Maybe We’ve Got it Wrong, Again
All I’m doing is wondering out loud in this blog posting …
It must have been about ten years ago, in 1999, that I read some gushing article in a magazine like BusinessWeek that the Internet was going to replace bricks and mortar stores. People would buy everything online, from furniture to cat litter. The article suggested that we would just sit in our little cocoon environments and order everything online, content with our big gulp drinks and easy chairs. Well, part of it came true but most of it did not. There was a lot of hype, exaggeration and untruths at the time … even though naive venture capital outfits threw millions at half-baked promises at the time.
Times change but cycles do not. We are today seeing another cycle of hype. This time it’s over social media. Countless people with no experience and no credentials in the online world, marketing or media – like so many unemployed mortgage bankers, Realtors and former Circuit City clerks – are now self-proclaimed social media gurus, shilling half-baked promises to anyone who will listen. And, there are a lot of businesses out there that have had a rough time during the recession who employ stressed-out marketing/PR people looking for anything that appears to be a quick fix. Those people are easy prey for the self-proclaimed guru snake oil sales people.
Part of the contemporary American work psyche is to seek quick fixes, regardless of downside risk. Maybe many of us are just forever provincial and fail to heed history, cycles or consequences. I don’t know. But I do know that a growing number of international business leaders poke fun of us in the U.S. for our chronic shortsightedness. They’ve got us pegged accurately.
In the same superficial style of all the Internet expos of the late 90s, we are today seeing countless social media conferences. It’s all the rage. Everyone gets a packet of brochures and a silly looking ball cap or t-shirt. And, they go home having learned nothing authentically intelligent or original. Follow the pack.
When do we begin to learn that the Internet is a communications tool … a powerful conduit of information. In order to use it, one must first know something about effective communications. What brings influence, intelligence and creativity of the online world to life is how we use it to connect people into meaningful discussions, sharing and interface. And, here is the reality – it cannot be achieved effectively merely through fiberoptic cables.
A handshake and a glance in someone’s eyes is always far more powerful than an email or Twitter response. Additionally, having an interesting and legitimate story to tell is far more effective than self-promotional gimmicks.
Some things do not change.
Category: Featured, Personal notes
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Thanks for wondering out loud. A much needed post for people to ruminate over and of course act upon.
You need to wonder aloud more often, David! It’s all to easy for people to get wrapped up in hype, and forget about what’s really important about the web – sure, it has changed how we communicate and influence. But there’s a lot of other things going on out here too. Many people think that social media is the last great frontier of the Internet – it’s not. Information and context (read: Semantic Web, linked data) are on the horizon. Another great shift is upon us – and where will the self-proclaimed social media gurus be then?
As a member of the echo chamber, I’ll have to agree with Eric and say, “thank you for wondering aloud.” And with Susan, too: the great frontier is “information AND context” (all caps mine).
You’ve raised a valid point:
“When do we begin to learn that the Internet is a communications tool … a powerful conduit of information. In order to use it, one must first know something about effective communications. What brings influence, intelligence and creativity of the online world to life is how we use it to connect people into meaningful discussions, sharing and interface. And, here is the reality – it cannot be achieved effectively merely through fiberoptic cables.
A handshake and a glance in someone’s eyes is always far more powerful than an email or Twitter response. Additionally, having an interesting and legitimate story to tell is far more effective than self-promotional gimmicks.”
Actually, you’ve raised several valid points:
1. There’s immense value IF social media brings people together face-to-face, especially around something that matters. (Somewhere along the way I heard that only 7% of communication consists of the words we use. The other 93% consists of things one needs to be present to comprehend.)
2. Having both an interesting and real story to tell is far better than just saying something a lot.
3. We’re supersaturated with gimmicks. They’re boring now.
Here’s the challenge, it takes years (or if Gladwell’s right, 10,000 hours) to become an expert in something else. You can download a free webinar and manual for only $197 and be an expert in social media tomorrow (and that’s without even watching the webinar or reading the manual).
All of us crave to be an expert at something (or at least to be seen as an expert at something). It’s just so easy to do it with social media.
Thankfully, there are contrarians like you amongst us. Contrary on.
David, thank you for saying what many of us have been thinking.
I remember that so-called article. And I clearly remember the rush for online stores and if memory serves, it was Eddie Bauer who leaped to closing down brick and mortar stores… Only to re-open them again. (And with that memory, I feel old. Thanks!
)
“Part of the contemporary American work psyche is to seek quick fixes, regardless of downside risk…”
Indeed. I remember fighting for websites to fix the waning requests for collateral; and direct mail to quickly fix advertising’s downward spiral; and e-mail to quickly fix direct mail’s lack of gusto, etc., etc. You get the picture.
But not one company ever addressed the REAL issue, which was, and continues to be, customer dissatisfaction or fulfilling actual market need (the ‘if we build it they will come’ mentality is still vey much alive).
I am tired of hearing that social media will replace marketing, that customers own the brand (The relationship, yes. The brand, no), etc. We need to stop trying to flush business/marketing/communications/PR fundamentals down the toilet and learn them first instead.
Influence, intelligence and creativity will only be achieved with hard work. How many are willing?
BTW, Dr. Mihaela Vorvoreanu, assistant professor, College of Technology, Purdue University, had a great post on communications (Conversational action vs. content action and lack of “…research in communication & persuasion about the concept of influence.” i.e. the lack of understanding meaning in social media): http://bit.ly/jdulj
As Susan said, social media isn’t the great frontier. And it’s nothing new. There will always be snake oil salespeople who will take advantage of the companies looking for a quick fix. And there will always be companies who are in denial of what’s truly going on in their marketplace.
Tucking the soapbox away…
Beth Harte
Community Manager, MarketingProfs
@bethharte
When we learn to slow down and focus on what really matters, then we will realize that the tools are just the tools, and the connection is what’s important.
Unfortunately, organizational momentum drives businesses right past that point, and they mostly only recognize in hindsight.