Social networking is gett all the buzz in the past few months. Applications like Twitter and Jaiku set the stage as catalysts for change, by enabling new, mobile networking. Facebook followed suit with some mobile capabilities, and then added Facebook apps, which have been getting a lot of attention. And in the past week or so, there seems to have been a mass exodus from the grandfather of business networks, LinkedIn.
Thanks to RSS, I stumbled acrss Sean Bonner’s Preffered Means of Contact post, which gave me some reason to think about this whole shift, and to write this post.
I won’t dwell on LinkedIn here, but I would like to thank all of you who’ve decided to leave. There are thousands of Fortune 500 business leaders on LinkedIn. These are people who don’t see the value of Twitter or Jaiku because they’re busy doing traditional business. They won’t move to Facebook for 2-3 years for the same reason. Your abandoning LinkedIn has essentially left money on the table when it comes to building relationships and picking up work with these folks. Since I’ll be happy to pick that up, I feel I should thank those of you who are so shortsighted that you believe the newest network is the most important network.
That said, when we look at emerging social networking tools, I began to think about mine; abotu how I use them and what makes them effective.
For years, we’ve had a combination of social networks that supported our personal shadow network. While the two are becoming more tightly coupled (the shadow networks are coming to light and are more visible), there’s an element of trust in the shadow network that still doesn’t exist in the broader social network. While my closest friends and colleagues share information on Facebook and Jaiku, that’s not where the important communications occur. It isn’t where business happens.
I don’t think I’m that different than a lot of people involved in the tech sector, whether it’s telecommuncations, data networking, security, web services or social media in general, so I thought I’d share what works for me. It’s my tutorial on how to communicate most effectively with Ken, so your mileage may vary.
I’ve read many people’s thoughts that email is dying. I say bullshit. Email remains the business tool for information that requires archiving in some fashion. If you want a record, or I want a record, email still works. It’s not the best, fastest or top priority for most of us today, but for non-ephemeral communications email is still incredibly useful.
First and foremost, the quickest ways to reach me for either business or personal reasons in my mobile phone. That means a phone call or SMS. Either work and get top priority for my attention. SMS has become my preferred IM platform most of the time. A phone call can be to my cell, but most go to my published GrandCentral number. It rings wherever I want it to ring, and if I can be reached live, it will work.
The two ways most likely to reach me quickly are Jaiku (or for others, Twitter) or Facebook. I see most Jaiku’s pointed in my direction and respond. Facebook has an added advantage. If you’re in my network there, a status update, wall post, or message will hit my cell phone almost instantly. You’re assured I’ve seen it, and depending on our relationship, you know I’ll get back to you if that’s needed.
IM is another tool, and depending on which shadow networks my friends and colleagues are using, that’s a combination of Gtalk and Gizmo (both Jabber compliant), Skype and MSN Messenger. I don’t use Yahoo or AIM. The people I talk with most aren’t in those circles, so there’s never been a reason for me to use them. MSN and Yahoo easily talk across their walled garden platforms today. Jabber represents the next.
Email suffices for routine business. I don’t want IM messages from marketers wanting me to look at their client’s solution. I control email. I quit retrieving it automatically long ago on my laptop. It goes to my Treo, and a large percentage gets deleted there without ever achieving any momentum. That’s simple and I can do it at my convenience. It also increases the odds I’ll see that query from a LinkedIn contact in a timely manner and win the business others have abandoned.
There are plenty of social networking tools. Lately there’s Pownce, but frankly I couldn’t figure out why I’d bother looking at it. Today I gor email about some me-too YASN for making money. It was as exciting as mainstream media jumping on the Web 2.0 meme a year late. Yawn.
I’ve often said my social network isn’t on Facebook or LinkedIn, it’s in my phone. More seriously, that’s my shadow network. That’s people who I really work with and do business with. My phone is deeper and richer with information that Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Jaiku or the others can ever be. Because my shadow network involves an element of trust and a depth of relationships that I’ll never outsource to a web service. Why would I? Why would I risk that some online service might changes their terms of service and breach the integrity of my network?
I’ll use them where they work, for the value the offer, but ultimately, I own my network. Managing our individual social networks is simply the individual variant of customer relationship management (CRM). It’s simply relationship management (RM) to the power of one.
More as thought congeal, but there’s a start.
Technorati Tags: social networks, shadow networks, trust, collaboration, managing relationship
Filed by Ken at 8:08 pm under Mobility & Handheld, Portable Pleasures - PDA/Smartphones, Unified Communications
2 Comments
