Want to start up in social media? A primer –

Here is an excellent primer of the ten most common stages that businesses experience as they travel the road to full social media integration (list and link below)

Stage 1: Observe and Report

Image via Wikipedia

Stage 2: Setting the Stage + Dress Rehearsal
Stage 3: Socializing Media
Stage 4: Finding a Voice and a Sense of Purpose
Stage 5: Turning Words Into Actions
Stage 6: Humanizing the Brand and Defining the Experience
Stage 7: Community
Stage 8: Social Darwinism
Stage 9: The Socialization of Business Processes
Stage 10: Business Performance Metric

Full article available at http://mashable.com/2010/01/11/social-media-integration/

Trend Watching: 2010 Trend Briefing

2010 Trend Briefing, from trendwatching.com.

Thought you might like it:

1. BUSINESS AS UNUSUAL | Forget the recession: the societal changes that will dominate 2010 were set in motion way before we temporarily stared into the abyss.

2. URBANY | Urban culture is the culture. Extreme urbanization, in 2010, 2011, 2012 and far beyond will lead to more sophisticated and demanding consumers around the world.

3. REAL-TIME REVIEWS | Whatever it is you’re selling or launching in 2010, it will be reviewed ‘en masse’, live, 24/7.

4. (F)LUXURY | Closely tied to what constitutes status, which itself is becoming more fragmented, luxury will be whatever consumers want it to be over the next 12 months.

5. MASS MINGLING | Online lifestyles are fueling ‘real world’ meet-ups like there’s no tomorrow, shattering all predictions about a desk-bound, virtual, isolated future.

6. ECO-EASY | To really reach some meaningful sustainability goals in 2010, corporates and governments will have to forcefully make it ‘easy’ for consumers to be more green, by restricting the alternatives.

7. TRACKING & ALERTING | Tracking and alerting are the new search, and 2010 will see countless new INFOLUST services that will help consumers expand their web of control.

8. EMBEDDED GENEROSITY | Next year, generosity as a trend will adapt to the zeitgeist, leading to more pragmatic and collaborative donation services for consumers.

9. PROFILE MYNING | With hundreds of millions of consumers now nurturing some sort of online profile, 2010 will be a good year to help them make the most of it (financially), from intention-based models to digital afterlife services.

10. MATURIALISM | 2010 will be even more opinionated, risque, outspoken, if not ‘raw’ than 2009; you can thank the anything-goes online world for that. Will your brand be as daring?

Social Media Changing Lives

Image via CrunchBase

I found a good article on how social media is here to stay at mashable.com, a website dedicated to the latest trends in social media.

For those of you with less time on your hands, due to making alot of toast for guests, a very quick precis:

1) Social media such as Twitter et al  is becoming an increasing source of trusted information.

Image via CrunchBase

2) Is a new avenue to market for business and start ups with little budget – eg Facebook groups

3) Social media has created a new platform for creating and refining new and old friendships.

4) Tweets and status posts create greater opportunity to view personal feeling and “greater transparency to human nature”

5) The ability of the individual to influence the public has increased.

Image by NASchmidt via Flickr

Check out the article, indepth, below:

http://mashable.com/2009/10/16/social-media-changing-lives/

What is Virtualization?

There are alot of enterprise and technology buzz words today.

Image by lodev via Flickr

I dont have a clear idea of what virtualization is, however, I do know it is a hot topic for businesses lately.

I am not enough of a developer to understand the exact and obviously many various benefits that are being touted of virtualization. Ive done some quick web research. For the uninitiated,  and from what I can understand, its a ways and means of making multiple processes run more efficiently off a singular platform, allowing the saving of both software and hardware capital costs etc etc etc

Is this the same as multiple tabs being open in the same browser window, when older browser versions could only open new windows? Is my very basic anecdote relevant?

Latest slant to the marketing virtualization speak is that its green and eco to become virtualized.

If you know about any upcoming events or conferences showcasing virtulization, let me know – would love to find out more.