'Social Media' or 'Collaborative Media'?

Image taken from www.mymartinigold.com

This is how my mind typically works. I take in a lot of information, read a lot online, listen to podcasts, watch videos. Usually all the information just simmers for awhile, and then a week or two later I have some new idea or thought based off things that I previously heard the week before.

So I wish I could remember where I heard a discussion between several participants, but it was about social media being very collaborative.I dont recall the discussion being about renaming ‘social media’ to ‘collaborative media’ or ‘collaborative communication’, but while I was listening I remember thinking that the term ‘collaborative’ would be much more accepted and understood by green-tabbers (or CEO’s in the civilian world) than the term ‘social’ is.

Using ‘social’ brings up different mental images for different people, but they all probably have to do with parties, chit-chat’s, and other social engagements. Now those of us that work in PA/PR know that personal and professional contacts are often mixed, and that maintaining and expanding our network, often done ‘socially, is relevant to how we work. But the ‘social’ in ‘social media’ is used to describe the interaction that takes place between all of us online. Using ‘social’ might be misleading to those new to the area that immediately think of cocktail parties.

Social media is very much collaborative – putting information, images and links out there that can be digested, utilized and then spread to others. Just look at the Social Media News Release (another one thats name is probably misleading). The SMNR is all about providing all the bits of information, quotes, and images so that the content can be spread throughout the blogosphere. All the text ‘fluff’ that normally accompanies a standard press release is gone, and only the stuff that can actually be used in collaborative communication methods remain (which is why it has been suggested it should be called the Social Media Press Kit instead). The whole purpose of a SMNR is to only provide content that is used within the blogposts or other online products that others make.

So neither Mike Nicholson or anyone else at this point would be able to change ‘social media’ to ‘collaborative media’, there’s just too much momentum behind ‘social’ and it is already a widely accepted term. But what I will do is use the term ‘collaborative media’ much more when discussing ‘social media’. I think it will make what we do a little more clear to those military personnel on the receiving end of a conversation who are still struggling with ‘social media’.

"Apparently it is very important"

*** The below post has been transferred without comments from another blog which was hosted on Ning. The post has been backdated to its original publishing date ***

Hard to believe that it has only been a week since the Iran election and subsequent explosion of social media as the primary method for getting information out there. You cannot turn on any of the major news networks without hearing the anchors talk about Twitter, Youtube and Facebook. Everyone in the social media world has been blogging, tweeting and posting photos and videos related to Iran all week.

There has been a few things over the past few months that have thrown social media into more of the visible mainstream. The two that come to mind are both Twitter-centric: Ashton Kutcher and CNN battling it out for 1 million Twitter followers and Oprah joining Twitter, both of which got mainstream cable news coverage.

These events have been fun to watch and were probably more or less a blip of information for the average, every-day, semi-connected person. But this week we have seen all these sites, ones which might have been considered fun sites used only ‘socially’, take a huge leap forward in the eyes of many.

I have no data to back this up, only a conversation I had with our network administrator today.

For a network administrator, social networks are nothing but a pain-in-the-ass. They are peer-to-peer, security nightmares. Until recently most social networks on a U.S. government network have been blocked and been off-limits. A recent decision has decided to open some of them up, but it is still a struggle to gain access at the lower levels.

I noticed that Youtube was blocked today after being turned on for about the previous 2 weeks and I mentioned it in passing to our network administrator. Having had the same conversation multiple times before with multiple different network administrators in multiple locations, I could almost repeat verbatim the reasons he then gave me for those sites being blocked.

As with all those conversations before, I begin to explain how important social media is to modern day public relations/public affairs/public information. This time was different though. After I started with my explanation I stopped, started over, and just said: “Look at Iran. The primary method of news gathering and information over the past week has been from Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter. This is where I work, these are my primary tools, and these social network sites are the job.”

Instead of ending in a ‘we agree to disagree’ like so many times before, I saw a little lightbulb go off in this particular network administrators head. He got it.

Facebook, Youtube and Twitter have been plastered all over the mainstream media, and these sites have been the primary methods of information gathering. Because of this, I think that more people will not look at these sites merely as a hobby for people wanting to share too much information about their personal lives, but they will start being seen as a valuable, viable and essential by the non-communication professionals.

There have been so many things happen this week politically, socially, and within the context of the internet that you could write a book about it, and Im sure somebody probably will. For the public relations/public affairs practitioner, social networks have been elevated to a new level.

Using the words of Hilary Clinton this week (cant believe Im quoting Hilary Clinton), “I wouldn’t know a Twitter from a tweeter, but apparently it is very important.”

My network administrator who viewed social networks as a pain-in-the-ass now knows that for what I do…’apparently it is very important’.

All the members of an organization don’t need to know all the in’s and out’s of what we do, but as long as they know ‘it is very important’, the bar has been moved forward.