While Jim Ware’s recent post reminded us about Keeping Technology in Perspective listening to long term venture capitalist Fred Wilson speaking at Google about “Disruption” indicates technology change will continue, demanding that we as individuals, organizations and industries adapt.
Wilson’s Union Square Ventures current investments include Tumblr, Feedburner, Boxee, Twitter and Etsy. He blogs at www.avc.com and sought feedback on his Google talk before delivering.
Fred Wilson’s “Disruption Talk” begins with the media industry, the changes to which we’ve all watched and experienced as online and empowered individuals have emerged as driving forces and taken power from large institutions.
He proceeds to outline the industries seen as targets for future “disruption”: Consumer Finance, Education, Energy, Health Care and Government.
The presentation is an hour but recommended viewing if you are interested in what’s next.
How does your view of what’s ahead in technology and the industries to be “disrupted” jibe with Fred Wilson’s? Please share your reactions.
In the past few months, a number of respected social media strategists have noted the rise in evangelists and carpetbaggers selling their social media services in the face of the global financial crisis as a way to make instant money.
“Unfortunately, blog first, then engaging in social networks remains one of the most prevalent trends one finds. This ironically is probably the worst thing a company can do [1]“
Theirs is the suggestion that identity and trust can only be established successfully by going into other online communities first to establishing reputation and relationships.
“Great social media begins with research and listening, then participation.”
My AppGap colleague, Celine Roque, though, puts this into perspective. She reminds us that this new Web 2.0 world is all about interaction, from which one can establish relationships, and trust. Understanding this medium and consistently communicating in it helps to establish a reputation that can then be leveraged through other channels of communication.
By no means does this suggest that you must first, therefore, go into other communities and begin interacting before you can blog effectively. In my experience, blogging is still the the first among many things you should try first. Why?
So why are others suggesting to ‘do blogging’ last?
I think that many of these issues reflect that some organisations just set up blogs as a token gesture — that blogs are often the only visible thing a company does as their social media strategy. Part of the solution, therefore, must be in undertaking research (just as you would any other communications strategy) to understand who the target audience is, who they are, what they want, what they need, and where they are most likely to want to receive communications and share knowledge and information. And no, just broadcasting a message on a blog like you would a television adjust doesn’t cut it anymore.
As Gene Smith of Atomiq suggests in his honeycomb model, social media enables a range of interactions and relationships to be established that are highly relevant to today’s information workers and more targeted, relevant and personal than your typical tv advertisement.
Unfortunately, blogging only enables conversations, and is more about establishing the writer’s identity, reputation and presence — this is really where corporate blogging is failing.
An effective social media strategy, though, must take into account tools that will enable all of the online interactions identified by Gene, with right messages targeted to the right audience in ways in which they will want to interact.
So do you blog first? The answer is ‘yes of course’! Your own blogs can help you to establish your own communities, but you probably want to do it at the same time as you engage in a range of other activities in other communities that will enable you to:
These activities will help establish an online reputation that is real and communications that are relevant to others that you can then leverage for the communities you build yourself.
M
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1. Livingstonbuzz, 2008. Blog last. 17 Dec, Online at: http://www.livingstonbuzz.com/…7/blog-last/
A Gartner news release summarizes recent research into the role of social networks in government. Researcher Andrea Di Maio points to the emergence of networks within and initiated by the government (like A-space, the Intelligence Community’s socially-enabled collaboration platform) as well as emergent communities that spring up as social support networks (like Netmums, a UK community of parents dealing with childcare issues and offering information about local and national resources).
The need for governments to think about networks as an organizing principle was well set out in Governing by Network (Goldsmith and Eggers) in 2004, before the age of social networking capabilities, but they did provide both the business case for the government to adopt network structures.
In the age of social capabilities, it’s possible for people in government to reach outside their agency or domain boundaries and extend the reach of government and its ability to mobilize responses to emergencies and connect communities of action.
Speaking of communities of action, David Lazer at the Kennedy School of Government (who runs a great colloquium on networks and complexity) blogged an interesting question recently: when the election is over, will the vast interconnected network built by Barack Obama be repurposed? In Net Work, I describe the life cycle of networks and the transition that occur. Many networks created for a specific purpose disband after they have fulfilled their mission, but many also opt to stay together in which case they need to renegotiate their purpose, structure, style, and value intentions. There are so many possibilities for the Obama network — it will be interesting to see (should Obama win) whether he can turn this network into an engaged and committed set of networks linked to the federal government in a way that supports our citizenry and our partners around the world.
Be sure to catch Bill Ives' ongoing review series in which he looks at online, sharable database apps. The focus of Bill's reviews: web-based business software that enables companies and individuals to better organize, track, and share information, as well as better manage projects, processes and workflows.
Among the Web-based tools he's reviewed: Zoho, QuickBase, and TrackVia.

Or, if you’d like to get all the tips now, click here to request a copy of the white paper – “7 Ways to Optimize Project Team Productivity: Using Customizable Web-based Software to Your Business Advantage.”.
The AppGap has hosted a series of discussions with leading thinkers and doers intended to illuminate how new apps and approaches are changing the way we work and help companies and individuals implement better collaboration, project management, and productivity practices and solutions. Access, via the links below, the recordings, each about an hour long, of the discussions.
- 5 Big Ideas for Getting All That Work Done
- Should Your Business be Friends with Facebook
- The Future of Work
Need help in getting organized? Want to keep things from falling through the cracks? Check out this free and simple to use online "To-Do List" called Intuit Task Manager, offered by our sponsor Intuit QuickBase. Sign-up is easy so you can get started with it right away.

Intuit's QuickBase, the sponsor of this blog, has just been named an Editor's Choice by PC Mag. Check out the review which calls QuickBase a "a surprisingly simple and elegant application."
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Can today's project management software be done better? What can online CRM help companies companies accomplish? Which development platform can help individuals and organizations build better online databases, Web based applications, and HR solutions? And what are the processes and best practices that help organizations large and small achieve success. Find out more.