Is “Social Media” Really Social?

October 21, 2008 – 11:27 am

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These days when it seems that everyone is extolling the virtues of social collaboration, it may seem odd to ask if social media is social. My point here is not to question the value of social collaboration, but to take a deeper look at the underlying characteristics of the tool-set we refer to as “social media”.

When blogs first came on the scene, I don’t think anyone was able to foresee the resulting “conversation” we all now take for granted. What the first bloggers saw was, an easy way to publish, the overcoming of previously high technical barriers. The resulting conversation was emergent, not intended. If you really look at it, I think you will find that the same is true for most of the social media formats, each was initially conceived as technical solution to a previously difficult problem.

OK … so what?

If we think of the “social tool-set” in strictly social terms, we can become blinded to the value these tools can bring to other areas of information management. I refer back again to what Tim O’Reily said at Web 2.0 Expo in NYC last September, “Enterprise 2.0 is about exposing the back office.” When you think about the implication of what he was saying, there is a lot there that has nothing to do with social behavior, per se. Exposing the back office means,

  • having direct access to your account information with your cell carrier;
  • being able to directly schedule your own appointments to get your car serviced;
  • not having to wait 30 minutes on hold to get tech support.

These are all examples of what will be the next generation enterprise applications, built on a set of tools that are inherently simple, scalable and flexible. These applications will look a lot like blogs, wikis, RSS readers, etc, but they will not necessarily be social.

The point being, that social media came into being because for the first time a set of tools existed that was able to be easily used by a broad number of people and was able to adapt fast enough to mirror real social interaction, not because the tools were inherently social.

So let’s take off the social blinders and look at the these tools as a new and better way to move information simply and easily from where it is, to where it needs to be, regardless of whether that information is social or not.

By Lee White | Posted in Concepts | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Relationship Aggregation

October 20, 2008 – 5:23 pm

I am coming to the realization that one of the problems with social networks (the online kind that is) is that the focus seems to be in the individual instead of the relationship.

Look at any of the SNs out there today, there is a huge amount of effort spent on the development of your profile: creating it, protecting it, generating new content to make it fatter, etc. While there is very little attention paid to the development of relationships. Oh yeah…there are lots of tools for creating new connections, but once connected, there is little ability to create a rich relationship.

I am wondering if a better model might be to center the network around the relationship instead of the individual. Think of it this way, between any two entities, there is, in reality, a large amount of shared content in many formats: email, IM, tweets, phone calls, collaborative documents. Imagine if that content was aggregated in such a way that it was equally owned and shared by both ends of the relationship. Now that would be valuable.

I can see where each entity of the relationship could manage their own use of the relationship aggregate through filters and feeds, but they would still retain equal ownership of the shared content.

This approach would have great applicability for personal/individual relationships, but the real value comes into play with B2B and B2C relationships. Imagine, for example, if you and your mobile carrier shared all of the content about the relationship, in a common accessible location…billing records, support records, email transactions, support chats, etc.

Yes, I realize there MAY be some SLIGHT ownership and control issues from the perspective of those that currently “own” the data, but I think that in time, as the inherent value in this approach comes to be appreciated, that will change.

These are just some initial thoughts. If you think there is something to this, please jump in and join the conversation. I would especially be interested in hearing what Doc Searles and the VRM gang think.

By Lee White | Posted in Concepts | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

The Connected Enterprise: The Webinar

October 20, 2008 – 11:03 am

E Quint Consulting is working with Near-Time to deliver a webinar series. The first one, scheduled for November 6 at 11:00a.m EST, is titled The Connected Enterprise: Using Social Connectivity to Drive Productivity. The webinar will consist of a panel discussion between some of the best practitioners in the field of Enterprise 2.0. Scheduled to participate are:

The webinar will be co-hosted by:

  • Lee Buck, Co-Founder & CTO, Near-Time
  • Lee White, Founder, E Quint Consulting

The focus of the conversation will be around the factors that contribute to a successful Enterprise 2.0 implementation, and practical advice for carrying out such a project. Some of the questions the panel will address include:

  • How important are the social and behavioral aspect of creating a successful “connected enterprise” initiative, as opposed to the strictly technical aspects?
  • How does use of social tools in the enterprise lead to improvements in employee engagement and employee retention?
  • How does opening up information access reduce organizational risk?

Logistics for this webinar are underway and I will be posting them here shortly. So spread the word and tell people you know, that are looking for real, pragmatic information on improving organizational productivity, about this event.

See you there.

By Lee White | Posted in e quint | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (3)

Enterprise 2.0 Going Mainstream

October 10, 2008 – 10:43 am

There is nothing like a good old-fashioned economic downturn to get companies to start thinking beyond the status quo and start looking for new and better ways to  work.

I found this article as the top link on Google Finance this morning. It is a USAToday/Gannett article about how social media can be used by organizations to help employees work better together. WOW! What a concept, I didn’t see that one coming.    :-O

Some excerpts:

Social networking is going corporate.

The popular technology used by millions of people to share ideas and photos on MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn and others is catching on at companies to improve productivity and communication among workers.

The article goes on to quote, Dan Nye of LinkedIn, Gina Bianchini of Ning, and Ross Mayfield of SocialText, among others. The primary benefits that companies can accrue from these tools, according to the article, are reduction in travel expense, which I believe is a real bottom line saving, and email reduction, which I think the jury is still out on.

But, of course, there is so much more. Over time, I think the real value organizations are going to see by making the shift to collaborative and collective systems, will be in the areas of increased employee engagement, improved employee retention, and ultimately elevated levels of customer satisfaction.

And as it just so happens, I am working on a new webinar series with Near-Time to will address these exact issues, so stayed tuned for details.

By Lee White | Posted in General | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Inside-Out: Opening the Enterprise

October 9, 2008 – 10:55 am

A while back I wrote a post about how organizations should use social media monitoring content to feed its internal conversations. Let’s call that “outside-in”, or bringing outside information into the organization.

Now I want to look at “inside-out”. The idea for this post was spawned by the Tim O’Reilly keynote at Web 2.0 Expo NY in September. He said that

Enterprise 2.0 is about exposing the back office.

At first, I didn’t think too much about the statement, just filed it away. Two days later, I was taking my wife’s minivan to the dealer for some maintenance. As I was driving there, I thought, wouldn’t it be cool if I could have access to the entire history of this particular vehicle. Not just maintenance records, but manufacturing records, bill of materials, problem reports, etc., i.e. everything that Honda has stored in their back office that is relevant to this particular vehicle.

(cue bright light bulb over head)

So that is what O’Reilly was talking about. Now it makes sense. E2.0 is not just a social thing, it is about providing the best possible information to the decision maker just-in-time. The social aspect of E2.0 is important because gathering information from the network is a great and highly effective way to become informed; but it is not the end-all and be-all of information gathering.

Lots of spin-off topics come to mind here:

  • Customer as Partner
  • Online (and vastly better) version of current teleprompt systems for customer service
  • Integrating social and structured enterprise data
  • Why E2.0 is more than just social stuff
  • Motives behind social behavior
  • …

…and I plan to address these in upcoming posts.

The central concept here is the more access to information we have AND the better we can filter it to meet our needs, the better off we all will be.

By Lee White | Posted in Concepts | Tagged , | Comments (0)
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