In a way, social media and the virtual marketplace are returning us to a time before the advent of the brand itself.

Before the industrial revolution, products and services were associated with people rather than with organizations. The qualities and values brought to the marketplace by individuals — tradesmen, shopkeepers, builders, tavern owners –  were as much personal attributes as they were professional ones. Indeed, businesses were commonly co-located with residences, with the shop on the street and the home above or in back.  The geographical separation from work life was a distinctly modern idea, brought on by the arrival of the factory, and by the growth of business districts that were the habitat of men; women and children were sequestered uptown or in the suburbs. Even the concept of an employee was rooted in the notion of apprenticeship, which implied not the formation of a group identity, but a combination of service and education leading to a single proprietorship. In modern parlance: The individual was the brand.

The industrial revolution altered what had for thousands of years been the human construct for the transaction of business, and what set the foundation for what is now being upended by the social media revolution (it’s no wonder that steampunk culture is so popular with the digital gamechangers). In the late 19th century marketplace, identity became increasingly associated with an idea rather than with a person. At first, this idea was represented by a label, a corporate identity, a recognizable symbol of quality and consistency — the paramount attributes of mass production. Then, with the advent of mass, one-way media, this “label” evolved into a much more comprehensive set of ideas and associations — functional, emotional, and self-expressive. This 20th century notion of The Brand reached its zenith in the 1990s, with reams of books and consulting firms advising businesses on the vast and sometimes esoteric aspects of brand strategy.

Ironically, the promise of today’s social media revolution, with its multidimensional forms of broadcast and connectivity, was already in place in the 1990s (albeit in somewhat rudimentary form) on “solid state” services such as CompuServe and America Online. Similar to today’s social networking platforms, these were closed systems. As such, they could offer many of the collaborative features that the initially flat, open-source environment of the Web could not. The transition to the Web was exciting from the standpoint of access and reach, but it took another decade before the confluence of technology and adoption actually delivered on the early implications.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the digital media revolution is the way in which the empowerment of the individual is changing the very concept of brand as defined so exhaustively at the end of the millennium. In a business context, the access and proximity to individuals facilitated by virtual connectivity is effectively placing people in a position at least commensurate with the once-lauded brand idea. This represents a clear challenge to many of the established principles of branding, particularly and especially around the rigid adherence to representational consistency, one of the earliest and deeply-rooted tenets of brand strategy. There is no better symbolic illustration of this evolution than the vast array of icon permutations for the social networking brands themselves.

And then, of course, there is one other brand that not only embraces the individuation of its identity, but instigates and celebrates it.

The technology of tools like Twitter and Facebook is not what’s impressive or important about what social media offers to business. In fact, I would argue that what makes these tools special — and successful, especially in the case of Twitter — is how unimpressive they are. And by that I mean how simple they are.

A lot of people have the mistaken impression that what these tools offer in terms of core functionality is new. It’s not. Not even on the Web. The ability to connect, interact, broadcast, respond — communicate — has always been a fundamental component (indeed, a founding principle) of Internet technology.

Two factors have made the difference:

1. The tools are no longer esoteric. Much of what social networking offers is remarkably familiar to anyone who has participated in any of the “forum” structures that have been around since the neolithic days of CompuServe, and which were eventually ported onto the Web to serve the geekdom associated with special interests. “Affectional communities” flourished within these networks, but went largely unnoticed by business because the tools were isolated, various, and highly distributed. This wasn’t the town square, it was the back rooms.

2. Adoption has reached critical mass. The key factor to widespread use was, as always, the confluence of the right tools at the right time. Just as the technology reached a point where it could offer both simplicity and sophistication, the overall cultural adoption of the Internet as an inevitable and fundamental part of personal and professional life had arrived. Geekdom for all.

Much of business remains reluctant to embrace social media in part because new tools represent that dark room before you turn the light on: You have no idea how big it is or what obstacles you may confront. But in fact the real work is not in learning the tools but in determining how best to use them. And that requires a degree of internal brand analysis and fresh thinking that is always challenging to business because it represents change, and change is hard.

The important distinction is to focus not on what the tools do (they connect and communicate) but what to do with the tools. What interactive technology (now ubiquitously referred to as social media) enables is for people to have a true presence in the virtual marketplace. Wrap your head around the idea that what is valued now is not the presence of a brand idea but the presence of a branded person.

Social media relies on a personal presence. Be the tool.

A little social media 101 I did for the agency a while back (that’s your truly on the V.O.).

A single, central web destination is no longer enough. You need to be where your customers already are. How well distributed are you now? Do you offer opportunities for full engagement in each of your satellites, or do you only have a central presence? Are you providing tools to empower your customers to easily share your information and broaden your network organically? Read More…

B2B advertising has embraced social networks because of the connection opportunities they offer, but few efforts take full advantage of the opportunities. Social media can provide significant ROI at low cost — but only if you know how to use it.

Social media represents for business a range of web-based software components that when packaged together can offer the experience and value of a non-stop virtual trade show. It’s a way for suppliers and vendors to meet clients and prospects, show off assets and exchange information, all in a neutral space using common tools that everyone understands.

Specific social media benefits for B2B businesses include:

• Being part of the conversation: Social media is as more about connection and interaction than it is about content–what we used to call “networking” before it acquired such a digital connotation. Prospects, customers, vendors, and industry press are all engaged together on numerous social media platforms. Is your voice in the mix?

• Technology expertise & leadership: Any business with an offering or a value proposition involving technology has a mandate to foster a presence in leading-edge communication platforms. Not only does it support brand positioning, it enables access to others who share similar interests and influence. Read More…