Mark Evans had rather surprising post this morning titled – One Reason Why Social Media Fails. I say surprising because Mark’s business is all about helping companies of all sizes get a handle on what this social media thing is all about. The tangible part of his post was where he acknowledged something that I have been saying for a long time now.
Social Media isn’t about the tools. Twitter, Facebook and Friendfeed aren’t social media. They are the tools that are used to try and bend social media into whatever shape best suits our needs at the time. As Mark says in his post
Not surprisingly, many of them are excited about embracing social media given the amount of buzz surrounding tools such as Facebook and Twitter. When I started ME Consulting, I was excited about social media tools as well until I realize that they’re just tools.
By that, I mean that Facebook, Twitter, blogs, et al are weapons you can add to a communications, marketing and sales arsenal as opposed to silver bullets that can solve or fix your business challenges. Admittedly, this is a straightforward assumption but you’d be surprised by how many people still think social media has magical qualities.
Even those tools are constantly being morphed in order to keep abreast of the newest and coolest way to present information as it is happening. Social media as it is being presented today is something that is molded and warped by the same old public relations and marketing firms rather than being the conversation platform it was meant to be.
Social media is failing because they are ignoring the three points that Mark makes in his post
1. Who you are
2. What you do
3. Why it matters
It is also failing because rather than companies believing in their own messages, the messages of their employees, they still rely on outside companies that don’t want to relinquish what control they have as the primary message bearers for those companies.
Until companies are willing to be the bearer of their own messages, good and bad, then social media will remain concentrated on the tools. Tools that public relation firms and marketing companies can use to manipulate the message.
There is one very simple rule for companies wanting to be a part of a social media world – believe in your message and be willing to be the ones to put it out there.
