Just when we think we’ve found a solution the reality is we’ve just created a new problem. Many look at social media as a marketing solution and pursue the solution aggressively. Many then learn that not thinking through the systemic impact of “all things social” they have created a bigger problem.

Looking at social as a marketing solution without considering its impact on other “parts” of your organization reflects silo thinking.

Silo thinking is evident everywhere. We see it from suppliers of internet technology designed to contain us and our conversations within their wrappers. Doing so may create value for the moment but problems in the long term.

The model of containment reflects silo thinking. If we can get more users to our site then we can get more advertisers (Facebook, Twitter,  Google etc). More advertisers represents more revenue. More revenue, more users reflects higher evaluation. The problem then arises when users find alternatives and the results from advertising begin to diminish. Sound familiar? Look at the patterns for social networks and the advertisers that support them.

When The Silo Gets Disaggregated

The expression “silos of information” is typically applied to management systems where the focus is inward and information communication is vertical. Critics of silos contend that managers serve as information gatekeepers, making timely coordination and communication among departments difficult to achieve, and seamless interoperability with external parties impractical.

Silos tend to limit productivity in practically all organizations and frustrate consumers who increasingly expect information to be immediately available and complete. Information silos are becoming far more recognized as the major reason why organizations are unable to take full advantage of the Internet’s power to interconnect business processes.

The vast number of incompatible database applications in use perpetuates the existence of silos, making it impossible for run-the-business software to take full advantage of the Internet. Consumers are feeling the waste and inefficiency of “social silo’s”. Every site they land on wants their profile, their opinion and their friends. Every brand, network and community wants to contain us, trap us and control us.  Everyone wants our content so they can use it within their silo of activity. Activity within one silo to another represents wasted productivity. Wasteful activity steals value from consumers. Stealing value because of silo mentality is an anti-social mentality.

Are The Silos Coming Down?

In the old world contained communications controlled by the few was the means for shaping a story and influencing an audience. Whether the message is aimed at the world, an institution, an organization or a local community media silos shaped not only the message but the meaning.

While social technology may be viewed as a solution it is in fact creating problems because of the lack of wisdom.  Omair Haque writes: The scarcest, rarest, and most valuable resource in the world today is wisdom. The countries, companies, and people that possess it will prosper. In many ways, wisdom is the opposite of strategy — and today, it is strategy, bought by the dozen from legions of besuited, back-slapping consultants, that is cheap, abundant, and worth little.

In a connected transparent world it isn’t wise to believe that capturing, controlling and tricking buyers will solve problems or increase transactions. Rather wisdom suggest doing the opposite is the new solution.  However wisdom would also suggest that one should consider the problems created from giving people freedom.  People set free from containers creates change unexpected. Unexpected change requires more wisdom.

It cost capital to maintain silo’s. Today capital is scarce and the more advertisers and marketers reduce their spends the less the silo’s will have to run the game.  The next iteration of the internet will be aimed at setting people free. Wisdom will have to flourish in order to comprehend the value of freedom.

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The obsession with measuring all things social is indicative of thinking inside rather than out. Inside thinking focuses on justification of time, energy and efforts all aimed at creating results.

Outside thinking focuses on learning market needs and intents. Do you measure market needs and intents? The irony of measuring all things social is that the measures are put for the moment.

Given the dynamic nature of how people use social technology, how suppliers are advancing the technology and the subsequent dynamics everything is but for a moment.  If things are in a dynamic state then measuring a moment becomes irrelevant to what is happening the next moment.

Is Measuring Social Relevant?

Business mindsets believe that measurement of “things” is relevant to managing results. Production cycle times, process variation, employee productivity, sales, marketing etc. etc. are all “things” that most businesses believe they should measure. Most business managers don’t realize many important things, that must be managed, cannot be measured. You can’t measure everything of importance to management. You must still manage those important things.

W. Edwards Deming once said “Organizations are a means to improve the lives we live.” How would you measure whether your organization is improving people’s lives?

Brainwashed By Measuring Results

Measurement-based or fact-based management is not new.  A form of it was developed during and after World War II when so called “Whiz Kids” became powerful managers within the Fortune 500. This approach to management was oriented to an industrial age that is now in the past but the practices still exist. It strikes us as cold and impersonal, the mind-set of Dilbert’s boss.

Today we still see organizations holding on to part of the old mind-set, the measurement part. Measurement mentality continues on as a sacred mindset to justify actions against the holy grail of results. Meanwhile market have become more and more dynamic fueling constant changes largely because of the influence of technology and communications.

A Moment of Measure

The headlines tell us that things are changing rapidly. One day it is all about Google Buzz followed by a new move by Facebook. We chase these developments and look for ways to use these developments to produce results. However, by the time we get around to using something new something else replaces it.

The moment of measure, attention and the subsequent results become irrelevant because of the flood of new developments. Stepping away from measuring the moment can be helpful if not critical to seeing the real meaning in a space that is not stable. The only thing stable is that things will change. Changes in utility, reach and usability changes the measures of value. Obsessed with measures we jump around measuring the impact of changes only to realize new influences are changing the dynamics which changes the result.

The relevant moment of measure is in context to improvement. Without enabling improvement no measure can be relevant or in context with the intent of an organizations effort to improve results. However end results are influenced by actions way upstream. Marketing and advertising actions are downstream. Unless an organization understands and improves the attributes that influence all things downstream then efforts to measure and improve downstream actions become fruitless.

Upstream means you have to start at the beginning of any system. The usage and outcomes of social media are downstream. To fix or prevent a flood you have to go upstream to the source. Measuring how fast or slow the water is rising doesn’t address the influences that make the water rise or subside.

Results are but for the moment. Knowing what influences results is a never ending process of learning and improving forever.

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Numbers drive organizational decisions. Numbers are used to try and determine what and how one can improve a result.

In the world of social media everyone has become obsessed with the numbers. The irony of collecting and measuring social media data is that the moment of measure changes by the dynamic developments that happen every moment. Conversations are dynamic, numbers are static.

Knowledge is dynamic and contained within each person. Our experiences, our conversations and relevant relations changes our knowledge. That is if we approach people with a willingness to learn what they know or don’t know. Doing so requires listening which in itself is a knowledge funnel.

Listening to Moments?

In business things change moment by moment. Adjusting to these changes requires a agile thinking about the meaning of changes that ultimately drive the end result. The end result of a business is represented by value obtained from the value given. Value of products, services, relationships and processes are consumed by buyers. Buyers get value when their intents are fulfilled beyond their expectations.

Expectations of buyers change and when they do a business must change how they fulfill new expectations. Unless a business is listening to the marketplace, their employees and the end buyer they cannot hear the changing expectations. Not hearing means you are not likely able to meet the expectations satisfactorily.

Social media is nothing more than a channel of communications. Technological innovation has fueled communications and the subsequent “media” is no longer controlled by the few rather by the many. Conversations change and it is the rate of change that represents dynamic moments with meaning. Measuring a point in time may reflect that moment or past moments of dialog but not future moments. To change the future you have to understand the past. However, the future is not merely a reflection of the past especially when dealing with a dynamic system changing moment by moment.

Listening to the Future

Listening to the future is a predictive model of outcomes, actions and subsequent results of the moment.  If we measure moments to determine the effectiveness of past actions the results tell us little about the future. If, on the other hand, our measures are centric to probable future outcomes influenced by previous moments then we can use data to predict future moments. The problem with determining or influencing future social media moments is that the “system” is not stable rather dynamic and filled with special cause variation. Any good statistician will tell you that trying to measure an unstable system is only relevant if you understand and can measure root cuases.

So what are the root causes of social media moments? The answer is people’s intent. Understanding intents will lead you to measure the things that can fulfill or constrain intents. Said things have nothing to do with use of  social media by suppliers rather it has everything to do with a suppliers ability to fulfill the buyers intent. Which by the way changes moment by moment.

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