Few days back, I attended Global Youth Marketing Forum 2011 at Mumbai. The growing prominence of Social Media in
the year 2010, thanks to facebook mania triggered by The Social Network et al, has injected
Social Media Steroids into every marketer’s veins. It was clearly evident during
the seminar as every Social Media consultant and Marketer talked of Social
Media Revolution, seducing the audience (comprising marketers, aspiring
marketers and enthusiasts) with voluptuous statistics, ranging no less than
millions, of followers for every brand that rode the social media wave.
Before I go any further, let me
put few disclaimers.
I don’t aspire to be a spoilsport craving for attention when the party is on. I am not a cynic who decries the entire change happening around business where it ain’t seem as it used to be. I have been personally touched by this momentous change and it never ceases to fascinate me. What worries me, however is the fact that although we are excited about this new phenomenon, we smugly put on our old glasses (Its about marketing!) and claim foolishly that we are witnessing the biggest phenomenon ever. Is it so hard to believe that the reference of change has changed forever?
I don’t aspire to be a spoilsport craving for attention when the party is on. I am not a cynic who decries the entire change happening around business where it ain’t seem as it used to be. I have been personally touched by this momentous change and it never ceases to fascinate me. What worries me, however is the fact that although we are excited about this new phenomenon, we smugly put on our old glasses (Its about marketing!) and claim foolishly that we are witnessing the biggest phenomenon ever. Is it so hard to believe that the reference of change has changed forever?
I am using “We” here for a
purpose, as I have fallen into this trap several times whenever I forced myself
to thrust new ideas within the cubbyholes of my old concepts. Luckily, I have
been blessed to be in company of enlightened souls (Oh dear, farmer!!) who
often jolt me lovingly back to reality.
Let us examine this whole idea of “Social
Media Strategy”. We have cosily placed together two very different
entities (or beasts??) together and carried our daily affairs of business as if
nothing has changed. Imagine how it would be if two strange entities were brought
together and exchanged wedding vows without really figuring out who they
really are. Although the wedding party is not over yet, it is essential to ask
ourselves, “Are they in nuptial bliss or are they strange bedfellows”?
First let us explore "Social Media". Is “Social Media “ =”Social” + “Media”?
When hydrogen atoms and oxygen atoms interact, water is formed. However, can wetness be understood from observing the properties of hydrogen and oxygen individually?
When hydrogen atoms and oxygen atoms interact, water is formed. However, can wetness be understood from observing the properties of hydrogen and oxygen individually?
Our popular conceptions of media arise
from the works of Marshall McLuhan who wrote in his famous book, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man,
the iconic phrase, “Medium is the message”. Let me talk straight. In this
fascinating world of Social Media, “Medium
is not the message”.{Post Note on 15th May 2012: I take it back. My understanding about Mcluhan has changed enough to totally eat up the sentence you just read } It is mere an excuse to be social and remain connected
with the consumer. Its essence lies in the personality of the corporation, its
consumers discern based on their conversations. How else do we figure out whether
our next door neighbor is grumpy or really nice, other than our conversation
with him?
It often irks me whenever I see
companies using Facebook Wall only to showcase their products. (Dear Flipkart,
I am thinking of you, Is somebody listening??) Can you tolerate a person who constantly
shows off his toy gadgets and is hell bent on selling stuff to you?
Rather than thinking of Social
Media as a machine whose levers could
be adjusted to increase the sales dramatically, it would be prudent for
companies to think of it as an inevitable extension of the company’s personality
which it would want the consumers to believe in.
Oh Good lord!! My words are so
typical of old mindset. It’s no longer the case of believing. (Author's note to self:Wake up!) The consumers can see!!
What about “Strategy”? Thank God. I can seek wisdom from my favorite guru,
Henry Mintzberg, who managed to describe this beast beautifully in his book “Strategy Safari”. He describes 10
schools of thought in which strategy is formed. At this stage, I think it would
be far more appropriate to understand strategy by discerning what it isn’t as
opposed to what it is.
Ever since scientific management
came to the fore, our popular notions of strategy have been dominated by “Strategy planning”, which essentially
separated thinking from doing within the realm of strategy, with its roots from the Cartesian split between the mind( res cogitans) and matter (res extensa). The thinking cap was worn
by the likes of “Strategy Consultants, Strategy Planners and Leaders”, while managers
were relegated to doing (sans thinking??). In the words of Henry Mintzberg,
Strategy planners were “expected to
produce the best strategies as well as step-by-step instructions for carrying
out those strategies so that the doers, the managers of businesses, could not
get them wrong”.
Although thinkers provided doers
with information to take decisions accurately, it turned out to be ineffective
as their strategies were divorced out of context, dissociated from the environment
where business really happens. This seemed okay until businesses were stable
and predictable( Remember those good ol'days??). In the case of Social
Media, context is extremely crucial as businesses are always connected
with the consumers over the web. As the ordinary
farmer had once put it brilliantly during the screening of my Web-Brahhman movies at Pune, India, this is the first time in history where
content is subservient to context.
Thus, Social Media strategy cannot
be a well defined, formalized plan per se, without
any relevance to the context. Social Media strategy has to be an active response to the environment. This
is the reason why it is extremely important to listen before one could strategize. As we go forward, when the social media
plan that is being developed no longer
stays on the predicted course while
it is being implemented, strategy planning would become further obsolete.
While we may have found out who these entities really are, we shall explore further in the coming posts on what it takes to make this marriage work!!
What do you think?? Would love to hear your views!
While we may have found out who these entities really are, we shall explore further in the coming posts on what it takes to make this marriage work!!
What do you think?? Would love to hear your views!