Chris Brogan, who I've met once or twice thanks to the active social media network in Boston, always has interesting thoughts on how and where this stuff applies. Today he has an article that steps away from the minutia and looks forward, When This All Gets Cool
Social media are a bunch of tools. They let us see things a bit differently. They empowered new ways of working together. But they’re just the tools. When this all gets cool is when we start really turning this stuff on our own passion projects, on our bigger goals, on what COULD happen.
Software and tools are fun to play with and try out. Check out the workshop of any woodworker or the scrap bin of an avid seamstress. And eventually they decide on the best ways to use the tools at hand to make something.
It's the same with software (social or not). You try out a new package, a new website, a new plug-in. With social software, you try it with your friends - and many people hear about it from their friends and gape or scoff, depending on their own interests. But after the trial period comes the point of really USING this stuff in real life. Does it make sense for me? Does it make some aspect of my life easier (not just different) and more manageable? Does it create some new capability or capacity that never existed before? Does it create a secondary problem that is likely to reduce its value? Even better: does it eliminate or significantly reduce some problem ("pain point")?
Get out there and DO something!
[Photo: "pantograph pattern scraps from Carter Latin" by Nick Sherman]