Social Media: In-site and In Perspective

July 30th, 2008

I was fortunate enough to be invited to a Forrester Research webinar recently that explored how ‘social media’ (i.e. web 2.0) sites and services are being used for the purpose of generating new business leads.

But, as much as some entrepreneurs have embraced the emerging capacity of the Internet — i.e. Early Adopters – the vast majority are yet to really tip their toes in to ‘social media’. And, Its easy to understand why: business owners like you want to understand how these sites, functionalities and businesses will help you achieve your goals. At the same time, you want to make sure that you’re investing in the genuine article rather than just plain ‘hype’.

Over the next few months, Robert and I dig into some of the more robust social media tools – on the BusinessCast podcast and in this blog. But, rest assured that we will only do it with you in mind. In other words, we’ll delve into their business usefulness and tackle them with the same type of discipline (and good humour) that we address all subjects. After all, our focus is your success.

Let’s quickly take a look at ‘social media’ from 30,000 feet. First, keep in-mind that these business’ raison d’etre is to allow for or encourage the sharing of information/content online. Having said that, let’s make sense of the vastly ‘disorganized’ and seemingly haphazard selection of popular social media sites by placing them into a framework that puts them into perspective. To that end, click on the accompanying ’starfish’ thumbnail image which organizes the most popular social media sites by the purposes they serve.