In trying to tell influential stories, I am constantly aware of the age-old concept of “the marketplace of ideas.” Rooted in economic theory and famous Supreme Court decisions, public relations and marketing communications pros instinctively understand that idea “expression” jostles among multiple, competing ideas for audience attention.
Through free market forces “good” ideas are supposed to get disproportionate attention—“bad” ones supposedly don’t. But the mundane content of so much social media has me wondering if this digital content/technology form offers content that rises to the standard of “idea” and (at least as of yet) makes any contribution to its namesake marketplace. It's up to those of using social media to make it a marketplace of ideas. Here are three ways that you can use social media to add to the marketplace of ideas:
1. ) Small packages must carry big ideas: Remember that while a Tweet is only 140 characters, an idea is usually bigger than that. So be willing to see the big picture and big idea context that includes (but is not limited) to a specific tweet. True social media idea creation will almost always require multiple messages, across multiple platforms. But we can never lose sight of the "big idea" behind all the blogs, posts, tweets, etc. Otherwise, we add nothing to the idea marketplace.
2.) Put ideas first, the medium second: Perhaps the most important technological contribution to creating an idea marketplace came from Gutenberg and his printing press more than six centuries ago. Countless others including Jefferson, Greeley, Brady, Sarnoff, Paley, Murrow, Pyle, FDR, Farnsworth and Gates have all made significant contributions either by understanding how to harness a communications tool in way that enhanced and broadened idea exchange or by advancing technology to do the same. More importantly, all of these contributors did this in a way in which their output were themselves complete ideas that contributed to the idea marketplace. We have yet to see anyone step out to harness social media to make it an idea marketplace. Could it be you who does?
3.) Do more than just "express yourself:" Never have so many been able to express so much so easily to so many others. But if all of that "expression" is to have a point besides self adulation and mutual entertainment, what care must we take to ensure that mere communication “expressions” constitute at least some semblance of a coherent thought or idea? If not, aren’t we just “cluttering” our own brain’s bandwidth? Without striving for a higher standard, what contribution do our social media musings make to the marketplace of ideas? And if the answer is none, then why are we spending so much time, professionally and personally, on social media? To put it another way, what's your point? Have one.
Just as seeds are insufficient in themselves to create crops (they must be nurtured with sun, soil and water) the all too common communicative scatting of the social media world must have context and thought to make a point. And my point here is this: It is high time we explore and use social media with far greater consideration for the ideas we aim to communicate than the speed or the scope that we can achieve while blasting them into the ether.
