Bagels, recessions and social networking

Just as Lord Voldemort is euphemistically referred to as “He Who Must Not Be Named”, so the same treatment is applied to the word “recession.” The “R” word is, quite frankly, a dirty word. It strikes such fear into the heart of business, that companies would much rather use another word in its stead. Here are a few:

Downturn.

Slump.

Bottom out.

Realignment.

Bagel.

(Bagel is my personal favourite, it’s what Josh Lyman from the US show The West Wing insists on describing it.)

Of course it doesn’t matter what you call it. You can call a spade a “digging facilitation device”, but everyone knows it’s a spade so why pretend otherwise? Instead of wasting time thinking of names to call a recession, time should be spent on the most important question; how do you get out of one?

In my days working at an advertising agency, the answer of course lay in spending money on advertising. But convincing clients to part their money in hard times was another matter. It all came down to this key question. Should companies spend more or less on advertising in a recession?

For years companies who advertise have debated the same point. And, as you’d expect from a long-running debate, there is actually no right answer. Some will point out that in a recession it’s actually more important than ever that you advertise; that advertising will provide the sales the company needs to stay afloat. Others believe it’s better to batten down the hatches and save all the money you can, that advertising is not a crucial operating cost, just something you do when you can afford to. The question polarizes; there just doesn’t seem to be a definitive, argument-killing answer.

And so, for the first time, the same questions are being asked of the closed business social network. How could a company spend money on technology when they’re struggling to break even, to keep staff in work, survive even? That’s a very good question and fortunately, there does seem to be evidence of a definitive answer emerging.

First there was the survey by Gartner which said that firms were missing out on the huge benefits that social networks could create. Researcher Jeffrey Mann said that, "businesses which harness how employees use these sites stand to increase savings, productivity and profits.” And he gives real examples of savings too. Simply by encouraging staff to use social networking sites as recruitment tools, PR company Edelman cut their costs by 1% (which doesn’t sound huge but put in the context of a global company with costs in the high telephone numbers, this is not to be sniffed at).

More recently Peter Bradwell, a researcher at Demos has said that using social networking sites in the workplace could help businesses get through the financial crisis and that instead of being an “add-on” social networking was actually really important in several ways, not least through improving the relationship between employees and the organization.

So there you have it. A definitive answer is emerging. But with every insightful answer, it brings us on to another question.

Could social networking be the death of the bagel?


See more here:
http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=conWebDoc.22949
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7501073.stm

Social networking? Oh grow up.

Let’s start with a quick exercise.

If I say a well-known phrase I want you to think of the first thing that springs to mind. Ready?

Social networks.

Now, what came to mind?

I imagine a lot of you were suddenly presented with the disarming image of spotty youths furiously typing away, openly sharing their deepest personal insecurities with one another, using spurious “text speak”, the only language apart from Welsh to be completely devoid of vowels...a different language, indeed a different world, to a lot of us here in the business world. Social networking is just something those “youngsters” do isn’t it?

I know that’s the view I had a few years ago, whilst creating highly targeted, relevant, beautifully creative pieces of mailed communication (which my girlfriend called junk mail) for a large communications agency.

However, a few years on and I am truly enlightened. I now work at Kinship Networking, an agency specialising in building social networks. And we think social networking has grown up.

And here’s why.

An increasing share of our business now comes from organisations seeking to create closed business networks, with the aim of either making their workforce more effective (for example we’ve built a network for a global advertising agency with the aim of enabling their staff to share business problems and post solutions) or seeking to bypass cumbersome and bureaucratic process. Indeed, Harvard Business School estimates that over 70 percent of a business´s work is carried out through its offline social networks (e.g. chats round the water cooler) rather than via official process. An online social network “turbo-charges” these networks.

Closed business networks can also do an extremely effective job of uniting disparate workforces (for example, travelling salesmen or home workers), enabling staff from newly merged companies to connect with one another, or allowing companies to “go virtual”, creating cost-savings that could be the difference between going bust and staying afloat. Imagine a global company which holds an annual event for all of its staff members, the purpose being to connect everyone. Imagine the cost - it would be in the tens if not hundreds of thousands. A social network could be introduced in its stead for a fraction of the price.

It was debated in last night’s Convergence Conversation about the impact of the recession on the fortunes of technology companies. Yes, we’re headed for very tough times. Yes, the high street will probably never be the same again. But I am a glass half full kind of a guy.

Consumer-facing networks such as facebook will thrive as people stay in the home, saving those pennies. We will see more imaginative consumer-facing networks specialising in all manner of weird and wonderful things, using the concept of the “network” in new and exciting ways.

But it’s the impact that social networks can have upon businesses that I am most interested in. I am confident we will see businesses using social networks in innovative ways, allowing that business to be more innovative as a result. We will see the companies behind social networking technologies driving the phenomenon in new directions and along previously undiscovered avenues.

I am not saying the next couple of years will be easy, nope not at all. We will be forced to innovate or we will perish. Max Lerner once said that the turning point in the process of growing up is when you discover the core of strength within you that survives all hurt. Has social networking discovered that strength?