Thoughts

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Why do you participate, or avoid, social networking? I believe it depends on how you view it.  Do you see it as an opportunity, or an obligation?

I had an interesting online conversation yesterday. A friend of mine IM‘d me to tell me that he probably won’t see any replies I make to his tweets.  Apparently he posts to Facebook via text messages on his phone,  and those posts are automatically posted to Twitter.  The weird thing about this conversation wasn’t the content.  I’ve had this conversation with others. What was interesting was the tone. (more…)

US Postal Service Wake-up Call

While the US Postal Service struggles against a $7 billion deficit, they seem to think they can regain their footing when the recession ends.  In the meantime, this NY Times article talks about all the businesses that are moving from mail-based billing to the web.  Last year record numbers of people filed their taxes electronically.  The handwriting is on the wall.  If the USPS doesn’t make some serious changes, they will go the way of the Pony Express.

On the other hand, the Swiss are instituting a service to intercept your mail and have it delivered to you via the web.  They are not the first to do this, nor the last.  Read this BBC news service article I saw on today.

Instead of complaining

Instead of complaining about the situation that caused the problems you face, it is always best to analyze the situation and get down to the root causes.  Once you identify those issues, address them.  In the case of Snail Mail, asking people to mail more, or simply raising prices, is not going to solve the problem.  People are seeking to be more “green” and they are using the web more and more.  In addition, many large businesses have found it is less expensive, less complicated, and much more efficient to go electronic.  While the Post Office may not close next year, they will continue to find themselves in trouble unless they can find a way to use the Internet for their benefit – rather than consider it their competition.

Don’t go the way of the dinosaur

Where is your business in the sea of change?  Are you doing the same things, over and over?  Or, are you adapting to the currents, culture, and challenges?

The key is to adapt early and often.  If you wait until you’re in crisis, it is often too late to make the necessary corrections.  Stay abreast of the culture, stay attuned to the needs/wants of your stakeholders, and stay fresh.

I would love to hear your thoughts on these issues – not necessarily the Post Office, but the need to stay current.

• http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/29/business/29postal.html
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/8226296.stm
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/programmes/click_online/8224573.stm

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• Swiss Postal Service lets users check snail mail online (arstechnica.com)
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• Commentary: About that Saturday mail … (cnn.com)

[slideshare id=1745672&doc=theopensocialwebworkshop-090720171244-phpapp01]

Presented by Chris Messina (OpenID Foundation), David Recordon (Six Apart), Joseph Smarr (Plaxo). As evidenced by Barack Obama’s successful presidential campaign, we have clearly entered the age of the social web. This developer-oriented workshop will emphasize the use and application of free, open building blocks for enabling social networking features on your site or service, and provide illuminating insights from some of the key figures creating these technologies.

http://en.oreilly.com/oscon2009/public/schedule/detail/8575

Yesterday, while catching up on feeds in my feed-reader, I came across an article by author Seth Godin (thanks for sharing this Chris Brogan), titled The massive attention surplus.  The article immediately caught my attention on many levels.

• First, Godin is a leading thought leader.  His book, Tribes, has been on the best-selling leadership book on Amazon for almost a year.  The man knows what he is talking about.
• Second, this short blog post, offers great insight into an area that I have been pondering.  As traditional media continues to circle the drain, and online social media takes center stage, how will this affect marketing, revenue streams, and the return on investment for firms employing social-networking as a part of their marketing strategy. (I talk about this here)
• This post also, at least in my opinion, puts a stop to all the whining marketers and print media mavens who complain that the Internet is killing their business.

We are living during a time of great change. Print media is fading – fast – and online social-networking is taking over.  No one really knows what this means…yet.  One thing is certain, magazine and newspapers are a thing of the past.  More and more people are getting their news and entertainment via the Internet.  Real-time news delivery, via Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sources are lining up on center stage and are not just poised to take the lead, but by some accounts already leading the trends.

Recently Newsweek magazine, for which  I’ve subscribed to for over two decades, revamped the format of their online and print magazine.  The website looks great, the print magazine, not so much. In explaining the new format, editor, Jon Meacham, mentioned that the magazine has been loosing money for almost two years.  While I appreciated his candor, and I also appreciated the bold revamping of the magazine, his comment, and the new format were what finally convinced me to cancel my subscription.

So what’s next?

We are entering a time when we can no longer rely on traditional marketing and journalism to get the message out. While this is an uncertain  time of transition, it is also a time of great opportunities.  The key is seeing and seizing these opportunities.

Image by luc legay via Flickr

I’ve been keeping my eyes open for those opportunities… Just today, I stumbled across this article in the New York Times: Mining the Web for Feelings, Not Facts Instead of just searching for raw data, smart companies are learning to mine the web for feelings.  Reading this article, in conjunction with the one above, really connected some important concepts for me.

I love it when these invisible dots connect. There is a world of possibilities when we learn to see the unseen.  I’d be curious to hear some of your thoughts after you read the articles.  Did these articles unlock any ideas in your  brain?

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