Damn the Approvals: Full Speed Ahead
As a kid I joked that when the Revolution came, lawyers would be the first ones put up against a wall. Later, when I learned that they aren’t really here to help but only to fire people, I added HR execs. Today it’s all those who screen social media before it’s “safe” for posting.
Almost nothing passes through the doors of a company into the public spotlight until it’s been approved by armies of eyeballs: the aforementioned lawyers plus marketing, product development, PR departments acting as editors, and so on. All this caution protects against mistakes that could “harm the business,” I suppose. However, the result, be it a press release, marketing collateral, case study or presentation, is so safe and tepid it’s usually as stimulating to the intellectual taste buds as pablum. Corporate social media, alas, goes through the same life-sucking process, as is fairly obvious when every post ends up re-hashing the same old stuff. The irony is the amount of time consumed to create what is so totally boring and useless.
What if — companies took a chance, assigned social media to their most inspired thinkers and writers and just cut them free?
What if — these bloggers, tweeters and commenters were allowed to work by their own standards?
What if — all reviewers were cut out of the loop?
I’ll tell you what. Creativity would thrive. Inspired ideas would proliferate. Instead of being shaped, stamped and packaged assembly-line style into the same loaf of flavorless Wonder Bread, social media would have spice and style. Public delight would soar. Web site traffic, which is the whole point of social media — from the corporate standpoint — would fly off the charts. Yes, there would be risk, and sure, mistakes would happen. But guess what: Nobody who matters would really care, and any errors or glitches would be soon buried be under the next wave of fresh content, and forgotten.
The best way to know if you really need something is to throw it away. Really no need to line anybody up against a wall. Just eliminate the unnecessary: all those damp souls who stand there dripping on the fire inside you. You won’t miss them.
“Oh but what if I offend someone and lose my job?” Yeah, what if you do? Better to speak your mind and move on than echo the brain dead. There’s always a market for untrammeled genius.
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