It seems to me that social media is at the very end of it's beginning phase. This period goes back at least a decade, but when it comes to business, the action really started in late 2005.
It has been a messy, noisy, distracting and divisive period. Nearly every institution has been changed by social media as it sped across the first four phases of the Kuber-Ross Model and has now pretty much entered into acceptance.
It's no longer a question of should social media be used for business, but HOW it will be used.
This is as it should be and it has followed a path that other technologies have taken as they moved from leading edge to mainstream. For some of us, we greet this flex point with ambivalence and even sorrow. We are ending and action-packed, dramatic phase and entering a longer, steadier phase of normalization.
Businesses are getting more comfortable with social media. Original ideas are evolving into best practices. Social media has become scalable and it is most certainly sustainable. We are learning how to measure myriad goals that social media can fulfill.
People are starting to talk less about the tools themselves and more about the business at hand. In short, social media is becoming a mere tool set and in the coming years conferences and conversations--and books--that gush euphorically about social media virtues will be about as popular as a conference on the benefits of faxing.
This phase will be longer and change will be slower. Using social media in your work will be just an everyday activity that you do to get your job done. Today's popular tools will continue to be refined or replaced. People like me will end up searching for a new next best thing.
The age of disruption and excitement is coming to an end. The age of normality and significant, producing, prolonged business value has begun. That's what was supposed to happen all along or so it seems to me.
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Agree with Chris, the vast majority in Europe still dont get it and 99% of our customers are not using SM yet, this should be the challenge to get our customers on board otherwise we are all just tweeting to each other like some giant twitter ponzi scheme
While Social Media has come a long way in recent years I am not sure it has reached its flex or "tipping" point. To suggest that it has entered a new. Normative phase might be a bit premature. I agree we are headed there and that the norming is the next logical phase of social media's life cycle. My experience suggests we still have a bit of a ways to travel until the full fledged acceptance of slocial media as a standard business pracgtice akin to say email.
Hmmm, interesting reading, has given me lots to think about. An yes, definitely we're at a "norming" stage.
There certainly is a shift I've seen of late, but what I've noticed is bigger brands being more common & bringing old marketing methods to Social Media, making it less, well "sociable".
This for me is a #fail but I do hope that they learn from the people who use social media really well.
It's interesting how social media has changed, I've been using Social Media, as in: "spaces on the internet where people meet to share content in public." Since 1996. Things have changed somewhat since then. The biggest change I've seen is to begin with the internet was a great place to be anonymous, which gave great freedom from some to really be able to express themselves in a way they hadn't previously been able to. A result of this expression was a wider connection of people globally.
I see Facebook as being the main contributor in the shift towards being open & transparent online (this doesn't mean without privacy). Facebook was the first place I used Social Media where my username WAS my name.
Shel,
What's happened is social media usage has evolved from just being something efficient to how it's most effective. Like some other the posts have mentioned. the content and how it's used is way stronger than the platform used.
Just opening accounts/profiles on social media/network/bookmarking sites and pumping out cookie cutter material, while vaguely efficient, is far from being effective. Being social and connecting with those people who like your product/service/content, is what is still being realized.
Take a look at some of the brands and businesses who are doing a stellar job with social media. What's common about them is they are small in size, yet are superb in how they communicate and allow the free flow of communication between internal and external parties.
We are now at the point where if someone or something is interesting, engages you to think and interact, is overtaking the soon to be obsolete methods and theories of sales and marketing taught in our schools and universities. Don't believe me? Look at how quickly and effectively one can create an enterprise using only social media, and become very profitable by just putting in sweat equity and being personable. Transparency and authenticity are what will win in business now and going forward.
Enjoyed your post Shel!
Shel,
I've been thinking along the same lines, although I'm not sure the beginning phase is as close to the end as you suggest. There's still a lot of talk about the tools and how to use them as opposed to content and creativity.
Mark
Dan,
I said "people like me." Social will probably be my last next big thing, followed by retirement. But my advice to younger "people like me" is wait to be surprised. It will happen precisely when and where you don't expect it. That's why it's a surprise.
Shel,
I took your use of it out of context and meant no disrespect.
"People like me will end up searching for a new next best thing."
If you're writing this, I presume the search has begun, any insight into what you've found?
Dan,
Thanks for your comment. Just for the record, the term "social media" was popularized in Feb. 2006 by Chris Shipley at a DEMO conference keynote. She defined it as "spaces on the internet where people meet to share content in public." I was an editor covering the conference and gave the term more attention than anyone else.
At the time, there seemed to be a need for a new term to differentiate new stuff like blogs and podcasts from "Web 2.0" technologies.
In this post I use the term to refer to the tools that enable those conversational spaces and I base it on the brief history of the term.
This is good blog message, I will keep this in mind. If you add more video and pictures because it helps understanding :)
I see your point and I agree with most of it, but I also think the accepted definition of Social Media solely as a technology is incorrect.
Social Media is not a thing as in "searching for the new next best thing". It's not even a tool. It's a term we use to describe Communication using ever evolving tools that are taking advantage of our leaps in technological advancement.
At the heart of Marketing, Sales and Customer Service is Communication. And to succeed in business, they must constantly be improved. Businesses will never cease to look for better ways to Communicate.
The term "Social Media" may be ending it's disruptive stage, it is accepted. But, I think the path to improve Communication will always be a rapid and exciting one.
thanks for your post and your time.
in Europe I believe we are still in "disruptive" phase as most businesses still don't "get it".
As usual we watch the US to see where our businesses will be in the near future but it's difficult to gauge exactly how far behind we are.
Nicely observed, thanks. It is good to see the contents becoming more impirtant than the platform. Interesting though how the langyage changes during the transition. The platform becomes a verb. I will skype you. I will fax you. These appear to be terms that could be used once the respective technologies are suffiently main stream.
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