The social media story – beyond the tech

June 27, 2011

On revisiting the video interview from SES it strikes me that social search is a complex issue that goes beyond the technology.

It is much more than key words, phrases. Much more than Google +1; Bing and Facebook integration; or even trying to work around the new Panda algorithms. It is, as we frequently tell clients, about storytelling.

But there is a problem with storytelling. It is not a natural fit for companies. Brands are engineered to communicate via promotion and broadcast.

Storytelling needs companies to dig deeper into their brand values. Often weaving and creating a story that isn’t just centred on marketing and PR. For example a tech company might look for subject matter expertise amongst its engineers, or a retailer might look for insights and nuggets from its packing and delivery divisions.

Storytelling requires cross company integration, a clear understanding of audience behaviours and motivations (not just a summary of the chatter) and a common objective that you are in social media for the long haul.

Ultimately the effort is worth this investment: because stories told well will be shared. And social search is all about sharing.

Latest Posts

Design and disability are so often discussed in terms of basic “accommodation” and “access,” yet my visit to the V&A’s Design and Disability exhibition completely shifted that perspective. Rather than framing disability as an issue to be fixed, the exhibition presents it as a culture, a rich set of identities, and a radical design force shaping practice from the 1940s right up to today.

Lurkers are your biggest audience and they’re deciding in silence. They watch in feeds, sanity-check you in comments, communities and reviews, then repeat whatever proof is easiest to quote internally. That’s why social feels harder, it’s no longer a click machine, it’s an answer surface. Ofcom shows AI summaries are now common in search results, and YouTube remains the UK’s biggest social utility by reach and time spent. If your story is inconsistent, your evidence is scattered, or your customer proof is buried, lurkers can’t do the job of trusting you for you.

Pinterest has rolled out a brand-new Media Planner inside its advertising tools, and it’s designed to make planning and managing Pin campaigns a whole lot simpler. In short? It gives you a clearer view of what you’re running, who you’re targeting, and what results you can expect…