Beyond Blogging

In a recent article by BusinessWeek, the conversation was continued about Blogging and the future of social media and networking. I'm not just referring to how effective Facebook and Myspace are, but rather how social media and networking are creating a "bottom-up" culture within corporations where everyone can become one of the "voices" of the company. Blogs open the world up to make anyone a perceived "expert" in a particular subject and enable people to collaborate around an idea in a way they never could have before.

The "digital water cooler" enables companies to hear from and respond to its clients, customers and employees in a way unheard of until now. It means that everyone can (and oftentimes will) be a part of the development of a project and/or strategy simply by speaking into or about it. In short, our constituency is our developer and vice versa.

What does this mean for us? It means that we need to be a part of the conversation that people are having about our products. We need to pose the questions and watch as the answers come in, responding and reacting, but ultimately observing. Starbucks recently launched a social network designed solely to gather customers suggestions about how to make Starbucks better. The result, Starbucks announces that more than 12 million people will now be eligible for free internet at their locations starting this Spring. The conversation motivated and initiated by Starbucks changed the way they were doing business.

Tools like twitter,linkedin, and del.icio.us, mean that it is easier than ever to stay connected with what people are doing and have them stay connected with you. It means the world is becoming flatter and flatter by the day (and in fact- the hour) as we all end up on a level playing field. It's a new day and we're excited to be jumping right in the middle of it.

*For more info about any of the technologies listed above, feel free to email me. Trust me, they're really cool :).