NLabNetworks 5 of 5
Panel discussion
Chris Meade. We haven’t been talking about the economy today? How much time will we have to do ‘free’ things during the downturn? It may become harder to sell the benefits of SM to the unconvinced.
Vijay Riyait. The amplified individual. Blogging about being a Microsoft Partner has changed their relationship. Microsoft asked him to publish a casestudy and led in part [?] to becoming a “lead” partner in the UK . . . What is the ROI? It is a long term benefit but we have to put the work in to it. . . . We need to learn to talk to people who don’t know very much about social media. Qu/Ans: Creative Coffee Club
Roland Harwood. We don’t own our reputation? Web pages are more or less permanent and cement our reputations.
Andrea Saveri. Distinguishing between the SM platform and the activities of social networking. The activities have always been there. We have been talking about new infrastructure for businesses. There are new possibilities for relationships between small businesses and between big and small businesses. And then we ask where is the payout? Grow knowledge. Attract talent without hiring them. . . . Training . . . Trusted relationships . . . new environment for doing this. Next decade will be challenging for all businesses - climate change and oil (USD5 a gallon! - 2.5 quid! to our 6 quid! - more people on the trains). Climate refugees. Social media platform helps us develop new responses in this new envirionment. [**** seems a good phrase to me . . . new responses]
Question: Bridging with inexperienced SM users? Benefits to more people. Regenerate communities. Chris: exciting time - tougher economic times shows that SM tools are tools. Time to get firmer on people who won’t use the tools and to be more political - we must share for the future of the planet. [my rough precis]
Vijay - we need to get out there and connect to business groups - take the ideas to the [front]. Hard work and talking face-to-face. No substitute for face-to-face.
Question: Are Microsoft etc. really interested in SME’s? Vijay: we need to take our experiences to them.
Question: CJ-if you could only keep 2 of your SM platforms - Roland - twitter and facebook - connects to lots of people - random interactions to people we barely know. CJ Twitter and Second Life. Chris - Twitter. CJ - clients can only keep 2 or 3. Andrea - Delicious and news aggregator. Vijay - Facebook connects with colleagues and friends - small business the two are mixed - twitter.
Question: Small business often say “show me the money” - haven’t got time. i want to know the killer reason - profits and time. Vijay - How do you get your business? Social networking - another route and another avenue. Chris - how it saves money - do things quicker. . . . Can they survive without social networking? Saving of time. If you do SM for a living, which bits are people willing to pay for? Roland - intractable problems on twitter, also the tailor blog mentioned by Steve Clayton. Andrea - markets can be larger [the questioner needs a heuristic to explore the business owner's need unless this is 100% cold calling *** opportunity here? SMM]
Question: DTerrar comments - identify tangible business benefits - killer feature is collaboration - must identify tangible business benefits.
Question: Saturation? Consumers are savvy - we are still marketing. Chris - pick one and do interesting things with it - don’t just participate. Chris - selling must be authentic - useful advertising. Vijay - blogs with an agenda behind it - transparency - impending regulations. Roland - innovation and proliferation of competing technologies - comments that blogoshere lacks civility - txting can be obtuse and can misinterpreted.
Question: Dramatic shift in landscape - more graduates in India and China than we have kids - [social media allows us to move around the value chain] Andrea : collaborative, emergent. China has the greatest no of bloggers - they will be players in the innovative space. Transliteracy will be future work environment - open, social, user driven, bottom up - fundamental shift - ordinary people can make substantial impacts. Roland - NESTA “webscience research foundation” we assume the web will be there for ever - money at stake is significant - the collaborative spirit could be damaged - political interference. Chris - Chinese website - unpublished novels are sold by subscription. Web is also used by facists etc. Vijay - will businesses truly open up - just go use twitter - businesses like to have control. SN requires us to give up control. Enterprises will adopt it. Will SME’s have the foresight to open it up and see where it leaves.
Question: What is different? I have built 3 businesses on relationship marketing. One sided conversation. We sold, they bought. Then we paid attn to customer expectations. SM enhances relationships. SM gets people to review their thinking. Old businesses won’t change. New businesses will do things differently. SM platforms seem like kids’ things are kept out. FSB - please get some case studies out - take it out of academia. Start, do it like this. The first movers will take a considerable lead. SueThomas - Creative Coffee Club. Question - have we got 6 months.
Words of Wisdom
Vijay - mystique about SMM - share experiences with people who are doing it. FSB - try hard to get them to be engaged.
Andrea - you are not going to do it all. Cases are meaningful because they are concrete. Pick one small thing and experiment - eg. simple site - what should the next sauce be? Not to be ignored. Cautiously tracked and watched.
Roland - Napster, YouTube - case studies are out there. Forming relationships is what it is about.
Chris - The Blog - keep the blog - right to express ourselves - content - what we believe? How the downtrodden get to be heard.
End -
Toby speaking tonight at dinner.
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