My colleague David Peacock has referred me to an article in Slate.com by Emily Yoffe. The interesting aspect of the article is that it extolls the usefulness of Web 2.0 technology for my generation. Now if a pincer action starts to take place between the current influx of job starters with senior management trying to eek out the last few years of their careers by becoming collaboratively savvy it could be the 70s and 80s generation that get caught in a technology gap.
Emily's article is worth a read, as importantly it is a sign post to the big players as to the type of guerilla marketing that needs to take place around the tools being created if Social Networking for Business (SNB) is going to get rapid traction.
Comments (3)
Will businesses really ever be able to harness social networking usefully? I can understand how it can work for Saga, who have set up a Facebook-style networking site "Saga zone" for wrinklies who want to communicate and network. But unless you already have an identifiable community then how will social networking help you?
Posted by Joel | November 8, 2007 6:24 PM
Posted on November 8, 2007 18:24
Good point. Identifiable communities are the key to successful collaboration. At work you don't get to choose your colleagues and often have to work with people you have an antipathy towards. As you say social networks are different and are often difficult to develop in a work environment. I guess their best bet in the office may be about all the 'green' environmental/travel stuff that's being bandied about - probably to scare us - but with the price of fuel rising ever upwards staff might want to co-operate to make getting to and from work less costly - an identifiable community?
Posted by Michael Pincher | November 13, 2007 10:48 AM
Posted on November 13, 2007 10:48
Good point Joel however I sort of imagine a conversation 8000 years ago going something like this: "Farming, working collectively, it will never catch on! - We are hunter gatherers and we should stick to what we know'
Maybe communities are like matter, it just clumps and eventually forms galaxies. We are seeing the start of a new iteration of this force of nature
Posted by Ian White | November 20, 2007 11:51 PM
Posted on November 20, 2007 23:51