Social Media

Malcolm Gladwell explores the lack of depth and commitment that comes via online social media. And how well-defined hierachies, led by strong leaders is important to creating substantial results.

As he suggests (paraphrasing), the next revolution won't be carried out by using Twitter or Facebook ... it'll be too fast and personal for people to be fiddling with their iPads or whatever.

We're moving into a collaborative, fluid world, like schools of fish that change direction almost instantaneously, so too future human cultures, it appears.

New York Times article, stories of small business people using Twitter for marketing to good effect.

'"For Mr. Kimball, who conceded that he “hadn’t really understood the purpose of Twitter,” the beauty of digital word-of-mouth marketing was immediately clear...“I would love to say that I just had a really good idea and strategy, but Twitter has been pretty essential to my success,” he said. He has quit his day job as a carpenter to keep up with the demand.'

..more stories

David Armano (Harvard Business Review):

"Social sharing is a major behavioral shift, the most important so far of the 21st century."

Key points covered:

• Data Gathering. The more we know about an individual, the easier it is to sell something... A business may not own the data from all of the sharing, but it's likely they will want it.
• Knowledge Sharing & Collaboration. Conflating internal and external social sharing could profoundly affect how we work.
• Content Distribution. Social sharing becomes the ultimate form of distribution.
• Social Currency. Sharing on the social web acts as a form of currency.