Social relativity - What was, will be
I’m currently working on a series of comparative visuals for presentations that draw analogies between social media and historical innovation events. The objective of the series is to demonstrate in an easily understood way how innovations, particularly those that effect social structures, tend to follow similar evolution cycles. By providing these comparatives it becomes much easier to not only understand the cycles themselves, but to be more predictive about where we might be heading.
I’ve termed this “Social Relativity”. There are two predominant hurdles to full-fledged business adoption of social media, comprehension and risk mitigation. On the comprehension side the hope is that these comparative visuals and their surrounding context will make it easier for business executives and marketers to “get it”. The more they can comprehend social media in a context they can relate to the more willing they will be to invest in it. And from a speaker and consultant standpoint, I need tools in my toolbox to provide clarity quickly and easily.
Risk mitigation, the second hurdle to adoption, is a topic heavily avoided by most social media pundits but must be addressed quickly and aggressively, and my personal belief is that we are laying far too much of the responsibility for this at the feet of the companies vs. focusing on how we might improve the underlying platform and processes to better support the needs of business. But social media influencers using that influence to be supportive of those early adopters out there vs. slamming them at every opportunity when they stumble would go a long way to change that cultural response. But that’s a separate topic I’m working on next so I digress.
As is my nature the Social Relativity comparatives I’m already working on will tend to contain a fair amount of humor, particularly in the visuals. And one of the objectives will be to tell these Social Relativity stories as visually as possible without requiring a great deal of text, so I’ve recruited an expert in that field to help me concept. Like most things of complexity it’s folly to think that there is only *one* story to tell in social media, only *one* way to use it, only *one* appropriate toolset, or for that matter that the current platforms represent a complete picture of social media. So the comparatives will be done at both the macro and micro level of social media interaction. Thus the notion of this being a “series”. Social media is a concept not a platform, it’s here to stay whether or not the current platforms survive or morph over time. And as revolutionary as it may seem, the concept itself isn’t new…not even close..,it’s just a variation. I personally enjoy the challenge of finding seemingly obscure, unrelated objects and then demonstrating how they share characteristics. As an example of what I’m talking about, my first Social Relativity piece is a comparative with the birth and evolution of “Fine Dining”. Sounds crazy huh? Let’s just say it may surprise you.
Matt Ridings - @techguerilla
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