Can you Unplug?

With many of the changes that have been occurring with my company, still known as (idk.com = I don't know), I have found myself unplugging from my own personal community. I have began to sympathize with JK Rowling as a result. I keep getting asked what my world is going to look like in month, six month, or a year. Regardless of my lineage, I never was great at the crystal ball thing. At least, I can sympathize with Harry about that as well.

Ms. Rowling has had the world at her throat.... "What is going to happen? Who lives? Why are you stopping?, Please don't kill, Hermione, Harry, Ron, etc."

If she retreated to her home in Scotland and yanked the telephone cord out of the wall, I would get it. Meanwhile, it has to be business as usual in both circumstances. We have a product to ramp up, new ones to be flushed out, QA'd, and Customers to serve. She had a movie in production and the entire merchandise market around the Harry Potter series. While the scale is significantly and dramatically different, I get it.

The point is... you never can truly unplug from your community. A robust and lively community needs to be communicated with fresh content and information. Even if that information is... I don't know yet.. I am still working through to get to your answer.

Feed your grapevine with the right nutrients for success. Communication and content are king and queen of developing your own socialized network. However, the fairy godmothers are honesty and integrity. Those words are bantered around today by every person that is running for office and most businesses. The key is to walk the narrow road and your community will respect you and honour you with their attention and contribution.

Community observed ....

This morning, I was at Starbucks... (shocking to y'all, I know). A woman was struggling over the coffee makers they have there for grande or perhaps in this case Venti D'argent! I cornered her at the fixin's bar and said. Those Saecos are a ton of money. I suggested my Cuisnart. There is now about 4 of them in the family. We love them! Grinds beans. Stainless pot. Things she had said she liked about the Saeco. Told her Kohls has them on sale a lot. Then.. wait for it... We started discussing "Amazon.com and Shopzilla.com" The coffee pot lady said.... hmm... I think I will check out Amazon.com. THEY HAVE GREAT REVIEWS! She not only wanted my opinion but that of the Amazon community.

Multi channel community! It is here to stay.

Double Down on Enterprise Social Networking

I mentioned the "We are Smarter than Me" project in a blog entry a couple of months ago. Well, the first revelations are in the process of being fine tuned into a book that was written by the crowds. I am extremely privileged to have an copy of the compiled book. My prediction is it will be the Fall 2007, "Good to Great" for the business world. I am not going to give away the end or even a sample of the case studies that are included. You are just going to have to read it for yourself. Remember, the proceeds of the book are going to charity.

I was working on a project today with the manuscript while getting a pedicure and manicure. It got me to thinking about the history of community and the Internet. It made me want to "double down" on my bet of the future of enterprise social networking. I feel like my company has two aces with a dealer on a bad luck streak. Time to double down!!

Having moved around the past couple of years, I have consistently had to depend on the members of the new community to provide counsel and advise on EVERYTHING. I ask colleagues, neighbors, and strangers for recommendations on landscapers, doctors, nail salons, hairdressers, mechanics, and restaurants. I relied on the community for my immersion into a new environment.

I observed a small example of this while in the nail salon today. I had just finished reading a small blurb in the text about people have historically depended on their communities for direction .... think of the bazaars and farmers markets still in existence in the third world. This is a place for shopping for information and goods and services.... Don't by fish from him for x reason or the stall over two has a great price on widgets.

Today, three perfect strangers were swapping restaurant reviews about area restaurants. The top spoons go to Good News Cafe in Woodbury and Thomas Moran's Petite Syrah and Forsythia's in Washington and New Milford respectively with a communal nod that the Cookhouse was certainly a great establishment. Weren't we all lucky to have so many great options? Then it happened! The oldest member of this gaggle of women and the youngest started talking about Restaurant.com. "Isn't it great? You can rate the restaurants, read reviews, see menus and make reservations." said the Matriarch EUREKA! This is socialized networking and enterprise networking .. and more than that a multi channel community that restaurant.com had in a nail salon.

There are people which believe that this is a bunch of hooey. I know them. As a person that respects and consults history to predict future social behavior, I bring up the history of email.
Question, did you have a personal or professional email first? Most people had an AOL or CompuServe account? Before your time? Sorry, I am an old timer for personal computers. I had one of the first TRS-80's from Radio Shack prior to getting out of middle school. I also one of the first email accounts of my friends. I wasted more time than I want to admit in the 1990's waiting for the words "You've Got Mail". My husband and I developed our relationship through emails prior to meeting in 1999 and spent hours "IM'ing" each other during the day. My love notes disappeared into the oblivion when I closed the conversation...

In 1999, the company I worked for did not have corporate email. This was all done on a laptop and email account I personally funded. My boss was nice enough to have a data line installed in my office when she realized the impact of Monster.com on the recruiting industry was starting to have. Imagine someone trying to do placement and HR recruiting today without email? Role forward just eight years. EVERYONE has email.. personal and professional. I get my email on my Blackberry. I have a crackberry problem. I am not looking for therapy or sympathy. I love it. The non corporate environment demanded access to email from their companies. The same will be true of the people that are accustom to FaceBook, Friendster and My Space for companies to employ Social Networking as part of their overall customer communication, product development and customer retention.

My mind went nuts about other examples of communities that have spread like a virus on to the Internet. I am sure you can all think of examples. Do tell! Hit the comments link and share. Be part of my community. I dare you...

What happens in Vegas - Ain't Staying There!!!

I am still recovering from my recent trip to Sin City this week for my company's inaugural "C 2.0 Conference / C20". Not for the reasons so many visitors have returning from the LV. Being part of the conference production team is always a challenge. You are up and working prior to your audience and leaving conference floor long after the audience is off having fun at a variety of activities. I have been working at events like this since 2000. I love it! For the first time, I have been able to get honest feedback from the audience, attendees and our sponsors.

Why do you say? Because they have been blogging their hearts out!! We have been able to read opinions, feedback, and comments. That haven't been written on the conference survey forms for just a few to read. They have put it out into the atmosphere for everyone to read. They are posting pictures as well on Flickr.

You will never understand how wonderful it is to be able to read these blogs. Am I tired! Yes, I am exhausted as are my team mates. Half of them are off to do it all over again for our EA Community and Conference next week in New Orleans. Bless their hearts!

Moreover, I am beaming. I learned a ton about communities, blogs, tagging, photo sharing, and the benefits to business along with the challenges and bogs to avoid.

We are becoming a more interwoven fabric of society with the new technology. The "me" society is being heard and is developing into a "We" - hence the "we are smarter" project.

I feel like the last couple of months has been a roller coaster ride with the event. I didn't know what to expect. Their was a ton of ups and downs and corkscrews. The end result was a great ride and I can't wait to be back in line to do it again! WEEEEEE...........

So if you are in the business of selling community and web 2.0 services and products, get ready. I will be calling you shortly to discuss how to reach this passionate audience of enterprise individuals wanting to bring communities to their customers.

http://www.futureofcommunities.com/2007/03/13/community-20-conference-discussion/

ps. Aaron, I tagged this and outed myself.