Social Hallucinations

Social(istic) Media or The Rise of the New Capitalism?

From now and then, there are voices talking about the digital media and the possibilities they bring - the driving force behind the new socialism era. But the question is whether the possibilities created by the digital media make socialism possible, or whether what we see is the rise of the new capitalism.

Image via Wikipedia

Socialism (latin societas - community) is the ambiguous term, referring to attempts to reduce social inequality and the spread of social services, treatment or management of social control through state institutions, local government, corporation or cooperative). What's common for various types of socialism is partial or total rejection of  the idea of capitalist free market, the restriction of private property and promotion of the idea of social justice. The aim was to build a socialistic society without poverty, where market forces are not the primary mechanism for distribution of wealth and where the functioning of society is based on common ownership, mutual cooperation and altruism. Beautiful idea but never proved to work (or fail - as it is not compatible with human nature). We are herd animals, but every herd needs the leader and clearly defined roles to ensure the proper functioning and survival of the group.

The whole problem with socialism is that the idea of socialism looks good on paper:

You have two cows. The government takes them and puts in the cowshed with other cows. You have to look after all the cows. The government gives you as much milk as you need.

Image by publicenergy via Flickr

Then you have the real socialism (which I experienced and would never recommend to anyone as one of the most humiliating systems to an individual and humanity):

You have two cows. The government takes them and puts in the cowshed with other cows that is taken care of by a former poultry farmer. You have to deal with the chickens, which the government took away from the farmers who are in charge of cowsheds. The government gives you as much milk and eggs as law allows, not as much as you need.

Third option is the national socialism - total exploitation, mean capitalism in disguise:

You have two cows. The government takes both, hires you to care for them and sells you the milk with the flag state.

Sharing, cooperation and collaboration that are characteristic for the social media aren't quite working in the socialism, because there are always institutions watching and controlling the sharing or collaboration and trying to regulate those with laws. Maybe not a bad idea, but where regulations and power are involved, the inequalities usually emerge.
Of course there are also some positive sides in socialism, because it focuses on the common good but I can't see its chances to thrive in the world where people value their privacy and right to property. We are too independent and focused on our own success and own profits, driven by our needs. The value is YOU. Youniverse & Meritocracy are what drives the digital media evolution.

What we observe today is the rise of the new networked capitalism with intellect as the form of social capital that increases with use and the new digital opportunities are facilitators that drive the intellect growth. The value of the corporations in the new capitalism era - cognitive capitalism - comes from their ability to create new communication tools (Google), connect people (Facebook, Twitter), etc. Personal drivers as taste, creativity plays a huge role in the production process (Nike ID, Aston Martin). The property rights in relation to intellectual property also dramatically change (Napster).

In the industrial capitalism machines sucked workers in, depersonalized and automatized work, today computers / software sucked our knowledge, mashed it up and customized it getting it available and usable / reusable at every click. The question is not longer how much you produce but how much you manage to seed. The more you seed the more growth you create. What justify the existence and enhances the power of our ideas are their ability to spread and inseminate other minds (self-promotion happens to be quite effective insemination technique when used right) - twitter, blogs etc. being the tools helping on the way. It means social media has nothing to do with socialism except first 6 letters, they are the new capitalistic means of production and seeding. The question whether they contribute to the common wealth or satisfy egoistic needs and ambitions, I will leave open for now...

Image by diankarl*www.diankarlina.com* via Flickr

Sources:

Capitalisme cognitif (Le):nouvelle grande transformation, Moulier Boutang Yann

The New Socialism: Global Collectivist Society Is Coming Online, Wired

Are you the new jumbo shrimp?

Image via Wikipedia

"People heading up social media initiatives with almost zero online footprint is the new jumbo shrimp" (David Armano)

The way we work with social media needs to be professionalized. The more serious and results driven approach is needed. Social media aren't about easy solution that you can put on your marketing & media plan and check it as "done". Facebook pages driven by "LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME!" strategy using the available place and attention to talk about the mere product can't be the standard for communication with people via social media. It is like placing wings on the car in order to create the new type of flying vehicle.

It ain't going to work. There are no quick copy&paste solutions. If you are looking for "cheap and easy way to push your message", social media shouldn't be your choice.

"Social media is like a pair of shorts. Hip. Cool. But not suited for all occasions ;)" (@benkunz)

It may be social media aren't for you cause you are not ready.
If you want to work with social, start with listening and understanding who your people (aka consumers) are, what do they like, need, what drives them (I keep on repeating myself over and over again, but drivers behind human behavior are the key to creating meaningful and effective communication) and what you can do for them to satisfy their needs & fuel their motivations. Then find out what's your goal, what do you want to achieve. What is your success criteria, your ROI and how are you going to measure it. And finally how the social media fit with the rest of your brand strategy (social media aren't stand alone)? Do you communicate towards the common goals via mainstream media and social media?
Don't be too quick to create Facebook pages and Twitter accounts without ever considering how and why are you going to use them.  There is the need to cut the crap about the successful Facebook cases (usually produced by people who call themselves social media experts):

XXX:  "we have great Facebook case!
YYY: "What case? Can you tell me more about it?"
XXX: "Yes, we have 1500 fans! It is great!"
YYY: "Sounds great! What were your objectives?"
XXX: "Er, er...what do you mean, we have 1500 fans!!"

You can't measure the success without knowing what you wanted to achieve. It is like deciding to take a part in the marathon, getting the t-shirt with number, meeting at the start and never start running. Making up your mind to run, doesn't make you a runner. It is about training and commitment.

We need to stop thinking about social media as silos otherwise we produce just spam. Nobody wants to be spammed. We need more long-term social and sustainable ideas that will make a difference for people out there and then also for you and your brand.
I made myself a couple social media mistakes but I never called them "great cases", I learned from them and gained deeper understanding of how to act out there where social norms and people rule.
You doesn't need to get it right from the start. It may take a few tests, some failures but with a right dose of dedication, right insights and truly social approach and ideas, you will make it. Amen.

The Marketing Capability: The Future is Digital

"In order for our brand to be relevant in the future, we gotta live digitally... with our communication and the products we sell. And the brands that figure this out are the brands that will succeed in the future."

From the past to the future Best Buy CMO Barry Judge tells the story of how Best Buy's Marketing Capability talks (and listens) to its customers.

Is Web 2.0 Fragmented?

We all remeber the picture that showed how fragmented Web 2.0 we are living in. Plenty of start-ups, companies, tools, applications, communities - all designed for people. The picture gave many headache, how on earth one could deal and reach to people through so many channels, how to decide which is better and which will survive as the hippest and most popular platform users decided to choose.

3 years passed and the picture changed. Some companies suffered from the natural death, some were aquired and died. Suddenly the world of Web 2.0 doesn't seem so complex as Web 2.0 is like everything else the subject of the laws of nature.

A pink cross means that the company is dead now.

Green circles mark companies that got acquired.

A cross and circle mark companies that were acquired but still closed shop.

Two greens circles means that the company was acquired twice in the same period.

via Meish

Photo credit Meg Picard& Stabilo Boss

Augmented Reality

Technology is a glittering lure that means nothing without contributing significantly to our life, either making it easier or more exciting. The more technological development progress, the more exciting opportunities appear. As mentioned before it is all about the idea and the right context to use it and make it useful. This is one impressive example, called object-based media from Touch - a research group exploring the way mobile phones communicate with the physical world. One of their latest experiments involves attaching an RFID reader to an iPhone. When the phone is close enough to an RFID tag attached to certain objects, different actions or windows are triggered on the phone.

iPhone RFID: object-based media from timo on Vimeo.

Via PSFK

Internet is about experiences

...and banner advertising seems so primitive in the eyes of this website experience
Internet opens the door for the whole new world of the new immersive experiences and all we need is the idea and the right context to create them.

Connected Silos

Online vs. offline, digital vs. analog - two different and opposite elements of the communication world. The media thinking is stigmatized by dualism that makes us perceive and understand the world as being divided into two categories that can't connect, but just exist one next to another divided by a silent wall of the silo thinking. Silos are easy to control and manage. Silos allows the regime of truth and can't surprise. When something came in, something must come out at the other end. But digital is not a silo. Every media have digital component and can be connected one with another.

1+1 =3

Connected silos that can communicate and connect online with offline reality creating the new immerse experiences. Two different elements that put together, create the new reality. The connected silos aren't the humans' extension they create the new dynamic structure, which we become a part of.

Does it exist, one may ask? See yourself.

Weekend Quote

Dissolving the Meaning

I've been going through oceans of fluff written by social media experts. 5 tips how to... 10 advice on how not to do...etc.
Many social media experts are on their quest to rule the world the way mass media did and still do. Social media experts claim the right to be legislators and impose us values. Their advice is becoming a contemporary myth, telling us what the best behavior is. Their efforts focus on convincing the world they say the truth. They are not neutral. They don't create the meaning for the social media. They make the meaning disappear, they dissolve the meaning of the communication facilitated by social media.
Communication that is impossible to reject, because it is the context and the background of contemporary times. Communication that teaches us about ourselves and our reality. If social media disappeared suddenly, we would feel like abandoned on the desert island...

Photo by Ahmed

War Breeds Innovation

Image via WikipediaWho will dare to experiment with social media in 2009? Small businesses or corporations?

IMHO it will be small business, as most of corporations will cut their budgets and stick to safe and known solutions. They will retreat and fight for keeping the status quo. But war breeds innovation, and small armies will reach out for different ways to survive the war, primarily because they have most flexibility to reorganize armies, secondary they have less soldiers to lose. If they're really smart they will win the war of 2009 and get out stronger while corporations will spend efforts to keep up.

Walled Gardens of Newspapers

"...But people don’t use the Times less than they did a decade ago. They use it more. The difference is that today they don’t have to pay for it. The real problem for newspapers, in other words, isn’t the Internet; it’s us. We want access to everything, we want it now, and we want it for free. That’s a consumer’s dream, but eventually it’s going to collide with reality: if newspapers’ profits vanish, so will their product." James Surowiecki, The New Yorker.

Newspapers should face the truth that they are not in newspaper industry but in information sector. Their job is to inform people and Image via Wikipediamake sure the news find the way to them as they want, not like newspapers want.
For sure there is the need for well paid journalists who can deliver high quality journalism and I am sure there will always be people who are willing to pay for quality content. As Surowiecki points out at the end of his article:

"(...)For a while now, readers have had the best of both worlds: all the benefits of the old, high-profit regime—intensive reporting, experienced editors, and so on—and the low costs of the new one. But that situation can’t last. Soon enough, we’re going to start getting what we pay for, and we may find out just how little that is."

Problem arises when we stick into channel and can't look outside its walls. Paper is just a carrier, there can still be delivered outstanding journalism online. It is content people are looking after and they are willing to pay for unique content that is interesting them. Newspapers tend to think about online in terms of accessibility, but it also has another dimension - exclusivity, where content becomes the socially desired object. Relevancy and quality are the key.
It is incredible to hear from the chief editor of Kristelig Dagblad - Erik Bjerager - that "Online media aren't able to replace newspapers at the moment".
It seems like there is no hope if this the mindset driving that industry. Ignorance? Fear of change? Lack of imagination?
We perceive ourselves as the innovative society, that is ahead of the game, but we are locked in the jail of thinking based on opposites - black vs. white, online vs. offline - industrial way of thinking. The way that makes it easier for us to create predictable routines. Today, we are living in liquid era where things merge, divide, transgress. We need to adapt to stay tuned.

Some say about the need of finding a business model, but the best business model is in first place to understand what drives people behavior and choices and then provide services products that are relevant, in other words - to get things done properly.

World Map of Social Networks

Found at Oxyweb

social media, map, world

In the Search for Love

...in digital world. Very touching installation "I want you to want me" by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar. The piece was presented on a 56" high-resolution touch-screen, hanging vertically on the wall, and was installed at MoMA on February 14, 2008, Valentine's Day.

It chronicles the world's long-term relationship with romance, across all ages, genders, and sexualities, using real data collected from Internet dating sites every few hours.

art, MoMA, online dating, I want you to want me

Social Media Wars

Are you confused by invitations to communities, social networks streaming into your mailbox? Dreaming of getting some real life in real world stalked by MySpace, Friendster, and other friend generators.

How your life would be if social networks could talk...this is so funny!! I love this video.

facebook, social media, myspace, friendster, Untitled

Twitter Fragmentation

We get smaller, shift to micro software, ideas, communities, like this new program based on Twitter called Twistori. People write and follow Twitter-like updates focused on 6 emotions, states: love, hate, whish, believe, think, feel. Interesting reading that boosts attention and focus shortage by continuous interruptions on multiple platforms. Niches are being filled up. We share everything anywhere anytime. Life - streams are ubiquitous.



Tags: twistori, lifestreaming, twitter