“Dam”med if you do: Tidal Waves and Chain Link Fences

Here is your challenge for the day: you know that a tidal wave is coming. You don’t want the water to disrupt your world. So you have an idea.

You’re going to put a fence that looks like this:

in front of the wave that looks like this:

Really?

Really.

Not very effective, right? The reality is that you can’t stop the wave from hitting. There is nothing you can do that will make that wave change its mind.

And yet, we see chain link fences hastily erected in front of tidal waves every day. In fact, this very act was embodied just last week. Not in the physical sense of steel vs. water, of course. In the allegorical push vs. pull, big-rusty-business-machine vs. organic-ecosystem-employee or customer, shouting vs. listening, controlling vs. multiplying sense. This is the battle between social media and the tight-fisted behemoths that want to regain their semblance of control in a changing world.

EMI Music learned this the hard way last week when they seized control of embedding indie-pop rock band OK Go’s music videos. In 2006, OK Go’s music video “Here It Goes Again” posted on YouTube received tens of millions of views, brought concert crowds to five continents for 700 shows and even propelled the band to win a Grammy. For the band, it was viral promotion at its finest. For the EMI Music, it was free advertising. And then big business got greedy. Record labels started making money on YouTube video views. But not on embedded views where videos were posted on blogs, in emails, on websites. So several weeks ago, EMI Music denied users to the right to embed Ok Go’s videos. The result? Views on Ok Go’s new video dropped 90% in one day, from 100,000 one day to 10,000 the next. The bigger impact? OK Go “peaced-out”, ditching EMI Music as their record label and starting one of their own.

Short-term, small picture, myopic mindsets can lead to a hasty attempt to seize control. Schools fear losing the attention of students so they ban social media in the classroom and across campus. Businesses fear losing productivity, so they censor social media in cubicles and meeting rooms.

The bottom line: you can’t control a force that is bigger than you. The driver of social media is the same driver of business: relationships. It’s a cumulative force that is bigger than any one person, and it is bigger than a business or any one person can control. You have to find a way to work with it, change with it, use it to your advantage.

So let’s try the question again. You know the tidal wave is coming. You don’t want the water to disrupt your world. So you have an idea. How about putting a fence like this:

 

in front of a wave that looks like this:

 

Okay, so it’s not a fence…it’s a dam. It’s also a better alternative. It’s a source to harness the power and create energy from the tidal wave of the changing environment. Rather than stopping it, embrace it. Work with it. Change with it.

Like Ben & Jerry’s. Their most recent Facebook post on the fan page earned 199 “likes” and 36 comments. The one before that received 746 “likes” and 145 comments from their 1.2 million fans. And Red Bull. Response to their most recent wall post garnered 605 “likes” and 62 comments from their more than 2.3 million fans. These businesses use social media not as another megaphone to shout boiler-plate, stiff and familiar messages to customers, but instead as an engaging environment, a figurative comfy leather couch on which to sit with customers or employees to listen, engage, break bread and interact.

Your audience no longer wants to be told. Period. They want you to listen. And if you don’t, there are millions out there who will.

When you face the onslaught of change, the tidal wave of social media, you’re going to have to change your defense, because the chain link fence is not going to work any longer.

Filed under: Management, Relationships, Uncategorized