Why didn’t I know about this?!

I’ve been trying to figure out a way to move my company away from hosting our email, website and file server. You think it would be easy given all the hype around cloud computing. But guess what, it isn’t. After doing some research, Google, Microsoft and hosting companies such as Rackspace, still haven’t figured out how to 1) explain it simply, 2) market it with any confidence and 3) provide a price module that makes sense for a small business.

Personally I use Gmail and Google Apps plus DropBox, Basecamp and HotGloo which are very cheap if not free in most cases. These work fine at an individual or small group level, but at a company level it gets complicated.

There a huge opportunity here, but no one seems to be able hit the right balance. Google is coming closer, but still doesn’t get small businesses.

Why does enterprise software always have to be such a mess?

I’ve been doing a lot of research and analysis of social media when I finally realized that “social media” is simply another iteration or evolution of the web. The ability to connect, share, contribute and collaborate are the things we been waiting for but only now realized because of faster and better hardware, software and connections. Social media isn’t a different channel or thing. If you are not convinced look at these numbers.

Synergitunity

n 1: A holistic, cross functional approach that leverages brand equity to actualize result and shift the paradigm to an integrated, aspirational mindset.

2: Nonsense

I’m watching a documentary about Alan Sheppard launching into space. Who cares about your dumb iPhone (I understand the irony of this as I write this on an iPhone). Why can’t you send a man to Mars? FU!

Lately I’ve been trying to get a better grasp on the social media vortex of hyper-nonsense. I’m not to sure if this really helps anyone understand social media or what their strategy might be, but I can say with all confidence that it’s not one of these. Here’s my stab at trying to organize what essentially is the human condition online.

First, I broke down the social media landscape by core activities:

• Connect – Connecting to another person
• Share – Sharing any form of content (image, video, audio, text, code, etc…) with another person
• Comment – Posting a comment (opinion, review, recommendation, flame…) about any form of content
• Publish – Publishing any form of original content with the intend to share and allow others to comment
• Contribute – Contributing to any form of content originally created by another person
• Collaborate –  Collaborating with multiple individuals to create any form of original content
• Play – Incorporates all of the above in the pursuit of entertainment

Next, I categorized the different vehicles of social media:

• Social Networks (Facebook, Bebo, My Space,…)
• Social Sharing (Digg, StumbleUpon, Flickr,…)
• Reviews & Opinions (eOpinions, Amazon, Yelp,…)
• Blogs (WordPress, Blogger, Moveable Type,…)
• Forums & Discussion Boards (Yahoo Answers/Messages, Answer.com,…)
• Social Knowledge (Wikipedia, Squidoo,…)
• Multi-player games (Farmville, Mafia War, World of Warcraft,…)

Finally, I group the social media categories and activities:

• Connect > Social Networks
• Share > Social Sharing
• Comment > Review & Opinions
• Publish > Blogs
• Contribute > Forums & Discussion Boards
• Collaborate >  Social Knowledge
• Play > Multi-player Games

Obviously there is not a one to one relationship between the social media activity and form. Under social networks, Facebook contains all seven activities but it’s primary activity or “what it’s know for” is connecting people. It’s really more of a continuum between the activities where Connecting is at the lowest-level of participation by the user and Playing is at the highest.

The struggle for most companies is that increasing level of participation goes completely against the prevailing corporate culture of risk aversion. The primary concern usually revolves around an employee or customer saying something negative about the company so the best course of action is to stay out of the conversation. Sounds reasonable except that by staying out of the conversation you are actually increasing, not decreasing, your risk. Just search “Dell Hell” or “AT&T Fail” and you will see what happens to those companies who are not participating, or even listening, to the conversation.

I’m so on board with this women. The creepy “Think positive or be punished” campaign has swept throughout the corporate America. Rather than do work, let’s sit around and think positively about this opportunity (never say “problem” or you will become the problem).

From Jakob Nielsen,

“Users don’t just confuse search fields; many less-techy users don’t understand the differences between many other common features:

• Operating-system windows vs. browser windows
• A window vs. an application,
• Icons vs. applications,
• Browser commands vs. native commands in a Web-based app
• Local vs. remote infoDifferent passwords and log-in options (users often log in to other websites as if they were logging in to their email)”

I can attest to all points after watching my mom, dad and non-tech friends use a computer. For my parents, I believe it’s because they never form a functioning concept around “the computer”. I’ve tried to explain directories vs. folders vs. files a 100 times to my dad. It never translated into a working concept in his brain. So I stopped explaining and now use Logmein to take control and get his brain out of the equation.

Not understanding the “mental model” (as Nielsen puts it) or “conceptual aptitude” (as I just now put it) of the user is the numero uno mistake of web design.

I hate agreeing with Jakob Nielsen, but I will admit he right most of the time. I just wish he could frame his idea better than the typical “84 Rules You Should Follow”.

Why is social media always broken out into it’s only special entity? When I look at Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin I only see a piece of software that facilitates a specific set of functions (communication), just like any other piece of software (e.g. Email, text messaging, instant messaging, etc.). I guess the problem I have is that clients and people not familiar with software development want to treat social media as something different from a web site or application. And by treating it as something different, I find that expectations, understand and rationale often gets thrown out the window.

I will agreed that social media platforms are unique in that they have made it easier to connect and communication more easily. But isn’t that what the telephone did too? So why are we approaching differently in terms of strategy, design and development?