Soon, the term “social media” will be so overused that it really has no positioning value. This will certainly affect us since we are claiming just that position on the market. I guess we’re already there. Every agency out there is running around shouting social media at anything resembling a client. So far I’ve seen very little substance behind claims of controlling this space, but I see confused clients at every street corner.
The word “viral” met a similar fait. It’s actually not such a bad word for what it is supposed to describe (viral distribution effect), but it’s so misused, it has come to mean “short film on YouTube”, or the more common meaning “very bad and not so short film on YouTube”.
So what should we talk about when “social media” becomes useless? Well. I guess “social media” wasn’t so good in the first place. It’s like saying “internet”. It’s just a platform. Whatever communication we create for it has to tap in to human social behavior. And that’s what our term should focus on. I guess “public relations” is the closest we have come as of yet, but it’s not really “public” since that suggests no social boundaries. Perhaps “Tribal Relations” would be better. I’ll give it some thought.
What is very clear is that the most unfortunate agency name to have in today’s media environment would have to be “King”, which is actually the name of a big Swedish agency. Talk about conveying the wrong values in the conversational age where listening is key. If you have other candidates for worst agency name, send me a comment.
Ciao.
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Familjen
Daddy’s cool though. And so is Farfar. and Mother.