The Wizard Behind The Social Media Curtain {Series}

Wizard
 We focus on the impact social media is having on marketing, customer service, and PR.  We talk about the revolutionary shift in how its enabling peer to peer relationships between organizations and their customers.  And while all true, there has quietly been a convergence taking place at the periphery of our vision.  A bogeyman that companies are already grappling with but can't quite bring into focus.

Social Media As Catalyst
The reason for this ephemeral enemy is that we are looking in the wrong places for answers.  Social Media instigates the challenge to the organizations yet it does not contain the solution.  Social Media is the catalyst, a tipping point bringing together the perfect storm of culture shift, organizational design, and communication model changes that has been brewing for years but never had enough incentive to fully gain traction.  It is the tail wagging the proverbial dog.  

As social media maturity in organizations increases it begins to become clear that they must have a holistic, top-down approach.  People require new skills; Communication infrastructures can't cope; Organizational design and dynamics must be improved; Agencies are attacking various elements of "social media" from their unique disciplines perspective, but sometimes at odds with the other corporate silos and their respective agencies.   Social media in itself does not provide answers for how to react to these shifts.  

It's A Business Revolution
Yes, this is a revolution, but it's a business revolution not a social media revolution.  Social media has led us down the yellow brick road and opened the curtain to expose the weaknesses in our business structures.  It has helped us frame the proper questions, but now it's back in the hands of the wizard to find the answers.  We are now challenged with how to make our businesses flex and adapt to this new age much like the Wizard of Oz when he was exposed and forced to think of new ways to get Dorothy home .   

A Combustible Mix
Who are these new wizards?  How should the challenges and opportunities be characterized and grouped so that they can best be dealt with?  What disciplines and types of firms should we be looking towards to enlighten our corporate strategies?

Culture development is the fuel, organizational design is the oxygen, and social media is the spark.  It's time for combustion. 

I sincerely hope you'll tag along for the ride as I address each of these areas in a series of upcoming posts.

Cheers,

Matt Ridings - @techguerilla
Posted on Sunday, Feb 27, 2011 by