This thought was pulled out of a deck from Gareth Kay at brand new.
It got me thinking about how true this statement really is. It’s not about social media tools. It’s about how these tools enable social ideas, social actions and interactions to happen on a scale never before fathomable.
This is a very good differentiation. A couple of years ago, when I first started hearing about “social media”, it sounded to me like something the youngsters were doing to keep in touch with their friends (ad nauseum!), but had no real business value. Now, however, I’m seeing that being a part of the ‘community’ (which means different things in different contexts) IS the value of the medium.
Being able to share ideas at the speed of light… Getting a message out to tens, hundred or thousands of people at the drop of a hat… Being on the ‘inside tract’ when something is going on… These are the things that social media enables.
Things are changing so fast… And they’re not going to go back to how it was in the ‘good ol’ days’. It’s time for folks to get on board and embrace the future. It’s here. Now.
Very smartly put. Those that will misuse social media for unsocial ideas will find themselves thwarted a lot more often than they may expect from past experience.
I have personally come to use “social context violations” for what you discuss under unsocial ideas here. Great intro reading on this is to be found in Behavioral Economist Dan Ariely’s excellent “Predictably Irrational”, Chapter 4 on “The Cost of Social Norms”.
People tend to react very, very negatively to violations to social context, and by extension social trust (see recent reactions over the bank bailouts, etc.). The mindless spammers should be very afraid. Their social media accounts are not quite as anonymous as e.g. spam email anymore, and can be tuned out more easily.
And major brands need to recognize that by extension their days of hit-and-run marketing are over, even more thoroughly for them than for the “cottage industry” that is spam…