Social Media

The Diva Marketing blog has a great post today that puts social media and new technologies into perspective. From the post:

"talking with and listening to customers is Not a new idea. No matter what some bloggers may think, there were companies and marketers who cared about customers, service and doing the right thing BB (before blogs)...Blogs, wikis, mash-up communities, podcasts, vlogs, and virtual communities are vehicles that can help reestablish the corner grocery store relationship. By that I mean a time when people knew who their customers were and what was important to them. How did they know? Shopkeepers took the time to kibbutz with their customers. They intuitively understood that the relationship was the heart of a successful business. Ironically, it is these new tech tools that are the keys to opening the doors of conversations with our customers that will to rebuild an old fashion type of relationship."

There are a couple of things here that made me want to take notes. First, she's absolutely right - talking and listening to customers is not a new idea. Many times it does seem that it's an approach or skill that's been forgotten, though. Second, that she points out that blogs, wikis, etc. are tools that reestablish this idea (or the corner grocery store analogy - great example) will be helpful in explaining social media to others that aren't quite up to speed. While I understand or know this in the back of my mind, I've never seen it actually articulated like that. To me, it seems like that sort of explanation will click with a lot of people.

More on Wikinomics

Jeff De Cagna, over at Principled Innovation blog refers to Wikinomics as "probably the most important book for association executives and volunteers to read this year. As organizations across our community grapple with the strategic, cultural and business model implications of Web-enabled mass collaboration on a global scale, there is not a better resource for association leaders who are trying to make sense of it all."

I started reading it a few nights ago and have been struck by several of the statements made by the book's authors in the first chapter, including:

"These changes, among others, are ushering us toward a world where knowledge, power, and productive capability will be more dispersed than at any time in our history - a world where value creation will be fast, fluid, and persistently disruptive. A world where only the connected will survive...Harness the new collaboration or perish. Those who fail to grasp this will find themselves ever more isolated - cut off from the networks that are sharing, adapting, and updating knowledge to create value."

As someone working in an association, that last sentence hits home. We're used to being the creators of knowledge and value. But we'd be wise to recognize that the real power lies outside our walls and that the real value is created when our members share, adapt, and update knowledge. And more and more, you realize members don't really need you as much since they can connect and collaborate without you.

"...firms that cultivate nimble, trust-based relationships with external collaborators are positioned to form vibrant busines ecosystems that create value more efficiently than hierarchically organized businesses."

So even though it may be counterintuitive to some to give up control, the bigger picture points to benefits that outweigh the perception of negative consequences. And I think with more of those relationships with external collaborators you increase your influence, reach and impact.

"(referring to Web 2.0, etc.) We're all participating in the rise of a global, ubiquitous platform for computation and collaboration that is reshaping nearly every aspect of human affairs. While the old Web was about Web sites, clicks and "eyeballs," the new Web is about the communities, participation, and peering. As users and computing power multiply, and easy-to-use tools proliferate, the Internet is evolving into a global, living, networked computer that anyone can program."

That's the exciting part to me. Rather than the Web being a flat, one-way communication medium, technology is finally allowing it to be a many-way, interactive platform. I'd love to see a ton of Web sites move away from being "brochures" and info. repositories and toward being a place to interact.

More thoughts to follow as I continue to read the book. But I wanted to get this down before I forge ahead.

Wikis

By now, I'm sure you've at least heard about wikis. One of the most popular, Wikipedia, defines them as websites that allows visitors to add, remove, and otherwise edit and change content.

For quite a while now, I've wondered how our organization could use wikis. What could we accomplish with them? What would be the benefits? What could they do better than some methods we currently use?

One of the main ideas that always occurs to me is that they would be a way to take advantage of the knowledge and expertise that resides within our membership. Our members could "add, remove, and otherwise edit and change content" on any number of topics related to the profession - and do it with substantial authority. They could do it with more authority than we could at "headquarters." We don't have all of the expertise - we have a bit. But in total, the expertise within our members is far greater than we can ever possess here.

This is part of the reason I'm looking forward to picking up a copy of a book published late last year called, "Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything." I'm eager to flip through it and hopefully generate some ideas for myself and my organization. As I do, I'll share my thoughts here.

Related to wikis, BusinessWeek has an article today about the community building potential in wikis. The article also mentions a company called Wetpaint that allows you to create your own wiki - looks easy!

MIT to Offer its Courses for Free

From Reuters: "The Massachusetts Institute of Technology will become by year's end the first U.S. university to offer all of its roughly 1,800 courses free on the Internet, a school official said on Friday."

"We started this project because MIT believes that one of the best ways to advance education around the world is through the Internet," said Anne Margulies, head of online curriculum.

So that's almost all of MIT's courses - for free - on the Internet. Users don't earn credit or get to contact faculty. But still, that's a lot of high quality content.

I work in an association that charges members for educational content. I'm still trying to decide what kind of impact this trend has on our organization and others in similar positions. But it's something I'll continue to monitor.

Blog Awareness Spread by Word of Mouth

Via eMarketer.com: Two-thirds of blog readers discover blogs by links on other blogs, according to a new report by Vizu Answers and Ad Age. Recommendations account for another 23% of blog finds.



So I guess if I want to get this blog to be more widely read, I'd try to get it linked on some other blogs. Right now, that's not important to me. It's interesting, though, to see that traditional search engines aren't as important in this area - at least yet.

The same eMarketer.com article said two thirds of blog readers do so to be entertained. Only 12% said they read for work/business reasons. So not only am I not linked on any other blogs yet, I'm writing in a topic area of interest to only a small portion of the audience.

Just some things to keep in mind if you're considering your own blog, for personal or professional reasons.

The Opportunities and Challenges of Comments

I view the Web as a two-way commuications medium. Today's technology makes it easy for users to interact with a website and one another. Many sites are still one-way, flat, brochure sites that still "publish" to the audience. That fits for some sites, but much of the time seems like an outdated approach.

USAToday recently redesigned its website in order to create a more interactive site and build community. One of the new features is to allow comments on stories from readers. From the site:

Join the conversation
We’re strong believers that our stories are the beginnings of a conversation, not the last word. That’s why we’re excited to add comments to every story page. Now when you read an article on USATODAY.com, you can see what others are thinking and join the conversation yourself. We feature the most interesting comments at the top of our main pages.

Generally speaking, I think this was a great idea. As more and more sites become interactive, it's nearly an expectation from the users that they're going to be able to communicate "back" in some way. I agree with their viewpoint that the stories are the beginnings of a conversation. I wish more sites used this approach, not only with "stories," but with a lot of the information
they publish.

On the other hand, I noticed some of the negative aspects to this setup as I browsed comments yesterday. Not unexpectedly, many simply took the opportunity to bash the redesign. People don't generally like change.

Today, BusinessWeek elaborates on more of the challenges of opening up the dialogue in this way. Among them:

• it's debatable whether all the comments that stay up do much to illuminate a
  subject
• just as enlightened online discussions may encourage readers to become more
  engaged with a publication, offensive comments risk turning them away

I don't think there's an easy answer to these challenges. I think that you have to have confidence in your audience that, over the long haul, it's going to regulate itself. Now, that doesn't mean you won't still need profanity filters or a way of reporting abusive commenters. But after people have had a chance to vent during these early stages, those that stick around will generally behave.