Harnessing Web 2.0 for results

I have recently spoken at two conferences on social media.  One of these was Key Forums’ Intranets ’07 (Sydney, 19 Sep), where I spoke on Intranet 2.0: Determining which social media tools will work best for your organisation.  The other was Marcus Evans’ 6th Annual Stakeholder Communications (Melbourne, 5 Oct), where I delivered a 90-minute workshop on The rise of the social media – engaging your stakeholders, building the business case and measuring ROI through creative channels. 

There was some overlap between these, but a lot of differences in focus.  I enjoyed both very much, and from the audience response and the feedback I have seen so far, my sessions were both well received.

James Dellow has posted his thoughts on Intranets 07, and collected comments from other sites as well.  (This is one feature of blogging that I find delightful – a great way to collect a range of viewpoints on anything!)

I was particularly interested to note the wide spread of experience in the attendees – from those with absolutely no social media experience (personally or at work) to those with quite strong experience.  The Intranets conference did have a number of other speakers focussing on related areas, whereas the Comms conference covered a much wider range of topics.

I promised the attendees at this conference the information from a couple of slides I added after distribution of the slide pack.  Here it is, with some updated links as well:

Wikinomics – harnessing prosumers
Don Tapscott & Anthony D Williams

• More than “customisation”
• Too limited; need early engagement in design
• Losing control
• Let customers make own innovations, or they leave
• Better than ceding the game completely
• Become a peer
• Don’t make products, innovate ecosystems
• Share the fruits
• Customers want a share of the ownership
• Eg – Second Life

The Peer to Peer foundation
Michel Bauwens

• Technology reflects a change of consciousness towards participation
• A new form of political organizing:
• Non-representational democracy
• A new public domain, an information commons
• Requires fundamental changes in the IP regime
• Reconnects with older traditions
• A more cooperative social order
• Without the need for authoritarianism and centralization

A social computing Product Lifecycle
Jeremiah Owyang

• 10-stage process
• Web Strategy Theory
• The corporate website is becoming less relevant
• Web marketing has spread off your domain and Google results
• Prospects trust the opinions of existing customers
• As CoPs assemble, your brand is decentralised
• Used at Hitachi Data Systems
• Now advising at Forrester

This is all still quite scary stuff for a lot of corporations – and government organisations. Certainly the risks must be taken seriously.  Again, this is not about technology, it is about a totally different approach to doing business – and collaborating with people, both inside and outside the organisation.  However, I maintain from my experience that the risks are well worth the potential end result.