Peter Kim (14 posts)

Is it real or is it Memorex?

Remember widgets? In the early days of corporate social media (i.e. 2005 – 2006), widgets were all the rage. They were light and viral; the minimal effort to support them post-lauch made them more attractive to brands than blogs or podcasts.

We’re just about a week away from hosting the Dachis Group Social Business Summit in Austin. It’s the first in a series of three events being held in each of our company’s geographies. If you’re going to be attending, I’m excited as you are about the day. Otherwise – see you online; let’s congregate around the hashtag #SBS2010.

I spoke at a conference earlier this morning in Dublin, The Digital Festival. At a different point in social media history, I’d be liveblogging notes from these sessions. Today, there’s no need. So what happened to liveblogging?

Companies must implement policy to manage social media participation and let’s face it – the devil is in the details.

Not too long ago there was a marketer, who was obsessively focused on “the next big thing” and spent a great deal of his budget on the latest fads; his only ambition was to be written up in Ad Age and Brandweek. He did not care for sales spreadsheets and customer databases did not interest him; the only thing that really interested him was to focus on the next brand campaign…

A year from now, we’re going to look back on what happened this year and declare that it was finally the “year of mobile.”

As we wrap up 2009, I want to highlight some areas where our business will be focused in 2010. I could position these as predictions, but then I’d be stacking the deck because I know they’re already going to happen.

What matters more: what people say or what they do? It’s not just an adage to live by – I’m thinking about how this applies to managing a social business. As we enter 2010, I see the potential for a new cliche to come to life: “an action is worth a thousand words.”

Everybody thinks of themselves a hidden star, just waiting for the right opportunity to shine. Businesses have an opportunity to take a positive approach and harness this trend to activate individuals. Which drives the question: how social is your business, really?