Social Media: Enterprise adoption and the impending marketing tsunami

Last week I attended an alumni event hosted by University of Pennsylvania’s EMTM (Executive Masters in Technology Management) program that included a panel discussion on Social Media, and a memorable talk on innovation by technology evangelist Guy Kawasaki. The usual stuff was discussed, social networking, user generated content, Wikipedia, Facebook, and of course Twitter, Twitter, and Twitter. The Wharton School’s Interactive Media Initiative (WIMI) is tackling social media from an academic (and consultative) approach, and they have some terrific data on their website. Despite hearing from the experts, I remain somewhat skeptical on the sustainability of the social media business model. Can companies monetize social media? Will businesses successfully adopt forms of social networking for productivity and knowledge processing? Or will the onslaught of marketing (via social networks) and the tyranny of constant connectivity prevent social media to live up to its hyped potential as the next great web revolution?

For starters let’s define social media. It’s commonly referred to as the “democratization of information”, where sharing of news, videos and other media has moved from a traditional “publishing” (one-to-many) to a “sharing” (many-to-many) format. Because of ubiquitous access to the net, users are empowered to create, modify, distribute, connect and share content with whom they want. The 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai were one example where a community of users were able to organize (in an ad hoc manner), share and inform about the horrific events that were unfolding in near real time - by blogging (Twitter) or uploading pictures (Flickr) – far more efficiently than traditional print or broadcast journalism could do. Essentially, the internet allows users to generate content and then share that information within communities – quickly and freely. Social media for consumers has reached a tipping point; for instance, Facebook has over 200 million registered users and YouTube has over 10 hours of videos uploaded every minute.

What’s unclear is: First, will usage translate into revenue for companies that are in this space? Second, is there more to social networking than popularity contests (by several accounts you are measured by the number of "friends" you have on Facebook or how many “followers” you have on Twitter).

Social media serves as a conduit for marketing communication, company branding, and product evangelism. The success of marketing via social media is hard to measure, there are specific examples that have been successful, but in general, companies have to incorporate social media as just another media they need to address in their marketing plan, this includes a budget, strategy, and metrics. For instance, during the Q&A session at the conference it was discussed how Twitter users could be targeted for marketing based on their location, profile and most importantly the contents of tweets (see http://www.twitterhawk.com/). As a user and privacy advocate I am very concerned that marketers would consider any communication online via social media as “fair game” - it would lead down the slippery marketing slope of SPAM. Yes, the content of the marketing message is more targeted, but users will be overwhelmed with the quantity of messages, and will either ignore all marketing efforts or move to another platform. Enterprise adoption of social media, for in house use, also includes three prominent issues specific to company and culture – first, Cost (companies will either have to build or license other sites); second, Privacy and Accuracy (the adoption of social media has been, in part, because users can control their level of privacy and with whom they connect – if your boss can read all your messages, does that impact your behavior?); and finally, Control – there is no easier way for the CIO to lose control of content, quality and standards, than have companywide social media platforms that are beyond the control of IT. For these reasons I think enterprise adoption will be slow for in house use, and probably not as successful (for large companies) to use social media as an exclusive marketing tool. Tom Davenport of Babson College, in his blog (HBS /the Next big thing) makes the case that Twitter’s use as a marketing tool is limited and will eventually go the way of SecondLife; while I’m not as negative on social media, (as a “fad”), I do believe elements of it will disappear over time - the novelty will wear off, and at some point most of us will realize that we do not need to update each other every time we have a cappuccino.

Where social media is of tremendous value is with harnessing the power of the long tail – that small and scattered user base (customers) that can be served via the internet (for instance collectibles via eBay). Regardless, companies need to weigh the pros and cons of building a social media marketing strategy, and certainly be wary of consultants claiming to be social media experts that could revolutionize marketing, because, quite honestly no one really knows.

The technologies that make up social media are here to stay – for the same reasons that several sites themselves will morph into web standards and must haves. Today LinkedIn is widely used by professionals, but it is less of a networking tool and more of a job search, reference, and public address book. Similarly, other sites have created a mass appeal for users but the moment there is change (for instance advertising, or restrictions in service, or charges for service) users will jump ship to the next service that comes along. MySpace was king of social networking five years ago, today its Facebook, and tomorrow perhaps it’s going to be Twitter. It would be wise for corporations to prepare themselves to adapt and harness the power of new media, but would be highly unwise to invest heavily into only marketing and using social media; it’s not a new paradigm, just another avenue. Let’s meet Matt Harding who in the early part of 2003 quit his job and traveled parts of Asia taking videos of himself dancing and posted the compilation online which went viral. Later Stride Gum decided to sponsor Matt and he again traveled the world doing his dance set to music composed by Garry Schyman and lyrics adapted from Rabindranath Tagore’s poem “Praan”. Watching the video itself is inspiring, uplifting and haunting, in my opinion, because of its simplicity and global nature. His video, “where the hell is Matt (2008)”? has over 20 million YouTube hits. Social media marketing at its best? Perhaps. Certainly shows how a simple idea can spread and bring corporations into social media.