Is the spreadsheet stopping social media?
How many times has a spreadsheet stopped you doing what you know is right?
It's a regrettable truth that our best thoughts and most innovative ideas rarely fare well in columns and sheet 1. It's not auto sum's fault. It's the simple reality that to gain acceptance in commercial terms, things have to be planned and most organisation's go-to tool for planning is Excel.
For a few years now, I've spoken about the virtues of transmedia planning and the belief that a brand's story should be told in different spaces. That the story should encourage engagement by being in different places. In reality, it's not just that the story needs to be told across different media and channels simultaneously, coherently and independently, but that the story needs to be told in different columns in the spreadsheet.
What's fascinating about social media is that it lends itself very nicely to the spreadsheet, but only if you turn your screen on its side and treat the columns like layers.
Social media is all about layers and creating, co-creating, sharing and commenting on what we find within each layer. It's collectivism at its best. It's participatory nature means that the layers are deep, often unexpected and rewarding once discovered.
If I had to create a plan for social media, I wouldn't start in Excel (I love the circles too much), but I would recognise that for my plan to be activated, it's going to end up here.
Don't fight the spreadsheet. Make it work for you.
