5300 BC … or so.
January 22, 2009
Social media is ultimately about people - how we interact, communicate, build relationships, etc. In short, it is 6000+ plus years of human behavior with more efficient tools.
Why 6000 years? Give or a take a 1000 years, it was when human beings first started forming permanent communities. (If this sort of stuff fascinates you, learn more here.) The formation of communities became the catalyst for creating better and better communication tools (and more efficient ways of killing each other); a trend that continues today.
From this comes two consistent rules:
- People adapt and change, but core human behavior remains the same.
- Communication tools always become obsolete.
These two rules are why we believe it is a mistake to focus on the phenom aspect of social media tools. Instead, the focus should be on creating the same conditions that created communities for our ancestors. This means working on your culture, setting up the communication infrastruce to allow and promote interaction, publishing content, staying relevant, etc. Most important, set up a community that is people-centric, not tool-centric. By doing this, you are ensuring that your “community” will evolve as tools become obsolete and new tools arrive on the scene.
Of course, there is a fine line between getting left behind and jumping on the bandwagon. We are convinced that much of the recent adoption of social media by companies is not so much cutural but executive over-reaction. Something similar to a CEO telling his/her marketing team, “we need to get on Twitter!” - a conversation that has occurred every time a new tool comes along.
Communication always takes the easiest path. For today and the next few years, that will be in the social space. So take full advantage of these tools by utilizing them properly. Just remember that they will evolve. But that’s ok if you are not defined by the tools you are using. In fact, it could be said that a community’s ability to adapt to new communication tools is an indicator of relevance. I’m sure that Byblos, Lebanon has broadband.
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