We Can't 'King Canute' the Social Media Tide

Published by Gary Halliwell on iMedia Connection - read the original post

You need to ask yourself where social media is going. We are all in this process, as far as I can see from attending the Mass TLC Social Media Summit last week in Boston.  The event, sponsored by the Mass Technology Leadership Council, was a candid forum about social media for B2B decision makers, exploring what’s working, and why.

The promise of social media is so immense, we can almost smell it. The attendees drawn from Boston high tech and health-care companies can sense  blood in the water, but like marketers across the country, they're having a tough time getting at the meat. The companies that break through will have a tremendous advantage. There good news is that there are only three things standing in the way. The bad news is these are potentially tricky issues if not addressed correctly.

1. Culture - change it!

2. Trust - build it!

3. Compliance - legalize it!

From what I observed, Boston's finest marketing minds are not at a consensus on how to fully get at social media quite yet (hence the need for the summit).  In my line of work, as a media guy, I've seen a lot of media technology transitions over the past couple of decades and I’m noticing familiar trends.

Culture – change it!

Much of the discussion at the conference focused on the threats, like most media transitions, and this always has a damper especially when there is a very unclear picture of the opportunity. I heard policy wonks advocating strict  social policies and the bone-cracking rigidity of financial institutions and health-care providers who have serious compliance concerns regarding employees chattering freely in the ether.

While these things need to be ironed out for sure, there is an "is"-ness to social media that we have no choice but to accept.  The elephant in the room is that the corporation is no longer in control in the social realm. There are hundreds and thousands and millions of end-users out there interacting on the internet with each other, your media and your people. The user’s expectation is that media is something to interact with, not to simply consume. 

Trust – build it!

Marketing culture is definitely changing. So is the buying of products.  Across our companies we have to reflect this change in culture. The change will not be as radically difficult as this resistance suggests.  As in the real world, people generally don’t dis their employer in the marketplace if they can help it.  The mindset should not be: how do I keep my employees off social media? Instead, how do I make my employees aware of their responsibilities? The goal should be to communicate to your team that their behavior online does and should mirror the real-world. So I think employees will quickly become aware of their responsibilities and we will see ingenuity within organizations, as salespeople and IT managers alike find new ways to mix social media into how they currently communicate with customers, prospects, thought leaders, and colleagues.  

Compliance - Legalize it!

How do we stop people who work from businesses speaking on the internet.  Clearly we can’t.  The legislative framework  around compliance in many industries is greatly in need of updating to these new realities.  Again, I think trust is a big factor.  Yes, policies are needed, as is updated legislation, but what’s more important is  hiring people you trust.  I am very positive about the coming out of our universities who are armed with both smarts and social media tools. Given the age demographic at the conference, I’m not sure this trust is truly in place just yet.  I would have relished the chance to include  a few up-and-coming twenty and thirty years olds, as I think their contributions would add an important perspective to the conversation.

Another of my takeaways from the event is that while not a lot is known just yet about how we can harness social media, marketers will indeed make it work. The reason I’m optimistic is that it’s too big an opportunity to miss and our customers will demand it from us. There really isn't much option, as businesses will either be left in the dust, or marketers are going to evolve to survive, and eventually thrive.  User-behavior is what we have to figure out, and the only way to do that is to jump in. 

To begin, we need to put the social media information of our customers in-front of our sales people, and we need to recognize the most socially active prospects and customers, both of which are possible to do right now and at scale. The social map of our customers is the measurement we need to begin, the next step is to change a strict, controlling mentality to allow social media to permeate our organizations. We might all be pleasantly surprised at what a little more trust, and a little more change can do for us. Remember, we can’t King Canute this one, but be willing to learn how to best navigate the waters.