Comments on: Five Electrifying Social Monikers

By: donseamons

donseamons — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:19:20 +0000

Sameer, I like your thinking, especially around social media and lead generation. I think it's absolutely essential to integrate LG and SM. Problem is, there are a few steps between the two. What we really need is CRM that can track social connections to client connections.

By: Sameer

Sameer — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 18:27:00 +0000

yes I'd love to as well. As long as were talking contacts and not the
metaphor Thanks a lot for engaging Larry. Your deep thoughts on this here
(and over Margaritas at Reposado!) are a treasure.

By: Larry Hawes

Larry Hawes — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 18:22:35 +0000

I understand your take and would love to hear what others think regarding email as the ultimate social network.

By: Sameer

Sameer — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 18:17:14 +0000

your point about your inbox and tool vendors is a great example of a different use case where buzz probably makes your life more hellish

By: Sameer

Sameer — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 18:06:24 +0000

yes, it depends on your personal interaction model. I have a ridiculously
strong network of people in my email contact list that i do business with as
well as engage with for other reasons. Collaboration and Social Networking
have vastly different purposes IMO and my engagement with my contact list is
ripe for a new metaphor. In most cases not one thats skewed towards
collaboration at all. But definitely, without question, towards a more
social networking metaphor. And that applies to large corporations as well -
you just don't need to collaborate in many cases. Be connected via a social
network to learn ambiently or intentionally? Absolutely.

Thats my take.

By: Larry Hawes

Larry Hawes — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 17:59:44 +0000

Ah, but that's exactly my point. The contacts in my large corporation email address book were more reflective of the organizational structure than of my collaborative networks. Most of my interactions to actually do work happened outside of email. But perhaps I was (and still am) in the minority in that regard.

BTW, that's precisely why Google Buzz is a non-starter for me.

By: Sameer

Sameer — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 17:46:59 +0000

Thanks Larry
Important clarification so you know where I stand. WRT email being the
ultimate social network – emphasis is on the contacts in there, not the
communication metaphor of course. Id be out of a job if I couldnt think
beyond email as a way to be social

By: Larry Hawes

Larry Hawes — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 17:42:48 +0000

Well thought-out post, as always. However, I have to disagree with one small point you made while supporting your 'transparency is good for everyone but me' thesis.

Email is not "the ultimate social network". It is the antithesis of a well built and functioning social network. I'll explain why in more detail on my blog, but let me say this for now:

Email is a communication channel; it is not a collaboration enabler.

I value my social networks because I can work with members of those communities to get things done. Too much of email activity is about low value (or value-less) interactions imposed by command and control culture and systems. When I worked in a large company, my email inbox was more of a proxy for the organizational hierarchy than an instantiation of my social graph. I suspect that's true for most folks.

By: Sameer

Sameer — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 03:51:02 +0000

Haaaa! I swear to God I was going to delete this comment after reading the first line cc: @ekolsky

By: Esteban Kolsky

Esteban Kolsky — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 03:47:40 +0000

So,

Mr. Founding Partner — I hate you for writing in one paragraph what I wrote in 600 words in my blog. Basically, we are all calling for transparency, but only when it comes to the other people — not to us. We are going to demand — no, expect — that enterprises become very open with us in their relationship with us. What? Me open up — how dare you invade my privacy? Trust me, I am no advocate of the organization over the customer, but you cannot have a relationship without a middle-ground, a give and take, and a compromise.

If we are going to ask the organizations to open up their kimono (to go back about 10 years in metaphors), then we have to be willing to do the same. If you email your competitor's CEO your secret plans over GMai — well, then you probably deserve what you get anyways… there are better and more secretive ways to carry out secrecy-based plans.

And, while I am on a rant, there is something i don't get. We are constantly killing email, and decrying as the source of death for the enterprise, but either Google did not get that memo — or we are not really that convinced that email is that bad and we are OK getting our social network interactions via email. The reason I don't do Buzz is that I don't go GMail, and I am perfectly capable to go to my social networks as I need to — but I cannot afford the time to start into another social network that has not yet proven the value.

Sorry, getting off the soapbox and extending apologies for the long rant (and multiple things also). Going to my blog to write about something else now that you killed my topic.

Good write up, agree with the other ones also — and I am flabbergasted by that CEO's question on Facebook… They are not supposed to ask about that, just do it.