I read Martin Olausson’s from Strategy Analytics interesting report this morning titled “The People’s Revolution: Implications of the Web 2.0 and Social Media Applications.” Martin’s concise and well-thought out piece identifies the challenges and opportunities social technologies pose for media companies as consumers become more familiar with “social” technologies and want to apply these technologies to interact with both other fans AND the branded entertainment content itself.Martin identifies the opportunity this interactive experience creates for media:

“If media companies choose to embrace social media and web 2.0 applications, it will enable a more direct and positive relationship with consumers. Although this will require media companies to give up some of the tight control they hold over media assets and allow consumers to interact with the media itself, it is likely to create a dialogue with consumers which will undoubtedly drive engagement.”

Greater engagement + direct relationship with consumers + opportunities to monetize an ongoing conversation around branded content. Sounds like exactly what media companies are looking for from their digital efforts today.What’s really interesting about this is that Martin originally published the above thoughts way back in November 2007 -- ancient history on the social media time line.So what’s taking Media & Entertainment companies so long to address the opportunity that Martin identified? In my opinion, here are some reasons:1) Evolution of the use of social networking (from connecting people-to-people, to creating “communities of content”) -- While I think “users” or audiences naturally gravitated to using social networking to connect with other fans, the early market leaders in the use of social networking were experiences built primarily around connecting you to your friends. It’s taken a while for the media companies (not the users) to identify how these friend-based experience might be adapted to deliver a social entertainment experience.2) Changing business process is the hard part -- In many ways, developing new technologies is the easy part compared to evolving business processes and economic models to best leverage those technologies. I think media companies have been rethinking their underlying business processes even as they’ve been experimenting with social technologies, and waiting for consumers to be ready for a new, more immersive form of entertainment. 3) Finally, scale matters -- Martin identifies that “scale will be paramount” for social channels just as in other forms of media. To date, scaling social entertainment experiences across a portfolio of branded sites has been cost prohibitive for media companies. And the social experiences with scale today are only beginning to explore how they may extend their “people-to-people” connection to the world of entertainment. The timing of Martin’s wise words prove it will be difficult WHEN media companies will be able to deliver a new, more social entertainment experience, but there are a lot more people who recognize the opportunity now than did back in 2007.Feel free to leave a comment with you own opinion on why it’s taken a while for media companies to fully leverage “social” or leave your own predictions for when we’ll have a more interactive, immersive entertainment experience.