by ED

Created on: April 11, 2008

I just came back from a full morning of meeting and bringing back with me, a massive basket of doubts on whether are we indeed putting Social Media into realistic practice the way it should be. The issue is, I have been talking to several investors for the past 2 weeks which placed mixed feelings in me. Everyone is keen to hop on the bandwagon of a business involving Social Media, but what exactly is Social Media to them? And what is Social Media to me?

Until today, there are still plenty of discussions on what the true Social Media is all about. If anyone (including that marketing "expert" that the investor brought along) goes by the generic definition that Social Media is putting ourselves online, it will be disastrous for a business - particularly startups. As that marketing "expert" puts it across to me this morning, why shouldn't businesses concentrate on the major media platforms while the consumers can be left by themselves to talk about it?

The term "Media" means an avenue of communication and the term "Social" simply means going beyond the usual corporate interaction. For decades, we have seen "Media" but not "Social" due to the fact that conventional mediums promote only the dissemination of messages like a one-way slip road. The introduction and focus on Social Media is to break this monotonous manner of communication because as technology improves itself, businesses should find themselves interacting more with their consumers. At times, consumers take on the role of the "marketers" rather than a direct advertisement splashed on the conventional front.

What's interesting is many of us are screaming Social Social Social Social Social Media, but where's the "Social"? We do see the boom in media technologies, but how socially influential are these media is another issue altogether. Also, how it is being utilized determines the strength and effectiveness of a business adopting such a tool. For startups, hear me out.

Social Media is NOT a stand-alone tool.

Social Media is a chain network of communication to bring members of public (frequently the direct consumers) into the picture, through development and reinforcement of a particular relationship to spread a message. Yes, it is very much a relationship shared between businesses and the public. At times like this, it can be translated further into realistic sales improvement. It isn't something that a business can adopt and left alone to spiral by itself. Surely and definitely, you do not form a circle of

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