I network on the site Linked In. Recently someone there asked a question about how one would go about implementing Facebook on a corporate intranet. One of the more astute answers, from Jason, raised the classic issue of the inversion of problem and solution. Jason suggested that the questioner shouldn’t think about a solution (Facebook) until a problem was first identified. Now, there’s some solid thinking.
In social media, all too often people are all ga-ga about the technology so they start putting the cart before the horse and think, “Now, where can we apply this cool stuff?” Before I develop this thought further, I’d just like to say I’ve officially had enough of the word “cool.” It’s overused, trite, and banal. The word is not properly applied in its correct meaning as originally developed back in the 60s; then it referred to someone who was self-assured and confident. I wouldn’t exactly call any technology confident. But let’s get back to my original thought. Cart before the horse.
Is the situation of people asking where a social media solution can be applied really putting the cart before the horse? Have they really not identified a problem first? Let’s think about it this way.
Perhaps it’s a situation where the problem has been considered indirectly, or even subliminally, rather than through a conscious, left-brained, cogent process. Perhaps the very existence of social media has raised our collective consciousness to the eternal problem that all companies need to be closer to their customers, to engage them on a more personal level, to develop relationships. The problem has always been there, but now because social media’s advantages are well-known and are poised to address these problems, we move to apply these media without specific problem identification because the eternal problem is obvious. It’s understood.
There are worse things that can happen when you start implementing cart in front of horse thinking. But maybe this isn’t one of those times. Because the field of social media is so new, the playbook is still being written. We’re feeling our way downfield. Certainly by applying social media to the eternal problem of improving customer relationships, one can’t go entirely wrong. There would only need to be some tweaking and that would be to pick the proper social medium.
