Social Media: Is The Medium the Message?

However we define it, Social Media is a harbinger of crucial things to come.

It has increasing impact on how we view the world, how we can make a difference as members of the human family and how we can use burgeoning technology as a tool to humanize our business relationships.

Properly applied, it can bring light and value to our discourse, power to our methods of communicating and lasting change to the way we present our most significant ideas.

It can improve both our effectiveness at getting the right things done and our efficiency at getting things done right.

In his iconic masterwork, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, the late visionary Marshall McLuhan remarked that:

“In a culture like ours … it is sometimes a bit of a shock to be reminded that, in operational and practical fact, the medium is the message. This is merely to say that the personal and social consequences of any medium – that is, of any extension of ourselves – result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology.”

So begins one of the seminal works of the 20th Century.  Since McLuhan’s death in 1964, the intended implication of this phrase has been argued interminably.  It has been fertile ground for many debates; touching on the effects of mass media, the Internet, the 24 hour news cycle and many other cultural phenomena we have witnessed over the intervening years.  Most recently, the impact of Social Media on human discourse has brought this discussion into dramatic relief.

There seem to be two schools of thought inherent in the many debates, that are worthwhile exploring:

1. THE MEDIUM AFFECTS SOCIETY – The first and most widely held school of thought is the one referenced by Wikipedia:  “McLuhan’s insight was that a medium affects the society in which it plays a role not by the content delivered over the medium, but by the characteristics of the medium itself. McLuhan pointed to the light bulb as a clear demonstration of this concept. A light bulb does not have content in the way that a newspaper has articles or a television has programs, yet it is a medium that has a social effect; that is, a light bulb enables people to create spaces during nighttime that would otherwise be enveloped by darkness. He describes the light bulb as a medium without any content. McLuhan states that “a light bulb creates an environment by its mere presence.”
2. IT IS A MISTAKE TO FOCUS ON THE OBVIOUS – The second school of thought is a much more subtle, and perhaps more accurate understanding, as expressed by Mark Federman, Chief Strategist for the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology:   “Marshall McLuhan was concerned with the observation that we tend to focus on the obvious. In doing so, we largely miss the structural changes in our affairs that are introduced subtly, or over long periods of time. Whenever we create a new innovation – be it an invention or a new idea – many of its properties are fairly obvious to us. We generally know what it will nominally do, or at least what it is intended to do, and what it might replace. We often know what its advantages and disadvantages might be. But it is also often the case that, after a long period of time and experience with the new innovation, we look backward and realize that there were some effects of which we were entirely unaware at the outset. We sometimes call these effects “unintended consequences,” although “unanticipated consequences” might be a more accurate description.”

WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS?

What are the implications of Social Media, both obvious and subtle, and how can we energize around them to make things happen that matter?

• What can we do as members of the human family? In the throes of economic chaos, the first to suffer are those who cannot provide for themselves.  Beyond the obvious impediments to commerce, charitable and eleemosynary organizations are being devastated by the recession.  Traditional sources of financial support are disappearing to a degree not seen in many years.  Imparting their important message to potential contributors, never an easy proposition, has become an exhausting and increasingly futile undertaking.  Those of us in relative positions of influence, have an obligation to redouble our efforts on their behalf.
• What can we do as members of the business community? Economic conditions dictate that we must operate more efficiently than ever before.  We have a dual responsibility in today’s world; to sustain ourselves and to provide for others with any surplus we can generate.  We must succeed beyond simple profitability.  We must reinvent our businesses to ensure that we make things happen that matter.

USING SOCIAL MEDIA, HOW CAN WE MAKE THIS HAPPEN?

1. We must succeed at communicating our message to those of potential influence, with tact and forcefulness.  We must be persuasive, but in a manner that business leaders can relate to and appreciate given the demands of their daily routines.  In the words of Steve Rubel, a Senior Vice President with Edelman Digital, we must “expose them to it in the context of their own world view and workflow.”  We must instill in them the knowledge that Social Media is a crucial tool, not a passing fad; that it has extended reach beyond other more traditional approaches; and that it will impact on their businesses in a way that portends increased profitability not additional expense.
2. We must strive to meet all businesses at their points of concern.  Social Media has many facets, each with its own specific solution to a business problem.  It can enlarge and accentuate a company’s brand, augment customer service needs, establish and cement business relationships, all in addition to generating new customers and cash flow.  A one-size-fits-all approach to Social Media does everyone involved a disservice.   We must explain, evangelize, custom develop and carefully implement Social Media solutions, not with our own agendas in mind, but with the needs of our clients paramount.  For example, in the words of Jade Bailey, the e-strategy development manager for the Wynn and Encore hotels, “Customer service is a critical success metric.”  She is in the business of making her customers happy.  She explained it this way: “There is tremendous demand for tickets to Garth Brooks, who exclusively performs here. Each time we go on sale with tickets, our systems become inundated with requests. Utilizing social media to give guests timely information about availability, approximate wait time, etc., enables us to communicate with multiple guests simultaneously and in a way we haven’t before. Even if there isn’t something we can do, it is meaningful to our guests that we are present and listening to them on a medium where conversations are occurring about Wynn.”
3. We must make the intangible, tangible. Making the communication of Social Media results tangible to the business owner, especially one not intimately familiar with Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and the growing list of social websites, is an arduous task at best.  It is a challenge more daunting than explaining the Internet was two decades ago.  One approach, adopted by Adam Brown, Coca-Cola’s former Director of Digital, was to solve the executive’s “need to see, to believe.” Adopting what might be called the Occam’s Razor approach to explaining Social Media, (all things being equal, the simplest approach is often the best), Brown has found that, “Execs need to understand that corporate social media outreach isn’t about technology – it’s about communications.”  As explained in a recent Mashable.com article, “Brown skips the data-packed PowerPoints and instead sets up a projector and pulls up the company’s social media monitoring dashboard. He then lets executives watch the tweets, status updates and conversations to give them a sense of volume and tone in the here and now. He says that, “showing them the conversations “as they happen” takes the concept of social media outreach from the “theoretical” and places it firmly in the “this is real” space.”
4. We must conclusively demonstrate that Social Media supports and positively impacts the business and its objectives. Successful business owners recognize success when they see it.  As an axiom of corporate communication, it is really that simple.  Sometimes the answer that they are most looking for, is also the most mundane.  If the business is an auto dealership, for example, the owner might not respond to esoteric metrics about branding improvement as much as he might relish an answer to the simple question: “Yes, but will it sell cars?” Angela LoSasso, the head of Hewlett-Packard’s Social Media strategy, explains it this way: ““The elevator pitch becomes much easier if you have tangible and measurable successes to share – whether from your business or competitors or other brands. Keep it simple: translate the social plan into specific goals, a description of what success looks like, and how the effort will be measured.”
5. We must sometimes take the initiative ourselves.  When operating in a new technology, sometimes it’s better to ask for forgiveness later, than to ask for permission now.  Starbucks is a good example of this strategy.  Brad Nelson, a product manager for Starbucks has transformed his company into a very successful Social Media player.  The end result of his efforts are explained this way:  “It’s no longer a question of where we do it, we use social media on every launch now. It’s only a prioritization issue now. They [executives] get it.”  Of course, this was not always the case.  He further explains, ““Lots of this involves identifying where our customers are and trying the right new things in small ways. We always look around the corner to see how tests turn out. If it isn’t successful, we ask for forgiveness and move on.” He continues, “we’ve been able to build trust with our executives and it frees us up to try more new things more often. The cycle repeats itself. In reality, we find that the risk of not engaging online is higher.”

Being on the leading edge of any new technology is an often uncomfortable perch.  The risks of undertaking a new approach can be daunting, but the achievements that follow a well-directed strategy, both corporate and personal,  can be enormous.  To paraphrase Marshall McLuhan’s seminal idea, Social Media has the intrinsic ability to shine a light on our world and on the way our businesses function within it.  It can be an extension of the best characteristics of our humanity and the best components of our enterprise.

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