How many of you remember the Social / Broadcast Matrix? If you don’t, you can quickly catch up, or just follow the diagram below and I’m sure you’ll get the gist:
The Social / Broadcast Matrix says that there are four configurations for media, based on whether your channels and your content is social and/or broadcast.
There are two polar opposites when it comes to media: Social and Broadcast. In fact, these aren’t the polar opposites of media, they are the polar opposites of communiction.
Broadcast is about one-way, push communication. Social is about multi-way, pull communication.
Social is in actual fact our default communication method (a conversation where both people speak and listen in turn), whereas broadcast is what happens we begin to duplicate communication and push it out.
If you follow the axis in the Social / Broadcast Matrix (full post on this model), you’ll understand that there are four modes:
Broadcast/Broadcast is where both the channel and the content is pushed (like traditional TV.)
Social/Broadcast is when we find broadcast content socially distributed and consumed (like a PR blog or Passive Publishing Twitterfeed.)
Broadcast/Social is where the channel is broadcast, but the content is social (like reality TV.)
Social/Social is where both channel and content are social (like Facebook or Google Wave.)
We can then see that there are three social strategies:
Watercooler Strategy
For a Social/Broadcast environment, we must make sure we socialise our channels. This is what I call Watercooler Strategy.
Social Channels means that you get your message to where people are – the watercooler – by simply asking yourself: where do my customers congregate online?
Perhaps it’s on Facebook. Perhaps it’s on Twitter. Perhaps it’s on a country specific network, or blog, or by searching Google or consuming video. You need to profile your audience and find out, and then get your content there.
Showcase Strategy
In a Broadcast/Social environment, we must make sure we socialise our content. This means showcasing people’s content – crowd sourcing.
The trick with Showcase Strategy is that by putting people in your content, then invite their network to see it. So here you must focus on inviting people to comment/create/curate content for you by blogging, tagging, taking photos and video, etc.
A great recent example of this is the Orange Glastonbury ‘Glastotag’ photo that you can tag yourself in. By showcasing people, Orange has gotten people’s attention.
Elbow Strategy
In a Social/Social environment, we enter the stage where we socialise out culture. This means that we provide a platform for others. We find ourselves being at the ‘elbow’ of our communities’ actions.
I regularly find myself, or Like Minds, as a lynchpin that brings others together. I make it an effort of mine as well to help people as much as I can. I live to make it matter for others, essentially.
Your Leading Thoughts
I’ve really thrown out a bunch of thoughts here to you. I’ve got this framework down a lot tighter than I show here, but rather than waiting to put it on Slideshare, as I’m still working on it, I wanted to share a bit of it now.
- When have you successfully carried out these strategies? (They are nothing new, I know that!)
- Do you see this framework as something you can follow?
- http://jonathanrose.wordpress.com Jonny RoseI LOVE the idea of the ‘Elbow’ strategy i.e. being the contingent facilitator for a community you’re dedicated to serving!For me I see your framework in trying to engage a sizeable off-line geographical community onto online platforms.The medium I’ll be using to anchor this is the @socialpurley handle which provides a central contact point for the local community (elbow) and which will in time employ aspects of the ‘Showcase’ strategy.My practical problem is: how do I get commercial businesses on the Purley go from Broadcast-Broadcast to either Broadcast-Social OR Social-broadcast?For this problem, the framework is VERY helpful as it clearly and systematically shows me the various platforms that would be suited to making this happen for different projects i.e. I imagine a restaurant is easier to encourage to go Social-Broadcast (FB fan page) / whilst a local solicitors may be better suited to Broadcast-Social (blogposts)Much to chew on here – thanks for a helpful framework!
- http://www.pragmaticperformancegroup.co.uk Sue Windley (@DangerousMkting)A nice parallel to what us traditional marketers see as push-pull marketing which I think explains better where there is overlap. Where would you place “Calls to Action?” as traditionally this is what broadcast-type media tried to achieve through being ‘persuasive’ rather than socially interacting. Of course it depends on your reasoning for using social media (personal or business) but I would assume all business users are trying to get a “call to action” still – just being more interactive to achieve the result.Interesting and incisive piece as ever Scott!
- http://jonathanrose.wordpress.com Jonny RoseI LOVE the idea of the ‘Elbow’ strategy and being the contingent facilitator for a community you’re dedicated to serving!For me I see your framework in trying to engage a sizeable off-line geographical community onto online platforms.The medium I’ll be using to anchor this is the @socialpurley handle which provides a central contact point for the local community (elbow) and which will in time employ aspects of the ‘Showcase’ strategy.My practical problem is: how do I get commercial businesses on the Purley go from Broadcast-Broadcast to either Broadcast-Social OR Social-broadcast?For this problem, the framework is VERY helpful as it clearly and systematically shows me the various platforms that would be suited to making this happen for different projects i.e. I imagine a restaurant is easier to encourage to go Social-Broadcast (FB fan page) / whilst a local solicitors may be better suited to Broadcast-Social (blogposts)Much to chew on here – thanks for a helpful framework!
- http://scottgould.me/ Scott GouldHi GuysUnfortunately, some comments that were made here got lost. I will endeavour to get them back!Scott
- http://twitter.com/AlderandAlder Alder and AlderHi Scott. Really useful analysis. I think for a lot of my clients the Watercooler Strategy is the most relevant. As businesses moving into social media they need to exploit what already exists, so it’s about looking at their client base and using the tools that they do. My big lesson on this came from Jon Akwue’s presentation at Like Minds in February – engage with your audience on their territory.Jonathan
- http://scottgould.me/ Scott GouldThis comment from Jonny Rose got lost by Disqus. Here it is:I LOVE the idea of the ‘Elbow’ strategy and being the contingent facilitator for a community you’re dedicated to serving!For me I see your framework in trying to engage a sizeable off-line geographical community onto online platforms.The medium I’ll be using to anchor this is the @socialpurley handle which provides a central contact point for the local community (elbow) and which will in time employ aspects of the ‘Showcase’ strategy.My practical problem is: how do I get commercial businesses on the Purley go from Broadcast-Broadcast to either Broadcast-Social OR Social-broadcast?For this problem, the framework is VERY helpful as it clearly and systematically shows me the various platforms that would be suited to making this happen for different projects i.e. I imagine a restaurant is easier to encourage to go Social-Broadcast (FB fan page) / whilst a local solicitors may be better suited to Broadcast-Social (blogposts)Much to chew on here – thanks for a helpful framework!
- http://scottgould.me/ Scott GouldThis comment from Sue Windley got lost by Disqus. Here it is:A nice parallel to what us traditional marketers see as push-pull marketing which I think explains better where there is overlap. Where would you place “Calls to Action?” as traditionally this is what broadcast-type media tried to achieve through being ‘persuasive’ rather than socially interacting. Of course it depends on your reasoning for using social media (personal or business) but I would assume all business users are trying to get a “call to action” still – just being more interactive to achieve the result.Interesting and incisive piece as ever Scott!
- http://scottgould.me/ Scott GouldHey JonathanWatercooler is the most common strategy – pushing content to the social places where people are.Too many people try to dive into showcase or elbow strategy, and it really is just too much too fast. I’d always advise people to get the watercooler right first.Scott
- http://scottgould.me/ Scott GouldJonny: glad you ‘get’ the idea of the framework – to provide a decision making focus.I always advise people to go in this order:1. Social Channel – Water Cooler – Scatter
2. Social Content – Showcase – Gather
3. Social Culture – Elbow – Matter - http://scottgould.me/ Scott GouldFor me, Sue, the call to action is any form of participation.Watercooler strategy is basically scattering.Showcase strategy is then about gathering from what you’ve scattered – based on who participates with you. Inevitably, people participate different ways.
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