Is Social Technology Making us More or Less Human?

Published on The Social Network Show on May 7, 2015 By Jane Karwoski, PhD

Show Recap

Michelle Killebrew is a “social optimist.” In this episode of The Social Network Show, she speaks with listeners about her conviction that social technology is helping us be more human, rather than less, as many fear.

Ms. Killebrew leads customer-centered marketing strategy for Social Business at IBM. Since earning a BS in Economics at Santa Clara University in the heart of Silicon Valley, Michelle has worked in IBM’s Enterprise Marketing Management division, thoroughly integrating Coremetrics analytics into campaigns. She then headed up IBM’s World Wide go-to-market and demand generation organization in the Smarter Commerce initiative. Now she is refining the definition of social business and creating research-based content to guide businesses in embracing it.

Together Michelle and Dr. J discuss whether engagement with online communication seal us off from genuine face-to-face relationships. Whether we are inclined toward optimism or skepticism, it is important to realize that technology can be used for good or ill. Public engagement in debate and analysis of the issues involved, such as privacy, security, social skills, and human empathy, is crucial, while apathy and defeatism is a worse enemy than any of the threats technology presents.

Michelle Killebrew’s talk on this subject, delivered at TEDx, University of Nevada in Reno, can be watched on YouTube and you can visit her website to learn more about Michelle.

Michelle Killebrew is passionate about marketing, especially innovative online marketing strategies that deliver a superior brand experience – from initial acquisition through to loyal customer – and increase growth and profitability. She currently leads the go-to-market strategy for IBM Social Business, where her team focuses on messaging and solutions that define social business and demonstrate how organizations can embrace this next information revolution in the workforce. Previously, she headed up the worldwide go-to-market and revenue-bearing demand generation campaign strategy for IBM’s new Smarter Commerce initiative, where her team was responsible for marketing B2B/commerce and enterprise marketing management solutions to meet the needs of the empowered customer. Michelle has over 15 years of high-tech marketing and holds a B.S. in Economics from Santa Clara University.

You can connect with Michelle on LinkedIn and Twitter, and read her recent articles on ClickZ.

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Jane Karwoski, PhD

Dr. Jane Belland Karwoski is Chief Science Officer of Social Network Intermedia and The Social Network Association as well as the lead host of The Social Network Show. She holds a doctoral degree in experimental psychology and dedicated her early research efforts to combining social, cognitive and health psychology as they relate to the influence of key opinion leaders in spreading best practices.Prior to the availability of formal online social networking tools, Jane developed Genomicus Americus, an e-newsletter connecting North American and South American social scientists studying genetic and genomic issues. She has been a Research Assistant at the Centre for Economic and Social Aspects of Genomics (Cardiff, South Wales), an ORISE Fellow with the National Center on Birth Defects (CDC, Atlanta, GA), and a Post-Doctoral Fellow with the Center for the Study of Healthcare Behavior (VA of Greater Los Angeles/RAND Health/UCLA). She has held adjunct professor positions in the psychology departments of The University of Nevada, Las Vegas; Excelsior College; and Drexel University.

New Content Economy? What’s Old Is New Again!

Published in ClickZ on February 19, 2015.

As the marketing ecosystem evolves, we can look to our past for inspiration on how to deal with the new challenges we face.

"What will it take to win in the new content economy? The best way for publishers to earn more is to interrupt less. The best way for brands to emotionally connect is through meaningful content. But for the new content economy to thrive, all of these efforts need to happen at scale." - The Rise of the New Content Economy, VentureBeat

I was reading the above article - by now you know I read a lot; philosophically agreeing with B. Bonin Bough’s thought "I'm so scared to become irrelevant so I try to spend time constantly learning what’s new" – and struggling with a massive case of writer’s block for this piece when an epiphany hit: as with most things, we’ve been here before! I actually agree with what is stated in the article, that we, as marketers, need to think through how we properly engage with our audiences given the latest advances in technology. But with that said, the fundamentals of marketing are just that: fundamental. They still hold true even if we think of "modern" ways of applying them.

Recently I had the privilege of presenting at TEDxUniversityofReno. My talk was called "How Technology Can Make Us More Human," focusing on how we, as people and as brands, are leveraging technology to enhance or interrupt our experiences with others. In preparing for my talk, I researched current data points, forward looking global trends – but I also reflected back on past predictions of what our future may hold. I re-read Fahrenheit 451 (written 1953) and 1984 (written 1949) - which, if you haven’t read in a while, I highly encourage you to do so! I’m also adding Brave New World to my "on deck" reading list – and was reminded how our human history is cyclical. Our discovery and re-discovery of how we engage with one another is both fascinating and humorous.

Currently in the headlines as being new and "must execute" trends:

• Native Advertising and Content Marketing: While I’m sure it goes back further, native advertising in our modern world can be traced back to the 1930’s advent of radio soap operas - where the brands were in charge of creating original content with which to engage their target audience: housewives.
• Social Technology: This is really a technological application of our human nature in "word-of-mouth" conversation. Applying this to promote products, brands, and services is as old as time immemorial. Yes, we need to continue to refine our methods of speaking authentically through these channels and yes, tools and analytics can help us do this more effectively, but the concept is not new.
• Relationship Selling: The latest resurgence in building out sales teams is a trend resulting from our over-reliance on technology (marketing automation, etc.) and people’s true desire to seek advice from a human during complex buying decisions. This seems like common sense to me and apparently customers are beginning to demand it, as shown by the business models supporting the headcount to fund for these new teams.
• Print Marketing: I’ve been saying this for a while now - print marketing is not dead. In fact, as we focus more on digital channels, the physical, tactical, and experiential nature of print makes it even more special, and I agree whole heartedly with Tessa Wegert in her recent ClickZ article on the topic.

What can we learn here? As we are faced with new and more complex marketing challenges, we can look to our past for inspiration on how best to use these seemingly new obstacles. Tried-and-true foundational marketing practices can be re-imagined and re-engineered to meet today’s expectations.

I love that that as people seek to engage with one another, they are looking for more "natural" ways to do so, a la Snapchat. "'You know this conversation we just had? Snapchat is just like that. It’s like real life. It’s just between us and you’re left with nothing but the memory.' It sort of puts the fun back in social again; just like when some of us were kids," says Steve Tobak.

So, as we look forward, take a moment to look back – we’re an amazing human race, and we have likely already thought through similar challenges.

PS – I also love that Millennials have this affinity for nostalgia; I consider it a proof point of the above, plus it makes me smile to see the toys from my own youth on the shelves today!