Web 2.0: It’s not about tools
Want to come out for dinner with me? It’s going to be really nice.
We’re going to suspend ourselves in elevated surfaces approximately three to four feet above the ground. In front of us will be a platform constructed from wood with metal fasteners, covered with laundered cotton. Glass vessels will be filled with liquid so that we’ll have a reason to move the vessels to and fro. Meanwhile, ceramic disks will be placed on the table. We’ll pass metal tools back and forth above the ceramic for about an hour while we make conversation.
Sound like a good time?
Of course not. It sounds absurd. But this is what comes to mind as I hear people talk about social media. The entire conversation is about tools and platforms, forgetting completely about the heart of the matter: people!
It’s not unlike describing a nice meal while leaving out, you know, the food. Even smart, savvy people can easily fall into this trap. They can be forgiven, as the press has (unsurprisingly)Â failed to expose the value of today’s web philosophies and the companies themselves play along. By not talking about the users, except as abstract components of their vague business models, companies and their rock star principals get more time in the spotlight. Social web is about people, not technologies, corporate celebrities or glassy logos.
The emergence of today’s interactive, cooperative online experience came from a primal desire for interaction. Fancy widgets and platforms served an existing need rather than creating that need from scratch.
How to escape the trap:
Plenty of companies screw up their social presence online because they me-too their way into using tools that are popular with other people. They see the tools as popular, rather than the unique value of interaction that users get from using those tools. Me-tooism is a popular argument against social strategies for the very same reason: seeing the tools rather than the interaction.
Many companies place an emphasis on paying attention to their customers’ concerns and making things right when possible. Is a company that adopts such a practice being a copycat? Absolutely not. It’s just an obviously -good idea.
The same applies here. The notion that people enjoy the opportunity to share their thoughts and ideas easily is, well, a new one, despite all the hints dropped by the invention of the printing press. A company that creates opportunities for its customers to have a public conversation featuring the company isn’t being unoriginal. It’s giving people what they want.
No one ever went out of business for giving people what they want.
Instead of seeing social media as tools to be exploited, ask yourself what you can do to make your customers, your fans, your public, work for you while making themselves happy. People want to create, they want to talk, they want to believe. Ask yourself how to provoke these passions in the audience that is important to you. When you have an answer to that idea, you’ll know which tools to use.
At that point, feel free to knock yourself out with AJAX and rounded corners.