While working with P&G to develop the Social Media Lab, I am constantly wrestling with the BIG and SMALL issues relating to how the Social Web impacts business, marketing, start-up business models and our lives as individuals. When there is a new set of dynamics that fundamentally shifts how you communicate and do business - how do you ensure that the smaller tests you are doing have BIG learnings that can be reapplied.
So it was interesting to trip onto this thoughtful post from Francois Goussieaux on the nature of how big companies are approaching Social Media.
Part of the problem, as I have described before, is self-inflicted. Many CMO’s know they need to dabble in the space, but that is all they do - run small pilot programs that don’t make a difference. The problem with this approach is that the dynamics of small scale social media programs are very different from large scale social media campaigns. So what may work in large programs will not work in pilot programs and the lessons learned from pilot programs may not be applicable to large scale implementations.
This
argument sits squarely in the Social Media Lab's backyard. Knowing that big
companies do indeed have trouble making big changes all at once - the
goal of the Lab is to help with baby steps - so the big programs can
truly shine.
I also
personally believe that there is no such thing as a social media
campaign. Social Media is forcing a fundamental switch in the power
center of business and how information, markets and products are
created and brought to market. Whether you are a P&G brand or a
start-up - the social web impacts how you connect with customers. This
is not only about social ads or viral videos. And I sure as heck hope
we can come up with better business models for Web2.0 companies than some newer form of banner ad.
That said, how do you run before you can walk?
As I wrestle with the issues of innovation, scalability, customer advocacy and new business models here is a sample of some of the questions currently rattling around in my brain:
- What is the best method for generating true innovation and new business models?
- What is the best way to test & learn smartly and efficiently?
- How do you best build bridges of learning across very different cultural groups - i.e. brands and startups?
- How do you best eliminate the fear of failure to encourage bold creative initiatives?
- When does connecting with the consumer cross the line to icky behavioral targeting vs helpful discovery?
- When are you enabling passionate fans vs exploiting them?
- How do you ensure that neither big business or small start-up leaves the customer in the dust in a rush to the shiny new thing?
- Do test programs help in developing innovative approaches to business or are they simply dabbling? [this applies to start-ups and big business]
- As Social Media is all about relationships and connections - can it even scale authentically to
support a billion dollar business [see peter's post for more]?
I've got lots of questions and some hypothesis grounded in "ya gotta start somewhere", but I am also impatient, so what do you think? How would you generate a big shift?
There seem to be quite a bit of conversations in social media marketing blogs on the topic of social media scaling/not scaling .
Here's the latest of a long series of post I read on the subject. I like it: http://overtonecomm.blogspot.com/2008/09/scaling-social-media-requires-community.html
We're certainly used to the scaling power of say, advertising, which is huge and almost limitless(but with a very poor level of engagement).
Social media is people to people. It can't scale in the same way. It takes time to build relationships and manage them. So may be a team of marketers can scale to hundreds of relationships. And it's probably enough.
Social media is like a rocket. You fuel the first tank and you hope that's enough for the second tank (fueled by your influencers) to help you land it where you want.
Posted by: laurent | September 05, 2008 at 09:04 AM
Exactly - social media is about relationships - and you cant just look at it with a business lens and ROI.
I also prefer fans over influencers- they are not your influencers unless they choose to be...;)
What many forget is that this is no longer about what the brand wants but what we the consumer. sorry feeling a bit snarky today
Posted by: deb schultz | September 09, 2008 at 04:58 PM
I agree with the above and add that from a much longer term perspective, gained by chunking-up trends we are seeing now, social media will be seen as being about making smaller groups more effective by focusing intent...and not scaling up the participation in hopes of old style mass media business models. Smaller (like-minded)communities that actually accomplish getting truly organized will achieve the better results and be socially supported. This may or may not have anything to do with marketing...and scalability, while seemingly important now, may be best set aside till we better understand some more of the emerging digital social norms that will stick from this formative period. In the meantime, if you are impatient(who isn't?), I submit that really understanding the mechanics of small victories is more important.
Posted by: David Mattia | October 18, 2008 at 08:55 AM
David - yes, yes ,yes. You totally get it! Understanding scale - but not to scale it up but to weave through it.
Posted by: Debs | October 20, 2008 at 09:31 AM