Social Velocity

Web 2.0, Mobility, Enterprise 2.0, Communities, Wiki's, Blogs, Social Marketplaces, Social Workplaces, SaaS, PaaS, what do they all have in common?

Each of these contributes, (of course) to our ever evolving world of electronic connections, which is propelling a new wave of 'social velocity' right before our eyes.

New boundaries are pushed each and every day when it comes to personal connections on platforms like Facebook, global enterprise connectivity and international trade improves beyond traditional lines of business through creation of hybrid ecosystems that promote scalable and monetized marketplace interaction.

And it is all happening faster then most strategists can or care to measure.

What does that mean for you personally? It means you can share foodie tips with someone on the other side of the globe with just a few keystrokes, or talk about your favorite sports team, or travel destination with more vigor and passion then you do with your school mates or neighbors. Social connectivity has never been so easy. There are rules of engagement and generally speaking the communities are self-policed, so it’s real easy to follow the crowd and get involved. Try it, send a tweet this week. It’s fun.

Now how about those enterprises that everyone is talking about? How do they use this new social paradigm to their advantage? What are the rules of engagement? How easy is it to follow along? Well, times up. Do you have the answer? Truly, we are still within the very early stages of seeing enterprises push the boundaries of social velocity both in a marketplace setting as well as in a workplace environment. There are no blueprints, and no simple ‘Facebook for All’ type answers. One could assume that with so much jargon being thrown around by so many ‘flavor of the week’ vendors, this stuff must be easy. Not true. Since there is no single approach to creating true or realized social competence within a marketplace or workplace, organizations must turn to the thought leaders within the industry to help them navigate these waters. The vendors who are trying to ‘cash in’ on the ‘social hype’ and talk the talk with clients, without walking the walk remind me of the Y2K scenario. Lots of resources used, spend lots of money, no tangible or measured ROI, but there were lots of busy people!

Enterprises must work with the companies who understand how to walk the walk. Talk is cheap, time is money, and social velocity will pass you by unless you grab on, jump in, and start your enterprise strategy cycle now.