Past, Present, Future 

There are grave concerns about the headlong flight to ‘social media metrics.’ The problem is social media are complex systems. They are poorly suited to conventional measures of linear and ordered processes. These metrics often overly influence and corrupt desirable outcomes.

As a complex system social media only reveal their properties and behaviors when there is flow in the system. Thus, rather basic and routine measure of transactions and flow are important. They inform the behavior of the system. They are not the goal or outcome.

Social media metrics must not be construed as measures of value. Recall, when a measure becomes a goal it ceases to be a measure. Transactions do not create social media value, for example. As noted, they can be very useful in characterizing the behaviors of the system, but little else.

Russell Ackoff, the great systems thinking leader, used to call a phenomena like social media a 'mess.' For years at The Network Singularity we’ve been saying the future is a mess. And, it's just the way we like it!

The purpose of leadership is to 'create the future' according to Drucker. Thus, in opinion and practice, from a leadership perspective, all management activities are a mess.

Overzealous social media measures, process wonks and rigid ‘numbers’ managers often gravely worsen the problem they are trying to solve! They create barriers, physical, cognitive, bureaucratic, to advancements for the exact problems they are trying to solve. Social media metrics are a logical conundrum. They attempt to control the uncontrollable!

Messiness is why it is ridiculous to apply Six Sigma to complex social activities like consulting, call centers, services or media. For example, variation, often the bane of process geeks, is a priceless asset to be embraced, cherished, amplified, not eliminated.

Below are Ackoff ’s properties of of messy systems like social media and CRM.

1. No unique “correct” view of the problem;

2. Different views of the problem and contradictory solutions;

3. Most problems are connected to other problems;

4. Data are often uncertain or missing;

5. Multiple value conflicts;

6. Ideological and cultural constraints;

7. Political constraints;

8. Economic constraints;

9. Often a-logical or illogical or multi-valued thinking;

10. Numerous possible intervention points;

11. Consequences difficult to imagine;

12. Considerable uncertainty, ambiguity;

13. Great resistance to change; and,

14. Problem solver(s) out of contact with the problems and potential solutions.

If your problems don’t have these properties, your so-called management activities, CRM and social media metrics are nothing more than dusty bookkeeping and rigid control. Metrics, TQM, and process blah, blah, blah, just doesn’t work for messy problems. Leadership does.

Further background:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart's_law

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phronesis