One of the more important concepts I speak about these days is the idea that the Internet, and a gaggle of social technologies, has created an amazing ability to build rivers of information into our brains. Most people are still getting their hands around why, or how, social tools can be used to improve relationships with potential customers, or provide improved customer services. In short, they are heeding the siren call of the press who is incessantly saying things like, “it is all about the relationships.” Actually, it is not all about relationships. Using social tools to communicate certainly does help us improve client or customer relationships, and even to close sales, but this benefit really needs to be put in context of being just one of the critical benefits of Social Tech.
The other powerful use for Social Tech tools is the ability to now assemble a broad, dense, and powerful flow of filtered information that is uniquely assembled for each of us. Never before in history could a person construct such a flow of real time information for free. Never before in history could this flow of information be so broad and deep. Sure, twenty years ago, you could have twelve subscriptions to magazines and read two books at a time – then spend the rest of the day watching the news on TV. But, you would only be scratching the surface of information that today can be pushed to you through RSS feeds, Twitter, Facebook, Digg, etc. Even if you want to debate with me on the volume of information in this comparison, you cannot debate that we have an awesome ability to reach into very specialized data and to filter it down to the things that are critical in much better ways today.
The best example I can give you of this philosophy is myself – or maybe that is just the easiest for me! I have carefully crafted a stream of information, and have carefully chosen how I want it delivered. I have specific things sent to my iPhone, others sent to specific applications on my laptop. I download specific books and periodicals to my Kindle, and finally still read a few magazines and newspapers on paper. In each case, I have made the decision about what I read, and where I read it very consciously. I still read a few things on paper because it fills a void for me when I simply cannot use electronics. Those two times being when I am taking off and landing in the planes, or when I am home waiting on my family for something and do not want to access my laptop or phone for fear of being distracted by work. I have specific V-logs, and Twitter sent to my phone so I can access these things when not using my laptop. Then I have various feeds sent to my email, or other applications depending on the sources. I follow many thought leaders in my industry, some of my competitors, my clients, and a few inspirational innovation sources just to keep my thinking fresh. I follow a few associations newsletter for industries I care about, and constantly correspond with people that care about the same thing I do so we can share valuable thoughts. In short, I have carefully crafted my river of information so that I maximize powerful content, and minimize the time needed to access it.
Why is this concept so important? For a few reasons… One is that it makes me smarter. Noticeably and dramatically smarter and that translates into making me enjoy my career more, and getting paid more for the knowledge I now own. Another is that we are all getting buried under information – as in information overload. So learning to filter and direct this flood is important because a flood can drown you, or you can learn to harness the waves and do something useful with it. Finally, this is the knowledge economy after all, and that should tell you that there is a lot of knowledge flying around, and that learning to harness your share will ultimately make the difference between achieving your goals, or losing.
By the way, add up the ability to build these rivers of information for each employee in an organization, and you now have a huge differentiators in the market. So if you have an HR department that is looking for something meaningful to do, consider having them spend 2010 teaching people how to build these rivers of information.
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Scott Klososky is one of the first successful Internet entrepreneurs and is a highly sought-after technology and future trends speaker. You can read this article and others on Scott’s blog Technology Story.
