Numero Deux (The second post)

This week I read pages 1 to 13 of "The social economy:unlocking value and productivity through social technologies – McKinsey GlobalInstitute, 2012."

In a nutshell it’s a report trying to quantify the value that social technologies can add to a business.  From the report there are two main areas that I think where social technologies add value; collaboration and engagement.

Collaboration: Social technologies not only allow collaboration internally but can also include external collaboration. E.g. A wiki that is updated and used by internal staff. A competition run on Facebook to decide what new ice cream flavour to have next. The reason why these tools work is because of the ease and speed provided by the internet.

Engagement: Again both externally and internally engaging stakeholders. E.g. both previous examples could also be considered engaging. The internet is once again the facilitator for these technologies.

Collaboration and engagement are not new ideas, and the internet itself is not relatively new. But I think that the reason why social technologies are really taking off now is the mainstream acceptance of using the internet. There is no longer a stigma associated with being internet savvy au contraire you are considered something of a luddite if you are not on Facebook spamming memes or Twittering away your every thought.

Now I love a good meme just like anyone out there but there are a myriad of web 2.0 tools that can assist in personal productivity. However much like the home gym you might have tucked away at home, if you don’t learn about it and actually use it you won’t get the best benefits out the new tools. So the trick is to find something that you will actually use.

Dropbox - It simply allows you to upload and access your files from anywhere that has internet access. While there are many tools similar to this one such as Google Drive, Microsoft Skydrive etc. They all work on the same principal. I am old enough to remember carrying floppy disks around, so this type of tool is a godsend. And I love the auto syncing feature. When I was recently in the USA my memory card on my phone got corrupted (we were in Vegas it was close to 50c and I had GPS, 4g and wifi hot spot going) I thought I had lost the photos that I had taken on the phone but when I got home I checked my dropbox folder and there were my photos! While I do still carry a usb stick with me more out of habit and because im old school, with Dropbox I know I have my important documents there and can access them pretty much anytime I want from just about anywhere I go.

RSS – This tool alerts you to new content from your favourite websites (as long as they have RSS set up). I have a daily ritual, like most people I’m guessing, where I will hit about 5-10 websites when I wake up in the morning. With this tool I really only have to see the feed to see if there is anything worth reading and it also keeps me up to date during the day. It more or less works like the news ticker at the bottom of the morning shows. There are a few other tools that take this type utility to another level such as flipboard, stumbleupon, currents, where the GUI and presentation is slicker but ultimately they all do a similar type of job, a personal news ticker.

There are many more tools out there and I only touched the surface, the important part is that, while social technologies go beyond just Facebook and Twitter, you need to find the ones that will fit with your lifestyle. One thing I took away from the report was how heavily underdeveloped social technologies are and I can’t wait to see what different tools are developed in the future.

References:

Brettman1 (n.d.). Don't Worry, We'll Give You a Headstart [Image]. Retrieved August 11, 2013, from http://cheezburger.com/7711855360
McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The social economy: Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies [Research Report]. Retrieved August 10, 2013, from http://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/dotcom/Insights%20and%20pubs/MGI/Research/Technology%20and%20Innovation/The%20social%20economy/MGI_The_social_economy_Full_report.ashx
mrg5_tv (2010). RSS MRG5.COM [Image]. Retrieved August 11, 2013, from http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4116/4922597755_3459bf3100_o_d.png
SunPharma. (2008). Teamwork [Image]. Retrieved August 11, 2013, from http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5325/7045056109_585ebfe60c_o_d.jpg
Tiengo, E. (2012). Dropbox - sharebox [Image]. Retrieved August 11, 2013, from http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8154/7698511058_d7bf7700b8_o_d.jpg