It seems as though every second start-up business is about social networking. Is it over-hyped, like a movie with famous faces but no plot? Just remember: High tech always arrives with high hype, whether for cars, phones, the Internet, or currently trendy alternative energy. A company writes its business plan, finds venture capitalists, opens an office, and hires engineers and PR types to talk up the technology and hope that Bay Street will declare the new product a world-changer. Social networking will be a world-changer. It’s no longer just for swapping music files or photos; businesspeople are using social networking to market and communicate.
Just as Nicholas Negroponte predicted in 1995’s Being Digital, the computer, broadcasting, and publishing industries have merged. Imagine a Venn diagram, which Negroponte describes as three teething rings: the interactive world, the entertainment world, and the information world. The convergence of these three giants — which had power comparable to Soviet-controlled industries even beforehand — changed how decisions are made regarding who gets published and what gets broadcast. The impact has been extraordinary.
To access this ocean of information, we are all hooked into a giant grid by means of various devices — iPhone, Blackberry, laptop, car navigation system. Now, “to control or not to control?” is the question asked by anxious employers eyeing their staff online.
Yet social networking allows staff to journey far from the office, then bring back useful nuggets for your next marketing piece or customer sales presentation. Merging the soft (people) with the hard (technology) is good business. If you are worried, remember: The more you use the reins, the less they’ll use their brains. China has developed MBA programs to teach these soft skills, encouraging employees to think for themselves (ironic in a country equally concerned about censoring these networks). Xiang Bing, dean of the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, talks about the hard-work ethic of the Chinese and their excellent technology, but also points out the challenge of further developing their soft skills.
Are people sitting inside their four walls, connected to this giant grid but not getting outside to meet real people? Yes, but they are also meeting others from far away neighbourhoods that they will never visit, and they can read blogs by people with radically different political views. All of this may raise their blood pressure, but it surely develops mutual understanding. These online journies and conversations are teaching people more about social interaction and how to argue a point.
Up until now, fake personas and fake names have been used by many online people; anonymity means not having to own up to your own words, one of the biggest contributors to the grammatically challenged rudeness on comment sections of blogs. I am still waiting for the business version of YouTube, with real names only, so we can do without the juveniles. And can we get some grown up brand names while we are at it? Saying Twitter, Dig this or Bebo makes me laugh.
Social networking is a great journey, but do keep your real life. My sons have assigned me a “technology hour” when I’m at home so that I don’t bury myself in blogs. It seems they understand this technology thing better than I do.
Jacoline Loewen is an expert at raising capital. Her latest book, Money Magnet: How to Attract Investors to Your Business (Wiley) has just been published.
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