business applications of social software

Leveraging Social Software for Business Value Ross Mayfield, Socialtext

Forum for Women Entrepreneurs & ExecutivesMarch 2008

Identity expression now common on the

web

Cost of global publishing is falling

to zero

Cost of group forming is falling

to zero

Peers are more trusted than institutions

NetGens are the biggest demographic shift ever

The greatest pattern of Web 2.0 is sharing control to create value

• Identity expression on the web is common

• Cost of global publishing is falling to zero

• Cost of group forming is falling to zero

• Peers are more trusted than institutions

• NetGens are the biggest demographic shift

ever

• Sharing control to create value

N

N2

2n

ImplicitStructuredConversation, connectSocial Discovery filterBlogsMore publicPower of strong tiesCommunities

ExplicitUnstructured

Connect, converseSocial Network filter

YASNSMore private

Power of weak tiesNetworks

Decoupling Decisions

In the real world, conversation comes before connection, and often around a social object

But with connections, the value is the social network as a filter and method of discovery

WorkParticipation

Brittanica

ShareParticipation

Open

Participation

Wikipedia

To get the benefits of sharing controland being open, you have to move

towards transparency

4 Solution Areas

Collaborative Intelligence from the Field

Core - edge, edge - core, edge - edgeMarketing publishes, gains feedback,

field collaborates directly, insight bubbles up

Discover expertise, implicitly fist

Participatory Knowledgebase for Support

Rapid documentationDiscovery with search, tags and

metricsDynamic Intranet in-the-flow of work

Flexible Client Collaboration for Professional Services

From Statement of Work to fulfillment

Project communication and transparency

Business Social Networks for Partners and Customers

Similar pattern as Collaborative Intelligence, but with ecosystem and in-the-flow

Thank you

ross.typepad.comross.mayfield@socialtext.com