The true test of social media lies not in the number of connections it enables, but the extent to which it brings meaning to those connections, say Cerebra CEO Mike Stopforth and Rich Mulholland, founder of presentation strategy firm Missing Links.
Speaking in Centurion yesterday, at the Internet Service Providers' Association's iWeek conference, the duo stressed the need to bring context to content.
The first rule of social media is to be authentic.
Mike Stopforth, CEO, Cerebra
“We have more information being thrown at us than ever before and we can't cope with it. This is an issue for brands, because they rely on people paying attention in order to influence how they see and respond to brands.”
Stopforth said this sensory overload has resulted in people building networks to contextualise information. “When you're going on holiday, for example, everything seems the same marketing-wise, but when you ask around on Twitter you get a different response that's contextual and relates to you.”
Another important shift is that brands have gone from broadcasting to conversation. “With social media, brands are becoming good at speaking with consumers; consumers have the opportunity to speak to brands, and consumers are now speaking to other consumers. This has fundamentally changed the way brands relate to consumers,” said Stopforth.
The explosion of social networking has also led to the evolution of consumer to prosumer, he added. These include ordinary people who innovate or improve on products, or become a brand of their own through an extraordinary talent.
“The prosumer is the kind of individual who would not have existed nor had this kind of profile without social media,” said Stopforth.
Relax - and be yourself
Mulholland pointed out that the world of traditional media has been overturned, with virtually anyone able to publish and circulate content.
“In the past, media were the gatekeepers of influence. Nowadays, anyone with Internet connectivity can be a journalist. If you look at the footage of revolutions and war on news sites, half of it is coming from ordinary people.”
“This change has redefined brands. Their challenge now is to understand the shift from consumer to prosumer and to get people involved in R&D and building the business, because if they don't listen they'll be overrun by the switch to prosumers,” Stopforth noted.
But finding a balance is essential, they stressed, as seen in the case of clothing company GAP, which flip-flopped after announcing a new logo last year. Following online outcry about the logo, the retailer back-peddled and invited members of the public to submit their own ideas. After further backlash, it finally caved in and brought back the design it's had for more than 20 years.
With a lot of brands, Stopforth added, people are just looking for an opportunity to moan, using the recent network outage at Vodacom as an example.
“We say things and make promises online, but we don't necessarily do them,” said Mulholland. “You have to be careful as a brand how seriously you take them.”
Either way, said Stopforth, brands have to give people the perception that they're part of the change process. He added that social media, rather than creating new networks, often brings context and insight into networks that always existed, but which people weren't aware of.
“Many brands worry when they begin engaging with social media that people will complain about them. But people were complaining anyway. They might be more visible now, and you might have to deal with the Pandora's Box you've opened, but it's not suddenly going to cause more complaints.”
He noted that online grumbling can also provide a fairly good indication of a company's performance. “Because it's a democratic process, people tend to self-regulate. So when I moan about a company, others may agree, or someone else will say 'well, my experience was different'. It's a pretty good litmus test of how you're doing.”
Stopforth also stressed the importance of being upfront when engaging with consumers. “The first rule of social media is to be authentic. People want you to be yourself and engage with you on that level, because marketing is so often about not being who you really are. In social media, authenticity is becoming a competitive differentiator.”
A better boat
For Mulholland, the approach to social media needs to change. ”There are so many networks, but instead of converging to offer more value, the pool is getting bigger and bigger.
“Social networking is becoming the Solitaire of our generation - it's a nice way to spend time doing nothing.
Social networking is becoming the Solitaire of our generation - it's a nice way to spend time doing nothing.
Rich Mulholland, founder, Missing Links
“As networks get larger and larger, their value is actually diminishing. They aren't necessarily more meaningful. It's about the quality of connections, not the quantity. Facebook is an island of information. Twitter is another island of information, LinkedIn is another. Everyone is trying to build a fancier island when all we need is a better boat.
“We need a social operating system that allows us to connect better. Facebook is trying to do that, but they already take up too much space in our minds. And Facebook is a service and a service can't be the operating system. We need something independent.”
Google lost its chance to be this independent organising entity with the release of Google+, which is essentially a Facebook rival, Mulholland argued. “But this is not what the world needs. All Google has done is build another island.
“We need an underlying system that provides context and insight into a connection that always existed, but that you never knew about.”
He envisions a system that can run on a PC, without a Web site front-end, that will track a user's purchases, calls, photos, location and so on, in the background. It can then use these intelligently to make connections that are meaningful to the user in certain contexts. Such as Twitter feeds that adapt to location or circumstance.
“We have to find a way of doing things smarter. We need to create a tool that allows me to get contextual information when I need it. When we have this underlying platform, we'll be able to use social media better and shift our thinking from contacts to context.”
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