The promise, or the fear, of Social Technologies?
In October 2005 there was a brilliant little piece of editorial art produced by Randy Siegel and Tony Cenicola that was published in the International Herald Tribune that elegantly summed up the potential power of Google. The same sentiments could equally be applied to social technologies in general.
Many organizations that have designs on creating social network platforms would like to think that they will be the center of their member's or customer's universe. (Perhaps not with the exact same categories Mr. Siegel listed!)
The truth is that people live within accepted social boundaries and there are limits to what your member or customer will feel comfortable sharing. Even more important, will that member or customer willingly, actively manage this level of detailed information?
The expression "too much information" usually refers to the recipient hearing more intimate or appropriate information than desired. It also applies to organizations that try to reach beyond the border of what is needed for their specific purpose or what the member feels comfortable in sharing.
Google has been incredibly successful precisely because it has focused on maintaining as far as possible, simplicity. It has even maintained this characteristic as it has aggressively and relentlessly added myriad new applications and tools to its arsenal.
So what is the message?
- Keep it simple
- Understand where the boundaries are and focus on what is of highest value to your member or client. Everything else starts to push your member or client away.
- Realize that your organization is just one area of interest of several that your member has and that you are competing for his/her time. The more information you request, the more steps they have to go through, the more cumbersome your processes, the more likely you will be the recipient of the "delete" key. Therefore;
- Keep it simple
Social networks are the future for organizational communication and collaboration. They offer new capabilities that we are just now learning how to intelligently apply in a common and socially acceptable manner.
For those of you that remember the Facsimile machine and thermal paper, you also remember when colleagues had to learn not to send 100 page faxes!
The same I feel is true of some social networking approaches, especially blogging and a focus on editorial rather than strategy. It is like getting a 100 page fax. Except that when I hit "delete" I don't have a pile of wasted paper on the floor...