Umair Haque

Umair Haque is Director of the HavasMedia Lab. He also foundedBubblegeneration, an agenda-settingadvisory boutique that shaped strategiesacross media and consumer industries.

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From Social Media to Social Strategy12:03 PM Thursday April 1, 2010 | Comments (40)

Marshall McLuhan once famously said, "The medium is themessage." Here's what he meant:

"The 'message' of any medium or technology is the changeof scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into humanaffairs."

Today, the meaning is the message. The "message" of theInternet's social revolution is more meaningful work,economics, politics, society, and organization. It promisesradically more meaning: to make stuff matter, once again, inhuman terms, not just financial ones.

And that's never mattered more. Industrial era business was"meaningless" because it was antisocial. Here's how theDSM IV defines antisocial personality disorder:

"...a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, therights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescenceand continues into adulthood."

It fits most organizations to a T — from Wall Street to Detroitto Big Pharma to Big Food to Big Energy. Our researchsuggests that 95% of organizations are unable to offersocially useful stuff that creates meaningful value for people,communities, and tomorrow's generations.

Yet, most "social media" strategies have one or more ofthree goals: to "push product," "build buzz," or "engageconsumers." None of these lives up to the Internet's promiseof meaning. They're just slightly cleverer ways to sell more ofthe same old junk. But the great challenge of the 21stcentury is making stuff radically better in the first place —stuff that creates what I've been calling thicker value.

Organizations don't need "social media" strategies. Theyneed social strategies: strategies that turn antisocial behavior

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need social strategies: strategies that turn antisocial behavioron its head to maximize meaning. The right end of socialtools is to help organizations stop being antisocial. In fact, it'sthe key to advantage in the 2010s and beyond.

Here are seven social strategies that are turning yesterday'szombieconomy upside down. They're what I look for whenevaluating investments, innovations, and ideas across thesocial mediascape.

Character. Most organizations have no character, in thetraditional sense of the word. They'll never stand up forwhat's right, noble, or true. If they were a hyper-Dickenscharacter, they'd be Ebenezer Scrooge squared. Thecharacter strategy utilizes social tools to help an organizations develop a moral compass, often viaethical accelerators. One of my favorite examples is Gwilym Davies' disloyalty card, which rewardscoffee-drinkers for trying out other local cafés. Now that's a coffeeshop with character.

Control. Most organizations are run by bosses. By contrast, an organization with a social controlstrategy radically decentralizes decision-making, giving the control that was formerly vested inechelons upon echelons of managers directly to people, communities, and society. ThinkThreadless, whose corporate anarchy is upsetting the tired, increasingly profitless clothes market.

Creativity. Most organizations are, from an economic perspective, brain-dead: they are unable tocome up with newer, better ideas consistently and reliably. The result is that they defend old onestooth and nail: a formidable source of antisocial behavior. The creativity strategy hinges onutilizing social tools to explode how imaginative organizations are. Lego's social approach to toyproduction and consumption — textbook awesomeness — has turned the table on its rivals, bygiving Lego the capacity to be more imaginative than they can be.

Culture. Culture is how an organization makes sense of the world, a set of assumptionsinternalized by all its members. Most organizations are the cultural equivalent of stone age tribes:focused on "the hunt," "the kill," and what's for dinner today. Like stone age tribes, they'refractious, unproductive, and easily broken. In the culture strategy, social tools are used to help anorganization make better sense of the world. Accountability, roles, tasks, processes, incentives —that's what shapes culture, and in the culture strategy, social tools are utilized to reconceive them.Wal-Mart's Sustainability Index is a radical example of a culture-changer, altering all of the above,helping Wal-Mart's entire ecosystem make sense of the world anew.

Clarity. The clarity strategy is perhaps the simplest. Most organizations are flying blind: they havelimited visibility about changes in the marketplace. Social tools are a powerful way to gain clarity:better, faster information about what's happening not just in the boardroom, but in the real world.My favorite example of clarity is Google's rapid, frequent, consistent experimentation. Because ofit, Google always has more clarity about what really creates meaningful value — and what reallydoesn't — than rivals. Here's a tiny example of Google helping searchers gain clarity on hotelpricing using Google Maps.

Cohesion. Relationship inflation is the most visible sign of social media decay. The cohesionstrategy says: in relationships, seek quality, not quantity. One of my favorite recent examples ofcohesion is "Tummling" — the art of social engagement. It's a form of moderation pioneered byHeather Gold, Deb Schultz, and Kevin Marks. The Tummler's job, Kevin says, is "setting the toneand establishing the norm," deciding who speaks where and when, summarizing, and synthesizing.The goal of Tummling is to help dialogue happen — and make relationships not merely inflate, butcohere, thicken, blossom, and mature.

Choreography. Most organizations seek "high performance." Today, performance is no longerenough: excelling in yesterday's terms is excelling at the wrong things. This is downright self-destructive (just ask Wall Street). Today's radical innovators aren't merely mute performers,

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destructive (just ask Wall Street). Today's radical innovators aren't merely mute performers,precisely executing the empty steps of a meaningless dance: they're more like choreographers.Choreographers define the steps of a better dance — they lay down better rules for interactionsbetween supply and demand to take place. Yelp's getting its choreography wrong, failing to build abetter dialogue between buyers and sellers (instead of just isolated, drive-by "reviews"). Etsy's stillon the brink of greatness, pioneering highly productive relationships between buyers and sellers.My favorite example is M-Pesa, which lays down a new choreography for finance: from person toperson, instead of bank to bank.

Using the social to "build buzz" and "push product" is about as smart as using a warp drive to visityour local Wal-Mart. Social tools today are used mostly as a new "channel" to push the same olduseless stuff of the industrial era at hapless "consumers." That's meaninglessness at it's finest. It'sthe least productive — and most soul-deadening — use of a formidably powerful tool.

Social media strategy fits inside a marketing (business, corporate) strategy, and is shaped by it.Social strategy fits outside business and corporate strategies, and shapes them. Social strategiesare about rewriting the logic of the industrial era entirely, shifting gears in how we think,envisioning a broader, more powerful, more challenging use of social tools. They are aboutdeveloping the capacity to understand an organization's role in society, and how to play a moreconstructive one, wielding sociality as a source of advantage — by acting radically moremeaningfully than rivals.

Social strategies are about reinventing tomorrow. Their goal is nothing less than changing theDNA of an organization, ecosystem, or industry. Want to get radical? Stop applying 20th centuryprinciples ("product," "buzz," "loyalty") to 21st century media. The fundamental change of scaleand pace that social tools introduce into human affairs — their great tectonic shift — is thepromise of more meaningful work, stuff, and organization. Start with "the meaning is the message"instead.

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COMMENTS

40 Comments

The Social Media BubbleUmair Haque

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April 1, 2010 at 1:12 PM

Thank you, Umair! It's thought leadership like this that will move organizations past food and shelterand (hopefully) to self-realization.

— CARLO DELUMPA

April 1, 2010 at 1:31 PM

Love it. Great insight and thoughts about social transforming how we work and how business is run.

What I have trouble wrapping my head around is the ability to actually scale such incredible changesto most organizations. A lot of what you're talking about involves the destruction of organizationalstructures and business behavior that will not be able to be achieved any time soon. I believe insocial business but am convinced much of this will be a slow, evolutionary process that won't reallybecome reality for at least 20 years -- when today's teens are old enough be running and dictatinglarge, organizational behavior.

— GERARD BABITTS

April 1, 2010 at 2:01 PM

I liked your perspective of ideal as the new strategy to broach this topic.

— DORIAN TAYLOR

April 1, 2010 at 2:03 PM

I think it's very sorry that publishers like HBR feel compelled to come up with such banal articlesabout "cool" ideas on a regular basis. If you have nothing good to say, please don't say anything.Everything in this article is cliched and purposeless. I am so disappointed. Or do you feel that if youdont tweet every two hours people will think you are stupid? Now you show some "character" and let this comment through :)

— VIVEK PANDEY

April 1, 2010 at 2:20 PM

Awesome. Fine examples, love the 7 C's

You're quite right on the social core (yet another C)I notice the social world bouncing on and off the old world on ROI, socalled strategies, new wine intoold bottles

I'd love to have a TO-BE post on social, comparing that to the AS-IS: it's still the other way aroundwhere we spotlight what's wrong and point out how that could be rightened by social. And then whatconsequences that has, in both cases

— MARTIJN LINSSEN

April 1, 2010 at 4:12 PM

Nice article and great concepts. Now what? What can a company do in the short run to help developa "social" strategy? Can you give us tactics to get us going? How do we measure the success of our"social" strategy? Do companies in different verticals and objectives have the same "social"strategies? Or should we not "paint ourselves with that brush"? Love to hear how we cam implementthis into our company.

— KENNETH CHO

April 1, 2010 at 5:23 PM

I think the question is "what can a company be?" rather than "what can a company do?" Socialmedia is not a channel, it is a meeting place. When you know that you want to meet, then you knowwhat to do.Good article.

— CHRIS JANGELOV

April 1, 2010 at 7:31 PM

Companies are reluctant to accept Social Networks as an essential toll to Corporate strategy, socialworld, represent 65% of the audience of the Internet.On average, each user accesses 525 pages of

world, represent 65% of the audience of the Internet.On average, each user accesses 525 pages ofsocial networking sites per month per user, with an average of 3.7 hours. This new social culture is an award to Organization. Is the faster way to implement Marketing research, understand consumers and branding score. Asocial networking can immediately brig us results to evaluate behavioral management.Organizational Emotional competence will not be tested by Human Resource policies but by allcompany members.

— MARIA PATRIANI

April 1, 2010 at 8:03 PM

Great article Umair! I think that this concept of letting the social strategy shape the overall corporatemarketing strategy is one that is grossly overlooked within the business world. Although, at firstglance, one may think that the 7 C's are obvious, it really takes separating and analyzing each one toclarify the tactics and goals that an individual/business/corporation should target when implementingsocial media in a marketing campaign. Doing this can increase the cohesiveness of the overallmessage coming from the brand.

— GARY

April 1, 2010 at 8:29 PM

Hey folks,Some great questions and, well, comments in these comments! @Kenneth Cho especially, I hopeUmair decides to tackle some of your points in an upcoming post. (Umair, hint hint.)

Speaking of which, @Vivek Pandey, well, your comment made it through just fine. :) I am sorry thispost disappointed you -- not every post on this site is going to speak to every person who comeshere. But I would like to challenge your assumption that HBR felt "compelled" to "come up with"something just to keep our Twitterstream fresh. (That would be deeply ironic, actually, given thesubject of the post.) This is an idea Umair came up with on his own (really!) and one that I happento think is pretty cool (not "cool"), though of course I'm biased. I will admit, the vagueness of yourcritique somewhat frustrates me, as some specific feedback could be really helpful, both so that Ibetter know what you are looking for and in case Umair decides to write a follow-up post. If you havemore to say but don't want to say it here, I hope you'll email me at sgreen (at) hbr (dot) org.

Thanks!

Sarah GreenAssociate Editor

— SARAH GREEN, ASSOCIATE EDITOR

April 1, 2010 at 11:07 PM

Hi Umair,

Great post and a pleasure to meet you. I saw you at SXSW and enjoyed it very much. Here's a littlesomething i wrote not long ago that plays into what your wrote above. Meaning truly is the portalthrough which all communications - by brands or otherwise - will be measured and values are whatdetermines meaningfulness. Really enjoy your POV and values-based perspective on business.

Thanks again, Simon

— SIMON MAINWARING

April 1, 2010 at 11:41 PM

Umair, you hit it right on the nose. I'm wondering, what corporations do you think are really gettingthis right? Or are getting pieces of it right? How would you apply this to a hospital system? I think theissue there, is that they're afraid to engage - afraid of getting sued. They're afraid of loosing thechains of control. How does one start the conversation?

— GINGER ZUMAETA

April 2, 2010 at 2:52 AM

Meaning is message .I do not want at that simplified . It is meaning , constructive and impressive allthree combined is message.

Though there are many more to add, here for a sea-change situvation shift in 3 rd millaniumm,meaning is basic and around it many small things are present to be given due cover.This isimportant as only total presented it gains meaning power to come out dynamic and storng.Allorganism has colour life and cell is innate individualistic and charecteristic in bringing results that isas intended. What 2 nd millanium was ,was. Now we can co-create only if we are concious andcreative to adapt it .

In ancient past in all civilisations we notice that their experience of life is emotionalexpressionals,and visual .Thus modern days masses and others react in full in all three areas of lifeexperience.

For physical product example let us take the 17 th century (Natural) Indigo dyed (organic) cottondenim jeans. Itis men's Day- work wear for Ranchers and Cow-boys. Symbolically the denim colourblue is worker-wear .SERVICE. Kings and nobles did not wore it.In modern days it does scavengersjob in human body to blood pruification, aura purification and paranic cleaning. Body and brain werenuron natural colour-chemical transmitted to keep man sane in Illusion filled world. Well-expressedconstructive work they did in society. Miners mined ,Ranchers grew animals ,cow boys gazedsheeps. It deep impreesed visually,material and meaning and spirit co ordinated. The same is lost itsmany shades is now wore for fashion called denim jeans. Consturctive destruction for it is chemicalcreated brain disorder. It is poison synthetic fibres and dyes made to last only few years, when theblue is faded it turns into eyesoar grey.That was industiral world development. Meaning is lost, noexpression cosntructive ,visully created disease at brain nuron transfers.

On the other hand the old Denim jeans are lasting 100 years ,healing body and mind ,art of Ecstasy4 colour in one ,ever fresh .

Thus message is meaning;cosntructive use and visual impact filled.any product ; process and service is to be lasting value to community / civilisation and benigfit toindividual/consumer / society.

Social strategies are about recreation on 3 diamentional values and benifits.This is the path ourancestor showed us. View it any way you want creative/delibrate creative/imitative.

Hence we should get to basic,no use palying with tails .WE SHOULD SEE INTERNAL SOURCES AS SOURCES FOR RESOURCEBLES.

— N.J.BOND

April 2, 2010 at 3:30 AM

I very much agree with this:

'Yet, most "social media" strategies have one or more of three goals: to "push product," "build buzz,"or "engage consumers." None of these lives up to the Internet's promise of meaning. They're justslightly cleverer ways to sell more of the same old junk'

And also with:

'Organizations don't need "social media" strategies. They need social strategies: strategies that turnantisocial behavior on its head to maximize meaning.'

I also agree with the 7 C's

But otherwise I think a lot of this is moving semantics around. "Meaning is the message" just doesn'thave any basis or backing and I feel you're a culprit of what your criticise - "buzz".

— SCOTT GOULD

April 2, 2010 at 10:40 AM

I work in the nationʼs capital – home to command and control communications and defending theway it has always been done advocacy – and work with, for and against the old school K Streetways. Sadly your column is spot on as there is a lack of creativity, high levels of fear and confusionof the new communications environment.

There is such a rapid movement to digital communications, smartphone use, broadband expansion,social campaigning and video production outside of the beltway that most of the K Streetestablishment of trade associations and think tanks appear blissfully clueless to the newcommunications and advocacy environment. Even worse, some want to blame “techies” and “socialgurus” for forcing them to change their operations and advocacy efforts using unknown websites andbizarre sounding social tools.

This is real and it is happening – social media is here. Why are organizations continuing to grapplewith the how, why, when and where? More of K Street needs to spend time on Main Street working

for a political campaign. Candidates and activists arenʼt debating, planning and waiting for someoneto tell them what to do - they are executing and moving forward.

And you canʼt say all this social media thinking and chatter is a new craze. The achievement of eBay(launched 1995) coupled with the success of Napster (launched in 1999) were the first shock wavesforetelling a change to media creation, user empowerment, individual activism and informationdissemination. The reshaping of media and information was further cemented with the developmentof Wikipedia (launched 2001) and YouTube (launched 2005) where user-generated-content (UGC) isempowering everyone to be a journalist, scribe, activist, entertainer, thought leader – even a mediamogul.

What K Street needs to fear it that every year more and more talented communicators andorganizers are coming to DC that know how to move quickly, shape the debate and engage activistson a limited budget with less resources. It is no surprise that the economy is moving forward withfewer workers due to technology driven productivity – embracing these dynamic changes soonerrather than later will serve the current leaders on K Street well.

— MARC ROSS

April 2, 2010 at 11:00 AM

The funny thing about articles like this is that the people who "get it" will read this, and those thatdon't, won't. Especially with baby boomers hanging on longer to their top executive positions sincethey can't afford to retire.

— NO_ONE

April 2, 2010 at 12:22 PM

Great article! It certainly is designed to make people stop and think. all the social media networkingis being hyped to a frenzy and we are bombarded by multitudes of seminars, newsletters, andarticles about how these tools should best be used to promote our products and services. Butmaybe if we promote our business at a higher level with these tools it will have an even moresuccessful result.

Our use of social media is to provide our customers with good information so we can help thembecome thought leaders in their market. This will certainly be one of the articles we forward to clientsand prospects!

— VICTORIA ZILLIOUX

April 2, 2010 at 1:54 PM

Hey Vivik Pandey, you said: "If you have nothing good to say, please don't say anything."

So why don't you take your own advise and go away. You took the time to read the article orprobably did not and wrote your comment based on who wrote the article. Shame on you.

Umair, this is fresh and great stuff just like what you have in all your other articles. Keep bringing outgreat ideas.

— TZ

April 2, 2010 at 4:17 PM

Umair,great thoughts, really resonates with me. I completely agree that social media in a business contextshould go way beyond the superficial, "skin deep" practices that many companies use it for whenfirst starting on this path. The values and principles associated with social media need to get into thecompany's bloodstream (where it impacts culture, leadership styles, how companies organizethemselves) in ways you are describing with your C of Control and the C of Creativity and C ofCulture (as is the case with Lego), or better yet, into its DNA (as is the case with Threadless). Irecently wrote a blogpost from a similar point of view: http://bit.ly/dnEbD3. I think you will agree.

— BEREND JAN HILBERTS

April 2, 2010 at 5:03 PM

Unlike Vivek, I'm glad this made it into your twitter stream. A friend saw it there and notified me. Heknew I'd be interested because we run an agency that preaches the same things. I, for one, am a bigfan of Umair's writing on this blog. And I apologize for the length of this note, had I an editor, it wouldhave been shorter.

have been shorter.

If it helps readers like Ken, I'd be happy to start to flesh out some of the answers to his questions.

What can a company do in the short run to help develop a "social" strategy?

I hope this doesn't sound like a cop-out, but the very first step is to make sure you don't "suck". Ifyou're getting ahead at the expense of the environment, mistreated people or animals, you'll have toreexamine your core offering. Essentially, you're in the business of fooling people and it's gettingmore costly to do that.

If your model isn't inherently unethical, we start with a brainstorm session to determine what needleyour organization could credibly aim to move. Everyone "has" a mission. Leaders are "on" a mission.

For example, we're working with Southbrook Vineyards on a project called Cool Chardonnay to putthe entire Ontario wine industry on the international map. It's a big mission for a single vineyard totake on, but it matters to a lot of audiences.

If you want a bigger example, you might look up Beryl, where Paul Spiegelman (author of "Why IsEveryone Smiling?") runs a different kind of call-centre–a place where culture comes first. In fact,he's in a class of entrepreneurs called "Small Giants" that Bo Burlingham (Editor of Inc. Magazinewrote about in a great book of the same name about businesses that grow based on their idealsinstead of for growth's sake.

Once we've defined what needle your passions, skills, track record and capabilities credibly enableyou to work on, we define the audiences who could care about the mission.

Instead of defining our client's audiences by their 'demographics', we define them by their "interests".Though the way people consume media changes quickly, human nature doesn't, and people areinterested in what matters to THEM. So we look for existing "communities of interest" and this iswhere it gets tactical.

Can you give us tactics to get us going?

Now we move online, and create a "listening post" (dashboard to some) by subscribing to the placeswhere these communities are sharing their interests. You can do this with several paid services butyou'll also do fine starting with plain old RSS or a starter page like "Netvibes". If you're on twitter, itdoesn't take long to zero in on the heart of the conversations that matter to you and your prospectiveaudiences.

Start by listening (two ears, one mouth and all that). To use a common social media analogy, when you arrive at a party where you don't know anyone,you listen until you see an opportunity to contribute something of value. Same here. You can answer a blog post, share a link, connect people/organizations who should be aware ofeach, etc.Do this until you've developed a network. Until you're a member of the community. Until you see anopportunity to do more.

Finally, and this is getting to Umair's level of making your social agenda your business model, youLead.

Leadership means creating frameworks that help people take part in your shared interest. SuccessfulSocial media campaigns make it easy for people to take part at various levels. Your "Social Strategy"can be about changing the way something is done in the world or your industry. It can be aconference, an "unconference" or an event, website or document. It can be a podcast, a publicservice message a little league team or an office beer-fridge.

How do we measure the success of our "social" strategy?

Initially, you measure a social strategy by ROR (relationship). Excuse the marketese, but this is along-tale approach and the point is that partnering with your prospects on something that matters toboth of you will earn–as Chris Brogan puts it, "a relationship from within which you will sometimessell".

Let's face it, how long have we been fooling ourselves about traditional media metrics? I was getting a beer when Seinfeld paused for advertising messages. Now I don't have a TV at all. IfI did I'd have PVR, TIVO or just watch HBO. I listen to CBC and NPR on the Radio. The New YorkTimes can't pay for its building and I subscribe to all the news I want online anyway. My point is thatour measurement has been off for a while now. And a brilliantly executed "social strategy" may earnyou fans for life and media attention but poor experiences at customer touch-points can take thataway. I guess what I'm saying is, the only guarantee that you'll be satisfied with the results of youreffort is if you choose a fulfilling/rewarding/engaging agenda. Your barometer will be yoursatisfaction. I guess I shouldn't assume you meant "where's the money?" Ken.

satisfaction. I guess I shouldn't assume you meant "where's the money?" Ken.

What I can tell you is that it's easier to tack if your "social strategy" is your marketing than if you'respending big bucks on interruptive "push marketing". You can tweak it daily more easily than you cantake back your SuperBowl ad or even change your classified.

Do companies in different verticals and objectives have the same "social" strategies? Or should we not "paint ourselves with that brush"?

That's a case by case basis, but I see opportunities for finding new audiences in this method. If ClifBar has an agenda to preserve "Places to Play", they might earn attention from eco-enthusiasts whoaren't active in the arenas where Clif Bar markets themselves. I've spoken to the Foundation at theCentre for Addiction and Mental Health about the approach the Mayo Clinic takes to humanizingmedicine. Whether it's calculated or not, shouldn't good things spread?

I hope that some of this has been useful,Barry

— BARRY MARTIN

April 2, 2010 at 7:51 PM

Thought provoking, as always, Umair. What I'm thinking is that Vivek Pandey speaks for a lot ofpeople. I'm not talking about people who typically read your blog, and see the opportunity inevolution. He speaks for champions of the status quo, who want their roles well defined, theirobjectives concrete, and the formulas for reaching those objectives presented in a PowerPoint deck.

The way things have been done in the past is always an easier, more obvious choice for a Pandeythan a way things have never been done before. In fact, it is the only choice.

To a Pandey, the platform, the medium, and the channel constitute the comfort zone. Talking to aPandey about working outside his comfort zone is like talking to a fish about living in a tree.

To a Pandey, concepts like 'meaning' and 'character' and God forbid, 'choreography' are thelanguage of people who come to work barefoot with their dogs. For losers, lesbians, and Mac users.When it comes to business, Pandeys only want to talk about two things: status and closing. Theirrole model is Blake in "Glengarry Glen Ross." Coffee is for closers only. The choices are fuck orwalk.

Those of us in the business of guiding change should always keep this fact foremost: most people inbusiness are Pandeys. Seducing them off the only greed-and-fear-paved path they know is ourbiggest challenge.

— BONIFER

April 2, 2010 at 9:20 PM

The actual title of McLuhan/Fiore's book is "The Medium is the Massage" and it is not a typo. Thepoint is that media have a physical impact on our bodies. Eyes serve a different physical purposethan ears. So, media that reaches us by sight has a different impact than media that reaches us bysound.

Social media, too, would benefit from considering these physical impacts. Voices convey emotionwith an impact that differs from a written expression of the same emotion which is a different impactthan a pictorial expression of the emotion.

— DAVID RADER

April 3, 2010 at 11:00 AM

Umair

As usual you nailed the issues that related to the lack of thinking.

Today is but for a moment while tomorrow's never end. At the moment we can see the use of socialmedia being applied to old strategies. Thus we can see old thinking applied to a new radical mediumwhich is driven by meaning.

If you do what you've always done and use something "new" to do it you are likely to miss the realmeaningful value that you could be creating. Creating meaningful value starts with meaningfulthinking. The opposite of meaningful thinking is meaningless or like a Zombie.

Always enjoy your thoughts

— JAY DERAGON

April 3, 2010 at 6:18 PM

" The meaning is the message." Brilliant insight Umair!I think the point that resonates with me the most is, Character. Brands focus too much on creatingand crafting personalities and very less adding character to those personalities. I think this newapproach of yours should be part of every brand's manifesto.

— UMAR GHUMMAN

April 3, 2010 at 7:42 PM

Love it!

Thanks for your thinking and for posting it!

— KAREN GATES

April 3, 2010 at 8:21 PM

Smart stuff and predictive. The shift to the core, in some businesses, of corporate social responsibilty(CSR)as a normative and integral corporate goal -- beyond the responsibility of profit to shareholders- but of the enterprise globally reflects that awakening as well.

— NEAL BURNS

April 4, 2010 at 7:41 AM

Thank You!! The general fabric of these thoughts are intertwined with a couple of your past articlesrelated to "builder" vs "leader"...and the "crises" is all about all our "stuff".

I'm also reminded of a book which is becoming a favorite and whose "message" has I think veryclosely related relevance:"The Ecology of Commerce-A Declaration of Sustainability" by Paul Hawken. He speaks of arestorative economy vs today's destructive economy.

Continue to stir the soup!

— NORM PATRY

April 5, 2010 at 8:43 PM

Social strategy needs to be the focus of the New Media revolution. The culture is one oftransparency, collaboration and integration. Marketers, for the most part still think in silos. Theyspend little time on designing a seamless Integrated Media marketing strategy that weaves PR ,Traditional media, Online marketing with Social Media. This synergy increases the number andeffectiveness of the customer touch points and generates a new asset for companies ---marketingcapital http://budurl.com/smhy

— IRA KAUFMAN

April 5, 2010 at 11:58 PM

Yes, this is really the crux of the social business perspective. you've nailed it here. Great post!

Social media is just one component of social business strategy... and often just addresses themarketing activities such as brand management, customer engagement. In my work withcorporations who are seeking to understand all the excitement and potential of this new businessenvironment, we talk about 5 component (first discussed in my blog at http://bit.ly/cPVgus)

social media- the marketing and branding activitiessocial networking- the internal and external collaboration activitiessocial support- the customer support and peer to peer support activitiessocial innovation- the new innovation processes (such as crowdsourcing)social infrastructure- the legal, technical, governance, processes, etc that support the social business

Leaders in social business strategy formulation will take a broader look than just social media. Theyare the ones who see an entirely new operating environment for the whole corporate ecosystem andall the players in it.

— KERI PEARLSON

April 6, 2010 at 1:02 AM

Umair first of all let me tell you that I've been following your blog for a while and I really find yourideas thoughtful and aspiring.The concept of a social strategy is the true reason why so manybusinesses exist because its ultimately the society that needs to be satisfied in order to besuccessful.I personally liked your ideasas I myself am a social strategist and believe on what you've said. Hope I'd get to hear more fromyou in this regard.

— TALHA ADNAN

April 6, 2010 at 4:47 AM

Hi Umair

I must admit , i wasnt able to comprehend the usefulness of the 7Cs until those examples ofWalmart ,Google etc which made understanding much easier . Thank u umair .

Now for what i think , Idealism is the precision point and the whole organisational developmentgradually moves towards this point but the point is in-achievable because it can only happen in asteady state culture which is devoid of all external pressures . Applying all the 7Cs is an ideal stateand it would be difficult to see the results in the short run . But the companies should work towardsachieving this state.And one of the ways i think , it can be possible - if the social media strategy fails and companiesrealise that "push product " , " build buzz " and "engage customers " is an impossible trinity if socialstrategy is not in place . Then the concept of 7Cs would be taken up real fast.

— RAJAT VASHISHTHA

April 6, 2010 at 5:55 AM

good comment but I have an observation here..companies have started taking social strategyseriously these days and the realisation is making its inroads real fast, thogh the intensity is varying-what I am indicating here is CSR and its growing scope and aegis. One of the best examples here isNokia. a simple mobile phone manufacturer leaves no stones unturned when it comes to doing goodto the community at large, be it directly like recycling or creating awareness campaigns withpremium media channels

— SOHAM MAJUMDAR

April 7, 2010 at 2:41 AM

Thank you for saying it out loud. Consumers are not data objects, they're human beings who like toengage. Let's build companies that treat them that way.

— K

April 8, 2010 at 4:41 AM

Excellent views, although the use of C's is a bit cheesy.

— EVERT JAN KONING

April 8, 2010 at 4:57 AM

Thank you for this useful article. May I recommend the anarchistic view of science in 'AgainstMethod' of Paul Feyerabend to you. His rejection of an universal methodological set of rules fordeveloping scientific knowledge fits your observations about the economics of the social internetvery well.

In this perspective we may add the A of 'anarchy' to your seven C's.

— RAYMOND FRANZ

April 8, 2010 at 5:00 AM

Thank you for this great, great thinking. I'm a young entrepreneur and I've always felt something wasmissing for me in order to create a big future for my companies. You concept of social strategy madethe click for me.Thank you!!!

— ALINA LAZARESCU - ABBOUD

April 8, 2010 at 11:00 AM

Live and learn. Social media is a challenge, but also an opportunity. Excellent article.

— SALETE DA HORA

April 8, 2010 at 2:12 PM

Thanks for the validation, Umair ;-) Well written.

Similar logic to something I wrote a couple of years ago titled "The Medium is the Meaning WeConsume and Create ... Together"

— JON HUSBAND

April 9, 2010 at 3:37 AM

This article has hit it right on the head as to one of MY main dilema's. I have recently been taken onto develop an e-comm strategy by a long established family firm, who still have what you Americanscall "Ma and Pa" sensibilities (honesty,value and a pride in the job)which has been in the forefront oftheir business. It has meant that in pure commercial terms they could have been a lot moresuccessful, but chose not to go down this route.The key, in my opinion, to us being successful on the web is the transference of these values but iwas wondering how i would do this and not sound like some corporate exec spouting age oldmaxims which didn't really apply.I now believe your outlines have given me confidence to persue these goals and an path to follow.I intend to be brave and open and develop a community focussed on what is best for the user. Ithink my key is that information has to be honest and we must also be willing to lose business nowto secure our future and not just chase the cash no matter what.Mark, Hull England

— MARK DENNIS

April 9, 2010 at 3:39 AM

Thanks for this post. Many sentences are realy good for tweeting as high quality quotes about socialmedia. Should have put your name behind every meaningful quote you wrote.

Also very interesting because at the moment I am wrting an article in witch I compare the huntersand gatherers from our past with the online hunters and gatherers we are today. Simple joy ofrecognition is always nice :)

— LETTY VERHOEVE

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