Keith June 18th, 2008
Blogs are only useful if you post things on a regular basis! It seems that life after Telstra has been busier than when I was there! Since then, I have started work on a number of projects in my new role as an independent consultant, and I have now managed to update this site to reflect my new status. So time to get back into the blog-posting saddle…
The new projects I have been working on have mostly come via the network of people that I have had the privilege to meet and work with over the last four years or so. Much of my contact with these people has been via this site, and via Facebook and LinkedIn. (Which have also helped me to find a new car!) So it was very timely that one of my network colleagues has drawn my attention to this NY Times article on LinkedIn’s recent capital raising. (Thanks, Sharon!)
LinkedIn has just raised $53 million (USD) in capital. Based on this - and recent valuations of Facebook and MySpace - these three social networking sites are potentially worth something like the following (in USD):
- MySpace: $580 million
- LinkedIn: $1 billion
- Facebook: $15 billion
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Keith October 11th, 2007
“Hey, did you hear the joke about the Zen master who ordered a hot dog?”
“No…”
“He said, ’Make me one with everything.’”
- Cris Johnson, Next
Keith March 1st, 2007
In 1994, Forester Research stated that “the Internet is too anarchistic for prime-time business and too complex for the average techno-peasant to master.” In discussions on actKM, Matt Moore has asked whether business is now ready for Social Media - blogs, wikis, RSS, etc.
We have a whole generation of tech-savvy people now entering the workforce that have no memory of a world without PCs and the Internet - and only bad memories of an Internet without broadband access. They live on MySpace and Instant Messenger. If they come into a corporate office today, they will probably feel like their arms have been cut off. (I remember that one of my first workplaces didn’t have STD on the phone system and I had to go through an operator to make long distance calls - it seemed so archaic then!)
Different social media tools may suit different business environments. RSS allows individuals to choose what they read, which may be a big benefit, but corporate communications managers may be somewhat scared by this prospect! (Funny, because they can do that now by deleting emails…). People will adapt to use the tools that suit their needs.
Is there a distinction between “personal” and “professional” use of Social Media? Should we restrict the use of these tools in the workplace to “business use only” - or restrict the use of some media for fear that they will be used (or abused) for “personal” use?
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