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5 Things to Know to Get Customers to Your Online Community...and Keep Them There Download

Passing the Mic: How ampifying the voice of the consumer can add value to your organization Download

KimKobza's Blog: Kim Patrick Kobza

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Engagement: More than Social Networks

Fair to say that there is a really big thing happening in the world - the biggest, most important social trend of our lifetimes. For the first time we are starting to understand that by listening, by including others in our consideration, organizations can recognize value. This is true for virtually every organization in every industry in the world. By listening to customers, partners, employees and citizens, we can make better, more inclusive decisions, design better products and solutions, build deeper relationships with stakeholders and foster a deeper understanding of the choices that we make.

Why now? We don’t really think of good things when we think about involving many people in our business processes. We generally think about added complexity, longer process, and emotional difficult interpersonal exchanges. It is tough for most of us to believe that the engagement by many, in all parts of our lives, and businesses, can actually lead to better results. We are educated to believe that only through expert specialization can we maximize results.

Technology has changed the score. People have changed the score. Society has changed the score. Technology has lessened the cost of participation so that we can share individual knowledge constructively. As James Surowiecki so correctly points out in the wisdom of crowds, more informed input from a diverse group of people increases the possible solutions to almost any problem or decisions. And the decrease in cost of participation also means that each one of us has a heightened expectation that the organizations that are important in our lives will listen.

So in the next phase of the Web, the big picture opportunity is not simply building relationships through the portal based social networks - the myspaces, You Tubes, and facebooks. The broader opportunity - for the world - is to improve every process and every organization by listening and engagement.

Posted: 4/18/2008 1:12:53 PM Total Comments: 0

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