How close to the edge do you like to be?
If you’re like me, you used to take more risks when you were younger.
These days, I worry about bubbles bursting, gravy trains crashing and my meager assets getting ravaged by inflation, taxation, overvaluation, and all the other ‘ations’ out there.
But in the face of these inevitabilities of the modern world I have learned that if you want a truly sustainable relationship you do have to take risks.
To jump off the proverbial relationship ‘cliff,’ on occasions, and to tell and hear the truth if you want honesty in ones reality.
Google’s chief executive, Eric Schmidt put it bluntly in his interview with David Carr of the New York Times.
Talking about Google’s approach to making information available, he said:
“People are bringing old narratives to the discussion rather than understanding the unique understanding of the internet. We are one click away from losing you as a customer, so it is very difficult for us to lock you in as a customer in a way that traditional companies have.”
And one ‘click’ is all it takes and the relationship is over!!!!
The demise of Second Life, and AOL, and the collapse of MySpace indicate the frailty of organizations that lived one click away from disaster.
No wonder Pharma is……….
No wonder Pharma is showing reluctance about engaging in the world of Social Media.
Why travel that close to the edge?
Living on the Edge
Well there’s really only one fundamental reason to engage with Social Media.
Because that’s where the customer is:
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One click away from being better informed than you.
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One click away from getting a comprehensive evaluation of your product.
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One click away from choosing to do business with someone else.
Some organisations are joining the customer out there on the edge.
Those organisations are finding that they are:
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One click away from finding out how their product can be improved.
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One click away from discovering new ways to contact customers.
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One click away from making their organization less fragile.
Software, Hardware or Thoughtware?
We have had working telegraph lines since 1844.
So the hardware for social communication has been in place for around 150 years.
The new software that enabled Social Media communications is more recent.
Both the hardware and the software are stable, accessible and usable.
But, where would you look to find the new Thoughtware that enables business to understand what’s happening out there?
That is not to deny that there are potential disasters built into the complexity of Social Media.
The fabric of the web is so intermeshed that is subject to many poorly understood phenomena.
As Duncan Watts writes in the Boston Globe:
In recent years, hundreds of millions of people have rushed to join online social networks, while billions more rely on e-mail and cellphones to stay connected to friends and co-workers all day, every day.
System designers revel in the ability of networks to improve a system's overall efficiency by dynamically distributing computer-processing load, power generation, or financial risk, as the case may be.
In all the excitement, however, we tend to overlook a fact that should be obvious - that once everything is connected, problems can spread as easily as solutions, sometimes more so.
Thanks to globally connected transportation systems, epidemics of disease like SARS, avian influenza, and swine flu can spread farther and faster than ever before.
Thanks to the Internet, e-mail viruses, nasty rumors, and embarrassing truths can spread to colleagues, loved ones, or even around the world before remedial action can be taken to stop them.
Pharma and the Social Media Edge
So what approach will Pharma adopt to traveling along the Social Media edge?
Parachute? Safety Harness? Guiderails?
Is Pharma’s maturity holding it back from creating real relationship with those that matter – their clients?
Or will Pharma trust in its instincts and agility – like the rest of us?
(Tomorrow’s Blog: Is Social Media making Customer Databases Irrelevant?)
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