Bessy Nikolaou, the 20-something senior digital strategist at Time + Space, a Halifax-based media consulting firm, trills the same tune: “What we say to our clients is that resisting social media is almost futile. Customers are in this space and they are online and they are talking about you already. So the key is how to harness social media to communicate. It’s not a monologue anymore. It is a dialogue. And you have to be engaged in an open, deliberate way.”
The irony is almost exquisite: Two indisputably smart women, raised and educated to think for themselves, subscribe to a nearly Orwellian version of their industry’s future. Suddenly, work life is about the virtual “conversation”, the ubiquitous requirement to “engage”, the omnipresent electronic eye that never blinks.
Perhaps, it’s not surprising. The hype surrounding social media is nearly deafening. According to some reports, 73 per cent of Americans and 64 per cent of Europeans are online. In fact, Vancouver-based research firm Ipsos Reid estimates that Canadians spend 5.4 hours a week accessing social networking sites. Specifically, it says, 37 per cent of Internet-enabled adults in this country regularly visit online communities, while 29 per cent maintain profiles. Nearly 63 per cent of the 18-34 demographic are visitors, and 55 per cent are active “profilers”. Meanwhile, 29 per cent between the ages of 35 and 54 are lurkers, while 21 per cent chat happily in their virtual spaces. Even older folks are getting with the program: In the 55 and over demographic, nine per cent are visitors while the same fraction maintains profiles.
All of which has sparked some breathless prose on the phenomenon. The leading “thinkers” on the growth, character and economic impact of the social media belong to U.S.-based Forrester Research Inc. Two of its associates, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, recently wrote a book, entitled Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies. In it, they declare, “The groundswell is a social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations. It is not a flash in the pan. It is an irreversible, completely different way for people to relate to companies and each other. Why is this happening now?”
Their contention is that people naturally rebel against institutions. Social networking sites, which enable average folks to communicate seamlessly about everything, undermine the traditional balance of power between producers and consumers. Say Li and Bernoff: “By 2007, 12 years into the Web era, online advertising had reached $14.6-billion (USD) in the United States alone and approached $10-billion (USD) in Europe. Advertisers know that traffic indicates that consumers spend their time and attention online and act to translate that attention into advertising power. It’s not even necessary to sell ads – you can sign your site up for Google AdSense and let Google sell the ads for you and share the cash. While advertising is not the only way to make money online, it’s growing so rapidly that any venture that creates significant traffic can count on revenues.”
Indeed, the authors proclaim: “If you work for a media company, look out. Advertisers are shifting more and more of their money online. The groundswell is creating its own news sites (like Google News or Digg). The very idea of news is changing, as bloggers jostle with journalists for scoops. People take entertainment properties like TV shows and movies, rip them off the airwaves and DVDs, hack them, and repost new versions on YouTube or Dailymotion…. And if you have a brand, you’re under threat. Your customers have always had an idea about what your brand signifies, an idea that may vary from the image you are projecting. Now they are talking to each other about that idea. They are redefining for themselves the brand you spent millions of dollars, or hundreds of millions of dollars, creating.”
Their grounding point is this: Unless you’re in the game, you’re out of luck – and soon, very soon, you’ll be out of business. But is this claim actually credible?
RESEARCH FROM KNOWLEDGE NETWORKS of Menlo Park, California, suggests that something less than five per cent of Internet users regularly turn to socialmedia sites for guidance on products or marketable services. What’s more, the think tank reports, only 16 per cent say they are inclined to buy from companies that advertise there. According to David Tice, the firm’s vice president, “Marketers need to be prudent and people-centric in how they approach social media. Social media users do not have a strong association between these sites and purchase decisions. They see them as being more about a personal connection.”
