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This list will grow as new posts are added.
Category: Business
What Social Networking Needs
03/22/08
I learned a lot at the recent O’Reilly conference, “Graphing Social Patterns.” (You may have seen my coverage of the event at my other blog, and also on my Twitter page.) But the most interesting thing that was confirmed for me personally at this event was that, for social networking to really become successful from a business standpoint, it must somehow start to enable the one big missing element so far: commerce. Advertising is not going to cut it as a sole business model, a fact that’s becoming increasingly evident.
With clickthrough rates continuing to decline, ad spending hardly going up in the current economic environment, and the lack of ad relevancy getting talked about more and more (especially on social networks!), suddenly advertising is not seen as the panacea it once was. It would appear that commerce—selling real stuff—must be the next big thing.
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2008: The Year of Relationship Capital
12/26/07
It’s time for new year’s predictions, and I’ve decided I’m just going to offer up one big one. Here it is:
In 2008, people will widely acknowledge and accept the notion of “relationship capital.”
One way that will play out specifically, I predict, is that, this time next year, we’ll be talking about how social networking really got traction at work—in the enterprise, as well as continuing to gain adoption in many small businesses. I really believe that the tool of social networking will come to be seen as having its own form of currency—relationship capital—which can enable that tool to achieve real benefits, real ROI, in advancing business objectives.
So, yes, friends—“relationship capital” should definitely be on your buzzword watch list in 2008! And there’s a similar term I like as well: “social capital.” I was at an Ignite event in San Francisco a couple of months ago and heard an impassioned presentation by Tara Hunt that she called “Forget Venture Capital, Raise Social Capital!” I thought it was great—very fitting in its context for Web 2.0 startups, but even more so now, I think, in the broader business world as we move into 2008. The thing I like about Social Capital is this: the more you give it away, the more you get back in return.
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Please subscribe to one of my RSS-2.0 feeds... Recommended Reading:
The Corporate Blogging Book
Absolutely Everything You Need to Know to Get It Right
by: Debbie Weil
This book presents all the principles we practice here at NMW. It's the one we would have written on this very important topic ourselves -- if we weren't so darn busy!
Life 2.0
How People Across America Are Transforming Their Lives by Finding the Where of Their Happiness
by: Rich Karlgaard
Conceived after the Tech Crash, this book captured an historic time in Silicon Valley, when people began searching for something more than the rat race they had known. My friend Rich took a short sabbatical from his job as Publisher of FORBES and flew his plane all over the country to interview entrepreneurs who had found happiness in the unlikeliest of places -- and he started right here in Minnesota.
Endorsements:
A random sampling of testimonials from clients and colleagues (refresh page for more)...
"As a new company without much experience in web marketing, I needed someone with a deep understanding of how to effectively communicate online about our products and brand identity. Graeme helped me rewrite all of our web copy...wrote a press release...and knew what to do to increase our search engine optimization. After our re-launch, our site had more traffic, and his press release even gained the attention of Reader’s Digest... "
Marc Seaberg
Founder/CEO
WellnessChoice
"It was good to catch up. You were, as usual, a font of information and insight."
Eric Wieffering
Business Editor
Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Blogroll:
Blogs I read regularly (refresh page for more)...
blog.pmarca.com
by Marc Andreessen...Thoughts from the Web pioneer and founder of social networking platform Ning.
Groundswell
by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff...Winning In a World Transformed by Social Technologies -- a blog by two Forrrester Research analysts.
Correlate
by Lou Paglia ...Connections, relevancy, and everything else, including the relationships and linkages only the web can drive.
Web Strategy by Jeremiah
by Jeremiah Owyang...Weekly digest of the social networking industry, from a newly named Forrester Research analyst.
WebInkNow
by David Meerman Scott...Online thought leadership and viral marketing strategies.
MediaShift
by Mark Glaser...Tracking how new media, from weblogs to podcasts to citizen journalism, are changing society and culture.
Linkroll:
Some tech / Internet / content sites I find useful in my work (refresh page for more)...