It Takes A Long Time For Change To Happen Quickly …

by Jon Husband

Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li of Forrester research in the MIT Sloan Management Review , via Brian Moffat, via JD Lasica

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Harnessing the Power of Social Applications

People are connecting with one another in increasing numbers, thanks to blogs, social networking sites like MySpace, and countless communities across the Web. Some companies are learning to turn this growing groundswell to their advantage.

Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li


Companies are used to being in control. They typically design products, services and marketing messages based on their own particular view of what people want. Keeping up with customers has meant conducting research on their needs and performing test marketing of new products and services. Because the balance of power has favored large corporations with a lock on manufacturing, advertising, distribution and other operations, the term "customercentric" was mostly just a buzzword.

Now, though, many customers are no longer cooperating. Empowered by online social technologies such as blogs, social networking sites like MySpace, user-generated content sites like YouTube and countless communities across the Web, customers are now connecting with and drawing power from one other. They’re defining their own perspective on companies and brands, a view that’s often at odds with the image a company wants to project. This groundswell of people using technologies to get the things they need from one another, rather than from companies, is now tilting the balance of power from company to customer.

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1 Comment »

  Shiv Singh wrote @ February 23rd, 2008 at 10:16 am

I found Jeff’s and Charlene’s article extremely interesting. It shows that social applications are going mainstream. But what was missing in their article was recent actionable examples with strong metrics tied to them. The reality is that organizations are still discovering how best to play in the social space. We are all experimenting whether it be within our outside our enterprise. Its too early to tell how much of a difference this is making to our core businesses though.

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