I fear for social media at the moment. As the masses start their reserved adoption of social media and the ROI agenda heightens, are we not going to lose the original intent of social media? That is to engage, connect, participate and converse. Something the early adopters have found so exciting. Seriously, why is there a gripped frenzy to make money out of social media?

In the early adoption phase, the playing field tipped to an almost horizontal level as genuine and sincere conversations were abundant. I’m feeling an unnerving tilting towards money making activity now with broadcasting running through its veins now that the masses have sat up and noticed. People de sensitive to fun, human, people to people and social activity who are keen to exploit the economics of social media rather than its ecology.

For every ‘community’ with common purpose in social media, there is an opposite, someone striving to make cash. The next two years are going to be far more interesting than the last, revealing more about our society and how we have been conditioned to operate. The tension between making money and having an impact will be a ’see saw’ battle. In an ideal world the two should be able to co exist but I’m not so sure whether we’ll see a polarisation. We have a fascination in our culture with ownership. Who owns social media? The participants and content creators or the corporates? A question Facebook will need to answer soon enough.

Perhaps, unusually I’m being cynical, or perhaps realistic? But as soon as spaces, places, people, individuals and content are seen as property, where the main value is money, will be the moment we potentially lose the true sense of social media and centralised, corporate behaviour will ensue.

I’ve been privileged to be part of the beginning of the phenomenon and will continue to engage through social media with some fascinating people and inspiring content. I’ll avoid the money making pirates who will start to steal the bounty that is people to people connectivity. I’ll remain motivated by its sincerity and occasionally buy because of peer to peer discussion. But what I’ll repulse against is the broadcast, money, de connectivity of the activity we will see more and more of as the masses stick their head above the parapet and indulge themselves in something they have been underrating for a while now.

My purpose in social media is to connect and converse, the masses had better make sure they don’t start to shout, control and broadcast to me! I’m on the ‘making an impact’ end of the continuum not the ‘making money.’ Just wanted to be clear about that!

Guns don’t kill people, people do. Computers don’t throw out crap, people do. Spreadsheets don’t truly measure success, people do. Bill posters don’t grab peoples attention, people do. Marketing doesn’t sell more, people do. Products don’t sell themselves, people do. Systems don’t get more out of people, people do. Connections don’t happen on their own, people initiate and develop them. Relationships don’t happen all by their self, people make them happen!

People make bad decisions, they make great decisions. People miff and they motivate. It’s all about people, its all about being social, its all about respect, its all about true connections. Always has been, always will be. Blaming the system is a naive, unintelligent way to go. The way we do things now in business and the communities we live in was created by people, is endorsed through behaviour by people and continues because of people.

We know the system is broken, we know it needs replacing, we know it needs to change but we just can’t bring ourselves to do it, not the masses anyway. We are so conditioned and scared. Well the more scared you are of something, the more you should embrace it. Otherwise, you are perhaps just leading an existence!

Been listening to Sting’s “If I Ever Lose My Faith In You” on repeat recently, coupled with reading Douglas Rushkoff’s latest offering “Life Inc.” Faith is ‘reliance, trust, belief in, loyalty, sincerity.’ A definition according to The Oxford Dictionary.

Beginning to believe we have lost faith in each other so we have been buying from brands instead. In fact, perhaps we have allowed brands to define us rather than the feelings and values we hold true to each other. This is why business became transaction and to some extent de humanised, especially in corporate organisations. That’s why small business will have a future advantage. Its still comfortable with having a trusting relationship!

Lose faith in governments, the media, professions, brands, products, religion, all replaceable. When we lose faith in each other, our connections and our intentions are questioned and we decide not to trust, then we are in trouble. These are not replaceable. When we lose faith in relationships, whatever their dynamic, what have we got left?

A level playing field| People rather than products| Gifts| Air of excitement| Nervous trepidation| Unorthodox thinking| Too much coffee| Not enough change| Screen time| Insomnia stimulating inspiration| Inert organisations| Flair| Straight jacket actions| Google| Creative remixing| Bags of ideas| Little impact| Trouble at the mill| Going slow fast| The miracles of innovation| The stupidity of arrogance| Making noise quietly| Fields of turnips| The lack of grace| Twitter| Inconvenient trouble| Broken promises| Plaster solutions| Launch and learn| Perfection is subjective| Ecosystems| Absurdity of naivety| The shape of business| Exploitation| The futility of resistance| Connection not networking| The significance of difference| Facebook| False profits| Fragile trust| Community not brand| A mass of individuals| So its all about intent| Linkedin| The same thing on repeat| Profit rather than being human| Initiating history| Art| The abundance of the phony| Vulnerability| Foursquare| Deep down feeling it more| Ironic expression of indviduality| Frozen relationships| Nudge advocacy| Non financial influence| The future of conversation|

Not much unless you have one leg! The phone wouldn’t have got far if there had only been one and neither would the computer. Being connected and having connections was always important but more so nowadays as we operate equally online and offline.

Connections bind communities and strengthen relationships, but it simply doesn’t work if you only have one or two! Its not enough. We need online as well as offline connections, deeper connections, reciprocal connections, non profitable connections, challenging connections, global connections, local connections, diverse connections, dynamic connections and super hot connections.

Not thousands, consider Dunbar’s theory of 150. 150 deep connections that are polarised and everything in between. These connections bring different things to your party, sorry business. They add value in differing ways, add vitality and inspiration that is distinctive from other and its vice versa too. Connecting is a two way thing1

It’s very rewarding doing a head count of your 150, identifying what they bring and then developing a way of engaging, participating and co creating with them. It’s changed, be a connector rather than a networker, the two are very different.

I had the pleasure of chatting to Josh Chandler last week where we discussed social media and its role in small business. Download it here:

http://joshchandlerblog.com/

It’s only 15 minutes long and just trying to get some thinking going!

The groundswell of change is leading to some seismic shifts in the next five particularly for leadership, jobs won’t change much but the emphasis in your company will:

1. There will always be indispensible people required, except you’ll need a lot more in your company tomorrow. These people will be ‘world class,’ passionate, fully engaged, online, followed, creative, leaders, organising discussion groups via Linkedin, people orientated, trusting, respectful and have high expectations.

2. There will always be reliable people unless you motivate them more intrinsically. They get paid to turn up, love silos and blame cultures. Low engagement, low communication, follow the rules, have conservative expectations. Believe in authority, hide creativity, follow but are not followed. They won’t blow your mind but will deliver a great days work to their job description.

3. There will always be low paid people. High turnover, little or low motivation, low in respect. They rock up and then go home with some shuffling in between. Expectations will be low.

You are what you do and what impact you have. In the future our businesses will need to be full of the number ones because its that distinctive element that will make us competitive as our products become increasingly much the same. The future business Seth Godin says “consists of well organised linchpins doing their thing in concert, creating more value than any factory could.”

Just thought I’d share some thoughts on how the eBook “Hang On” is doing after its recent launch. I’m conscious that lots of people are thinking about a doing a similar thing as part of their freemium model. Claire Marshall at www.RokkInternet.com suggested I do this at the launch. A promise I made and am about to keep.

I’ll not go into the too much detail, I’ll just point out a few facts that may help those of you thinking about making the commitment. I’m going to be honest, would I be anything else! During the production phase, think about these aspects:

1. Budget for it through opportunity cost. What ever time you think its going to take, double it. It cost my company £12k to write this eBook!
2. Do the research and always add your bibliography. Little tip, as you read stuff, write it down then, don’t spend two days at the end immersed in your bookshelf! Even Seth Godin’s started to include one!
3. Prepare for ‘bugger factors.” They always happen. I’d just started the book was on a very creative roll and my Grandmother passed away. Two weeks side tracked by more important things!
4. Get it designed properly by someone who knows how to do something that can be read on mobile, tablets and can be easily converted into an Apple app if so required.
5. Involve people. I’m not saying by reading the content. I personally prefer just to write it and then get the feedback once its done. But ask people to participate in the debate. I crowdsourced the words but would have liked to bring in Linkedin discussions etc if I had had time. Or made it part of my company’s ThinkLAB’s.
6. Its bloomin’ obvious but get it professionally proof read and get a creative comms license.

The aftermath has been fabulous. The launch party ridiculously successful. People networked, connected and have done new business. Perhaps it was the wine, perhaps just the atmosphere in the room, but everyone has fed back what a great evening it was. Many said they had made new friends! More specifically, there have been some fascinating insights:

1. It may be the design but most people are consuming it slowly. One reader said “Its not a McDonald’s , you don’t consume it in one sitting in 15 minutes. It’s more like a seven course evening dinner you spend hours on whilst washing down a particularly good merlot.” Fabulous. Main reason from several readers; apparently the content and the need to digest each ‘word’ as it’s so thought provoking. Thank you thats very kind.
2. No one is printing it. Just my intention!
3. I’ve been surprised by the number of people reading it on their mobiles and, in the last few weeks, the iPad. This perhaps indicates a trend for future eBooks.
4. There have been over 1000 downloads so far. We haven’t even rolled out the full marketing campaign for it so far. Just a launch party (highly recommended) and a little PR.
5. Since the launch, my Twitter account has gone haywire with the increase in the number of followers.

You don’t need to push me too much for me to say it was worth it and as any high end designer will tell you, your main piece of work, sometimes isn’t commercial. I’ve loved the process and learnt so much about myself. It is still early days yet, and I’ll give you a further update in six months! It’s not perfect but then thats just subjective anyway. What it is though, is it’s mine and you haven’t seen anything yet!!

Word provided by Scott Gould – www.scottgould.me

If you help, what I contribute will be better. Value, in the future for a lot of people, will be whether and how they participate in the businesses we run. They will be particularly motivated by group effort. Participation has almost become risk free because the cost of failure has dropped so we can mass innovate. The tools are there and the hierarchy removed to allow us to all to really take part.

Humans have always had a desire to make meaningful contributions. We lost that. Businesses deliberately organised themselves to control the participating. However, the case studies of Wikipedia and Linux have altered how close the horizon is. Participation is changing the way companies use resources and it’s bridged the gap between the amateur and professional. Amateurs are collecting data on behalf of wildlife trusts, we can transmit news items to the media, and astronomers are listening for other life forms for governments.

The passive consumer is evaporating. We want to participate in the generation of new products and services. We no longer want to just wait for it down the line to be delivered. Charles Leadbeater talks about “mass production to mass innovation.” He has missed a process or two out of the equation. It’s more like this:

Mass production – Mass participation – Mass collaboration – Mass innovation

It’s just a thought. As companies we have misunderstood that it’s the non-financial, intrinsic factors that motivate people like participation more than the financial ones. We are always talking about the difficulties of getting customers and employees to understand what we do and the advantages of our product. Perhaps we should take a leaf out of Benjamin Franklin’s thoughts “Tell me and I’ll forget, show me and I might remember, involve me and I will understand.” Powerful stuff. Maybe participation gets rid of that communication problem we have been having?

We have no excuses anymore. All business can allow its customers and employees to participate. I’m not talking about amateurs doing brain surgery, not a great idea, I agree. But I am talking about using the social tools we have now to enable the impossible to be achieved. If we involve people in the process, they take ownership. From that they will easily become part of our community, which is where we need them to be in the future.

Brian Solis wrote an exceptional article last November on social media and traditional influencers, catch it here;

http://www.briansolis.com/2009/11/social-media-influencers-are-not-traditional-influencers/

Its interesting as it distinguishs the potential differences. However, if you’re moving that passive database to a proactive community, its more sophisticated than that. Any business community around your business will depend on differing levels of intimacy, different roles and distinctive connections.

We’ve already identified that it will have groups of people with different needs in the last post. To get to grips with this you start with the people who can have the most significant impact, not action, impact. Your ‘pillar’ influencers or as Marco Iansiti and Roy Levien call them “keystone influencers.” They are the same thing.

Brian Solis is right, these critical players in your marketing strategy, will be either offline, online or both. You’re ahead of the game if they are both. The first stage is to identify clearly who they are and segment them based on that premise,: online or offline. Then you can decide what you’re going to do with them that encourages dynamic interaction. Look at it in two ways:

1. Start with the offline people. They’ll be offline for a reason. What are you going to do with them that will encourage, collaboration, co-creation, innovation, product development, new referrals and a guiding hand on how your business grows? What are you going to give them? These are great team brainstorming events, believe me. In addition, you have an obligation to encourage these influencers to ‘dip their toe’ in the water of social media. It’s your responsibility to be honest.

2. Secondly, go and identify the online influencers and do the same.

Build an approach that is going to solidify the relationship and drive your business forward. However, the way in which you use technology and platforms will be different here. I know its obvious, but I have to say it. Build into the plan, physical meetings with these people too. I recently, met up with my top 29 Twitter influencers in my local region and its worked. I still have one to do.

All of the ‘pillar’ influencers will, strangely enough, have significant influence in their respective fields. They may be customers, suppliers, friends, businesses linked to your sector and even competitors.

Once you’ve created your plan, then start to connect with this small (not hundreds) number of people. It’s no different than creating a marketing communications plan. Just a point, understand why you are doing this. It’s not broadcast, it means using some shoe leather up and meeting, visiting and ‘eyeballing’ people whether online or offline.

This first step in the development of an engaging, alive business community is about enhancing and enriching existing relationships that are natural, energetic, appropriate and individual. And, perhaps by doing this well, it will lead to new relationships.