(01/18/22)

By Lance Cherry, New Mexico Dept. of Game & Fish

Lance Cherry, ACI President

Zoom fatigue is real, and we are likely headed towards exhaustion. This new virtual world is only in its infancy, and there are already wheels in motion to keep it alive and relevant beyond the pandemic and for years to come.

Did you know Zoom Video Communications, Inc. had much more in mind when they started than just a “work from home” solution? From the beginning their strategy included forming a social network of their own, where subscribers can easily interact with each other and advertisers can get their message in front of the community. They have mentioned offering Cloud storage, where content can be held like YouTube and shared like DropBox.

Their initial concept focused on the “future of work,” designed to position the company squarely in the social media space. Perhaps they even considered a digital water cooler for those social conversations.

Fueled by the pandemic, the video conferencing giant currently has more than 500 million monthly active users. That’s more than popular channels such as SnapChat and Pintrest. They have access to end-user data that most of their competitors could only dream about accessing.

Top rated influencers, video bloggers, podcasters and even network television companies have embraced Zoom as the technology of choice, and every day new creative uses are being discovered for the platform.

And Zoom actively listens to you. I’m not saying they are spying on your meetings, though I’m sure that’s possible, rather they have a robust social media strategy of their own.

To better understand customer concerns, they are active on channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok, and they provide rich content to their followers. They shape every message to meet the expectations of each platform’s audience and they closely track trends. And did I say they listen to you?

Just like the multistate grant opportunity ACI has been encouraging every state to participate in, they scrub channels looking for any and everything discussed about their brand. It’s a tactic that should be first on every single social media strategy, and they got it right.

Those of you who know me, know I’m an early adopter of new technologies and a junkie when it comes to pushing the boundaries of any new platform.

In New Mexico we have leveraged Zoom to keep our social/mentoring groups engaged through coffee talks and social hours. We use Zoom to record video and audio remote, and it is an essential part of our hybrid public meeting solution. Still, I am certain there is more that can be done to tap into this market.

I throw out a challenge to all of you to decide if you believe Zoom is social media or not. Until then, I’ll catch you all at the next virtual conference!