Inside or out?

A friend and respected thinker in the field, informed me over lunch recently that a client is struggling with social media. His client, a subscription based membership organisation with it's own network of several thousand paying customers, is scratching it's head about a Facebook group made up of it's staff, members, partners, suppliers, students, would be members and competitors.

This group, that sits outside the firewall and therefor any form of control is, by nature, self regulating, informal, human and, above all, FAST.

How long will it be before the people in this new network, that are also members of the client, ask ' why am I paying the subscription to company x when I can get everything I need in here?'

This is another wake up call for the outmoded. Better get their heads together and re-invent.

Two syllables or you're out

Attending the NMK social media conference on Wednesday I renewed my resolve to post more regularly. Little did I know that back in my day job, trouble was brewing, but that's another story. So I'm late. Again.
The NMK newsletter is always a welcome sight in my in box. However, the conference was a little lacklustre if I'm honest. Technical glitches and a few truly awful presenters diminished what could have been inspiring. Dan Gilmore stole the show with a low key presentation full of wit and wisdom and Jason Calacanis railed against just about everyone and, while he came across as a pain the ass, is trying something interesting with Mahalo.com. .
A number of start ups had two minutes to wow the audience. Most didn't. But what became clear is that, to get your thing off the ground in the social media space you have to have a name with two syllables or you're not in the running. Check out:

Rawflow

Reevoo

Playtxt

Webjam