Is It Really Just Social “Media”?

I recently read a post from David Armano who is part of Dachis Corporation – a company involved in the early stages of developing “social technology platforms and professional service programs with the stated goal of helping companies become ‘Social Enterprises’”. These guys are moving beyond just thinking about Social Media as a way to have a conversation with your customers, prospects, partners, etc., to thinking about how companies can indeed become Social Enterprises.

This thinking appeals to me. In my recent course at the Social Media Academy there was one slide (out of hundreds over the 8-week session) that warned against the limitations of the word “Media”. I instinctively got the challenge, and it caught my attention when David blogged:

“’Media’” limits our view of the movement, and brings with it the baggage of decades of advertising. Marketers are only too happy to view the social web as a new array of channels to market their goods in some shape or fashion. That’s because it’s a model they’ve used since the beginning”.

He gave GM as an example of a company that used all of the Social Media techniques with good intention but states the obvious – at least when it comes to GM – that “no amount of ‘media’ social or otherwise will turn around an organization in need of reinvention. That’s the big picture at the end of the day.”

Now, GM may be an easy target, but the concept of seeing this new phenomenon as “a shift in thinking—less about media and more about tapping the benefits of being a social business in a purposeful way” is critical. What is the value of listening, communicating, getting involved with your customers, prospects, partners if it does not impact the way you do business? People don’t just want to be heard, they want to affect the other.

Companies are used to top-down plans and product cycles. It is easy to want to push back against the messiness of getting too many outside voices into the mix. However – like it or not – once you get into being “social” this is your new family. As any working couple who has built careers, bought that house, and then brought children into the world knows, everything changes. So – in addition to that Social Media Strategy about how you will interact with your Ecosystem – think about how you will need to react (not just with words but with actions) to what they say. It may keep you up at night for a few months, but things will settle down eventually.

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