Social media and the future
I've recently worked out that my 'internet interests' have turned into 'social media' interests. And when you're interested in something a lot, it makes you an enthusiast. Eventually, you become an expert if you're into it enough, and if you do it right you can market yourself to clients and business as a social media expert, helping them with their marketing and promotion to take advantage of whatever leverage social media sites can give them.
I think I'm moving forward in that direction.
Not that I'm complaining, because I'm really enjoying what I'm learning, what I'm sharing, and the network that I'm developing and being part of. I can see myself taking advantage of this within the next 12 months and incorporating that into my career aspirations, which are pretty much focused on doing what I love. There are businesses and people out there that pay money for assistance with their marketing and promotion, getting their brand known, and getting their product or service known by as many people as possible.
Social media is still in its infancy in regards to business application, but just like blogging is becoming a standard for businesses, internet-based networking will also become a standard. There will be social and professional network sites popping up that will bring together people with like-minded interests, including businesses and organisations.
Friendfeed is a new service that allows you to "keep up to date on the web pages, photos, videos and music" that friends and family are sharing, and offers "a unique way to discover and discuss information among friends". You can incorporate all the other social media sites and tools like Facebook, YouTube, Digg, Flickr, Twitter, and countless others that have RSS feeds.
You can create specific rooms that find and share information relevant to the topic of the room. Again, whatever is shared in the room can be subscribed to in an RSS reader so that members can stay up to date with shared information.
Expand this into the future, where people associated with a business can participate in that business's 'media room', for want of a better term, and communicate and share with other people interested in that business's activities. It's extra exposure for the business, which will always bring increased revenue, and it changes the face of the business from 'unfriendly' corporation, to 'friendly and socially minded'.
When an organisation can appeal to the majority of people out there on their level, they have a major advantage over those other organisations that are stuck in traditional ways of doing things, like advertising in the Yellow Pages, and avoiding any kind of public interaction for fear of bad publicity. As a result of their adherence to traditional ways of doing business they avoid innovative growth, which is what they really need as they do business into the 21st century.
There's some amazing potential for not just social interaction, but also business interaction, and I can see how much I'd enjoy being part of that. 
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Comments
Nope, just adding stuff to the work I’d like to engage in. Not changing direction, but incorporating into the current path.
Alan,
Good post. Certainly the internet has made the entire world accessible for us by creating a plethora of new opportunities that allow us to connect with others in ways we have never been able to before.
Scot
I find that kind of stuff amazing, Scot. It’s incredible how small the globe is becoming, and it gets smaller every year.
Social games like Second Life, even World of Warcraft, bring people together in a virtual world, allowing people to communicate while engaging in a ’second life’, whether that’s in a fantasy world or simply a virtual reality mimicking the real one.
I’m enjoying learning about it, and exploring the value it holds for me, and how I can share that with others.
Changing direction again hmmmm?