Social media. Social networks. If you add these to your venture capital pitch, you’ll get an extra ten minutes to propose your “next big thing.” Why, though? Why is it suddenly hot to be social? Being that I’m often surrounded by the people thinking about this, I have some thoughts about the answer to why.
Social Reconnects Us
During his emotional speech at Gnomedex, Derek K. Miller started off by saying that the people who claim the Internet turns us all into shut in hermits are wrong. The Internet has given him access to people while he’s been at home, recovering from his illness. It’s just a simple reminder of a larger truth: using the social tools of the Internet takes all these millions of people using the Web and gives them a “commons, a marketplace, and a workplace.”
We connect through Twitter, through Facebook, through our blogs, through podcasting to some extent. We use Flickr and MySpace and all these other technologies to weave together a richer, more textured portrait of who we are.
Social Adds “Voice”
Giving us a way to pore over the same sites and participate with what’s there makes us feel somewhat more connected to the material. Have you spent any time digging into Amazon lately? You can leave reviews, write into a wiki, chat back and forth with people. All around a product. Sure, some of you are saying, “Why would I?” But others of you might see the advantage of having that much additional data on a product you’re considering purchasing.
Using the tools of social networking and social media means adding our own take to things, no matter where we find them.
Marketers Love Social
Because they see it as the second coming of “word of mouth” marketing. And in a way, they’re right. But only insofar as we, the people inside the networks, enable this kind of conversation. I’ve long held that the new wave of marketing should be reversed. Marketers should be seeking out the pre-existing evangelists of their products, or people who like similar products, and empower them to do more truth-based marketing. For instance, I love my Macbook. I love my BlackBerry Pearl. I love my Sony DSC-T9 camera. Why aren’t those marketers finding me, and helping me rant and rave even more effectively?
Spam, even social spam, won’t be tolerated, and I think that people need to disclose fully if they’re being augmented by someone else. Full disclosure.
Social Mimics Life – Kind Of
It’s not analogous, but it’s not bad. Social media and social networking are (can be) messy. It’s imperfect. We twitter into a set point in time and someone is either there to respond immediately, or they respond 10 hours later. That doesn’t happen in real life, but it makes sense here. Facebook gives us a rich interaction, including understanding of the people who connect to us (insofar as they populate their profiles and tell us about their lives). It helps us connect a little deeper. A little.
There’s still a weirdness around the world “friend.” Are you a friend because you know my name on two services and read my blog? Are you a friend because we met twice at a conference? Yes, according to social networks. And in my eyes, I like having friends, however tangential. But how then do you separate FRIEND friends versus people you know through networks? So, all the kinks of this aren’t gone.
Social for Businesses
Should businesses be social? Should they use these tools? Are they timewasters? Which ones? (I get that question a lot). Of course, it matters which ones and for what purpose. I think there are some values to be found in social networks, social media, and bringing a human face to most organizations.
But, even as I’m writing this article, Jeff Pulver pointed out this article about whether social tools are bad for business productivity. (Answer: yes.)
So, what have I missed? What are you thinking about social media and social networks? Do you recommend them for your business?
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