Remember, "Social" Isn't New

Here we go again... The latest "social" darling is Twitter. Is it going to surpass Facebook? How do we use it? How come we're not already Tweeting our way to business success? These and other questions are flying through conference rooms all over the place. And, they are good questions to ask.

Without a doubt, Twitter is proving itself useful as a means of rapid dissemination of information and a source of consumer insight for companies who pay attention. Who can argue with the growth curve of this new utility, now used by millions of people each month?

Allen Adamson posted a good article yesterday on forbes.com about differences between Facebook and Twitter. The differences are notable because thinking "Twitter versus Facebook" misses the point. That line of thought is similar to "Hammer versus Screwdriver". Different tools for different purposes, friends!

At the risk of vast oversimplification, Twitter is quicker and Facebook is deeper. Each can play a role in a well-crafted move into things social. Adamson finishes with "As has always been the case, organizations need to use whatever means are available to listen and learn..." I couldn't agree more.

And here's where I'd like to emphasize Adamson's "As has always been the case..." We're human, folks (leaving out the odd zombie or space alien disguised among us). We are social creatures. We talk, we interact, we socialize! The underlying behaviors haven't changed so much as the enabling tools have. Whether communicating in synchronous or asynchronous fashion, technology has enabled greater reach, speed, and – perhaps most importantly – the ability to archive our interactions for future review.

Synchronous and asynchronous sound "big" and "technical", but really it's just "at the same time" or "one after the other". Talking with each other is a great example of the former; writing notes to others exemplifying the latter. Whether Webex or Twitter, today’s enablers of both types of communication surpass the imaginations of our forebears. And there is absolutely more to come... New solutions and innovations will continue to stream our way.

In this propagation of further, faster, better it helps to stay grounded in the underlying truth when considering strategy. The old questions of "What are we trying to accomplish?", "Who are we trying to reach?", and "How will we measure success?" are still absolutely necessary. They are crucial to the avoidance of Shiny Object Syndrome (thinking myself clever for coining the phrase, I did a quick google search "just to be sure". Guess what? Over 15,000 results!).

Regardless of the tools available, because new ones are constantly being invented, it's crucial for marketers to keep the order to "ready, aim, fire!" Those who succumb to S.O.S. are guilty of firing first and only considering the concept of aiming afterwards. Such efforts generally waste time and money without delivering measurable results.

"But what about being fast? About being on-trend? About staying relevant?" I hear the groans, and there's nothing to stop rapid implementation by asking the important questions. Heck, being wrong on some of the answers is part of getting better. Positive iteration is only possible by identifying that something could be better. Answering the what, who, how questions doesn't ensure success; it ensures intention of being successful. And intention leads to direction, which in turn enables learning, assessing progress towards a goal, and ultimately results.

So, play with the shiny objects, tweet your heart out... Just do it with intent. Otherwise you will likely just contribute to the growing pile of twitter litter (another one I coined late... only 2,700 search results for this one, though).