Social Business and Next-Generation CIOs - The Impact of Technological Change - Dion Hinchcliffe's Next-Generation Enterprises

Social Business and Next-Generation CIOs - The Impact of Technological Change - Dion Hinchcliffe's Next-Generation Enterprises: "[An] increase in shadow IT and associated grassroots adoption of social technology today is being driven by closely related developments in SaaS and cloud computing. This is often forcing the social computing discussion when it might not happen on its own. While some organizations are just ignoring the issue or actively clamping down, as social computing becomes increasingly relevant to the way businesses work, it's turning into what is starting to be called social business."

Ignoring the issue? Clamping down? Oy!

Keeping it Social, part 2

More on Robin Dunbar and the "Dunbar's Number" concept referenced in the previous post:

Dunbar's number - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dunbar's number is a theoretical cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. These are relationships in which an individual knows who each person is, and how each person relates to every other person. Proponents assert that numbers larger than this generally require more restricted rules, laws, and enforced norms to maintain a stable, cohesive group. No precise value has been proposed for Dunbar's number, but a commonly cited approximation is 150.

Technorati Tags: social media, twitter, facebook, marketing

Keeping the Social in Social Media

When using Twitter and Facebook as marketing tools, is having any army of followers/friends the most effective strategy?  Two recent articles offer interesting insight into that question.

As reported by TimesOnline journalist Chris Gourlay:

Robin Dunbar, professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at Oxford University, has conducted research revealing that while social networking sites allow us to maintain more relationships, the number of meaningful friendships is the same as it has been throughout history.(See:   OMG: brains can’t handle all our Facebook friends - Times Online)

Add to the mix this from Wired columnist Clive Thompson:

When you go from having a few hundred Twitter followers to ten thousand, something unexpected happens: Social networking starts to break down.

(See: In Praise of Online Obscurity)

The operative word in the phrases "Social Media," "Social Networking," and "Social Computing" is -- three guesses... -- "Social." Dictionary.com defines "social" as:

1. pertaining to, devoted to, or characterized by friendly companionship or relations: a social club.
2. seeking or enjoying the companionship of others; friendly; sociable; gregarious.

The effective use of social media is all about sustainable connection, about participating in conversations with individuals, as opposed to making speeches to crowds. That seems to be a difficult transition for many marketers.

A corporate gig for social media? Why not?

Todd Biske is an enterprise architect, a prolific blogger on SOA and other IT issues, and one smart dude. In a Dec 1st post on his blog he makes a great case for Facebook -- or something like it -- as an enterprise collaboration tool.

"In my opinion, viewing Facebook solely as a marketing/customer support channel is seriously limiting its use to an enterprise. The conversation should begin with an analysis of the communities that can be supported. Guess what? There’s a looming community with a very complicated social structure that exists within the walls of the company. Why can’t tools that are designed for enhancing communication and interaction between the social structures of society be applied within the walls of the enterprise?"

Todd Biske: Outside the Box » Blog Archive » Facebook for the Enterprise

Change comes to marketing

What's the difference between traditional marketing and social media? This quote from Getting a return on investment from social media  in the New England Business Bulletin says it all:

"I used to talk about manipulation," said Bob Cargill, creative director for Nowspeed Marketing. "Now I preach the truth and nothing but the truth. That's a big shift."

Technorati Tags: socialmedia marketing