What about the rest of them?

A lot of folks took my blog about social media to be some sort of Luddite inspired rant about how terrible the web is. That’s not what I was doing at all. It was borne out of the inspiration of the tons of folks I’ve met who simply don’t understand why any of us put ourselves out on the web.

Some of my colleagues will say, “well forget them. They’ll just fall behind.” But what we’re failing to realize is these folks represent the majority of the folks in the workplace and industry.

Will the next generation of sites reach people who simply don’t “understand all of that social networking stuff?” People fail to understand why Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or even blogs apply to their lives. The investment of time required on most of these sites to get some sort of ROI isn’t something most folks have the time to do, much less are willing to do.

So how do you get past that, if you’re developed the next-gen killer social web application? I have some ideas..but the real point I’ve been making — and that’s been reinforced via some discussions I’ve had over the past few days — is understanding that general audiences aren’t always reached in the first wave.

The question I get sometimes is: “What if I’m not interested in meeting new people?”
The answer I give is: Think of it another way. If you’ve found yourself frustrated in your job, hitting a wall or looking for new ways to invigorate your role within an institution, social networking sites can be a great way to do this. At the same time, to really gain a benefit from them, you need to spend time with them. If you’re a person that’s lived a lot of places and has contacts from all over, social media sites can be a fantastic way to “keep in touch” with everyone in one place.
The best part is, if you try them out and find out you’re not a fan, you can always delete your
profiles at any time

If you invoke the 90-9-1 rule, the real question is, how to capitalize on those lurkers who don’t participate, but consume the information?

In higher ed, how can you convert more of these causal viewers into converts towards whatever you’re trying to get them to buy into? Lots of folks out there are already using tools that do this or have talked about it. But since everyone isn’t coming to find us to hear what we have to say, the evangelizing must continue.

Spreading the good news of the web…is a full-time job.

Be Sociable, Share!