Social Media Changing the Way We Do Business

Millions of years ago dinosaurs ruled the earth.  Their giant remains can be found on most all of the continents.  That was a different time in history; but, like everything that has come and gone, it is history.  Suddenly and unexpectedly a great global disaster brought the reign of the dinosaur to an end.  Communication as our parents knew it or perhaps as we knew it when we were children is on the verge of a similar, however not quite as drastic or immediate, moment in time.  The days of writing letters with pen and paper are coming to an end.  Newspapers and to a certain degree magazines are facing a similar fate.  They are being replaced by electronic media and email.  Communication is no different from any other aspect of civilization.  It lives and evolves; ever changing with the demands of society.  Velum and papyrus replaced stone tablets.  Hand written books met their fate with the invention of the printing press and now, letters and other hard copy media are fading out in favor of email and websites.  This has had a drastic effect on the way that people communicate and learn.  Written communication has gone the way of the dinosaur.

Social Media

Our communication evolution has spawned new tools such as social media.  The term social media refers to a group of tools used and generated primarily by the end user.  They offer a way for people to communicate and share information instantly and easily.  By definition, one of the primary requirements for a tool to be considered social media is its ease of use.  This new form of media is changing culture and, with it creativity and collaboration.  There are three things that must occur in order for culture changing creativity to occur.  There must be development of a domain which contains a set of understood rules, people bringing novelty to that domain and a group of experts who recognize the merit and validity of the innovation.  Social media has all three of these characteristics.

Social media, however, is a relatively new concept.  The internet is a living thing and it is in a constant state of change.  Today, in 2009, what we think of as the internet is different than what one would have known ten years ago.  This first generation of the web is now referred to as Web 1.0.  It was made up of a series of static, content based web sites.  There was no two way traffic and there was no sharing of information among users.  It served merely as a source for businesses and developers to display content.  It would be easy to think of it today as a number of billboards, advertisements and pamphlets connected electronically and displayed remotely.  It was a true wonder in its day but as we have become desensitized to the technology on which it is based we have come to expect more from our online experiences.

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