The Twitterati Mean Business
I have something to confess: I am not much of a Twitterer @ascohen. Although I like to blog, and I have become relentless on Facebook, powered by the sagging belt syndrome of carrying an iPhone and a Blackberry that have allowed me to become an ambidextrous Web 2.0er, alas, I have not yet fully jumped to the "Jitter of Twitter."
But I have seen it, enviously, in action. Our CTO, Pamasaree Warrior is one of the most Tweeted Cisco figures (over 4500 followers) http://twitter.com/Padmasree, with Doug Gourlay and the "Hole in the Data Center" gang following rapidly on her heels http://twitter.com/CiscoDC. At our Collaboration Launch in September, I observed about 80 of the world’s leading analysts Tweeting away for days, turbocharged by Cisco presentations on our strategy and a ready supply of coffee and caffeinated soda.
The Twitter and Facebook phenomena both yield some interesting possibilities and risks for business. To start with, these two digital communities provide a constant and rich presence engine for individuals. Not only do people know where you are and if you are available—brandishing the “two towers†of mobility and unified communications, location and presence – they actually know your mood or even what you had for breakfast in Barcelona, Bahia or Brooklyn.
In my own (tongue-in-cheek) way, I have asked our IT department, repeatedly, for an approach to federated, cross-company presence based on the album titles that the late Miles Davis created or appeared on. The jazz giant, I believe, is much better suited to explaining my status and mood than I am. To simplify the request, I even narrowed it down to the following 10 settings:
• Chasin the Bird
• Come into the Cool
• Kinda Blue
• In a Silent Way
• Big Fun
• Back on the Block
• No Time for Poetry
• Tea Time
• Tourist Season
• With the Modern Jazz Quartet
Our friend David Kirkpatrick of Fortune is writing a book on this on this phenomena called The Facebook Effect. In fact, you can follow his progress (and even seen a copy of his publishing contract, on Facebook itself —after you sign up instantly to be a fan.
Of course, Twitter and Facebook are worlds coming together rapidly over the next 1-2 years and we all better pay attention to what it means for our work. From a business perspective, the interesting blend of personal and business falls into a gray DMZ in the social networking sphere. While it is interesting for my friends to see the latest iPhone pix of my weekend ride up Mines Road in Livermore, does it make sense to blend it with my latest rant on the competitive status of the visual networking market?
When I got out of college, my father took me to Brooks Brothers in New York and bought me a decent Harris Tweed sport coat. The sales woman at the store said: “if you want to play on the team, you have to wear the right uniform.â€
Yet technology and work styles – in addition to the demise of formal business attire in many company cultures – have changed much of this. Work is more of an activity than a place and the Internet and mobile communications have fused the idea of the office, home or on the move.
Indeed, in my own profession of marketing, traditional communications and marketing functions at most corporations were designed to facilitate a carefully scripted broadcast of information and positions from a company to its customers and partners as well as to the press, analysts, and even competitors that follow it. Increasingly, as our director of new media Jeannette Gibson noted to the Financial Times a few weeks ago, we are shifting to two-way or infinite-way conversations. Once you have started Twittering and social networking with your market, how are you going to keep them on the press release farm?
There is a profound shift in the communications and collaboration world driven by the immediacy of Web 2.0 approaches infusing our working world. At the end of the day, Social Networking and Collaboration technologies built on IT Virtualization provide many opportunities for companies: but the one that matters most is speed!
So even the most ardent writer/blogger must understand resistance is futile. Starting later this week, I will begin Tweeting from the NBA All-Star Weekend in Phoenix, not about the famous vertical sights but the infusion of technology in the game. You can follow me on Twitter @ascohen.
Posted by Alan Cohen at 09:21AM PST
Ryan Gossen Feb 9, 2009
New categories get introduced as playthings or fads, and only find true utility when they are well established. If I were to characterize this with a Miles Davis album, it would be Birth of The Cool.