It interests me a mite too much how possibly useful networking sites might be to companies now that they have evolved past MySpace. It has been documented again and again how inter-generationally Facebook is being used, and now with Twitter augmenting our blogosphere...the sheer opportunities out there are endless.
Some companies are already well taking advantage of these tools, articles are being written and professional marketers the world over are examining new ways to network themselves and their clients best with these tools and still maintain the confidentiality and privacy required to operate business effectively. What really interests me about this is how it also builds accountability into the system. Way back when I was in school, (I'd say get off my lawn but I live in the desert) we learned about how free-market capitalism thrives by having the social needs of the populace taken care of by the various religious organizations, special interest organizations, and yes, by companies taking care of their employees. We saw that fall apart time and again, and the government stepping in to fill that role...regardless of the country.
Now, I wonder. We have a tool which allows us to easily communicate with one another and to large groups of people quickly, almost instantaneously. We saw this used throughout the last election here in the US to disseminate vital information and completely useless information moment to moment. (While it is interesting to me how much Cindy McCain's ensembles cost, I can't say I felt it was useful election information) Companies now are doing this, and being held accountable by it. Most obviously, the individuals, companies and organizations which donated to Prop 8 in California were called out by a group of social networkers. This leads me to believe that this sort of communication can be used as the converse of this and with the organization itself promoting itself and its thoughts and its beliefs (look, if a corporation has nearly the same legal rights as a person anyway, this isn't much of a stretch) rather than the pithy one-line 'corporate culture' statement of yore.
While I don't look to see too many taking part in a grand diaspora of information...it would be to their advantage to post things relevant to their sectors and get a following of people interested in their product and moreover the solutions/advantages that it can offer. Looking forward to new developments, as always.
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I'm not so sure the corporations could quite as effectively leverage the power of a distributed architecture such a small special interest group could, cheifly because a lot of the power that a small group (like that that called those who donated to Prop 8), would be automatically neutered by some of the bias that Americans have against Corporations.
ReplyDeleteGranted, that's probably not undeservedly... it's become a very us/them dynamic, as many in thier own jobs will see a very authoritarian heirarchy being asked to do far more for less, see the corporation hack away at the middle and lower teirs saying that it's for the healthy of the company while continuing to lavish rewards upon the top levels that are equivalent to the scale of what the provide.
If they could leverage the social sites as a way of putting a human face on their works, it could very advantageous, and seperate them from the herd, but it requires an openness and regard for the entire corporate being that really isn't help by most companies- so long they see the upper escheloens as irreplacement compents to be maintained at all cost, and the rest of the structure as exchangable cogs, and the purpose of their existance to create value and not profit, well, I don't see it working that well.
If there were a company that could leverage the tools in a way you suggest, I would love to work for them.
Perhaps I'm just getting too cynical, but having been "sold" twice in one year and walking the razors edge for the past 8, I'm not exactly touchy-feely about the way any of these levithans behave.