Fear of Losing Control Unites Us All

Dateline: London, UK

Yesterday was one of those rare super enlightening days that comes along once every year or two. I spent a full day in Paris with my colleagues from Europe who specialize in online communications. It felt like a UN summit. Around the table we had representatives from France, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Sweden and Poland. I learned more in this single day than I have from virtually any Web 2.0 or social media conference I have ever attended.

Since joining Edelman I have made it my personal mission to take a global view of social media and conversational marketing. You probably can sense this in my writing the past few months (who here is sick of hearing about the Flat Earth?). While so much of our focus as bloggers and marketers lies in the US, the conversation is indeed global. Nevertheless, there are significant local differences market by market.

For example, I learned that Germans love YouTube. Yet, they don't publish a lot of videos on the site. They like to gawk and watch what others are uploading but then they gravitate to German-language sites to participate in conversations.

In Italy Beppe Grillo's tearing up a storm. He's one of the top-ranked bloggers in the world. Part of the reason he's a blogger is because he's not welcome on TV.  Beepe was huge on TV for awhile but then he annoyed the government and so he's rarely on the tube anymore. But nobody stops him from blogging.

Meanwhile, broadband access in Poland is nothing like it is in the US, yet even here the social media revolution is taking hold. The largest newspaper in Poland, Gazeta, attracts millions of forum posts and the country even has a big social network in Grono.net.

However, the more we swapped stories, the more we found common ground despite our vast differences in culture. Control is the lingua franca that unites us all. Every single person around the table shared an experience of how communicators are concerned about losing control. They simply don't want to give it up. While it was somewhat refreshing to hear that we all are dealing with similar issues, you could also see that the dominoes are starting to fall. We shared lots of inspiring success stories that give hope that bit by bit, we are all changing mindsets together.

I don't blame marketers/PR pros for being afraid to lose control. Nobody wants to. However, the genie is out of the bottle. We can't put it back. We need to look this gorilla in the eye and accept it. We need to embrace this change and do so globally.

As I sped through the Chunnel today on Eurostar, I ironically got to the part in the World is Flat (sorry gang, another plug for the book) where Friedman talks about how JFK was able to inspire millions to get involved with the space race with a single speech. There was a lot of fear then. We were nervous the Russians were kicking our butt in the Space Race. Yet Kennedy inspired us. We got motivated and we rallied around a common goal. Similarly, Ronald Reagan's "tear down this wall" remark was one of the events that contributed to the end of the Cold War. We need a similar spark - a global one - that inspires us to not fear a lack of control. As agency professionals, it's our calling to help our clients embrace this new environment.

Unlike the 1960s and 1980s, however, today a rallying cry will not come from one individual no matter how charismatic he or she may be. The power to inspire is now decentralized and distirbuted. It comes from the entire global network of conversations. If control is the lingua franca of marketing worldwide, then it's up to all of us to "tear down this wall" together. To the degree clients will allow we should share our success stories within our firms and beyond. Success helps marketers feel at ease. There's safety in numbers.

While it can be hard, we must not lose faith. We must continue to encourage our clients to experiment. With each small success they will become more accustomed to living in this new environment and one day this will all be a memory. It may take more time in some countries than others. But make no mistake. It's inevitable. The control "wall" is falling. As Friedman says, we are moving from an era where value was created by command and control to one where it's all about collaborating and connecting.   

Marketers and PR pros will learn how to thrive in an era where they no longer control the message. It's a global imperative and it's being driven by tools that empower people to find and converse with each other in an open environment.

My time in Europe has been well spent and I see this challenge expands far beyond our shores. I'm really energized by my visit here and I am looking forward to working hard side by side with my colleagues from around the world to continue to build and learn from successes one by one. The wall is coming donwn. Let's continue to chip away at it.

Comments

[Amanda Chapel]

Steve,

I definitively answered Richard’s silly "Tear Down that Wall" piece today. I know you are on the road, but I think it might be helpful for you to take a moment to read it.

See http://www.strumpette.com/archives/140-Edelmans-Big-Gamble,-Betting-It-All-on-Anarchy.html .

Regards,

- Amanda

[Chris Thompson]

As one of my co-workers noted this afternoon, PR professionals are used to "pitching", not listening. Conversations require listening. Are we up to the job?

Scoble noted in a program we participated in that PR people who claimed they "loved his blog" sent him pitches while he wasn't blogging because of his mother's fatal illness.

Perhaps our profession has been under the illusion of control for too long for long-term players to adjust to the new rules of the game.

[Frank Shaw]

Steve, there is this persistent myth that seems to have sprung up -- of an era where marketers or PR people or SOMEONE was really in total control of the message. Heck, I've been around a while, and I've NEVER felt in total control. Maybe it's just a personal failing or something...but it just doesn't ring true to me. There is no more loss of control today than there has been in the past -- there simply are more outlets and inputs for information. Call this chaos, call it walled garden, call it anarchy -- but it has been the world in which we've been living, more or less, for quite some time. In his post, Richard argued for REVOLUTION, but it's not -- it's evolution, maybe even radical evolution, but there is no anarchy that awaits us.

[Klaus-P. Frahm]

Very nice speach! And the idea of a conversational globe without walls is charming indeed. It doesn't make me feel good though.

First, I think that conversational walls to some extent are essential for open discussions. Of course, they shouldn't be made of concrete and steel. These walls have to be movable and shapeable, and every person, every company should be able to control its current nature and position. Sounds like 5th grade logic, I know, but it's not that I fear to lose my wall, I simply don't want to tear it down, because it belongs to me.

Second, I believe that organisational bodies such as companies really NEED conversational control, otherwise they would lose their corporate identity. This doesn't mean that employees shouldn't be part of an open discussion inside the company. But as it comes to external corporate communications, control and discipline is required. It's like in sports - football players of the same team should wear the same shirts, and they should understand and follow the same strategy and goals. These things have a lot to do with identity, and they have to be under control.

[Josia]

Beautifully put Frank!

We have no control over anything - it's only an illusion that we do. Life was less challenging in the past and that's why it seems like you had more control then.

But the truth is that we are getting more and more sophisticated by the second and are not aware that there is a way to leverage this process efficiently so that it is in tune with what nature intended.

Until we become aware of this upper level we're all supposed to be striving to there will be increasing chaos all around us.

So my advice to you (in case you're interested) is very in tune with what Steve is saying - go with the flow - but also try to learn more about the source of the flow to be better at that. To be the best. At the top of your game. All the time.

[Josh Morgan]

I agree with Steve on the concept that "we have to encourage our clients to experiment." Yes, that's one of the reasons companies hire an outside agency, to push them in ways they may not normally think and to be an external, somewhat more, objective voice on communications strategy and tactics.

I also agree with Frank Shaw in that too much is being made about companies needing to 'let go of control' in order to be successful in these 'new' communications tactics. If a client wants a sure thing, I tell them to buy an ad. Our business is all about balancing risk with reward. For example, if you are working with The Wall Street Journal on an article on your client, the reward is a potential positive article that drives business/improves reputation etc., but the risk is that in the process of developing the article the reporter may talk to a disgruntled customer, partner or other voice that could turn the article negative for your client. The risks and rewards haven't changed that much over the years, but the tools available have.

[olivier blanchard]

Excellent post! Looks like we were all on the same wavelength that week. Check this out: http://thebrandbuilder.blogspot.com/2006/06/thoughts-from-wombat.html

Just go ahead and skip the first three or four paragraphs. They're completely unnecessary. The rest though, is all about that loss of control issue. :)

[Amanda Chapel]

Something to keep in mind for the fanatics wanting to throw out "command and control." Fact is: "command and control," and property for that matter, are fundamental to fiduciary responsibility. It is a corporate officer’s legal duty to protect the "property" of the shareholders.

That said, just like Open Source has hit a wall with Sarbox and corporate general counsels, risk will have to be strictly ascertained with this blog free-for-all. As such, the nebulous cloud of freewheeling customer conversation as a future for business doesn’t even rise to myth. It’s just bad fiction.

Lastly, with regard to timing, do you really think corporate America is going to bear the burden of two tech bubbles in one decade? That’s silly.

- Amanda