How will social media change business?

Quick bullets cause I have to fly, but the questions are so good.

How will social networks and other new communications tools change the way businesses operate?
Collapse distance and time
Create more open environment
Just look at the path to validating the Big Bang theory or even the chronology of making the atom bomb. Imagine the potentially different outcomes if those generations had the capability to share information as we do today. “Accelerated speed to change”
However, if same 20th century structures and parameters don’t change, meaning legal, financial, and the current mood of “you are wrong I am right” as fostered by political parties and most of mainstream media, social media will not reach its true potential and society will not reap all of the benefits social media has to offer.

How will they change our careers?
Hell, everyone is their own profit and loss center. How will companies deal with personal brands that outstrip the company, that’s an issue, who actually owns the information gathered when working for a company will be a battle ground in the coming years.
If a person is able to develop a personal brand while also being paid by a company and decides to cash in on the brand, should the company have an equity stake in that personal brand? Ouch that’s a tough one.

Is there one big name in Web 2.0 that will seem like an ‘08 fad three years from now? Are there two? Why?

I believe the lifecycle of products/services will be shorter, so fads will be more frequent, but interestingly enough, if people put the time into relationships, which is a critical component of social media when done right, then they will stand the test of time.

Looking at it another way, is there something that seems obvious today that is exaggerated, or false?

Funny, because it is the reverse of the previous question. Maybe the entire concept of relationships is a fad or false. Relationships take time and we as a society may not have the patience to give to true relationships, business, personal, or to our respective communities. As a result, this whole thing can be a fad. Let me underscore, I don’t believe this will happen, but I’d be naïve if I didn’t put it out here as a possible.
My personal view is that social media is more a movement than a market. The human spirit wants to make connections. Whether you believe Albert-Laszlo Barabasi in the book Linked or the power of the Berlin Wall being destroyed by people that demanded to be together, people want freedom and the most basic freedom is to communicate.

What will BusinessWeek be up to in three years?
Facilitating conversations, ensuring accurate information, educating those who the formal education system has failed, hmm that last one is kind of interesting.

If you blog now, will you be doing it in 2011? How will it be different?
Are you kidding, I’ve been blogging since 1995, only it wasn’t called a blog. It might be more mobile and more multimedia with greater access to background information or even purchasing capabilities.

Businesses are no longer held down by the more "traditional" PR methods of releasing company info - via their PR firm + ad agency, they now can open up a dialogue with the consumer directly, using that to adapt to trends that older forms of campaign analytics would have either never picked up on, or would have taken too long.
It's the difference between signal vs. noise.
The old ways of PR - One way conversation
Social media enables the chance to respond.

A good example is the CEO of Zappos, he's on twitter and chats quite frequently. Another would be comcast, they have a customer service rep on there, and getting ahold of him/her is typically faster than calling!

The beauty of social media is it also gives us the chance for more spontaneous "group" activities... for example SxDS (South By Deep South), which has just come together over the course of a few days yet thanks to social media and blogs, is spreading across the internet 10x faster than a traditional PR would.

I don't know if I will still be blogging in 2011, but if I am, the only thing I can hope for is that my grammar as well as my spelling has improved....
~Brent

What seems obvious now? The tools are only a means to an end, not the end in itself.
I'm noticing a new sobriety in the chatter about social media - the conversation is moving from what the technologies make possible, to which strategies and tools are most useful for the specific business.
More specifically ... I'm in the asosciation sector. I attend an annual conference on the use of technology in asociation work. The last 2 years, most speakers were breathless evangelists for social media. The not-so-implicit message was, adopt it all or die. This year's conference (last week in Orlando) was filled with comments like "the circkets are chirping ... no rose-colored glasses ... don't try to do too much too fast ... measure twice, cut once."
These are artifacts of experiments that have not yet produced the results that were touted, if not promised. Disillusionment has not YET set in, but caution has. The most useful approach I've seen yet comes from Charlene Yi and Josh Bernoff from Forrester: get the relationships and business objectives nailed first, and only THEN worry about the technology.

Stephen,
Saw your post on Twitter and wanted to reply to the questions you posted.

How will social networks and other new communications tools change the way businesses operate?

Web 2.0 already has changed the way that businesses operate today. If you look at the publishing industry, the number of print publications is significantly decreasing. The online business model for publishing seems to be taking over. What does that mean for those who want to communicate their message? They have to find alternative venues to develop relationships and engage in conversation. That’s where social media has come in. Most of my clients are connecting on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn. They are connecting to peers, customers, partners and employees to disseminate their message and engage in meaningful conversation.

How will it change our careers?

As a PR professional, I must identify innovative ways to hold an audience’s attention. More often I’m asked about YouTube videos and tasked with coming up with the 2-3 min. video snippets to highlight a technology in an entertaining fashion. I still have traditional PR responsibilities but I now need to integrate entertainment into my job. That’s the fun part. I can’t wait to see what will happen by 2011.

Shany
http://twitter.com/sseawright

I would suggest that you keep in mind the difference between social media and social networks. For example, a blog is social media...facebook is a social network.

..."How will social networks and other new communications tools change the way businesses operate?"

Businesses are using these tools to become more human. Brand is less important, the idea of a CEO blog or 'Chief Blogger' falls away to widespread employee blogging.

Edelman came about with a report recently that said employee blogs are 5 times more credible than CEO blogs. People trust people, they don't trust CEO's, brands or institutions.

I don't see Digg long term, but that might just be me.

Chris Baggott
CEO/Co-founder
Compendium Blogware
www.compendiumblogware.com

How will social networks and other new communications tools change the way businesses operate?

Businesses will be allowed to (not forced to) collaborate with their customers for the benefit of both parties - better, more relevant products and less waste. Listening to brand conversations will be a business best practice (but through private online communities instead of public social networks, which today brands really just use as another lead gen or ad channel).

How will they change our careers?

The days of static careers are over - the new economy (for the winners) is about changing how you work almost daily, enabled by the cauldron of conversation-fueled innovation online.

Is there one big name in Web 2.0 that will seem like an ‘08 fad three years from now? Are there two? Why?

MySpace (for starters) - because the social part of SN will mean moving across a varied online, mobile, physical landscape and MySpace won't really support that. Mobile social is already growing more popular with teens, tweens and young adults and that's not really MySpace's domain.

Looking at it another way, is there something that seems obvious today that is exaggerated, or false?

I don't really think people want more friends - its exhausting. What they really want is stronger ties to the ones they have. We've exaggerated the importance of organized social networks, and the future will be about people moving in and out of a social fabric they weave themselves and manage, not some monolithic social network.

What will BusinessWeek be up to in three years?

It will still be in print in three years, but, if they're smart, they'll create a stronger online/offline synergy (perhaps the BW.com is the TV channel, per se, and print is the "land of much-anticipated, much-hyped features"). Ten years from now? Well, being around then isn't so certain.

If you blog now, will you be doing it in 2011? How will it be different?

I've already turned my blog into a conduit for micro-blogs off Twitter. In 2011, I'd suspect that I'd continue to do that (or something like it) but by 2011 I'm hoping I have more time to run more self-produced (through our company) video and audio segments as engagement in these forms of communications grows.