social media, social business, social tools

I choose to look at media very broadly, as a societal tool, because doing that allows me to appreciate how people (as a group, not individuals ** very important) in general see themselves in relation to the tool they created, and how they are evolving it to meet needs over time.

Go all the way back to the first third person stories shared around the campfire and then begin moving forward in very large chunks of both time and events related to media's development.  The FCC licensing of airwaves created a seemingly enduring social structure that damned up creativity for decades. right? And rather than getting stuck on any one point, keep flying forward focusing upon the smaller increments now because we are in the midst of a social revolution where time relationships are changing and incremental events speeding up.  

Media, the tool,  is universally attached to human progress and conforms to the largest social trending cycles we can view...suggesting longer legs of individual trends (from a socionomic perspective) as we work our perception of these events from largest to smaller in viewing its progress. 

 so what?

Reading this AM from BeingPeterKim, a marketing blog focused on better marketing using social media tools,  the following question was asked:

So what do we care about?  Helping companies increasing revenue, decreasing expense, and mitigating risk.  Technology is a catalyst, but only one element; society and economy have also created an environment for transformation.  Social business is really just "business" and we haven't yet seen the full potential of what this can become.

I do not see social media as a stand alone platform to be perfected and mass produced. It is, however, inclusive of enough evolving best practices that it should be made more efficient.

(To me) Social media is about the following:

• The Era of Choice is consumers of content screaming as they are re-born 

• How people naturally self-organize into groups...(the quality of being social animals) 

• How specialization of effort naturally occurs as a result of this pooling of self similar thinking

• How larger social themes will be both broadcast through this natural process and shape the way social media(the tools) develops in time reflecting always that 'how we value things (collectively) changes' (not just money) and sometimes a lot of change in a short period of time...like right now.  

So, if you gather up these larger thoughts and focus them on the present moment, social media is evolving very quickly and will reflect the changing social norms of the social correction we are now experiencing. (A social correction is a topic by itself that is best compared to a kind of social season; one that is weather-like and you should prepare for in advance.) Trying to build a business platform right now will be, at best, a tricky proposition because the social construct  is moving under us faster than it has in the recent past.   Social media marketing tools may best be designed like a real Swiss Army knife (you know, the Victorinox brand, not the knock-offs). It will be about evolving best practices and making them actionable in small packets that can be uniquely adapted. Seeing these new small packages clearly, as they evolve, will require two sets of eyes for each half of the bifocals. Choose where to focus, and do it well is my advice. Look for scalability in Lego sized pieces.  

Among the many changing social values in the coming years will be one related to expectations for both self and group. Business always reflects these larger social trends in a lagging manner. "Entitlement" is being valued differently socially; it is traveling from being about an (optimistic) state of mind, to one that is purely attached to demonstrated ability. And while this trend will take time to fully express itself, add a similarly scaled business dynamic of pressure being applied as scarce resources are reallocated universally, and you get a clearer view of the Darwinian forces now being applied to enterprises everywhere...(and how what we are experiencing has little to do with buzzwords like "sub-prime").

I find this larger view helps to focus and organize energy to be more in-tune with these days.

So to those who are developing the business of social media marketing :

The Swiss Army knives that have only a few tools have the most utility (IMO) even if the ones with 30 tools look cool.  Specialize narrowly by serving Choice and the market will tell you where to go next. The current and developing social environment will support this kind of a strategy even if the true potential of social media tools is larger than we can imagine right now.