(Not So) Hidden Assets

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I've been doing a lot of evangelising about the power of social media lately. I believe that unless you actively participate in it (and I don't just mean having a Facebook profile) it is very difficult to grasp the subtleties that characterise it. More than that, social media comes from an entirely different place to communications media. Social dimensions lie at the heart of the human experience. Whatever people do, it is more fun if it is shared, and that applies to all forms of content. It is increasingly expected. More than that, I believe the changes are so fundamental that social media thinking needs to run through the entire organisation.

When I talk about blogging, the number one question I get asked by non-bloggers is where do you find the time? I think this is the wrong question about the wrong thing. I find the time because I believe it is important enough to do so. More than that, I think the question  misses the point that being part of a network, a community, means that the good stuff now comes to me. Think about the good blogs you read on your RSS reader, think about the links you look at via your Delicious network, think about the comments, the Tweets, the stuff you get sent. Social Media helps me be far more efficent. It really isn't that difficult.

I'm not saying everyone should blog - it's not right for everyone - but I am saying that bloggers get social media because they are already active participants. So my advice would be if you have bloggers in your organisation, go talk to them. Understand what they are doing, how they are doing it, what they are getting from it. They are the best source of consultancy you've got - and best of all, it's free.

Comments

[david cushman]

Obviously second that. I have a further bit of DIY I ask people to try to understand the disruption that's going on; make a widget. It makes it really clear that we no longer control the distribution.
Posted about it here: http://fasterfuture.blogspot.com/2008/04/build-widget-experience-disruption-of.html

Adapting to survive in an environment starts with the simple and unavoidable fact that you must live in it.

[neilperkin]

Hi David. Agree with your sentiment there and also with your thoughts on disaggregated content. Thanks for the comment and link

[Jim]

No question that's right. I listened to 10 powerpoint presentations, and thought, sod this - the only way is to try it, to get it.

By using blogs, and various apps to follow what i was genuinely obsessed by (cricket), rather than what I ought to be looking for (work stuff), all the light bulbs went off