It’s inevitable that in many discussions of social media and social business development, someone will ask:
What’s the next big thing? What happens now?
The next big thing isn’t big at all. Well, at least in terms of flashiness or bombastic, noisy fanfare. It’s not even likely to be sexy.
If you care about where social is going next, it’s time to get your sleeves rolled up and dig in. Because the era we’re approaching is in the merging of social at a superficial level, and social at a foundational and organizational level. And that’s going to get messy.
There is and always be a bleeding edge for things, and people that somehow manage to make their livings and livelihoods from predicting what that edge will look and feel like. But there’s precious little room on the brink, and when it comes to building something sustainable that applies to your existing business, there is much work to be done.
In the next year to five years, we’re going to be having conversations about things like:
Human Resources
We’ll be breaking down overly simplistic questions like “who owns social” and instead figuring out how social integrates into all roles and at what level, be it functional or strategic or both. We’ll be having discussions about whether existing roles in our companies may be becoming obsolete, which may be experiencing a renaissance, and the reality of staffing everything from robust listening strategies to internal communication systems that have a social core.
People are what will drive social business, and while efficiencies may be found here and there with technological means, there’s no escaping the investment in people and education that will be required.
Technology and Communications Infrastructure
Disparate systems cannot survive the long term if they’re ever to become routine enough to seamlessly integrate into our daily work. Moreover, businesses can’t have each department or team working with tools that are so niche, fluid, and personalized that they become cannibalistic to themselves by diluting and weakening the ties between information that they’re meant to enhance.
We’ve got to focus on the purpose behind having certain kinds of tools in our arsenal, namely collaboration; integrated, fluid, and rapid communication; and data mining for information that can yield insights upon which evolved and more nimble business decisions can be made.
Intellectual Property and Individual Brands
The more content we produce, the more relationships we forge at speed, the more our brands depend on the personalities of those that build them, the more complex it becomes to leverage the networks of your individual and give them the freedom to achieve independently while still benefiting the collective.
We’re going to have more and trickier conversations about who gets to lay claim to what and how; culturally advanced companies will worry less up front and deal with isolated instances of abuse as they come, understanding that these relationships are largely mutually beneficial. Conservative, even paranoid businesses will get more restrictive before they become more open, and there will be turf wars, defections, and culture clashes that are visible and difficult.
Elbow Grease Powers Innovation
The future of social business isn’t in campaigns and Klout scores. It’s not in checkins or photo contests or live streams. It’s not even in some mythical measurement standard by which we can score some perceived definition of “social media success”.
All of those elements will play their own role in the same way that technology has always impacted and changed how we work. But the legacy work for building social organizations is in the foundations, in the wiring, in the infrastructure that’s often overlooked for unsexy. It will be in the people themselves – their mindset, their passions, the new tradespeople we are teaching and carving from familiar but outdated molds. And in taking the intent behind the techniques, and baking the fundamentals of those ideas into business models that can adapt to changes in the technologies themselves.
The work for us will be in examining and fortifying the very structures we are building, even when that means actually doing the work over and over again until we get it right. Success will be in how we understand and define a thriving, adaptable organization, one that is poised to not only embrace the challenges and opportunities we see today, but to open their eyes to what is certain to be a mind-boggling array of innovation in the few years nearest us.
There is real work in this. Hard work. Anonymous, invisible work. Incremental, meticulous, tedious, agonizing, sometimes paradoxically slow moving work. But these are the new foundations upon which our own futures reside and the businesses of our children will evolve.
The flash of a new whizbang may shine shards of light on potential, but make no mistake that the social business we so passionately claim to envision is made of simple ideas strung together with the extraordinary power and complexity of information itself. And the steadfast labor of our own hands and minds is what will make it unique, and decidedly real.
What Else Do You See?
I’ve touched on just a few of the areas that I think will emerge in the coming months and years as social business moves from an ideal to a practice. But I’d love to hear what you’re thinking, experiencing, and seeing around you.
Surely there’s more of the nitty gritty work to be done. What is it?
Well, I’m glad that there’s some real work involved. How else will we find comparative advantage?
Good thoughts. Thanks.
Good post Amber, as far as I understand anything it seems like you have it just about right. Of course the actual work in process will be a steep learning curve for most organizations but fun too. HR may just have the steepest learning curve as they need to step up significantly in the collaborative work style and understanding Social well enough to deploy it effectively.
Amber… At the end of the day, foundations will reside in our mindset, attitude and values. Without these it will be through selfish motivation only, that we will accomplish anything of any value for our clients. How we use the “new tools” in the future to improve profits will be the exciting new evolution… like 26 year olds winning the Masters!
What I’m wondering is how much the “Done for You” outsourcing of social media niche is gonna take off and contribute to evolving models.
I was just listening to Kate Buck give a presentation on how her methods allow people to hand off 90% of the gritty work to others and you take on only 10% as the business owner.
It’ll be interesting to see how this takes off which I have no doubt it will because it’s the “Easy Button” for the business owner.
Nice post Amber – all great points!
I think the next big thing (if it isn’t already) will be the content challenge – who the hell will produce it, how will we do it, how will we manage it and – what happens to organisational structure when everyone has a responsibility to publish! Interesting 🙂
Nice post Amber – all great points!
I think the next big thing (if it isn’t already) will be the content challenge – who the hell will produce it, how will we do it, how will we manage it and – what happens to organisational structure when everyone has a responsibility to publish! Interesting 🙂
Thanks for this post Amber. I especially appreciate this -> “Success will be in how we understand and define a thriving, adaptable organization”
At the core, businesses need to have a real culture of openness. I agree that it isn’t about the latest widget, but how organizations communicate. Business that try to participate on social media, while still be very closed-door with consumers, will fail.
But that’s not enough. I want more. I want you to break out the Ouija board and tell me precisely what is next for this ‘social media’ because if you ask me, it sure sounds like a pretty basic concept. that’s not good enough. I need acronyms. And timelines. And to know how much money i can make from all of it.
Do that, then you’re a genius.
But that’s not enough. I want more. I want you to break out the Ouija board and tell me precisely what is next for this ‘social media’ because if you ask me, it sure sounds like a pretty basic concept. that’s not good enough. I need acronyms. And timelines. And to know how much money i can make from all of it.
Do that, then you’re a genius.
Amber, if it’s not the technology, it’s the numbers (or analytics as we like to call them nowadays – “statistics” is too 1990). And if it’s not the numbers… Hey guess what! There’s a new tool to download (so we go back to technology). In this never-ending cycle we marketers tend to satisfy our own needs of downloading and analyzing and forget the simplest and most basic form of our purpose: satisfy the customers’. See you soon! ~Paul
I like your depth of thinking…How about applying measurement integration to social and traditional to meet organizational goals, and who manages it?
Infrastructure building can’t be sexy – that’s not really it’s nature. But critical infrastructure is so key to not only emergency preparedness, but also to surviving the ennui that’s already starting to accompany the critical mass socializing business is gaining.
Platforms are nice. But they’re better when they’re clothed in visible benefits.
Love it.
We are going through a monumental shift in business on every possible level. The imperative caveat must be that we cannot assume every business, every business person and every organization is even at the embryonic stage yet. Social business, social networking and social media are newly worded elements that have been around since we scratched on cave walls yet we still have a long way to go.
Social begins with internal trust of your entire organization. And as we continue to see a majority of management trying to manage rather than lead, trust will be a ways away for many organizations. Add to that, building a social business spans much farther than anything digital or online.
Departments may help chunk up the work but an overall understanding or a 360 degree understanding of what everyone does – and not through butt covering and mind numbing useless meetings – is where organizations can truly make inroads which will absolutely point to a measurable increase in the bottom line.
But while we continue to search for quick wins, rainbows, leprechauns and unicorns, we have (as you say) a lot of very hard work ahead of us.
it was to lead all over the world ……thank you…http://www.orampoo.com
One thing I see–first hand–is the inter-staff animosity as a result of the human resources and tech infrastructure you mention. By design social media staff are probably lower on the totem pole than other, more established positions like CIO or PR or comms or web senior staff. So what they think is best or think should be done is at the mercy of those who have a vested interest in keeping things the same. I know from experience it makes for a very frustrating job–having to deal with external conflict on one side and then having to deal with internal conflict and frustration on the other–I predict it will lead to a high burnout rate for the people tasked with “selling” social media processes and systems internally. I also think it will be particularly harder at larger, more established businesses than smaller or newer, more socially-focused ones. I know it will definitely be a factor in whether I remain in this field versus going to something not as emotionally-charged!
Amber,
You make some great points and hasn’t the “social web” just returned us to the fundamentals of business that we somehow moved away from? Business has always and will always be about people and we are now, as a society, beginning to understand that.
At the root of this is the fallacy of control and that is what has driven business leaders for so long. This leads to a focus on numbers and processes because no matter how hard we try, we cannot control people. With the advances in technology, this is now being accepted because even the processes and are out of our control. Once we give up this fallacy of control, we can engage at a meaningful level and connect as people striving to achieve individual and collective goals.
We live and work in complex adaptive systems that can be influenced but not controlled. The people who understand this and develop the skills to influence and respond nimbly will succeed and those who don’t will not.
I could keep going but need to take my soapbox and get back to work;)
Great post!
Social Media and Social Business. Thanks for putting these together in the same title. There are varying degress of “getting it” but I think you’ve nailed something really important.
“…technology has always impacted and changed how we work. But the legacy work for building social organizations is in the foundations, in the wiring, in the infrastructure that’s often overlooked for unsexy. It will be in the people themselves – their mindset, their passions, the new tradespeople we are teaching and carving from familiar but outdated molds. And in taking the intent behind the techniques, and baking the fundamentals of those ideas into business models that can adapt to changes in the technologies themselves.”
So true! I find myself in a conversations with industry leaders across a wide array of social business. Some are asking what Social Media is, why is it important for them, while others are wondering how to control it, secure and own it. I think the favor leans toward the first couple questions – and success means willingly not owning or controlling it. Perhaps directing it and purposefully engaging it yes. McCradey’s point is well put: Business[es] that try to participate on social media, while still be very closed-door with consumers, will fail.
“The work for us will be in examining and fortifying the very structures we are building, even when that means actually doing the work over and over again until we get it right. Success will be in how we understand and define a thriving, adaptable organization, one that is poised to not only embrace the challenges and opportunities we see today, but to open their eyes to what is certain to be a mind-boggling array of innovation in the few years nearest us.”
Doing the work over and over again, and again and again. Flexibility and intentionality are the name of the game. Experimentation, failure and persistence. That’s a whole lot of nitty gritty 😉
Thanks for the well articulated points Amber!