset I see more often with big companies is trying to use social media tools and channels in the old controlled way.

[BigLittleWolf]

I'm a firm believer in lunch ladies. I'm enlisting them to help lead my crusades... of all sorts. Lunch ladies are a vital element in our American pop culture landscape. (And sometimes our nightmares.)

It's the muscles and hairnets combination. Frightening. And mesmerizing.

:)