In the last few weeks, two events had me think much about my Old Europe, in particular the way my continent deals with social media. And I feel these two chats are quite significant as it implies on the one hand, and in a negative way, the US, on the other hand, and in a positive way, China.
My first story is about two European guys, a friend starting his business (an iPhone app) and I, going to Austin, TX, for our very first SXSW festival. We were both curious and eager to see what was “the” tech and social media festival of the country that appears to us as the cradle of many of our daily habits, and as a potential business partner. We were both “tagged” living in Paris, France, on our badges. An investor my friend was trying to talk with told him straight what the problem was with our “Paris, France” : we lived in a distant world, made of a not-so-unique currency (the euro, with 17 countries), a not-so-clear border (the Schengen area, with 26 countries, not all European), in a not-so-easy political system (Europe, with 27 countries) a not-so-unified communication (with 23 official languages), a not-so-permissive regulation (unions, tax rates).
And a huge crisis going on. In one word, we were seen as coming from something complex, far more than North America and its 530 millions consumers speaking one voice (or so), a US constitution which holds on 6 pages (41 for the French one, 49 in Germany, 43 in Italy, and 187 for the European one that we failed to agree on in 2005).
My second story comes from a very, very big civil engineering company I had the opportunity to work with as a social media strategist. Their challenge was the following : the emerging markets competition, notably China, is an obvious threat due to their low prices. But as a European company, it had an asset : the master of complexity. A few years ago, an European government who took contract with a Chinese company to build a road had to expel this company, it was able to make a road cheaper than the European company, but it upset all the surrounding populations. This government then turned back to its traditional European partner to be able to finish the road and have the populations satisfied with the worksites and the risk management (pollution, noise, etc). The European company was more expensive, but more able to handle a complexity it deals with daily : civil society, various levels of elected officials, teams of workers made of several nationalities, etc. Social media strategy, for this company, is a way to handle this complexity, as it allows a top-down as a bottom-up communication, with all the stakeholders having their word on participatory devices.
Those two cases, as personal and human-scaled they may be, show how Europe, in 2012, is probably the most complex living unit in the world. 27 countries and 500 millions people both fragmented and unified in tons of cultural, social, economical and geographical layers, all (almost) able to live in peace for more than half a century after millenniums of war.
Social media strategy is, in a way, similar to Europe if you think of complexity. It allows to build bridges between different communities and have all the stakeholders of an item (an event, a brand, a place) take part in its life. Emerging markets are only beginning to demand social perks after a few decades of economic growth. Their governments are not used to manage such a complexity of communities of people suddenly having a voice and the means to broadcast it with social media.
The Old Europe is facing huge difficulties with the financial crisis, but still, you may consider taking a new glance at this complexity trying, and mostly succeeding (since its founding), in managing complexity.
Martin Pasquier