What do you mean by social?

My friend Ian Barnett made me think with his post today, Digital is Life, Life is Experiences and I felt as though I had to comment on one specific line:

“i struggle with people who work in the digital space yet only get a fraction of it. i struggle with brand sites, microsites or even the GENY of today thinking that social is the answer to everything. digital is big world… allow me to define my perspective… and hey… add to it.”

This was interesting for me because it put social into the same mental framework that Ian was using to discuss digital - as in, what does social mean, in terms of marketing? And why are you using such a narrow definition, when any meaningful media interaction is social in some way?

My biggest pet peeve is the discussion of Social Media when people really mean - assembling marketing content that fits with our existing profiles on ‘social media’ portals.

When I’m thinking about social, I’m hopefully considering human behaviour, first and foremost. What facebook does matters a hell of a lot less than how people interact on facebook - and this is inherently the problem: The Medium may be the Message, but the sociology is the meaning.

When thinking about social media marketing, I’m hoping your first touchpoints are behavioural psych, and whatever personal hybrid model of mass media theory and interpersonal communication you use to predict behaviour online.

Determining your social media strategy by looking at the technology, layout and benefits of an individual platform, is like learning how to date by examining the floor plans of restaurants and movie theaters.