Steve Woodruff@Connection Agent

By the way…The purpose of this presentation is to help those

who are interested in social media to understand the inevitable and central role that digital networked communications will play now and in the future.

That is most clearly seen by looking at the overall trends shaping the way society increasingly communicates…

OutlineWhat is Social Media/Networked

Communications?

Trend Currents (not current trends!)

What does all this mean for business and for me?

What is Social Media?

Social Media is…People doing what they’ve always done –

connecting and sharing

Instead of a backyard fence, we now have a digital web

We’re communicating, in multiple ways, as we always have – but faster, broader, and richer

Social media is…

Networked Communicationson steroids!

Networked CommunicationsSocial media is a subset of a much broader category that

we can call (digital) Networked Communications.

We’ve always done Networked Communications (think: the neighborhood gossip grapevine.) Now, it’s just faster and richer.

Only when it is placed in its broader context does it make the most cultural and business sense.

See more on this topic at:

http://bit.ly/NetworkedCommunications

Cultural Ubiquity

Social networking is cutting across ALL areas of business (not just marketing), and the use of social networking in business is a subset of its broad use in general life and culture. It’s not going

away!

Trend CurrentsThings like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.

are current trends – temporary manifestations

Networked Communications is a Trend Current – those inexorable forces re-shaping culture and technology

The Inexorable Trend Currents

1. Disintermediation

2. Mobile Computing

3. Self-Expression

4. Community Formation

These inexorable trends are the flowing river (specific social media platforms are the boats)

Networked Communications are interwoven with these trend currents:

1. DisintermediationCommerce

Information

Gatekeepers

The barriers between people and information/people/goods are rapidly falling.

Example: Amazon and buying (books + whatever!)

The Bottom Line: Then

There were once many walls and gaps between most people – direct contact with people and information was severely limited and regularly mediated

The Bottom Line: Now

Peer-to-peer engagement:The new normal

Smartphones/pads

Web and Apps everywhere

Wi-Fi & always-on connectivity

2. Mobile Computing

Everything from text to video will increasingly be in portable form factors.

Digital communications over a network will simply be assumed – like breathing air.

3. Self-ExpressionIdeas

Opinions

Multi-media

There is no longer a barrier or time lag between idea, expression, publication, and

consumption.

4. CommunityFind

Dialogue

Organize

People are now free to create their own communities, without top-down

involvement, supervision, or geographical constraints

So…Who is in Charge Now?

These Trend Currents – and the digital tools that fuel them – make the growth of social media/networked communications into virtually every sphere an inevitability.

What’s in it for YOU?

Business OpportunityCompanies can humanize – connect and

communicate with customers

Knowledge can flow easily (in all directions)

Messages can go forward “unmediated” by others

Advocates can be created and user communities built

Internal silos can be eroded through peer-to-peer communication

By the way…Businesses that try to jump into social media,

without having key people personally involved (building trusted network connections as individuals) will almost certainly fail.

Therefore, a primary call to action is to encourage involvement in personal and professional digital networks in order to understand the environment (which is very different from the one-way communications format)

So….

(Personal) Opportunity Networking“Safety Net” - fear- and circumstance-driven

“Opportunity Network” – confidence and future-driven

Greatest opportunities, for you and others, will be through ties of shared interest, sympathy, and connections

Levels of Involvement

Passive OutpostingAdd your basic info to on-line repositories

(Visual CV, LinkedIn, etc.)

Allows you to be “findable” on-line

Join to an early strategy of “lurking” (reading and listening) to get a feel for the landscape

Formal ConnectingReaching out and becoming a “connection”

with trusted individuals you know

LinkedIn very common on the professional level; Facebook the standard on the personal level

Begins to open up access to wider networks (friends of friends)

LifestreamingMore open sharing of multiple facets of life

Higher level of focus on status updates, pics, quick videos

Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare very popular

Professionals may struggle to gain a comfort level with this amount of disclosure

Engaging with Private CommunitiesCountless focused (some open; some invite-

only or private) communities exist around areas of interest

Private “walled gardens” allow a freer level of sharing without wide open exposure on the web

Very useful for professionals/businesses trying to practice “safe social networking”

Open Web SharingYour writing, comments, updates, pix, etc.

are open to the whole world

Blogs, Twitter, and other sharing platforms enable an unlimited audience

Can provide a vast Opportunity Network

Must embrace privacy/publicity tradeoff

Levels of Intimacy

Roles People Play

What do I do now?START!

What’s in it for…them (give, add value)

Be pro-active and think long-term

Merge on-line and off-line

Become a connector

Remember: Google is your new resume, and it never forgets!

Where I live on-line

www.stevewoodruff.com

Twitter: @connectionagent

Connection Agent blog

Digital Biz Card: text swoodruff to 50500

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