Over the last week and a half during the Vancouver Olympics, several of my colleagues here at Greystone and I have been held hostage during our lunch hour watching the unique and exciting sport of curling. If you’ve never watched curling, the sport is very similar to shuffleboard on ice, but with a few interesting wrinkles. A thrower from each team alternates sliding cement “rocks” down the ice, as two people with brooms follow along and try to steer it to the correct place by vigorously sweeping. Teams battle back and forth trying to be the closest to the center, knocking each others’ rocks out of the way in the process. With sliding, screaming, sweeping, and smashing, curling simply makes for great theater.
We here at Greystone have always been passionate about social media. Now we are passionate about curling. Which got me thinking: what do these two things have in common? As it turns, out there are quite a few similarities. Before you start thinking that
my rocks have been peeled, hear me out:
1)
The back and forth exchange. In curling, teams alternate sending stones skidding down the ice, trying to be the closest to the center of the scoring area. This continues until all the stones have been played. In many ways, Social media is just like this. A comment is made on Twitter, a criticism is leveled via Facebook. It is your turn then to respond and try to score some points, build a relationship, or at least prevent your opponent from running the table. In curling - as in social media - you simply can’t afford not to respond, or the opposition is going to score all the points.
2)
The crazy vocabulary. In social media, we poke, tweet, digg, post, and blog. In curling, you can bump, bury, burn, chip, draw, and peel. The vernacular in both cases can be a barrier to entry for new players, and makes diehards sound like they are members of an elite club. Don’t let the fancy language fool you! At their core, curling and social media are both about simple concepts transpiring in novel surroundings.
3)
The importance of strategy. Curling games are divided into “ends”, similar to innings in baseball. Each “end” can vary greatly in the way it is played, calling for different shots and techniques. In this analogy, each “end” is similar to a different platform for social media: video sharing, social networking sites, social bookmarking, etc. As with curling, in social media the best teams are those that are aware of their own organizational strengths and weaknesses. They have an overriding strategy on where and how to leverage these capabilities, but are flexible enough to make small adjustments as dictated by circumstance.
4)
The Canadians have it all figured out. Curling is one of the most popular sports in Canada, and both their men’s and women’s teams are currently in gold medal contention. (Alas, not true for the Americans) If it is not enough that our northern neighbors can taunt us with their free public healthcare system and their curling prowess, the Canadian government, led by an actual CIO, is way ahead of Washington in terms of implementing blogs and wikis to help various agencies and departments work together. There is a lack of data about the social media adoption rates of Canadian hospitals vis-à-vis the Americans, but I suspect that it is as high if not higher up north than it is in the States. Perhaps we could all learn a little something from our Canadian cousins, eh?
5)
Alignment is key. Okay, perhaps I am taking the analogy a bit far here, but in curling, alignment (in a literal sense) is critical. Shooters try to place rocks behind other rocks to prevent them from getting knocked out of scoring position, and teams must work together to move them into the proper place. In social media, alignment (in a figurative sense) is just as key. To be successful in social media, messaging must be consistent with overall brand image. Marketing initiatives will work better if done in sync with conventional efforts, and internal organizational alignment is critical to long-term success.
“Stacking the brooms” is a curling expression that means “socializing with teammates and opponents, often over a drink, after a game.” Like curling, social media has tremendous upside in terms of creating conversations and building relationships. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend that you check out Olympic curling. And if your organization is not currently involved in social media, you might want to get started on that too. Good luck stacking the brooms!