Don't Be the Electric Boogaloo of Business

By: Andrew Eklund

Posted on 06/24/2010 - 8:20am | From the Digital Marketing Blog

This blog post gonna be POPPIN'! Check it...

This week my daughter is attending her first of 1,242 camps this summer -- Hip-Hop and Breakdancing class at the Zenon Dance Theater. I'm one proud papa. When I was just a little older than her, I caught full-on breakin' fever while a freshman at St. Paul Central High School. It was 1982 and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five had just released "The Message" and the Sugerhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" was still fresh. "Breakin'" and "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo" were still a year or two away from bringing break dancing to the 'burbs.

I was never a great break dancer but, man, I could dress the part. I wore the high-top basketball shoes, stylin' shirts, and parachute pants that had zippers all along the sides that when you opened them, they'd explode into a new primary color. Best of all, I was blessed with tight curly blond hair that would "pick out" into a perfect 'fro. I was a b-boy.

Through a series of "youthful indiscretions" I found myself a sophomore transfer at Minnehaha Academy, along the sleepy banks of the Mississippi River. Perhaps you already see where this story is headed. There I was -- 'fro and all -- attempting to blend into a whole new crowd that was decidedly not hip-hop (think: Amy Grant) and soccer not basketball ruled. I did find one dude, John Bobolink, who would freestyle with me in the gym. By the end of the first semester, I realized that break dancing, parachute pants, and afros just weren't going to get me any chicks, so I assimilated. By year's end, I was a Girbaud jeans, Benetton shirt, trenchcoat wearing fool, with Suburbs, Husker Du, and Replacements buttons and all. (What do we call that? Fashion-Punk? Wow. *shiver*)

I feel like the social media crowd often appears like b-boys and b-girls hanging out at Minnehaha Academy in 1982 when attempting to figure out why business executives don't "get" social media. The social media crowd has its own language (WTF, "checking in," #isthataeuphemism -- sorry, Jake), their own sooner-than-now tools and software, and, frankly, a very confrontational view of the world. "You no longer control anything." "The consumer's in charge." "Old media is dead." Now, don't get me wrong. I'm as guilty as the next guy for spouting off some of this stuff, and I probably don't fundamentally disagree with any of the claims I just posited. But what I don't find particularly interesting or practical is how this transition to a digital marketplace has become a culture war between those who use the tools and those who have power.

Here's what I can agree to: the consumer is way out in front of business in terms of its rabid acceptance of technology. Why? Because individuals are more nimble than organizations. It's that simple. Yet that simple little problem is an enormously complicated one that requires solutions way beyond social media. There are legitimate questions that legal professionals need to tackle. There are reasons to be concerned that employees are simply wasting time on Facebook and YouTube during business hours. There are times when someone within a company does something really stupid on a social network and creates a hellacious PR nightmare because sometimes people are just plain stupid.

Are those all reasons not to "get" social media? Of course not. But the social media crowd needs to do a much better job understanding the complexities of business, and then associating the benefits of a more open and shared communications culture into those larger business challenges. I would argue that many "social media gurus" understand how a P & L works as much as the intern who's been delegated social media responsibilities understands business.

This Saturday at 10AM I'm planning a session called "How to 'sell' social media to your boss" at the UnSummit. For example, why do we insist upon calling our social media enlistees "fans" and "followers" when we could be talking to company leaders about them as "potential referrers" or "advocates"? This simple change in language would go miles in terms of communicating what the value of customer communities could be to our brands. I hope to have a lively discussion where we determine ways to break free of jargon, share ideas for how to present the true benefits of social media, and understand and embrace the complexities of business culture.

If you're lucky, I'll "pick out" my 'fro just for the event. What's left of it.

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Andrew Eklund :: Founder & CEO
Ciceron :: Digital Marketing
www.ciceron.com
612.230.3901 :: LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/andreweklund
Professional Twitter: @HeavyThinking
Personal Twitter: @aeklund