May 29th - Social (Media) Studies

High Anxiety  One reason electronic social media outlets are so popular is their ability to reach out to such a broad range and depth of people.  Another reason is that a lot of people get nervous around other people.  In the old days, like or not, in order to open a bank account, sell something to a customer, or find a new job, you HAD to speak to people one-on-one.  Now you can do all of that and more from the privacy of your home, while lounging in a bathrobe, and watching daytime TV.  So it’s no wonder that we actually need guidance about how to “make the first move” in a social setting.  Fortunately, we can turn to the internet for answers!

Heightened Awareness    Brand recognition existed long before the electronic age.  But clearly the internet has vastly expanded the possibility of exposing people to an idea or a product or a service.  Last week Silicon Valley whiz kid Guy Kawasaki  twittered about the Mayo clinic’s use of social media to enhance their brand recognition.  But as I clicked through to the presentation, I was struck by the fact that they cite “word of mouth” as still being the most common way people hear about their clinical research and programs.  Yet the clinic appears to be betting on social media as a way to enhance their value to the public at large, for example by providing free podcasts or using Facebook to help people with questions and concerns.  So I suppose the “mouths” of the 21st century include computer screens and audio speakers.

In Friends We Trust   The real value of social media is that when it works, it personalizes information.  Not that it “tailors” data to our interests (we can leave that up to targeted marketing programs).  Rather, blogs and e-mails and tweets from someone we trust, can help us find our way through a blizzard of data and identify the parts of it that are both relevant and believable to us as individuals.  Unfortunately, scammers have discovered that we are often a little too quick to trust people on the internet.  You wouldn’t give a stranger on a crowded street a $20 bill and ask him for change afterwards.  But a surprising number of people give strangers on the internet their passwords or credit cards.

New boys, old toys  Over time the “old boys network” has gradually become more gender-neutral and color blind. But there still are certain socially-based practices which business leaders use to evaluate decisions.   Deals are still made on the putting green and the tennis court.  Handshakes still precede many contracts.  Really big companies that could afford to employ teleconferencing still send executives out in airplanes to meet business partners face to face.  So it shouldn’t be surprising that even technology company leaders aren’t going to be found spending a lot of time on Facebook.

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