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.