The Global Perspective On Social

Of the five pragmatic steps that Jeremiah Owyang suggests in the January Altimeter report (recommended read), A Strategy for Managing Social Media Proliferation, I think the most important is number 3 “Select vendors based on business needs, not marketing.”

Frankly, you can drop the “vendors” part because the real point is that it’s not about social media, it’s about what happens as a result of the arrival of social media.Enterprise Class Companies, on Average, Have 178 Social Media Accounts

When you think about social MEDIA, you naturally gravitate towards marketing, but it’s deeper than that.

When you think about SOCIAL media, however, you recognize that the arrival of the social/mobile/network-empowered consumer affects every single aspect of the business.

Social has no regard for silos, business units, or geographies. It transcends all of those.

The question then isn’t “how does social media fit into my organization?“

The question is, “how do we adapt our organization’s realities to the realities of social media?”

A very different pivot.

Chris Bailey may have written that, “Creativity is an act of open disobedience against the norms. Creativity is an act of courage,”
HOWEVER, when you are talking about a Brand that has anywhere from hundreds of dollars to BILLIONS of dollars worth of equity, you can’t have people, units, teams, or divisions just “going rogue.”

The risk to the brand is just too great…

You can’t “control the conversation,” we all know that, but you CAN coordinate activities to make sure that the company speaks in a unified voice…thereby delivering a unified experience which is, ultimately, the primary driver of brand value AND do it in a way that allows for creativity within the spectrum of experience.

This type of holistic, comprehensive thinking that Jeremiah put forth is really the next wave of social media adoption and represents the inevitable transformation towards social-centric organizations.

- Jeremy Epstein, VP of Marketing at Sprinklr, find him on twitter at @jer979

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  • http://www.baileyworkplay.com/ Chris Bailey

    Jeremy, I *did* write that, but it wasn’t in the context of companies using social media willynilly and without a connection to the brand (it had more to do with our learning institutions). However, that’s not really important here. I will say that I agree with you on this point: that organizations need to guide their folks in how to interact via social media without being overly prescriptive.

  • http://www.neverstopmarketing.com jer979

    Chris–thanks so much for the comment. I really loved what you wrote and find that the biggest challenge for people in large organizations (most often) is the act of courage you describe. My goal was to compliment you. Sorry if it didn’t come across that way.

    You are 100% right…it’s about finding the balance. “Creativity inside the box” perhaps?

    Thanks for taking the time to comment!

  • http://www.baileyworkplay.com/ Chris Bailey

    No worries :)

    As to what you write, what I think is happening is that several different transformations are happening simultaneously. Business processes around IT and internal systems are changing. Sales, marketing, and how businesses relate to their customers (and vice versa) are changing. How we even work (AKA telecommuting, finding purpose in our work, management practices) is changing dramatically from what are prior norms. So much is up in the air right now. And that can lead to nervous anxiety, creative excitement…or a little bit of both at the same time.

    Adapting business to the realities of social media is but one part of a climactic struggle taking place right now within every single organization.

  • http://www.neverstopmarketing.com jer979

    Totally agree.

    It’s kind of like the forces that Friedman talks about in “that used to be us” (and well every other book he’s written). IT, globalization (see the NYT today re: Apple and China…we’re fighting the last war there).
    I’ve long said…it’s not about social media, it’s about the changes that happen as a result of the arrival of social media (Arab Spring, Occupy, heck the SOPA thing last week). That’s why all the Gutenberg comparisons are so apt.
    BTW, do you know my buddy Josh Duncan in Austin (www.arandomjog.com) ? you should. I think you guys would get along.

  • http://www.baileyworkplay.com/ Chris Bailey

    Ha, yes. Very good friends with Josh. One of the smartest marketers I’ve had the pleasure to know.

  • http://www.neverstopmarketing.com jer979

    Why am I not surprised?


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