There’s a great book on the idea of propaganda.  It’s titled, quite cleverly , Propaganda, and subtitled The Formation of Men’s Attitudes.  Now, this is a really great book.  It’s a classic work in the theory of communication.  I’ve had this book in my library for quite a while, since I read it as a college sophomore taking his first course in communications.  This book is somewhat “thick” in its 1962 writing style, but if you can stay with it the book can greatly enlighten you into the basics of communication, and help you understand just what propaganda really is and how it can affect people.  Keep in mind that the author’s primary focus is in the area of political communication.  My focus is in the area of communication for commercial purposes, but we can still use Propaganda as a jumping off point for the effect that social media is having upon business.

Written by Jacques Ellul, the author talks about ten factors that need to be present in order for propaganda to be effective.  When I reread these factors recently, it was very interesting to see that many of them can be applied to social media.  Let’s just discuss one for now.

For his first factor, Jacques says that to be successful propaganda needs to address both the individual and the masses at the same time.

This seems curious.  Why would he say this?  Jacques explain his reasoning by saying that the individual is of no interest to the propagandist because “as an isolated unit he presents too much resistance to external action.”

He goes on to say that propaganda looks to reach persons who are participants in a group, meaning those that possess common interests.  The propagandist wants to target individuals in a group because, per Jacques, the group is bound together by emotionalism, impulsiveness, and excess, and as such they are considered as not being “alone.”  The propagandist leverages this group relationship and dynamic and uses it to exert influence on each individual and ultimately the group.

Think about this.  Really think about this.  It appears that Jacques is describing an environment which is much like social media.   Social media address the individual from within a group. Social media is both a tool of mass communication and one of individual communication.  It is “mass” because its public messages can be read by anyone with access to the Internet.

Yet social media’s communications are also individualized because:

1) they are often addressed to persons taking part in a community of common interest (the topic area of the blog or social network) and, as such are somewhat specific and not general in nature; and,

2) because a feedback loop is provided (e.g., the comments in a blog) a conversation can be created between the site author and each reader, individually.  (In reality, a conversation between the author and each reader is probably impractical, yet it is possible.)  Commenters may even address each other, providing ample opportunity for sub-currents of propaganda.

Many of these comments are created in an air of emotionalism and impulsiveness created by the nature of the social medium itself, anonymous, free-wheeling, open, and candid.  Note that Jacques said that this type of group atmosphere is a factor in exerting influence on the individual.  ( I bolded those words above for easy reference.)  So what’s this mean for business?

It means that yes, of course social media could be used as a propaganda tool.  Any communications medium, when placed in the “wrong” hands, can be used to “distort” an image or meaning.  Surely, much of that is done, and has been done, in the “traditional” media.  Just check with the lunatic fringe.  They’re very anxious to discuss their theories on that.

But seriously, with such a tool as social media in the hands of millions of people, most of whom never had a writing or research lesson in their lives, a serious risk is posed to businesses every day.  How do businesses minimize this risk?

They gotta get in the game.  Get in the game.

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Mark Twain is credited with the quote, “Never pick a fight with a man who buys his ink by the barrel.”  This is an allusion to 19^th century technology. Today we can make a similar 21^st century parallel. As was pointed out in the Ad Age article entitled, “Comcast Must Die,” today we would say, don’t get in a dispute with someone who has access to a computer and who is mad and persistent because he can make your life a living hell.

This idea of making someone’s life a living hell reminds me of an old episode from the 80s series, Miami Vice. In that episode, the main character, Sonny Crockett a police vice detective, was questioning a reluctant source of information. The source was not as forthcoming as Sonny would have preferred so Sonny said to the source that he (Sonny) would “clear my desk of all my other cases and make your life a living hell.” Sonny would be mad enough and persistent enough to get what he wanted. If he had had a blog, he probably could have cut in half the time required for that task. Or maybe not, Sonny could be pretty persuasive with just a scowled countenance and a .45 hanging from his underarm.

The same ideas apply to today’s social media participants. They don’t have .45s hanging from their underarms. Well, maybe some do, but I hope that most don’t.  But, if mad enough, persistent enough, net-savvy even somewhat enough, individuals can while boosted by the crowd-inspired power present in social media, electrified by the resulting contagion, driven by instinct, and augmented by the anonymity in the social media crowd, turn their instinctual dislike of institutional power into a nightmare for any given company. They can “clear their desks of all their other cases” and make the life of an institution, and those who work there, a living hell.

If that’s doesn’t qualify as a threat against corporate brand equity management, then I don’t know what does. And if brand equity management is threatened, and if the brand identity is the basis upon which the company operates, then truly all companies are being threatened.

So what are you going to do about it?

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