it's about the behaviours, not the tools
It's surprising that in 2012 there is still so much focus, effort and money spent on trying to work out how the deployment of social media technologies and tools will impact on the performance of marketing strategies.
Every week there's another Pinterest webinar or 'how-to' leverage Linked-in conference.
And countless articles speculating and instructing about this or that of Facebook and Twitter.
However the important thing is working out what's important.
Social media tools have been adopted principally because they allow us to do stuff we've always liked to do, easier and with more people.
We share things...
Talk about things...
Create our art...
See what others are saying, doing and yes, buying...
We can argue, agree, copy...
We can demonstrate how smart, connected or philanthropic we are...
What's actually important is getting a hang of people - and how they behave - to inform, develop and implement strategy.
Somehow this insightful cartoon that I found in an old Dr Feelgood tour program from something like 1978 seems to nail the problem.
Anyone can pick the guitar, plug it in to the amp and make a noise.
And many companies and brands are doing this.
Not many are making us move like Wilco and co.
It's about the people and behaviours, not the tools.
