Gravity7: Social Interaction Design SxD By Adrian Chan

Brian Solis has a post out today that struck me for its leadin picture. Accurate or not, I’m not sure, but the picture shows what looks to be a gatorade social media monitoring station. Command and control like.

Now I’m a fan of Brian’s and respect and follow his industry contributions and thought leadership. So this has nothing to do with his post — nor much to do with the claim that brands need to both listen and learn from and through their engagements on social media. (Strikes me as good, if not obvious advice.)

I just am a bit offset by this image. If it is corporate communications — a social media monitoring station — then it does look a bit command and control, doesn’t it? And if it’s a command and control center, then how is that any different from, say, other kinds of command and control centers?  Get my drift?

Am I the only one waiting for a voice to appeal through the gray uncourtesy telephone: “Tuttle!” “Tuttle!” — images of corporate duct work and pneumatic deliveries not far behind…

Do you want a relationship with a brand that engages in this manner? A fake relationship that has been initiated and sustained from behind a wall of opacity? Rendered on a screen of analytical schemas that you, consumer, are likely little less than another moving target? A tweeting account with klout to count?

Maybe it’s just me — likely not. Command and control is command and control. It’s wrong metaphorically and in practice. It is distant, removed, and operates on the false idealism of an organization’s desire to regulate relationships with customers and an audience in a world of as if. As if — fake, false, and insincere.

Sincerely, I do hope that social media provides better communication and engagement at both ends of the wire. It will, otherwise, simply become absorbed into the practices of yesteryear.