Social Media Marketing: The lovechild of work and play? With some thoughts from Chris Abraham

Where is social media going? Everyone has their opinions, but no one really knows. Still, it sure is fun to predict.  I took some time to talk to Chris Abraham, your favorite Marketing Conversation blogger,  about some of what he sees in his crystal ball for social media.

But before you can reach the future, I suppose you begin with the past and present.

Chris was part of an online community back in 1984. We’re talkin’ when Ghostbusters premiered, Madonna was still “Like a Virgin” and when we were first introduced to the Macintosh computer.  He continued to work on online community development in the 1990s with The Meta Network (TMN), an offspring of the pioneering Caucus Systems.  Basically, Chris watched online networking grow from a baby into its dynamic modern form.  As President and Founding Partner of Abraham Harrison, LLC that specializes in Digital PR and everything social media, I think it’s safe to say Chris Abraham has earned his expertise. (Find out more about Chris Abraham in his official bio).

Recently, Chris has been personally invited by Bob Garfield, co-host of NPR’s “On the Media”  and writer of “Ad Review” on Advertising Age, to blog about his third book: The Chaos Scenario, released this past spring.  Because of his innovative and creative approach to marketing, Chris is one of a select few that will have the chance to speak about the book.  Keep an eye out for his posts: http://thechaosscenario.net/blog/.

Ok. Now the future.

The strategy of product/service promotion through social media is becoming contagious among businesses everywhere.  However, with so many companies taking advantage of such marketing, the line between business and pleasure becomes blurred on the Internet. When I questioned if social media culture would eventually merge the two realms for good, Chris first noted that the best business people wear both their “bowler hats and baseball caps”–so this fusion is somewhat probable.

In other words, it will become more difficult to maintain two distinct work-home personas if you want to utilize social media marketing to its full potential.

“We hit a point when you put on your suit of armor then have a private, personal life,” he said. “It’s harder to keep that separation for those who embrace social media.”  Chris stresses the importance of being a ‘person’ online as well as in the business world, and without putting yourself out there through means such as social media, “it’s hard to remain relevant” in the workplace.

Chris also says that “portable” sites like Twitter and Loopt (one of his new favorites) will have staying power because they are both socially fulfilling and surprisingly good at forming business connections. “It’s strange. Twitter has encouraged more face to face meetings with me.”  He also says that there is “a constant urge to share your narrative,” and asks the question, “how is that going to become easier?” To answer this, Chris suggests it may not even be computers that revolutionize social media, but rather the mobile phone.

Well I completely agree.  We love to tell everyone else exactly what we’re doing at any given moment via Facebook statuses or Tweets or whatever– not to mention the heavy sharing of personal pictures.  Does anyone necessarily care if you just ate really good macaroni and cheese? Maybe if you’re Miley Cyrus they do? Hmm.  But regardless of who you are, real time sites satisfy your need to instantly connect to the world.  If this is what people crave more of, then this is what they’ll get.

Read one of Chris’ blogs comparing Twitter and SecondLife if you haven’t yet:

He sates in the blog: “The biggest mistake that social network services and online virtual communities make is being too invested in the outcome of how the community will grow and develop. To be successful in community development and community creation, one must be committed to the communit y and meeting their needs versus being committed to giving them what the community producer thinks the community wants and needs — often very different things.”  So considering this, I’d say that the future of social media is in the hands of those who use it.  If portability and simplicity are what works, then that will be what sticks.  If people find it beneficial to wear both their “bowler hats and baseball caps” from a business perspective, then that will become the growing trend.

And this is why marketing through social media flat out works—it targets people.

So when the dawn of technology fed the public with fear that humans would eventually become too impersonal, it seems it will cause just the opposite to happen. Or who knows, maybe in 100 years we will be marrying robots…but that’s a different story.

Whether it sets out to distort the distinction between what is professional and what is personal (the value of which is subjective) or continues to make people bigger and our world smaller, the online community is one hell of a place to live.