Myths & Misses

Edelman features an interview with Brain Morrisey the Digital Editor of Adweek, following a presentation he gave to the Marketing 2.0 conference in Paris on his Top 10 Social Media Myths.

It's interesting that he observes that some of the conversations and opinions about social media (SM) are already becoming seen as "truths' by many. It may well be that, in order for SM to be more easily taken up by brands and companies, they need a framework of rules - ways of doing/not doing it, in order to minimise the risk. And indeed it's an easier sell for those agencies selling SM as a product/service. But it's arguably more sensible (and transparent) when talking about SM, to be open about the fact that we are in a brave new world that is evolving very quickly, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. As Jamie Coomber puts it in Number 7 of the IPA's 10 Social principles "New possibilities open up within digital every week, so it’s even more possible that brands will be entering into the unknown". And he rightly points out that one of the key characteristics of what he calls Perpetual Beta is that everything is fluid. . Brands need to be prepared to take risks to learn, and accept that technology and techniques are evolving so fast that what is seen as right today may not be tomorrow. Already there is plenty of evidence of brands getting it badly wrong in SM. e.g. habitat and Twitter, Nestle and MumsOnline. These 2 examples can never be considered as reasonable behaviour under the guise of any "test and learn" strategy. Rather they demonstrate how some brands just don't get SM.

On reflection, maybe the current "truths” that Morrisey refers to as “myths” can act as a guide for the current behaviour of these brands, and the more sensitive and aware brands can do the experimenting and learning for them.