Every Company Participates in Social Media

Prolific blogger and public relations guru Brian Solis kicked off 2010 yesterday with a post on "The Evolution of Social Media and Business." One of the great things about Brian is is his obsession with dragging the PR industry toward utilizing social media tactics as job #1. It's one of those things that's obvious to outsiders but that doesn't mean that it is easy to do...and Brian is one of the key insiders making it happen.

But, I'm in a snarky mood this morning and so I'm going to channel my inner Amanda Chapel and take issue with something Brian says in his post: "Today, there are businesses that engage in social media and those that do not." Seriously? No, every company engages in social media. Some companies may not use the shiniest new tactics of the day, but if a company has a website....if a company has a customer service department that you can send a letter to....they are participating in social media.

Why is this an important distinction? Because it's time to stop pushing social media tactics out as completely disconnected from the rest of the marketing and advertising activities that companies partake in. The desire to wall social media off from other activities is part of what is giving rise to the push for social media to prove its ROI in 2010. That's good and that's healthy. But you better believe that that ROI is going to depend on social media's impact and interplay with the rest of the organization...in other words, it will be derived from cost savings in customer service, new insights for the research department and other 'surprising' value pots....not because a Facebook Brand Page drives a bunch of new sales (and the corollary is that a decision to not invest heavily in a Facebook brand page does not mean that a brand manager is an anti-social media neanderthal).

I'm a huge believer in social media...because I see how it is an evolution of the best practices of marketing, customer service and market research. Without those historical precedents, its nothing.