Cross-discipline social media initiatives

Thanks to Marc for alerting me to this Mashable’s article by Aaron Uhrmacher, which is too good not to be shared. To begin with, it reinforces my shout about cross-discipline adoption of social media application. I wasn’t alone on this, or even being overly idealistic. The second thing is, Mashable hit the sore spot to start the article by first identifying the core obstacle, businesses still do not know how to integrate it into useful and productive modes of communication apart from just trend-followers.

To keep this short, I am going to run you through some note-worthy points which Aaron seeks to lead readers to think about. Overall, the ideas were very precise and the social media we are realistically look at now seemed too primitive. Along with it, I will append a local example to matchmake to those ideas.

Introducing New Employees. Many companies ask new hires to send an email introduction to their department or to the entire company (depending on its size). Instead, start an internal blog or social network where new employees can post their introductions…

Singapore: When Yebber recruited bloggers under her wing, it was also publicized through the personal blogs of the new employee/collaborator. We typically inform associates via emails of any changes in employment and contact and this delivers the spread of news further than a mere newsletter, which is only circulated to you if you sign up.

Public Relations. With an external facing corporate blog, the communications team can engage its publics (customers, media, analysts or other audiences) in brand conversations. Blogs can extend the conversation beyond the press release…

Singapore: National Heritage Board has effectively maintained Yesterday.sg and involved bloggers in the contributions towards the cause. While this blog does not sell products literally, it enables conversations between the board, contributors and readers. Something not quite possible via traditional media. It also becomes an added option for publicity of heritage events.

Customer Support. A staple of many technology companies, support forums are searchable threads of conversations where engineers or product designers can answer questions and help troubleshoot issues. The best part is that once a question is answered…

Singapore: When blog advertising network Advertlet’s domain “accidentally” expired, an emergency blog served as the temporary customer support to bloggers and publishers. Instead of replying to enquiries individually (which can be time consuming), a page of answers is available to all.

The benefits of how social media tools like blogs and wikis are endless. However, to rip the best out of social media isn’t about the IT tools solely. Technological knowledge is only a small part of it, the start. What comes next, is the application of these tools through various departments. Of which, some are easily accessed by consumers and associate partners.

For social media to come to this stage, I foresee an uphill climb. The arena is still being tested, the ethics are still being penetrated, the rules are set to be changed, participation is about to increase even more and finally, we can then tell who is realistically doing social media, and who’s not.

Read Mashable’s article HERE.

July 22, 2008 | Filed Under Social Media, Social Networking

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What’s social networking… not?

I previously shared what I felt social networking should be about, that is “to connect you to others in a meaningful way.” However, it is difficult to define what is meaningful. Strangely though, it is always easier to identify what we should not do in social networking, rather than how best to use it. The gist is, we should always keep our doors open for ideas and genuine relationships.

Perhaps some of you would have come across the term “Social Networking Fatique” and it is the time when you feel so drained and tired from all the interlocking new relationships you establish over social networking sites. What’s worse, when you get irritated by all kinds of application invitations in sites like Facebook or MySpace. I am sure quality networking goes far beyond super-poking each other. If I were to poke you with a steak knife for real, I am sure you wouldn’t take it laying down.

While I am not a social networking expert, I can safely tell you the obsession with social networking can potentially turn you into a derailed social butterfly. That’s to say, you don’t enhance the conversation but rather, for the sake of it. Sometimes I navigate my way around Facebook looking at those with hundreds to thousands of “friends”, I can’t help but wonder if these people ever engage in real conversations.

What is not social networking?

Adding everyone you can find. At the end of the day, how many fruitful engagement are being nurtured? Truth is, there is only so much we can keep track of. Turn to your profile and ask yourself, what if each and everyone of them send you just one single message per day?

Hoping to be understood. If understanding a person is that easy with a few favourite movies or music, we are all better off hanging out at the store. Getting into the social networking sites is only a start. You’re not through yet, until you spend some quality time to develop the relationship.

Groups for whoring. It isn’t a pleasant word to use, and I wished I had a better choice. Unfortunately, that’s the only way I can bring this straight to the point. Groups and networks fundamentally come together to serve a specific purpose while keeping themselves open to new memberships. They’re certainly not designed to plant you there and relationships blossom on their own. I join a humble collection of 15 groups in Facebook and I am already finding it tough to keep up with each and everyone of them.

It’s about what values you can draw out of it, and also how you can contribute. Read - relevance.

Forgetting the real world. Online networking and real world networking goes hand in hand together. You use the same techniques, etiquettes and also passion regardless of which form of networking you do. Much like dining etiquettes if you’d like to think so. A change of restaurant or country does not diminish the need to observe these rules.

Being somebody else. Very frequently, I observed that individuals who are seemingly loud online but in reality, they are pretty much another person. While it is possible for us to adopt a different persona altogether online, quality networking is only possible when you’re being real. You would say the same things and conduct yourself similarly online and offline, so to speak. Your opinions do not change (without good reasons) even when a face-to-face conversation is necessary.

Undeniably, online social networking revolutionize the way we discover contacts and communicate subsequently. My answer to most people who asked if we have forgotten about the ground rules for healthy interaction, is a definite YES.

July 15, 2008 | Filed Under Social Networking

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FriendFeed Franctic Attack

I signed up for FriendFeed last night, and had been toying with it for a couple of hours. That few hours were enough for me. What’s the big buzz I have been reading from various social media “gurus” in Singapore’s blogosphere? It seemed to be consistent with my insignificant view that some “experts” we read here are nothing more than just hypebeasts.

It looked cool to have 41 services available in FriendFeed, but how practical is that? All these social applications are really running out of of ideas in my opinion. In social media, my favourite quote is “anybody and everybody is anywhere and everywhere”. I’ve lost count of how many people I have served this quote in my entire blogging lifespan and private discussions.

My view isn’t here to trash anybody in particular, but seriously, why do we need to create multiple sites all equipped with the same function? Will a new entity in terms of name make any difference or improvement to conversations that are already ongoing presently?

Everyone is everywhere. The split second I gained access into my account, I see the same old folks again. As I went through the profiles, there are even people listing 10 to 15 other services from Youtube to Facebook etc. If I am able to track them elsewhere, why do I need to track them here? What difference would that make?

Building a new conversation, not. Some sites I have read proudly proclaimed the ability to hold discussions in FriendFeed. Granted, you can leave comments. Is that something not in process on Twitter? Is that not possible in Del.icio.us or Stumbleupon comment section? Or are our blogs incapable of holding a conversation that we need another replica to do so? Most of the postings are integrated from Twitter anyway.

Great that I see one or two real conversations that went beyond the 20 comments mark, but if only Forrester Research wasn’t “attacked”, Jeremiah wouldn’t have “retorted”. If only Robert Scoble didn’t “complained” about another person of attacking his friend… if only this and that. The conversations were still very much between the “Silicon IValleY League”, just like anywhere else. If not for the A-list bloggers, will there even be a conversation I wonder.

Duplicate Mill. If you’re one of those like me using both Del.icio.us and Stumbleupon, it is likely you will submit interesting sites to both. Hence, the submission of both will appear in your FriendFeed - one of it as a duplicate obviously. If you submit to FriendFeed, no existing followers in your networks elsewhere can see that article.

How do we overcome this duplicate problem? It’s fairly simple. Don’t submit any articles to Del.icio.us and Stumbleupon. Or if you do, you will have to drop either one when importing feeds. Better still, quit all the networks you have painstakingly work on in other sites and start afresh in FriendFeed. Yes, I hear you going… OMG!

So, what’s the big deal?

There is no way I can understand how FriendFeed will rise up to the cohort of live conversational tools or social bookmarking giants. We have no lack of those now. Is there anything that I cannot do on other sites except in FriendFeed? Hardly any that I can think of. The Web 2.0 scene is sadly reduced to micmicking one another with no real substance at the end of it.

Even more so, our dear “gurus” in Singapore should really think twice and thrice before they start praising a new social site that comes along. The technology is meaningless without real values like all its predecessors.

June 29, 2008 | Filed Under Social Networking, Web 2.0

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