The New Buzz: Social Commerce

W20 veterans Kieran Fagan and Haifa Barberi are near the cutting edge of a new public relations discipline. Their motto, social commerce, is effectively the application of big data to manage stakeholder relationships in ways the industry never before thought possible. It is now abundantly clear that corporations do not know how to effectively leverage the endless reams of data they collect on a daily basis. As in any field being pioneered, there is still a lot of experimenting going on and uncertainty surrounding best practices. That is why big data experts command large salaries.

In some ways, the shift is reminiscent of the rise of sabermetrics in baseball. Sabermetrics is using the analysis of the large amount of statistical data that baseball produces to make fundamental team decisions. It started a culture war in the sport between the old guard who trusted only their eyes and guts and younger managers that wanted to know the number of base hits and runs a player could be counted on to produce. The best practice ended up being somewhere in between. There is merit to sizing up the intangibles of mental acuity, confidence, and potential to improve.

I think a similar realization will emerge in social commerce. Companies want to begin leaning heavily on big data to market their products and manage customer relationships. I expect that many will soon learn that it that cannot replace the decision-making operator that knows how to tastefully deploy new customer insights and, more importantly, avoid an embarrassing Digital Age faux pas. The expertise of public relations flaks and marketers gives them an important role in harnessing this new opportunity to know customers. I hope companies realize this.

Groupon’s Mason Causes A Stir

Andrew Mason, recently shown the door by Groupon after successive quarters of disappointing results, may have inadvertently changed corporate communications practice with his unprecedented signoff. Groupon had struggled since their initial public offering a year and a half ago.

Announcing his firing on Twitter with unexpected humor became a huge news story. Why? Because CEOs aren’t supposed to be humorous when they’re fired, and because Twitter had never been used like that before. The dour “spending more time with his family” or “she is looking forward to focusing on other challenges” lines that are sacrosanct in corporate communications should elicit an eye-roll. Usually it does. Mason’s departure from those horrible phrases was refreshing, and endearing.

It should not come as so much of a surprise. These younger tech prodigies like Mason or Zuckerberg aren’t wired like your normal CEO. They are quirky, creative, and bask in their informality. You don’t have to clean up nicely to play around with a computer and develop software. Further, it should not be forgotten that, despite being fired, Groupon made Mason a wealthy man. He still owns over 7% of the firm, and earned tens of millions as CEO. I’m sure there was a part of Mason that was relieved to finally be out of the spotlight, and have time and money to spend with his family.

I think similar communications can be expected in the future, but mostly from non-traditional CEOs like Mason. Finance people are generally more creative with money than words, and not as funny. In the future, I expect to see CEOs who are given the boot to lash out on Twitter. Honestly, I’m almost surprised it has not happened yet. CEOs generally have an alpha male personality, and never before have so many been given the intimate pulpit of Twitter to rant from. Traditional media generally get a more composed response from executives, but perhaps the informality of Twitter will get one fired CEO in trouble soon enough.