The conversation about social media in our society is shifting significantly. We’re no longer asking questions like, "Will people use social media?" or "Are sites like Facebook and Twitter simply trends that will soon lose steam?" After billions of tweets and 600 million people on Facebook, it's settled: People want to share online. And with Facebook moving toward a $100 billion valuation, there is money to be made.
The emerging conversation is not if we will be connected but is instead, "How can we effectively and productively connect?" Now that we can get constant updates on just about every aspect of our friends' lives, how do we receive that which is relevant?
New paradigms are beginning to emerge as user habits shift toward greater relevancy. The companies that successfully address these changes will have a huge advantage over those that don’t.
1. The Distraction Question
How do we live continually connected without being continually distracted?
A recent survey from social email software provider harmon.ie found that individual employees are burning an average of $10,375 in productivity each year. Why? "Because we don't disconnect from an online chat quickly enough, or we get sidetracked by a bulging email inbox, or we fall into a Facebook hole of photos, updates and messages."
In a recent blog post titled "The Twitter Trap," Bill Keller, the executive editor (for not much longer) of The New York Times, writes about the challenges of staying focused. "The most obvious draw back of social media is that they are aggressive...
