Here's a news release about an upcoming seminar that sponsors and participants say "lifts (the) lid on complex world of social media." In one of the funniest lines I've read in recent memory, the release quotes a marketing guru saying, "It promises to throw up some very interesting discussions and debates and we’re sure it’s going to draw a big audience.” 

Throw up, indeed.

The beauty of social media is that it hinges on some very simple, straightforward concepts. Brand managers have to turn the car keys over to consumers; corporate communicators have to cede control; transparency, authenticty, and credibility matter more than all the money in the world an organization can spend on its polished, one-way messages. Maybe they meant the technology is complex? Hardly. Anyone can be blogging within about twenty minutes or less, on anything. Most of the best blogging platforms are free. YouTube, Facebook and MySpace are free. Grade schoolers master these social media platforms in minutes, intuitively.

No, the complex part of social media is why in God's name it takes so many otherwise smart people so long to give up the ghost of marketing past. Complex is the psychology of total control.

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Here is a very fine piece by Bernhard Warner, a freelance journalist and media consultant, appearing in the UK's TimesOnline. Entitled, "Social protesters stand up to Microsoft," it's actually about online social media protests in general, with Mircosoft being used as a recent example in the context of a broader point Mr. Warner is making. That point, I believe, in his own words, is this:

With the likes of Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and MySpace, activists have never had such powerful tools to mobilise the masses to protest. In an instant, online users can join a revolt today in Caracas, yesterday in Myanmar and tomorrow, perhaps, in Redmond… The customers are speaking. Shareholders should listen.

Mr. Warner's piece is rich in details of other recent online protests. It all leads me to believe that in the near future there will be more online protests; they will happen faster; they will involve many more people than you might expect to get at an actual march; and, that social media will likely drive a new age of more universal activism by people who have been otherwise powerless or voiceless or invisible heretofore. Makes for some interesting speculation, doesn't it?

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Well, well, well… finally some real evidence that smart, Best-in-Class companies are way ahead of the Laggards when it comes to understanding, using, liking and gaining benefit from social media. It comes out of an Aberdeen research survey featured in this CNNMoney.com posting. Take a look at this astonishing statistic:

…Best-in-Class organizations are over 680% more likely than Laggards to improve their ability to predict customer behavior through the use of social media monitoring and analysis tools.

and…

…Best-in-Class companies are 5 times more likely than Laggards to be "extremely satisfied" with the number of actionable insights derived from social media monitoring and analysis.

What's the root of their interest and satisfaction? The report makes that pretty clear, too:

Companies leveraging social media monitoring and analysis tools believe that a clearer view of customers' wants and needs will ultimately allow organizations to positively affect customer satisfaction levels and improve return on marketing investment (ROMI). Best-in-Class companies are nurturing technology implementation with key organizational processes and capabilities, such as a formalized process for monitoring consumer-generated content (65%), dedicated personnel devoted to social media monitoring (52%), and an "early warning system" for detecting potential threats to the brand (42%).

It's 1:20pm Tuesday afternoon, February 5, 2008. Do you know where your brand is, who is talking about it, or what they're saying?

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