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I've worked deeply with social media for around 8 of my 11 years in the online marketing world. Your article (thank you) reminded me of a talk I gave some years ago at the Cap Gemini Innovations Lab series. We were discussing the use of 'cult' within marketing. Essentially some parallels could be drawn between the pyramid shape of using truly magnetic ambassadors (in or out of house) to encourage real people to take on roles of customer support, feedback and sales. I hosted the workshop in context of hosting my own online social-professional network which had gained some fame back in the day. We were all about 'human icons' and al that.

The lines between what is 'business' and what is 'pleasure' are indeed very hard to draw. In the UK the concept of 'real' relations with our suppliers and contractors is a difficult one to grasp for many simply because it feels quite alien to the way we work. We are used to keeping work at work and home at home. Abroad though, there seems to be more of a blur between our personal identity/story and the things we do for a living-- very recently I was taking a cruise vacation where most of the guests were from the USA... in the bar the usual openers I have been used to such as "where are you from", "are you with your folks", "have you travelled here before" were replaced by "what do you do for a living", "how's the economy treating you", "do you know anyone in x field".

This level of personal-space-meets-business-space seems to ring true online also. My UK online communities tend to be 90% social with the 10% business part of the profiles, bumps, beeps and messages being a part of the conversation more to define who we are likely to bond with more than who we might do business with. As a member of other networks with a global reach, the level might be more 50/50, with people taking a real interest in what I do and less 'who I am'. I must say, I enjoy having both as part of my daily life; I'd hate to be defined by either one and I like doing business with people I begin to 'know' and companies I 'like'.

We used to encourage companies entering the 'web 2.0' space (are we allowed to drop that term yet!?!?) to study the intricacy of 'dating' and 'relationships' before we let them play with having their own online communities and open forums. We needed to re-educate their people to look at their own world and see how and why they began to trust people in the real world and how that might affect how they do so in cyberspace (and beyond that, how customers might perceive their reputation within an open but azonic space).

Having real people represent a company online is all well and good when it comes to forging 'real' relationships, but it's a little too simple in terms of strategy. After all, a major firm is unlikely to be justly represented by one single person-- it's a merging of ideas, characters, reputations, images, languages... hence the formation of a brand.

Marketing agencies can go too far when suggesting that corporates enter the social-media space. There are ways to be a part of this new culture without 'hanging out your washing' or entrusting communications to human profiles. I've seen great success with closed communities (invite only) where larger firms can open themselves up to the general public, empower people to go out and be their ambassadors and get that vital feedback they want when launching stuff into the real world. Rarely though do these operate on a large enough scale to impact the global sales figures. Or I should say, the results of such work is going to take too long to be public this year.

I remember attending Ecademy meetings when I lived in London and thinking how hard it was to actually form a real bond with people when we were all in the room primarily to sell, sell, sell (and let’s face it we were, even if we did have a beer in hand). I think the problem was, we just didn't know how to match our online profiles with a real room setting... it felt as if people wanted to 'be' a profile... "I am X", "I work for X", "and I’m looking for X". Sometimes I longed to take a group of them and fly them to Japan or Korea where business takes weeks, back and forth, back and forth, tea and dinner, your friends and mine, before we actually get around to trusting someone with our business desires and supplier demands.

We haven't got it right yet, not even so many years on. There are niche networks out there meeting on and offline which have generated huge cross-member-business, but they remain niche. They exist because those people needed the internet to make a connection across time and geography that couldn't happen otherwise (mainly because those involved have a social desire to be amongst 'their own kind' that extended beyond what was available within their home location).

Anyway, I've clearly waffled without getting a point across. I think the post just intrigued me into thinking back to my work with transposing the human relationship into a digital environment. If anything, that's what I'm getting at: focus less on the technology or platform and more on the things you already know (or should if you're getting good at what you do and it requires customers) -- make your bonds real, shake some hands, share some risks, open up a little bit, send stuff...

The best networks make those things easy. The others are just basic replacements for things we can do better by jumping on a plane or going down the pub.

Interesting to note the decline in new memberships of the larger 'everything in one' communities and the increase in niche profiling systems. Maybe after all, global as we are, we prefer to live in villages. Even if the locals come from all over the place 9-5.

Alex

Head of Digital
Renegade Media