I read about the recent announcement of the acquisition of GetSatisfaction by Sprinklr. My initial reaction was one of bemusement, curiosity and intrigue, and to be honest quite a lot of surprise. I couldn't understand the acquisition. But in hindsight that was more a reflection of my thinking.
I've followed GetSatisfaction for a number of years, have engaged with them and also been privileged to get to know the team. I've followed the community space and am a passionate (but realistic and pragmatic) advocate of communities and the power they can bring. But I've also increasingly felt over the last few years, that the space has essentially stagnated. That is not for want of trying, as well as continuing to develop their platforms and propositions, by the vendors. But my sense is that the vendors and proponents of communities have struggled with the challenge of trying to integrate communities as part of the mainstream; technologically and philosophically. Communities have their own dynamics and idiosyncrasies. They are seemingly separate and distinct.
I know I'm not the only one who recognises the power (and the inherent dilemma) of the community. As Esteban Kolsky writes in a recent post - GetSatisfaction: The Controversy Behind the Acquisition:
"Communities are (should've been) the only reason we started social networks and why social matters to organizations. And they are the (renewable) power source for business transformation going forward. Communities is something you, Mr/s. business person, should care about deeply - and yet, more than 85% of "youz" don't.
"If you look at the "communities providers" vendors they are all in the same: working through the resistance of 85% of the market that doesn't get what communities are and what they do - and using the other 15% to propel them forward."
As for Sprinklr, by my own admission, I've known about them for a few years but don't know a lot about them and have, rightly or wrongly, grouped them in that monitoring space as just another vendor. A space, I also feel, has stagnated over the last few years. As organizations have evolved and instinctively moved beyond share of voice and sentiment towards something more sophisticated, experiential and subtle, the monitoring companies have been unable to respond to that shift, unwilling to respond to it, or simply slow to respond to it. In many ways, organizations have simply outgrown what exists today.
This move by Sprinklr has caught me completely off guard. But I welcome it. I welcome it as a kind of wake-up call to a space that desperately needs to be cajoled and re-invigorated. I welcome it because it has forced me to question my own assumptions about community and monitoring.
I should always have viewed communities as being the mainstream, with the other incidental channels (Twitter, Facebook, Whatsapp, Snapchat, Instagram etc) simply that: incidental, secondary, supporting...
Underpinning the community with real-time monitoring and insight now elevates both above the incidental. It elevates the community to the role of platform; the unified platform that pervades or underpins the customer experience. It makes community important. It makes monitoring important.
As Esteban writes:
"We will see the beginning of the rise of communities to become mainstream (rule of thumb: 30% adoption in the marketplace) and to realize their potential.
"I am talking about the model that GetSatisfaction embraced and was unable to sustain in the market: ad-hoc, open, freely moldable and shapeable communities where people come to share power and knowledge - and no one controls or brands."
Perhaps now, brands will begin to realize that being in control of (not controlling) the platform is a far more powerful position to be in, than trying to control what happens on top of it...