Chasing social media tools part 2
By Molly FlattFollowing on from my rant about brands jumping on every new popular social media tool as the ‘key’ to their word of mouth strategy, our lovely and scarily switched-on researcher Rich reminded me of this post from last year, in which business guru Tim Walker compares our new technologies with the forms of communication that emerged during the 16thC Reformation. Considering the current hype around ‘specialists’ devising approaches unique to the new tools, I think it’s worth re-reading. Some highlights:
“The way that Luther gained so much influence is of interest to us because he used . . . a new form of communication technology that had recently gotten substantially cheaper and enabled the formation of new communities of interest around new ideas. Sound familiar? …
I grant you, the “social media” as we usually talk about them: yes, the technology makes a hell of a lot of difference. But I’ve tried to convince you that the technology . . . it’s not everything …
From Martin Luther’s day to this, the interplay between the social sphere and the media has always been complex, and it’s always involved personal media, narrowcast, mass media, and many-to-many connections that wou could call social media. Technological change has always unsettled this interplay, and has always led to unpredictable social, commercial, and personal changes. And I believe it’s worth it for us to open our minds to the ways that social media is not so new if we want to understand how to shape the world of social media that we’re living in today.”
The full article has pictures and everything. Click here.
