Click
here to follow
Katie Delahaye Paine on Twitter.
Once upon a time there was a shiny new object called the telephone, and the first person to manage the telephone in an organization was the King. Eventually sales and customer service and marketing and everyone else were clamoring for this shiny new object and the king was very scared. He worried about who would control communications and manage the function and he feared that it all would become too fragmented. But eventually everyone had a telephone and we forgot what the fuss was about.
A few decades later there was another shiny new object called the computer. And originally the King managed all things having to do with the computer. And then sales and marketing and customer service and all the different divisions who needed business intelligence started clamoring for computers. And the King was very scared. He worried about who would control the proliferation of all these new objects and who would decide who would or would not have access to these new-fangled computer things. A few years later everyone in the company was on line, using computers to facilitate work flow, manufacturing, customer service, sales, HR and marketing and we forgot what the fuss was about.
Another decade or so later there was a shiny object called social media. And now the king was really really afraid. Who would control these uncontrolled conversations, and who and how would we manage our messages, he fretted. Thousands of words were written, lots of blood was shed, and whole division heads were beheaded. But eventually, everyone realized that it was a good thing that everyone in the company could listen to what the market had to say and actually carry on conversations with customers and prospects and potential employees. And eventually we forgot what the fuss was all about.
Great Fable. I think you are onto something, as sad as that may be. Thanks for sharing!
Posted by: Promotional Products | May 24, 2010 at 11:36 AM
Fabulous Fable! But I don't think the real inventors of these shiny objects are confined though I understand your point on its usage!What do you think?
Posted by: Allen - Social Marketer | May 12, 2010 at 06:07 AM