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Next 6 Months Will be Transformative for Social Web

Posted by Nick O'Neill on June 27th, 2008 9:00 AM

The upcoming six months are going to transform the social web. Yesterday, MySpace was the first social network to release a public API which extends users’ friend connections (or as Facebook would call it, “social graph”) to the rest of the web. It is highly anticipated that Facebook will be launching a competing version next month at their second annual F8 event.

Next month Apple is set to release the second version of their iPhone which will include a developer platform which has fundamental similarities to the Facebook platform released by Facebook over one year ago. If anything could transform the social web, I am betting heavily that the iPhone becomes just as large of a catalyst as Facebook was for change in the industry.

Combine the data portability movement with open mobile platforms and then add on Facebook’s highly anticipated payment platform and you are looking at big changes ahead. Companies will be working overtime to adapt to the new platforms and embrace it all. So what does this mean for business? Considering that I was writing about a similar shift taking place one year ago, it means a lot.

The most substantial question which has been unanswered is how do large businesses adapt in such a rapidly changing environment? It’s understandable that companies with a few employees can adjust to the change overnight but for most people it’s unsustainable. This may be one of the primary reasons that the social web industry has so much difficulty in gaining traction with brands.

Cutting through all the buzz is critical. Large brands will simply need to pick innovative companies that can adapt to all of the change and work with them to help build a presence in social media. The best rule of thumb at this point is: anything is better than nothing. While large companies may not have all the cutting edge tools, staying educated is the most important thing.

As the social web transforms over the coming months, what do you think is the best way for large corporations to stay up to date and not appear out of the loop?

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This entry was posted on Friday, June 27th, 2008 at 9:00 am and is filed under Analysis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Viewing 4 Comments

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    For the last 10 years, it's been an exciting and transformative time for the Web.
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    To my knowledge, most corporations aren't ready.
    As you said it's a big change for a big co. Some individuals are trying social media for say, marketing, but they don't have support of middle management, it's not a priority and they're already busy doing what they've been doing for so long. To me these are the factors slowing down the move of big co toward social media:
    -skepticism
    -lack of understanding (where/how to start, what's important...)
    -time commitment (not a priority yet)
    -individual voice on behalf of org vs institutional messaging
    -too many options/changes fast/not comfortable with the tools
    -ROI not clear
    -lack of strategy
    It will happen but as always with big 'cultural/people' change, it will take more time than we think it should.
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    To add to the great comments above, I believe that the biggest barrier is the lack of credibility associated with social media developers. Advertisers are not buying the promises made by social media shops, and on the odd occasion when they do buy the promises, they question the shop's ability to deliver.

    In regards to your question "what do you think is the best way for large corporations to stay up to date and not appear out of the loop?"

    Read this blog.
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    The IPhone as a driver of social media use is a fascinating situation because the participation moves out into mainstream everyday life. Unlike other mobile platforms, it has a desktop- level OS and a full-fledged browser that doesn't require mobile-specific web design. This combined with always-connected status means people are going to use their iPhones as their primary connection to everyone else.
    For marketers this creates an upheaval. The savvy ones will immediately start trying to figure out an engagement strategy that improves user experience rather intruding upon it. This is the big marketing challenge and those who understand it are going to do very well. Those who keep trying to push messages down people throats with a social media advertising model are going to get hurt, IMHO.

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