The Karl Rove-Mark Penn approach to social media

Social media is imposing an atmosphere on business that has been the defining nature of political discourse for the entirety of human civilization.  Business is predictably tip toeing into this atmosphere tactically rather than strategically, which is why this video ridiculing the social media “guru” has such resonance.

A scary new environment is ripe for tacticians who claim “guru”-ness.  They know all the levers, how to pull them, and what the levers will do when pulled.  Such “gurus” also argue for hyper measurement of the tactics – count the page views, the video views, the friend lists, and compare them to sales, find your marginal up tick in revenue.  See, it works, and it pays for itself!

It all reminds me of Karl Rove and his ideological counterpart/tactical twin Mark Penn.  Penn/Rovian politics is defined by identifying a micro trend and squeezing it relentlessly until a few votes drip out, enough to arrive at 50%+1, and thus victory.  It relies on exploiting tiny differences in the electorate and making them larger by using old media in a one way flow of rigidly disciplined messaging.

This approach is razor targeted, but also necessarily divisive, small, and inauthentic.  The bet is that those targeted differences will matter enough, to enough people, for long enough, that on election day, they will surgically carve out 50%+1.  The problem with Rovian tactics is evident in the long term, as we are now realizing.  Why?

Because the Rovian calculus dismisses long term authenticity in the pursuit of short term gain.  Such short term disagreements in the electorate by definition disappear over time.  Their usefulness is limited to a very short window.  Long term, they become inauthentic to an electorate that moves on, and often leaves the old divisions behind.  Political discourse, and now social media discourse, is among people – people change, especially on the divisive issues of any particular moment.

For companies entering social media, an illustrative case would be Apple.  Apple launched the Macintosh in 1984, and spent a good two decades staying true to its authentic nature, that of the anti-Microsoft.  Along the way, Apple certainly had opportunities to get tactical in pursuit of incremental increases in sales.  Microsoft itself got tactical in response to Apple, adopting the look and feel of the Apple operating system. Long term, though, Apple not only stayed authentic, they doubled down.

Today, Apple enters the social media atmosphere after two decades of staying Apple.  The reward is apparent – Apple’s corporate culture is intact, its market position is growing faster than anyone ever imagined, and its products are changing the way people communicate.  Apple now arrives in the new social media environment tailor made to not only thrive, but dominate.

And what of the Penn/Rovian calculus?  It turns out that tactical division really is micro targeted, even to the point of the shelf life of its effectiveness.  Coming as it did just before the dawn of a new social media atmosphere, Rovian tactics are dying a slow, highly visible death at the hands of a new social media environment amplifying exponentially a political discourse ready to dismiss it.  Short term gain is inherently inauthentic.  The discourse of the new social media figures this out almost on sight.

This is why the social media “gurus” are so humorous.  We’ve all seen them before.  Yes, perhaps they can be of marginal use to a company in the very short term.  What are they costing you in the long term?  Ask Karl Rove and Mark Penn.