So here’s a preview of where my brain is in terms of SocialSphere. As we’re working with our clients to position their organizations for success with today’s Web 2.0 and tomorrow’s Web n.0 technologies, we’re looking at a number of different aspects of their online presence and business needs. One way to break things down to simple matters is to think in terms of the “three Cs of social media:”content, community and conversation.
You have to have all three of these in place in order to truly succeed with social media. I think it’s also very interesting to see how these three spheres align, and where they don’t. This is simplistic and a first stab at something we’ll be discussing more early next month as we plan out 2009 as we all try to visualize what a “social sphere” really looks like (and how many there are). Without giving away much more, I will say that good things are definitely coming from SocialSphere in the coming year!
I’d love your thoughts. I’ve also been playing with “spheres of influence” and other ideas…
2 Comments Received
December 22nd, 2008 @10:35 am
Todd:
Nice post. I’m particularly interested in the interplay between Community and Conversations.
* Is there a time when community engagement *doesn’t* involve conversations? Only thing that comes to mind is community hosts needing to jump into conversations less and less over time as their communities become more self-sustaining. There is, of course, monitoring what your community (or stakeholders/potential customers) are saying about you/your organization without actually engaging directly. That’s usually part of what social media folks like to call “listening campaigns”
If you agree, does this impact how you might redraw your spheres in the next go-around?
Bryan Person | @BryanPerson
LiveWorld
December 23rd, 2008 @3:48 am
Bryan, as always, great input! I guess I was looking at Community not in terms of engagement, but facilitation–or, in a more detached sense, as a group of people with similar interests. Sure, you need Conversations to keep that community involved and engaged–even if you're not engaged in those conversations themselves–but I'm not a purist: I think there CAN be "nascent" communities that exist but aren't active. The Community sphere, in this sense then, is about putting the mechanisms in place where conversation can happen. It involves bringing people together (encouraging them to join the community).
Content, then, is the catalyst for conversations. And the conversations, then, are the glue that keep the community together and make it active. Does this address your question? I really appreciate that you're forcing me to think this through. I think this paradigm holds…
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