2. Creating Social Communities 1

True, there are no agreed upon, widely adopted standards at present for establishing deep and meaningful personal profiles. No uniform approaches for enabling like-minded users to connect with one another, or for orchestrating meaningful conversations that can flow seamlessly between text messages, rich media content, links and widgets, run locally, remotely, on a PC, a mobile device, etc.

Similarly, it may be trendy to dismiss Web 2.0 as simply a bubble destined to pop. But the truth is that the Web 2.0 development model has given rise to a wellspring of interesting new information, communication and media services. As platforms emerge to glue these services together, some very interesting contexts will be created that will justify this next phase in the social media revolution.

For example, in the new media realm, CBS is attempting to create an audience-centered network model where the audience defines the boundaries of the network, not some arbitrary URL. Such an approach disrupts what it means to be a broadcaster, while at the same time re-enforces the value of really good, conversational content.

In the business-to-business realm, social media platforms are beginning to profoundly shape the ways companies message, market to, fulfill, empower and support their customers.

Consider the segment known as conversational marketing. Conversations, augment, if not replace, the original advertising model of blasting a message as a way of enforcing brand. In the conversational marketing model, a major part of branding is authenticity, and authenticity requires true engagement - so a recurring and effective approach is a word-of-mouth campaign.

Many companies have done such campaigns, (some good examples include Fosters, Denon, and Boston Acoustics, in the process enabling the lessons learned to be codified down to the proverbial "10 rules" instrumental to a successful campaign. To be clear, this is still nascent as a marketing vehicle, but there are some very positive dynamics to build upon.

What is equally significant is how real communities are forming online around companies and their constituency of customers and partners. What draws them in? Some come to network. Others come to plug in to a trusted information source. Still others come to build their soapbox. But fundamentally, the model bridges the gap between email lists and face-to-face events.