Time to stop playing around
March 3, 2010 by allan
I think we’re all becoming more than a little bored by the endless rounds of tweets about just how important Social is, case studies about how Dell is making peanuts through direct Twitter sales and the top ten ways to make social work for your business/charity/newspaper/grandmother/dog/cat/etc.
Every Social presentation on the planet starts with a hyperbolic rant about the vast and ever-growing scale of social networks. Every social-ist rubs his hands with glee each time a giant corporate suffers a social reputation crisis. Everyone is recommending the same process for doing ‘Social’. Everyone is saying the same thing. Social is the Wild West and there are a hell of a lot of cowboys.
But it is time to stop playing at Cowboys and Indians and time to get serious. We need to unmask the frauds, the snake oil salesmen and conmen trading on client ignorance… here comes The Cavalry.
The truth is the Social is actually pretty simple. There are a few principles you need to grasp and by participating yourself you quickly get a sense of what these are. The devil, as ever, is in the detail. Doing the detail well is the really clever bit.
So if its time to stop playing around and time to start working, where does the work lie?
Strategy over tactics.
I am particularly dubious about the work of the specialist social media agencies. Why? Because these guys are so down in the tactical weeds that they are unlikely to be able to link it seriously to a client’s business strategy. These are the same people whinging on about how you can’t measure Social, how you shouldn’t look for an ROI and so on. Sure it’s not easy, but if you’ve got clear objectives then it is absolutely possible to evaluate social media participation. For me, the pure social agencies are going to end-up in the same place in the food chain as small consumer PR outfits. They do good work but they’re downstream from client decision making and readily interchangeable. Good luck to you but I know where I’d rather be.
Business integration
Most clients aren’t struggling with questions over why Social is important and how it relates to their business, but are instead looking at what they can do and the effect this new force will have on their existing processes, people and structures. What is missing here is precedent, project management and a new organogram. It ain’t glamorous but it is what will make or break the success of a business-wide social participation programme. Again, the winners here are the people with a deeper understanding of business, and the expertise and clout to help clients reorganise themselves. These are the same people with a network of partners that means they can provide joined-up customer service, crisis, IT and HR advice. It’s still not looking good for the small shops…
Interpretation not Information
There are still too many examples of tactics first, strategy and insight later. Sure there are a hundred free social analytic tools. But serious players need serious data crunching abilities. How far back does your data go? How wide is its coverage? What’s the quality of the data? Above all though, the calibre of the people interpreting the data is paramount. No one really expects the cheap quantitative survey firm to tell a client how to drive the brand strategy. We shouldn’t expect social insight to play out any differently. So ask yourself who owns the strategic relationship with the client? Because in time, they’ll be the ones making the best margins off social data.
Get serious
Its time to get serious and take a mature, strategic approach to integrating social media into the business. Client’s ignorance isn’t a license to print money by rolling out a load of social media theory picked up on Twitter. Its about process, business strategy, objectives, scale and competency. Boring I know, but exactly what clients want to buy.
The future for the social media specialist agency? Possibly a rosy one. But only if they get bought by a big holding company with the scale and depth of expertise to turn pipe dreams into reality. For the little specialists, sowing the seeds of doubt and ignorance makes a lot of sense… it will scare the big boys into buying you up.
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