In traditional PR and marketing communications, small companies have always been at a big competitive disadvantage.

‘Perception-wise,’ bigger establishment companies have dominated the space and the mainstream media because they have more money to spend and have been spending it longer. They have other advantages, too, of course. And sometimes, the establishment players deserve the reputation they’ve sustained. Many don’t. But getting a word in edgewise has always been difficult for the newcomer with a better idea.

While the monetary advantage the big establishment players have traditionally enjoyed can spread their message further, faster and at a higher noise level over sustained periods, no amount of treasure can make a bad message good or an old, outdated message new again. Enter social media. Here message transcends money, or that at least has been the promise made to those who would dare break from the tradition.

Astonishing to me has been the reluctance of so any small and medium companies to take the risk, especially since they will never win the check-book battle the old-fashioned way. Plus small, medium and start-up companies by definition have a culture that typically favors doing things in new ways. They are characterized too by risk-taking. But when it comes to social media options, have these organizations been too slow, too timid? Have they been too cynical about the potential of social media? Have they once again, as they have been known to do so often in the past, let the opportunity slip through their hands while the big, slow companies figure it out?

News flash: Big, long-surviving establishment companies aren’t stupid often or for very long. They get big and stay that way for a reason.

To that point, here is a tremendous post by Maggie K. Fox on the Social Media Group blog. It is important for two reasons. First, because it notes how people are beginning to find new ways to use social media for even moe real value. This is about a company’s innovation called an Enterprises Services Community:

The way it works is this: industry leading firms that represent the full biodiversity of a vertical are invited to participate. The example that was used in the keynote was banking - 130 organizations have been collaborating on a banking-oriented service-oriented architecture… The objective of this exercise is an industry-wide solution created within the SAP platform.

The second reason this is an important post from Ms. Fox is because if you’re in a small to medium-sized company and you haven’t started down the road, you are very, very late and your opportunities to seize and sustain a competitive advantage over the big, slow companies in your space are dwindling fast. Time is running out.

Share This