1. Translatability: Scholars and professionals cannot pitch social media solutions as if we were in a vacuum. There are very good techniques backed by solid research data that are already informing our colleagues and customers. This is about the displacement of one set of practices with another. For this to happen, the new technologies and language must be recognizable to the encumbents. If social media is the quantum leap that its proponents believe it to be, then there is the real possibility that in many contexts there will be no lingua franca or common language with which the new media advocates can use to translate their ideas into existing frameworks and metrics.
2. Experimentality: I know that is not a real word, but I will coin it now. Social media empowers all users by disrupting organizational silos and constantly revising organizational maps. It encourages users to try new apps, and combine - mash - more and more information at a faster and faster rate. Often there is little reward for reflexion; only constant innovation. This is a problem for the prevailing management paradigm because it seeks to control and regularize business practices. This dynamic is also a problem for research because it seeks to canonize some conception of a business practice. These management and research goals are not easily met when their organization's cultural context is in constant flux.
3. Temporality: It seems to me that management and research techniques are going to have to change dramatically if they are to continue to provide us useful information at a critical time. If the customer or students time frame has been substantially accelerated, it stands to reason that the manager or professor must be able to meet them where they are. Agility will be the key, and their leadership and credibility will absolutely depend on their speed with which they can deliver critical information. Especially now that so much traditional marketing data is now instantly available and free of charge.
In my opinion, temporality poses the largest threat to firms and b-schools because the new customer is versed in the language and experimentality of Web 2.0 and probably does not care about translatability. The encumbents managers and professors have to prove that they are relevant where CRM or SEO professionals do not. And the customer will shop with her feet. B-schools and brand managers beware!
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