Is Social Media Only About Technology?

A recent discussion on the recruitment of potential members to an upcoming social media body raised further talks on IT professionals’ roles in social media. As usual, I raised my objections against anymore geeks being brought onboard. My concern laid not only in the possibility of social media being manipulated by the IT industry, I questioned the underlying values that all of us are adopting social media for.

It’s no secret, that the IT industry has boosted social media by a milestone. When was the last time we talked about social media without any references to IT? Hardly! Without the web applications, networks and countless web tools, where will social media be? Evidently, IT is an integral segment of social media as the key facilitator for connections to be generated. Will we suffer from an overdose of IT? I think we’re already looking at it now.

With three IT-based members in a team of 10, I objected to a further three more from being brought onboard. While I cannot disclose details of the confidential project any further, to have more than half the team dominated by IT professionals is definitely not a good sign. Just like what I pointed out above, is the internet itself capable of generating conversations and adding values to brands? I beg to differ to anyone who says yes.

TOO MUCH. TOO SOON. TOO FAST.

I preached endlessly how the true values of social media are in the activities and interaction involving humans. Without all these, a Web 2.0 website is nothing more than a piece of web art. Can you imagine a Facebook without users? Can you visualize a Youtube without videos? Can you imagine a Flickr without any photographs? Unimaginable, you are right. Strip away the fanciful marketing and PR talks, what does it take for such web facilities to get alive? USERSHIP! And, that’s us and our consumers at large.

Each month, hundreds of applications and websites are being released into our virtual world. How many have we truly adopted and used extensively? Nothing more than necessary to converse, track and assess. It could be two. Or it could be five. Or even 10. That’s only so much we can get a foot in. Do we really need all the releases the IT industry poured into the virtual space? Definitely not. More than half of them will eventually end up as junks in the stump. Too much of such online “services” are being provided with little differences between them. The supply & demand equation tells us we are being overfed.

With so many “services” launched every week, if we even considered them as services, all of us are suffering from information overload. Shortly after one service is launched, another similar service pops up on the social media radar. It really beckoned me to wonder, has the later launch spent enough resources to experience what’s truly missing before they throw another out on the streets?

With IT companies trying to up one another in any way imaginable, identical services are just delivered too soon apart from one another. It always good to have choices, but now, we spoilt for choices. My IT friends, do you catch my drift? Not unless you have something truly unique and out-of-the-world that any other companies or services can’t provide, I suggest you might want to hang on to your launch and study your competitors a little more. That’s also establishing your competitive edge over them.

Not forgetting, the amount of information and flow of human traffic in the virtual world. They’re constantly evolving and moving from places to places. Isn’t it a great idea to be able to keep track of every single one, leaving nothing behind? Unfortunately, we do have to concede to the fact that there is no way we can achieve that. Majority? Yes.

Take social networking sites for instance, users have move on from Friendster to MySpace and subsequently Facebook leading the pack. That’s in a matter of years. Take into account the Dot Com Crash, it’s a relatively fast advancement within a short time. That’s how quickly internet users hop from one to another. Again, I point to the fact that we made it possible for them. Companies will eventually find it all too fast to follow up, and find themselves spending more time on the catching-up game than truly exploiting the potentials of these already-existing networks.

It may sound demoralizing on the IT industry, in particular the Web 2.0 diehards. I’m not here to strip the IT professionals of the credit they deserve. All I am pointing out, is that what social media needs is more than just the IT infrastructure. The technological tools are incapable of generating anything until someone publish an article, a consumer puts up a review or a professional starts a discussion. So on so forth. Are we now able to see where the core contents that facilitate social media is coming from?

Let’s imagine a time when we pitched a social media proposal lacking in content input, what kind of values are we adding to our clients branding? Or are we trying to sell an empty shell?

I believe at this point, it is about time for the majority of IT professionals to take a back seat and allow the marketers or PR team to run the show. These are the people who are actively interacting with consumers, and what’s more?

Would you be expecting an IT person from the company to answer your question regarding your car radiator when you post a question in your blog?

Would you prefer an IT person from the company to answer your queries regarding your new cupboard you bought from Ikea in your Facebook Ikea group?

Would you want an IT person from the company to answer your frustrations when your air con goes dead on you after purchasing it for three days?

By Ed | October 10, 2008

Filed Under Social Media

 


Comments

4 Responses to “Is Social Media Only About Technology?”

  1. Marc on October 10th, 2008 5:26 pm

    Thoughtful article Ed, and lots of wise points!

    Scrolling down to the bit where you’re mentioning Facebook (and Flickr and YouTube), I guess the failure of the thousands of upstarts that have come and gone offering the same functionality as those 3 is clear proof that it’s not how nice the site is programmed that dictates the success.

    It used to be that content was king. Now conversation is king. Or some combination of content and conversation perhaps. Certainly it’s not an IT issue.

    =) Marc

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    Ed replied on October 10th, 2008 5:59 pm:

    Marc, you could be right. There are too many replicas in the market and it offers no sound reason or benefit for anyone to dump a well-used service just to patronize a new one.

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  2. Marc Meyer on October 15th, 2008 10:14 pm

    Ed the issue is that IT people need to understand work flow and UI and db functionality as it pertains to the process that is social media for instance. But we do not require them to get inside the users head-that’s our job as marketers and user experience experts. So it’s really up to us to articulate to them what we are trying to achieve. It’s not up to them to understand and or assume they know what someone on Facebook is going to do.

    IN an organization IT needs to know why they are there and what their specific role is on a given project. Asking for skills outside of their job description or assuming they know what you want is only asking for trouble.

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    Ed replied on October 15th, 2008 10:20 pm:

    Hi, here comes another Marc. Is this coincidence? Haha.

    Couldn’t have said it any better than you have stated: IT people need to understand work flow.

    The constant assumption of consumer behaviors by some IT people can potentially threaten the relationship with customers. Particularly, “forcing” customers to pick up a new process of buying products when they are totally at home with existing one. In the case of social media, the threat mainly comes from a total overhaul of how customers are comfortable with interacting with the brands.

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