Command and Control is akin to “dominating, putting a collar on it, making it your bitch, owning it”, and of course “manipulating”. “Social” by its very nature will not succumb to this. It is a shape-shifter. One that will change its appearance when “discovered” and on the verge of manipulation. You can only be Social’s friend, not her boss.
There’s an increasing amount of conversation about stepping back, reevaluating, etc… The very first stop should be going back to using these Social technologies with our existing relationships (families, neighbors, employees, colleagues, clients, customers, and constituents) to truly “listen”, understand, experience, and improve. After all, our relationships have the greatest insight to their experienced reality (the one that actually matters), and the greatest influence.
We’ll see people turn away from Social unsatisfied because their expectations of a “return” are not realized. This will be the result of misguided goals and intentions, and also misapplying tools with quick-fix, tips & tricks mentalities. They were bitchin’ their Social. Being the creatures we are, we long for easy recipes especially in confusing, mysterious times. Not only did the carpetbaggers deliver, but en masse, instinct, and hype delivered us past the common sense of utilizing these beautiful technologies with our own existing relationships.
What’s most wonderful is that there is a sense of course correction afoot. If it were easy, it wouldn’t feel nearly as good when we make advances.
There’s no Express Service on the Social. All tickets are for the Long Haul. And as much as we’re inclined to mastery, Social won’t be on the List of the Conquered. Social won’t be bitched.
Where are your thoughts on this? Are you feeling a correction afoot?
August 17th, 2009 at 9:39 am
I’m confident that we’ll never have the hard & fast criteria (or at least I’m hopeful we never “think” we do as a society). Your comment reminds me of something I heard at SxSW, “I don’t do business with logos”.
August 12th, 2009 at 7:42 am
While there is no hard and fast criteria (yet) for how to “do” social networking, I do believe that those companies that “get it” approach this new technology as if it were a cocktail party. If they come in and do nothing but talk about the new product / service that they are offering, no one will want to talk to them. If they behave like a type-A asshole (i.e. “Command and Control”), they will not get invited back.
What has seemed to work so far is trying to add a REAL human face to their social networking presence. If a corporate twitter user actually has a conversation with another user, it proves that there IS a person on the other end and not a marketing bot.