When people discuss all this "social stuff" it sounds like a different language to a lot of other people. The virtual world has a language all of its own. Learning a new language takes time, practice and understanding. Business leaders don't typically have a lot of extra time to practice and understand a new language. Yet understanding a language is critical to learning "how to" do business in different parts of the world.
The virtual world has created a new language that seems foreign to many. NetLingo has thousands of definitions that explain the online world of business, technology, and communication including the largest collection of Internet acronyms and text messaging shorthand ;-). Everyday new words are added to the "social landscape" to describe advancing technology, human interaction, market movements, business practices and economic models. Whether as an individual or a business not understanding the language and more importantly "how and when to use the related meanings" can be the difference between success and failure.
Is Language The Only Barrier to Results?
There are hundreds if not thousands of
business and social niches. Each niche in of itself has its own
language which describes the nuances of the niche, its use of
technology, buzz words for marketing, product or service names,
business practices and customer segmentation descriptions. Learning
institutes create entire curriculum centric to teaching the nuances of
business niches and the different meanings to the business language
used within those niches.
Understanding the language is step one in any business. Learning what it means and "how to use the related tools and techniques" is step two. Step three is having the qualified resources to execute towards the achievement of a result. Thus as businesses of every size representing every niche gets drawn into all this "social stuff" the four things they need to have in place include:
- People that understand the language
- People who understands "how to"
- Qualified resources who can execute towards a result
- Measures to constantly improve 1,2 &3
Where are These Resources?
If you haven't noticed the "job boards" are filled with companies looking for anyone and everyone having anything to do with all this "social stuff". The problem is that those looking to hire "social experts", regardless of the discipline, don't understand the related issues outlined in 1 -4 to begin with. The end result is that businesses are venerable to making the wrong decision as to which people to either hire or which internal resources should be used to manage all this "social stuff".
Leveraging all this "social stuff" for business purposes involves a lot more than just the technology or blogging. It requires a "systemic understanding" of how everything fits together for your specific aim. Finding resources with a comprehensive understanding is a difficult task given that so many call themselves experts at something. Public Relations matter, Marketing matters, Technology matters but applying "social stuff" to just one "silo" may in fact hurt the other silos. Don't believe it? Look at the mess Comcast has gotten itself into.
Just ask yourself how many so called experts are actually producing the kind of results you need?
Not having the right resources can cost you time, reputation and expenses with no return. Choose wisely.
What say you?