So my husband, Paul, has lost 5-10 pounds over the past year or so. It’s happened gradually and he attributes it not to a diet, but rather, to a shift in his food selection that he refers to as “replacement.” He’s not eating less food, just replacing many of the refined carbohydrates he was eating with unsaturated fats and protein, e.g. rather reaching for a cookie, he’ll grab a handful of almonds; instead of a sandwich, he’ll have a salad with double turkey. Believe it or not, Paul’s concept of replacement is a relevant lesson for organizations and individuals dipping their toes into the sea of social media.
I had the pleasure of grabbing coffee (no, no muffin or croissant with it) this morning with long-time contact and SVP at Fleishman-Hillard Digital, Dan Horowitz. Conversation flowed from FH Digital’s terrific That Guy website and campaign for military health client Tricare, to the work that I do with DoD’s New Media Directorate, to the challenge of finding the time to actively maintaining a social media presence. Dan explained that one of the biggest challenges in working with clients is getting them to understand that to do some of the social media “stuff,” they have to stop doing some of the traditional “stuff”: replacement.
Whether you are an individual or are reading this in your role with a corporation, organization or government agency, you can’t keep doing what you were doing and also fully participate in the world of social media. There is not enough time. Social media needs to replace a portion of your old media time and resources.
Even if there were a hypothetical situation in which you actually had unlimited time and resources, the concept of replacement still holds true because the relationships that you will build and maintain through social media makes some portion of your old outreach, PR, customer care and other communications functions, obsolete. This means that they need to be replaced. Replacement can help you/your organization, too, to become leaner by focusing on what’s really valuable and usable rather than on the empty calories of some old communications.
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You’re right on the money about replacement being the key to both weight loss and social media adoption (and, really, any unhealthy habits…). Hence it’s one of the “core principles” Don Burke and Sean Dennehy devised for the optimal use of Intellipedia: Replace existing processes. Wiki editing, blogs, etc., can’t be “just another thing to do” – they’ve go to be THE thing to do.
I’d like to see the equivalent of a scale or cholesterol level indication as the federal government begins to “get healthy” regarding leaner IT development/implementation/maintenance and information management. Surely, social media adoption will help the government lose its spare tire and make it a fitter organization!
Yes, I think you, Don and Sean are right: the only way to truly gain traction and adoption of a new technology or business process is to force it. Ideally this “forcing” is done by showing amplified value. Coersion or incentives may also work, but never as well, I believe as someone realizing and embracing the value themselves. There is something about the power of self-discovery.
The key to getting organizations to replace existing processes with social media solutions is to show them the pain of a) continuing to do things in the less efficient ways that they’re used to; b) pull the curtain back and let them see the implications–competitive threats, loss of marketshare, whatever–if they don’t adopt these tools & solutions.
I think this is a wonderful concept and the metaphor of a replacement diet is complimentary to this article. This is my first time reading your blog, I stumbled on it from reading similar commentary that linked to this blog, and I can truely say I’m not disappointed in my findings. My one tip to your readers would be not just replacing old media, but using this interactive space to its full potential as a knowledge base. Meaning you pay tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars in education that is more then readily available online, although society requires the degree to prove you know something. Think of both as a potential for success. I read A LOT. In fact I generally read 3 books at a time, a minimum of an hour a day (often split up between work out time and before bed), as well as reading blog posts, finding new articles from twitter, and using online resources to search out new and original ideas. Never stop trying to be better, smarter, greater, a happy philanthropist, and never turn down the opportunity to learn something new (ESPECIALLY WHEN ITS FREE). I’m sure your a busy person, we all are. So here is the key. Availability and accessibility. When are you available or bored? On the bus, in a waiting line, in the car, or somewhere else? So make your favorite learning resources more accessible to yourself during those times with podcast, free e-books, an iphone etc.
Best wishes,
Desarae
http://www.sniki.org
Desarae, thank you for stumbling upon my blog. I apologize for such a delayed response to your comment — it somehow got stuck in a spam filter and I just found it.
I commend your diligence for voracious reading and learning. Very good suggestions about utilizing spare time constructively. I am actually in the process of listening to my first ebook in the car. So far, so good!