Viewing The Social Web as a new "region"... not just a new marketing channel.

When companies globalize and enter foreign markets, a critical success factor that they’ve learned--and many companies have learned it the hard way--is that they must first understand a new region before marketing to the region’s citizens. Otherwise they increase their odds of failure, instead of upping their rates of success.

The exact same principle applies to social media and, more to the point, to The Social Web. After all, The Social Web is not just a new marketing channel, it’s an entirely new “region," given it's a place that boasts such attributes as thriving communities, cultural nuances, a set of rules, common values, accepted practices and a preferred code of conduct.

Web 1.0 truly was a new channel and gave us unprecedented efficiencies for communications, marketing, research, sales, service and support. Google gave us a new way to research stuff, Amazon gave us a new way to conveniently buy stuff and eBay gave us a new way to sell all sorts of stuff. Companies led the way and we were able to connect to the Internet and these company's offerings.

But with Web 2.0, people lead the way and we're able to connect to each another. Because with social media, people now have access to the same media tools as companies, and people, not companies, create and share the majority of content... so it follows that people (not companies) set the rules and fuel the space's growth.

It's not that people no longer need companies in this environment, they just don't need them in the same manner. And instead of being customers of a particular brand or users of a particular technology, people are members of a particular community--and many times they are members of several communities spanning personal and professional interests.

I’ve been involved in this space for years as both an active participant in communities and a professional observer of the companies marketing to them. And I find that many companies limit their view of social media to a set of new tools rather than adjusting their understanding of The Social Web as a set of new markets. And it follows that they do so without first grasping what’s driving its growth, who sets the rules and how these trends hold implications for their marketing and their revenues.

While learning the tools is no doubt important in order to use them effectively, tools rapidly change, evolve and give way to new tools. It's the cycle intrinsic to technology and innovation. The essential lessons, however, are the permanent shifts in mindsets, behaviors and practices that are profoundly changing purchasing cycles and marketing processes, as those are here to stay.

So the story is not that social technologies (or social media) enable us to connect to the world. The story is that, given access to efficient, cost-effective tools that empower everyone with a voice, the world is now actively connecting and swapping stories... and through those stories, new voices are introduced into the business (and buying) process. Companies need to be very mindful of that last part as that hits them where they live and breathe.

The marching order is that companies need to remain relevant to their markets amid these shifts as the strongest companies are the ones who adapt to change rather than resist it. But first they need to understand what all has changed, and the complexity of the new environment, so that they can properly align their processes and practices.

Thus, when looking at the Web 2.0 space, don’t view it as merely a set of tools and another marketing channel. That will limit your understanding, your marketing efforts and, ergo, your success. Instead, view The Social Web just as you would when entering an entirely new region: work to first understand its culture, practices, values and rules. As a result, just as with any new region, its citizens--the users forming strong communities around their interests--will be far more receptive to you (and your brands).

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Comments

[Lewis Green]

CK,

I just wanted to stop by to say I am enjoying and appreciating your common sense look at Web 2.0. Nice work!

[Peter Korchnak]

Interesting angle. If you conceptualize the social web as a region, you may go one step further and develop sense of place. The Australian government offers a good definition: "Sense of place is an intensely personal response to the environment, social and natural, which the individual experiences in daily life, and at a broader level it can be the individual's perception of the whole region, state or nation." Having sense of place of the social web will then allow you to have and create for others a deeper and more meaningful experience there.

[CK]

@Lewis: Great to have you here, as always ;-)

@Peter: Agree 100%. The Social Web is absolutely a place (vs. a "channel" or "site"). I use that very word on a slide in training sessions--and one person once asked me, "What type of place... a bar?" (ha!). And then I'll draw the parallels to how, when they enter new regions with their companies, they conduct the upfront planning and diligence that's necessary since they need to understand and respect the region's culture--and I'm finding that a helpful analogy. As I explain to them, at one point these countries that you now have active operations in and relationships with seemed foreign to you as well... so the Social Web won't always be, either.