Understanding social media

Walter Schwabe “What is social media?” “How do we develop a social media strategy,” and “How do we generate a return on our investment?” are perhaps the most common questions being asked on the subject by businesspeople and, for most small business owners, the latter is probably the most important. Even if you’re already a social media participant, you may still be left with the same question.

Let’s take a moment to start with the basics. Most social media strategies consist of launching blogs, wikis, flickr photo streams, Facebook groups, MySpace profiles, LinkedIn profiles and the like. Unfortunately, social media is not an exact science, and many companies are struggling with their respective strategies. The great thing however, is that a growing amount of research suggests that with the right plan, you can generate a return on your efforts. However, the return may not be what you would commonly expect.

I recently had someone tell a prospective client who was reviewing a proposal my company had submitted that social media is “experimental,” “completely unproven” and “a waste of money.” Actually, in some ways I have to agree with him, but only up to a point. Social media is, in many ways, “experimental;” it’s not however, “completely unproven” and it actually can be “a waste of money,” if you don’t know what you’re doing. It’s essential to understand that social media is simultaneously a great opportunity and a battlefield littered with land mines; it is for many an enigma and one of the top strategic issues before companies and organizations alike today.

Most will tell you that the world of business is ever changing, always in a state of flux. That’s certainly the case for many, but in some other instances, if you dig under the surface of many long standing organizations, you’ll still hear the “that’s the way we’ve always done it,” mantra, as completely archaic as that sounds. It could be argued that what that particular ancient sentiment represents is a sad sense of security and, in my opinion, a lack of creativity. Further, that statement suggests an unwillingness to take risk, change or fail, especially fail publicly. This is at the crux of the social media problem for many organizations. An inability to accept scrutiny in a public sense after a failure or misstep is indeed a recipe for failure; at least in the context of a social media strategy.

For example, social media may be defined as a representation, display and distribution method of the collective consciousness of (primarily) the Net generations; or broadly all those coming after the “baby-boomers.” Sure, the “boomers” are participating too, just to a lesser extent. Herein lies the big disconnect between the “way we’ve always done it,” thinkers and the fluid, always in a state of flux, learning, conversing, highly mobile, “need to engage me or enrage me” plugged in savvy generation that demands transparency. Social media, networking and Web 2.0 technologies are typically built with these cultural fundamentals in mind.

Recently, it has been said that, in the context of social media, a “brand” is now defined by the number of conversations being had about it. How can one tell if an organization’s brain trust understands today’s Internet and online culture? In part, by the conversations they’re having or in many cases “not having.” By extension this would also include those conversations being held online “about a brand” rather than “with a brand” itself.

Years ago the common catch phrase circulating on the Internet to represent the need to engage in social media activities was, “join the conversation!” Sure, this old standard is still used today; that said, typically not by the early adopter crowd anymore.

What organizations are finding out, however, is that social media success is, first, not that simple and second, they’re not sure “what” social media success looks like. At least not consistently enough to say there’s one secret formula. Reality is, there isn’t “one” secret formula. Rather, there is a set of engaging elements that should be a part of your strategy. Key elements, such as the ability to share content, communicate with others, scrutinize the content or brand openly, a way for the participants to take ownership of the brand, are just a few. Scrutiny, as well as brand ownership, is what often-times has organizations running scared. Taking left hooks online or giving up control of their brand typically isn’t in their DNA. But being brave is a necessity for success.

Moving target aside, there is evidence that the business community is advancing past the “early adopter” stage, and into a more mainstream application of these Web 2.0 tools. The McKinsey Quarterly has this to say as part of the results from a recent survey; “The Companies that are deriving business value from these tools are now shifting from using them experimentally to adopting them as part of a broader business practice.”

Ultimately social media is flawed, imperfect and unique, just like all of us. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work.

Walter Schwabe is the owner and Chief Evolution Officer of fusedlogic inc., one of Canada’s leading social media strategy firms, as well as Technology Columnist for Troy Media Corporation. You can visit his blog is at http://www.fusedlogic.blogspot.com

Keywords: social media, Walter Schwabe, flickr, facebook, strategy, investment, return, social media explained

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