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Hours after the release of his most recent interview on creativity in businesses on the Generation Inc. website, famed publicist turned professor Jean-Jacques Streliski was back at HEC Montréal in order to entertain an audience that came to see him in conversation with another media authority, Bruno Guglielminetti. The theme: the rather vast scope of activites and ideas encompassed by "Social media: a state of affairs."

In general terms, the starting point is always the same. The world is changing, will change, has changed. As the current economic revolution persistently affects everyone and everything, those who were still wondering whether or not to get a website in 1999 are the same who are pondering now what this social-media fast train is all about. They stand in all perplexity as it invades, pervades, transforms – will transform, has transformed – absolutely everything. 

The most striking part of the conversation between the two men undoubtedly was on this new cognitive and semantic conclusion that stems from the current state of social media: there is no place for amazement anymore. Expressions like "new media", which used to reveal the novelty aspect of these forms of interaction, have yielded to "digital media". Companies – whether they are media businesses or not – cannot afford such stupor: instead of yielding to dreariness, they have every incentive to move towards fast appropriation of these platforms. In recent times, this has given us both the best (McDonald's, Via Rail, Le Devoir), and the worst (Lassonde, Applebee's, HMV) uses of this creativity in the virtual realm. 

In short, the world has changed, but in an unequal manner. Some have been able to grasp the benefits from this new narrative outburst and have escaped from the walled, homogeneous and sterile corporate talk of yesterday's businesses. For those who have not found their route yet, the path is increasingly complex, and the rhythm with which new platforms are created makes it all the more likely that we will never again have to suffer the "controlled" world of former models. 

In the end, the idea that the digital world destroys value is a myth. Value is simply displaced towards new, more relevant players. All we need is to find out how to seize it. Undoubtedly, Streliski and Guglielminetti have that covered.