What if we ALL stopped calling it “social” media?
What if we ALL admitted what we already know to be true? That media is inherently social; that the current (and still- evolving) “social network” platforms render “social web” inherently redundant; and that ALL social and commercial efforts are no longer exclusive from each other? What would happen if we ALL finally realized that “media” is the plural of medium? And that the only difference between our traditional marketing world and our web-wide-world is that the “media” is no longer controlled by the few, but rather, now, by the ALL?
What if we ALL realized that it’s now possible to successfully “market,” or achieve a community goal, without using “traditional” (offline) media…but that the more sophisticated selection of (online) medium(s) now includes all of the traditional media in their digital forms? What if we ALL came to understand that by viewing “social media” as a singular entity, rather than its all-inclusive 24/7/365 capabilities, we are ALL actually hindering its ability in achieving its true potential?
What if we ALL finally understood that, while “new” lessons, of course, always need to be learned, very few marketing truths actually need to be rewritten? And that anyone trying to establish “new” rules should try to understand that they’re wasting their time, because there are no longer any rules…only individual consequences to individual actions taken? What if we ALL understood that, as a society, we will ALL adapt to these new tools eventually, with or without editorial comment from the “rule-establishing” choir?
We are communications professionals…and we should be leading the thought process, not echoing it. What would happen, for example, if we ALL re-embraced – in a very real way - the “traditional” marketing, advertising and public relations principles? What would happen if we ALL agreed that marketing has always been about relationships, engaging in conversation, building trust - rinse and repeat - and that the only difference now is that ALL of us, are ALL of them? (Can anyone say…”Brand?”)
And what if we ALL truly understood, and actually practiced, what we ALL currently preach…that this really isn’t about ALL of us; it only includes ALL of us.
I believe this would reset the conversations, and move the marketing-communications industry to the next level. The issues of ROI, CRM, SMI, QPQ - or whatever acronym with which you currently have “issues” - would reset themselves to a point of “context.” And I believe that would stop the current insanity within our industry.
When will we ALL realize that, as a society, ALL of us are actually no different then we were before we ALL started to “hunt and gather” within our digital world? Once we do come to realize that, we could then ALL stop wasting time trying to outdo each other with “insight” that only echoes what we’ve ALL already learned in our previous world. And we would also come to understand that the greatest sameness is in the opportunity for ALL to participate. Or not.
