Lessons learned from recent social experiments

I have been on Twitter a while now and I am constantly experimenting, trying to understand how to leverage the platform for good and for evil. (cue scary laughter)…  Okay, maybe not for evil, but I am always interested on the boundaries of where the platform can add true value.

Here are some social experiments that are currently underway, the thinking behind them, lessons learned:

Workwednesday

While you can read more about workwednesday here the simple concept is for the larger Twitter community to come together and share job postings, job tips, and support those who are out of work.  I started the concept a month ago and participation has increased every week.  My hope is that I begin to learn of success stories, where people are finding work, making critical contacts, learning how to better position themselves.  I am confident it will happen.

Twitter is clearly a good platform for engaging groups around positive change.  Charitable fundraising has clearly had some success, even in a poor world-wide economy, efforts that require no monetary investment, just the good will of your fellow Twitter community, should continue to have great potential.  Do you want to do something good and just need to build buzz?  Consider twitter.

Social CRM and Social Support Communities

Is it possible to use Twitter to turn an industry on its head for the greater good?  Well…. yes and no…  I have been experimenting to see how far you can go in this direction, here’s the story.

CRM Next is commonly referred to as Social CRM.  In my opinion, which is well documented, this name is misleading and misrepresents the impact social will have on companies and how it will be best leveraged.  Okay, to battle this misconception I decided to identify the true tools that exist today, Social Support Communities (SSC), and to lobby via my blog and Twitter, for a better definition of the CRM framework, its processes and tools, its pitfalls.

I decided to approach this discussion, initially, as if it were a collective discussion of colleagues, discussing the point logically back and forth.  The discussions began as useful dialog but soon descended into individual debates of “because that is the way it is”.  Along the way people who I respect decided to avoid conversations, debates became nothing more than shouting matches…. All of us, especially me, looking foolish.  However, it’s an experiment, lessons must be learned.

I decided to end this experiment when it began to look and feel more like High School cliques than intelligent debate.  Here is my takeaway, you are not going to change an industry via Twitter.  Certainly you can play a part in change, often a very large part.  However, Twitter does ease the creation of “group think” as it is easier to avoid discussion and debate when you are not looking someone in the face, eye to eye.

Do I believe in the power of Twitter to brand, to drive change, to grow consensus?  Yes, absolutely.  You need to be sensitive to the dynamics at play, probably even more sensitive than you normally are when you are trying to do the same thing internal to your business.

Well, onto my next round of experiments as I push the boundaries to continue learning.  #Workwednesday must continue as it is an important experiment in positive social change.  The Social CRM debate ends as it was a failure.  What’s next?  You’ll have to wait and see.

John