If in doubt, jump off the social media bandwagon

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It’s all to easy to jump on a bandwagon without really understanding what’s going on. Most bandwagons are about trying to sell you something. They masquerade as exercises in claimed thought leadership when often they’re a half baked solution looking for a problem. Bandwagons have a habit of taking on a life of their own where BS becomes perceived wisdom. One that springs to mind: social media.

If you’ve not heard this term then you’ve missed very little. It’s one time when being a laggard is probably a good thing. In a conversation this morning with a large organization, I find they are being bombarded by digital agencies. The conversation took an all too familiar turn: ‘They’re telling us we need to get into social media but we really don’t have a clue. We could be missing something.’ That’s the power of the social media Blitzkreig. Fool you into believing there is something you just gotta get into (because everyone else is doing it – allegedly.)  And so it is. The backlash is coming. I can smell it. Check what Louis Gray had to say about the numbers game. Referencing Google Buzz, he says:

We have got to achieve more accurate ratings of influence that determine value. There is no question that value of an individual varies widely from one person’s point of view to another, but I’ve just about had it with follower numbers. How would social networks be improved if we just hid them away entirely, and stopped looking at growth or relative sizes? My value is still the same, in terms of quality, whether I have an audience of 2,000 or 20,000, especially if I have the right people. Buzz had a chance to take a high road with putting the numbers game aside, but we’re seeing the games begin already.

The Inquisitr follows up with:

Whether we want to believe it or not part of human nature is the insatiable need to climb to the top of the pile. While some will work hard and hope those efforts will help them move up, others will use whatever methods they can in order to own that spot at the top of the pile.

The thing about Social Media is that it truly could be the true democratization of society based on the belief that every individual has a way to have their voice heard. Not only heard but to easily attract those who feel the same way and by the power of numbers and a unified voice effect social change.

That’s the idealized and optimistic view of what Social Media could be. What we are getting though is nothing like that, in fact, the concept of Social Media is being eat away at from the inside by some of the very people who in reality need it to succeed.

Numbers matter. Heck, my Twitter count takes centre stage in the right hand sidebar. But that to me is of less importance than who is following and by turn, who I am following. For me this is much more than finding lost souls or kindred spirits but more a shared desire to learn and expand the boundaries of what we collectively know. But just as quickly, such high ambitions dissolve into the fog of today’s reality.

Did anyone really believe that greed would fly out the window on the coat tails of the socially mediated nirvana of a new world order? That’s delusional at best. Such change will likely not happen in my lifetime unless the anticipated double dip delivers another hammer blow to the ordinary working business person from which action will not be required but become a survival mechanism. Unfortunately, past history doesn’t provide us with any examples of good outcomes in such chaotic circumstances. Social media alone won’t do it.

In the meantime, I see that Umair Haque is trying to stir up thinking about a new world of finance. He argues that:

What really caused the crisis was the fact that we didn’t care. Bankers didn’t care about the loans they issued. Boards didn’t care about bankers. Shareholders didn’t care about boards. Markets didn’t care about shareholders. Communities didn’t care about markets. Society didn’t care about communities. No one cared much about society.

It’s hard to find fault with his logic. My earlier piece which showcased Sean Boyle contains a few minutes where he talks about caring, doing something important. I hear more voices saying much the same thing. Elements within the SAP community see sustainability as a massively important topic. Who would have thought that?  Yet it needs contextualizing in ways that are profitable in order to be acceptable to the captains of industry.

These conversations are happening within the frameworks of socially mediated forms of communication. They’re as much to do with selling something – in this case a social good – as the forms that are being peddled as the new marketing. In my view, they are far more valuable. They speak to a higher purpose that might pull us out of the trough from which there seems little hope of recovery right now.

But in the meantime, if organizations are to be pulled into this brave new world then how best to approach?

What about finding out if there is a problem in the first place? Our conversation continued and sure enough, there is a business wide problem. It has almost nothing to do with the perception of social media as the new marketing, even if that ends up as one of the step change goals. Might socialized technologies help? Sure, but then that’s a small fraction of the problem they really face. As always with any large organization, the real issues stem from a need to change. That’s a tough ask for any well established organization. Just as important is the need to have a strategic intent in mind. What shape that might take remains to be seen. In this case, the journey could be very interesting. Why? Because this is one organization that really can make a difference. If it chooses to do so.

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Tagged as: backlash, bandwagon, conversation, crowd psychology, half baked, public opinion, social, social change, Social media, social networking