“How Do You Define Social Media?”
I got the question from a client in a meeting the other day: “How do you define social media?” I haven’t thought about that question for a while now since it’s such an integrated part of my reality, both on and off duty, but now that I got the question it got me thinking.
Imagine talking about the web while leaving out social media – what is then left to talk about? To me, the answer was “bad websites”. Social media was a good and necessary word when the non-social web was still kosher, but now, it seems superfluous.
“There Is No Social Media”
I looked at the client for short while before I got up, walked over to the whiteboard, and drew a nice red big fat X over the words “social media” that were written in the middle of a blue mind map. “There is no such thing as social media” I said. “There are just people and places they are”.
As cliché as this may sound, it’s really true. The digital interface is just another interface for people to interact through, and we really need to stop viewing it as a media channel that we can buy with a separate budget post, that is somehow isolated from other posts like PR or advertising.
Online Is Never More Than An Arms Length Away
Social media is dead. And it’s not dead because Facebook died or Twitter died, but because the term “social media” implies that there is also “un-social media”. But the whole digital realm is now social, unless it’s poorly designed.
Also, with the help of current mobile technology, the online realm is never more than an arms length away from the offline one, making even the offline world social. Unless, of course, it is poorly designed.
Time To Raise The Bar
The world has always been social, but social technology made socializing more efficient and raised the bar for all of us. Online and offline marketing efforts that don’t take social technologies into account are wasting massive amounts of budget. If we make communication that nobody wants to share with their social circle, it’s just not good enough.
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow, really? To me this sounds like you just want to put out your chin (direct translation from the swedish idiom) and start a debate. So, this is my rebutal.
Of course there are unsocial media, look at the old newspapers and TV-channels etc. They are designed to be one way and one-way only. Of course you can interact with the people behind the media, by writing letters and making phonecalls. But the media itself is built on the metaphor of broadcaster(producer)-recevier(consumer).
If you compare this to “digital” media* there is a huge difference, there are no built-ins that hinders us from using a two-way (or three, or four…) communication. So of course there are media that isn’t social, and there are media that are, to say other would be (IMHO) stupid.
*digital media as we know it today with the web, http, html and all other techniques
Now I have out my chin out, so please, hit me;-)
Ok, Peppe, you asked for it
Walter talked about media in the “digital realm”, so paper version of newspapers and broadcasted tv or radio not available on the web is a bit off topic.
But anyway, even they can’t avoid taking the “social” aspect into consideration, because the behaviours of consumers (of media) have changed, and so has the way journalists work, from the gathering of information to distribution.
But “one-way communication”… what is it exactly? Content that reach their targets are generating discussions… and that is social. No one is consuming or thinking alone anymore, except maybe a few hermits. Take political or religious propaganda, or even marketing… it is where the most active discussions take place.
@Peppe
Not really. I really do think that we have to stop viewing this as some separate phenomenon. Doing that was useful to describe social media before it was ubiquitous, but now it’s really just human behavior made more efficient by technology.
Media that do not take into account behaviors enabled by social technology is poorly designed in my view. Television is definitely going there with live commentary and so are newspapers, even though they are not exactly quick to the punch. Financial Times for example have links to online in all their articles, and that is really just the beginning. Mark my words.
http://img158.yfrog.com/i/dwwt.jpg/
Walter I think you said it best in your last reply. That added to your original post is great. Social media (digital realm primarily) is when you add sociality (connectedness and how this connectedness can/does/might affect behavior) to whatever you publish/produce or the service/site you run. Sharing on facebook, Seeing what books your friends bought, digg this etc. And live commenting as you say. Everything on the internet (worth using) has some social aspect built into it. So social media as a term is the confusing bit, not what it’s about, because we’re probably all on board there.
But I mean, should a newspaper take away all the “share on facebook” and “comment this” functionality and only be a newspublisher in a digital world – it’s not built with connectedness in mind, and hence not social. I can still pass along the link, but it’s not built into it. I’m on your side 100%. Social media as a phrase is the problem, but what the hell to call it? It’s really just internet the way the internet works today, as opposed to before.
@Olle Sounds like we’re on the same page here. “It’s really just internet the way the internet works today, as opposed to before.” Well put.
Kan hålla med föregående talare samtidigt som Walter får medhåll för att det i den digitala sfären (vad jag vet i alla fall) ej finns många platser som ej kan klassas som icke sociala/att vi inte på något sätt kan integrerar med varandra. Det är ofta en fråga om hur “användarvänligt” man har gjort det. Det mer intressanta är kanske själva namnet sociala medier. Dvs, att bara ha ett namn för namnets skull så man är överens om vad det är man diskuterar. Med tanke på att begreppet sociala medier är den mesta utbredda och använda och med den insikten att det också nu är ett begrepp som förstås av den breda allmänheten och inte bara av oss som på ett eller annat sätt sysslar med media.
Faktum är att det börjar kännas en gnutta tröttsamt med alla mer eller mindre intellektuella försök att analysera och bringa kunskap kring sociala medier. Det hela är väll egentligen inte särskilt avancerat!
http://segerjohansson.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/da-testar-vi-att-reda-ut-igen/
Eller?
I can’t understand language of SegerJohansson, can you translate ?
i am interested.
@SegerJohansson and all you other wonderful readers,
About half of the readers of this blog can’t read Swedish, so if we all try to comment in English we can all join in on the conversation.
@Social Media I’ll give Seger the opportunity to translate himself to get it right, but if he hasn’t translated until tomorrow I’ll do it for you.
Best,
Walter
Interesting post, and I agree that the world have always been social. But for me it is not as easy as this, for me social media still exists but it is not so “special” and “new” anymore. I think of a social medium as a “place” where people can create and publish information that can me discussed and commented on by others. Thus, to me a blog and social network etc. where you can communicate with eachother to be different types of social media. But looking at blog’s, I cannot agree that they are always social, when the comment and track back features are disables they all of a sudden becomes very unsocial, but I would never compare it to a “bad website” or a static website as it isn’t. Thus for me Social media is still a granted definition, but as it is so well established most websites/blogs/networks etc. fall into the term. Social media is what I and I think many along with me associate with the internet and being online, because we spend most of hour time on them.
Nice and funny insight. Social Media is dead. Makes me remember when I stated – the banner is dead! back in 1999. This due to all those who saluted the banner as the best marketing tool ever. Now with click rates below zero and banner blindness -its not the best marketing tool ever.
Social Media is just the way internet work today – nothing more/nothing less. And I love what this can do for you and me.
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