Guest post: Social Media in the 21st Century – Deja Vu all over again
Made Social on 27 July 2010 | View Comments
In advance of Social Collective, we have been inviting select people to guest blog and join the SoCol debate, hopefully offering a fresh point of view. We have been asking a range of people to contribute, including those working in social, client side, techies, journos etc with a view of building a wider picture. Any questions raised during this process will be addressed during a panel at SoCol in September.
The latest in the series is from Paul Smith, aka @PaulSmithUK.
Social Media in the 21st Century – Deja Vu all over again
By Paul Smith
The meteoric rise in the profile of Social Media looks like mirroring the initial massive growth of the Internet in the mid 90s. Back then every TV show and newspaper was breathlessly announcing their new websites and email addresses to show how ‘modern’ they were (anyone else remember how Radio 4 presenters used to carefully read their website as “h t t p colon slash slash www dot bbc dot co dot uk”?)
Now boring old websites are so 20th Century they’re hardly worth mentioning but twitter and blogs are ‘the thing’ (Simon Mayo can hardly last 5 minutes between giving out his twitter address).
So as a veteran of the first tidal wave of hype, what can we learn from the the old web when looking at web 2.0?
Education, education, education
Having spent years (literally) in the 90s trying to educate businesses about the benefits of the old Internet; the thought of having to do the same all over again is frankly scary, but it’s essential.
At the moment businesses everywhere ‘know’ they need to do something about Social Media (if only because they are worried their competitors are doing better). The problem is, most have no idea what Social Media is or what it does.
The risks companies face are many and varied, from the disaster of spamming Twitter which befell Habitat to the PR car crash that was Gillian McKeith. Doing Social Media wrong is much easier than doing it right but not doing it at all can, in the long term, be even worse.
Our role is to try and educate businesses about the benefits, guide them through the woods and hopefully steer them away from the many potential bear traps lying in the path. So how can we get it right?
Focus on flexibility
The biggest success stories of the early web and the biggest indicator of potential Web 2.0 success is openness and flexibility – I’m not talking about those mythical ‘open standards’ but the willingness of companies and their sites to be open.
No-one really knows which systems will last, but those which create a flexible framework to allow you and your clients to grow, have the best chance of attracting developers and integrators and hence gain backing from the industry. If you are relying solely on the development team of the site owner, then your business plans are dependent on their plans and are out of your control.
Twitter and Facebook are both (currently) successful because they allow virtually anyone to plug into their infrastructure and modify and shape it to their own ends. More closed systems (such as MySpace) aren’t working because they are more fixed and stifle the creativity of their users. In the end it is the users that determine success, and if they feel constrained by the site then they’ll get frustrated and leave.
Failure is a given, success is rare
Not every ‘big thing’ will succeed. For every 1990s web success story there were countless failures.
Trying to bet on the one winner is like finding the holy grail. Sometimes slow burners take their time to succeed, others never get off the ground. Many sites will arrive in a blaze of glory only to die painfully in the public eye. So if you’re advising your clients, tell them not to put all their eggs in a single basket and expect lots to get broken!
In summary, just like the 90s, we’re in for an exciting rollercoaster experience, so hold on tight and enjoy the ride!
About Paul Smith
Paul is a creative professional of some 25+ years. A graphic designer by training, Paul enjoyed an award-winning career before setting off on a new path in digital marketing.
Paul joined the first commercial Internet provider PIPEX and spearheaded their marketing department in their evangelical campaign to make everyone aware of the internet.
As this was an age before digital agencies, Paul and his team around the world created and built the very first web studio in the UK.
View other posts in our quest blog series:
The Secrets of Pitching Social Media by Paul Sutton
The social media strategy series: Is social media right for your business? by Gemma Went
Talk is cheap by Peter Bouvier
Show social or show business by Chris Hall
Back to the future… by Adam Vincenzini
Managing Client Expectation in Search by Chris Hyland
Get Excited And Make Things by Stuart Witts
