There are apparently those who do not see social media software as business software at all, although it is apparent that it is well on the way to being a very large business software category, indeed. There have been a number of dueling posts (here's a con, here's a pro) about this subject recently, with entrenched old-line business people usually on the negative side of the divide and younger business people usually on the positive side. 
We also did a column recently about a study that found that 74% of those interviewed were confused about Web interactivity apps, even though 44% of those interviewed felt that these apps were very important. That study underlines the polarization of feelings on the matter, as do the two Small Business Trends columns noted in the opening paragraph.
We are certainly not going to settle this debate here, but it is my feeling that there should not really be a debate. These new social media tools are just that: tools. A blunt refusal to think about putting them in your toolbox seems very foolhardy to me. If you have a client that uses Google Talk, and would like to contact you that way, wouldn't it be intelligent to get a Google account and an IM client for it?
There are a lot of similar situations. I see people every day taking advantage of services like Twitter to keep their business associates informed of their activities. While this can indeed be very handy, it pales in comparison to using social media tools for business networking of all kinds. Even if you don't think that the tools are useful for marketing (and a lot of folks say that they are), there is almost no argument available for using Web interactivity apps for non-marketing business uses.
Social media, in a very real way, is becoming business media.
Social media is a magnet for hype because it embodies the specifically Western desire to create democracy everywhere. Blogs, wikis, Twitter, and other "flattening" tools transfer power from IT to users, giving social media practitioners the special fervor of those fighting for their own version of peace, justice, and all-around goodness.
The democratization of power, whether in society or inside an organization, brings strong passions; social media advocacy is no exception.
Some people think that all of a sudden, business leaders (Advertisers) will forget everything they know, accept that structures can and will be subverted but that it will all be OK because people will naturally want to collaborate to get things done. This is a fundamentally incorrect assumption.
Posted by: TheMobiBlog | May 25, 2008 5:07 PM | Permalink to Comment