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Adam Grossman, Senior Media Relations Advisor at ICBC just posted this on Twitter and it really made me think.

Now just for full disclosure, Adam recently held the position of Director of Education for the Canadian Public Relations Society, Vancouver Chapter (of which I am a student member) and was kind enough to be one of my interviewees for the Public Relations program at Kwantlen entrance application. In short: He pretty much always makes me think.

However, I’m not sure what to make of his tweet. While it’s certainly true that there are just some businesses (and individuals alike) who don’t truly understand the purpose and value of Twitter – and by extension, social media – there are also companies and individuals who do understand both.

Now, I can infer two messages from Adam’s tweet:

1. Twitter is for businesses to use as another channel for customer service.
2. Twitter is for businesses to use to engage customers and stakeholders to build long lasting relationships.

Personally, I think Adam’s going for the second meaning but the conclusion I came to first was actually the first message.

Plenty of businesses use Twitter for customer service. Just look at @WestJet, @ClearlyContacts and @JetBlue. It’s pretty obvious they’re doing great things with Twitter. And there are plenty of businesses using Twitter for promotion (ones that come to mind are @DeDutch, @Lululemon and @Yyoga).

The problem is, Twitter makes it very easy for companies to fall into the Customer Service trap because it’s easily trainable, easily understood and easily measurable – but only if you have the manpower to do it. It’s also very easy for companies to fall into the promotional trap as well. But we all know that’s not the point of Twitter.

So what is the point of Twitter (and by extension, social media)? (drumroll please…) To Be Social.

I’m not going to go to a party to try and sell someone a service or product, just like I wouldn’t go to a party to fix someone’s computer or internet. I’d go there to meet new people, start conversations and share interesting things.

If you want a great example of a company doing social things with social media, just look at @OldSpice. Just look at their OldSpice’s Youtube Channel. The marketing team launched this yesterday and already, they have an incredible amount of response videos to their fans on Twitter, Yahoo questions, Youtube and other channels! Isaiah Mustafa (their spokesbadass) probably spent the better part of last week filming thirty second (to one minute) PERSONALIZED responses to celebrities and Internet fans all over the world. This video is particularly interesting because he grants an interview via a video response!

There’s no doubt that these responses take time and money to craft (and craft well), and there’s no question that Old Spice has the budget to do these things. But even on a limited budget, companies can very easily start conversations within their existing customer base and invite new people to join in. The best part is that it doesn’t always have to be about the product or service – it could be a strong opinion on something semi-controversial, or simply bringing awareness to an otherwise mysterious business model.

Don’t believe me? Try it. You’d be amazed at the results.