I enjoyed this series of short videos by Brian Solis titled "Ideas Connect Us More than Relationships." There are several points here that are relevant to thought leadership, and how social media changes the game.

Overall, I appreciate Solis's comments for bringing social media down to earth a bit. Other analyses about social media boil down to: "it's so cool because everybody can say anything about everything, whenever; aren't you doing it yet?" That's mind-boggling but not useful.

Solis states that the democratization of information does not give us license to say anything all the time, but gives us the opportunity to be curators of content. The notion of a curator implies responsibility and control, which I appreciate. "The folks that we network with will find those curated updates to be more profound than others," he says.

Solis's notion that we are connected by ideas, and not our relationships (e.g., Twitter followers, Facebook friends) is important. "It's not a popularity contest," he states, "It's about changing the way you share information, and how people are getting information."

Sheer numbers of "friends" and "followers" are meaningless unless the content published at the hub of relationship has meaning to all the people connected to it. In fact, the groups connected to content are always in flux, but the content itself needs integrity and consistency to find its audience.

Companies with something to say will be thought leaders when they embrace the role of content curator.

Labels: blogging, social communities, thought leadership

I used to be a Partner at Ketchum so I feel bad for my friends there. I also dabble and work in social media, so I can see the other side of this story too.

It's a prime example of the opposing pull of business discretion with self expression as our professional and social lives become more blended. Discretion is certainly required in any client/service relationship, and self expression is almost mandated if you want to be noticed in the online social world.

It looks like Ketchumite James Andrews got caught in a trap not unlike the unwitting college graduate who gets turned down for a job because the recruiter went to his Facebook page.

If you are wondering what I am talking about, the whole sordid mess is laid out in a series of posts on David Henderson's blog. If nothing else, it's interesting reading.

Ketchum has done great work for FedEx for years, so hopefully FedEx will remember that. And while I've used just about every other sort of social media, I haven't yet ventured into Twitter.

Maybe I'll wait a while.

Labels: public relations, social communities, social network content

You can have the best technology in the world behind your online social community. But to keep users coming back -- and back again regularly -- engaging content is mandatory.

That's why we're proud to announce a partnership with one of the leading social network developers in the country, Neighborhood America. The company has created many popular Web 2.0 sites including HGTV's Rate My Space and FOX News' uReport.

Check out the release that went out on the wire today!

Labels: neighborhood america, social communities, social network content