Linking In

They go by many names: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, Windows Live, Xing, Friendster, Hi5, Yelp, Qzone. To say nothing of sites such as YouTube, Flickr, Wikipedia and more than 200 million blogs (That’s right, 200,000,000).

Generally referred to as social networking sites or social media, not a single one of these entities existed just a few years ago when our main method of communication switched from telephone, telex and fax to e-mail and the Internet. Now they are pervasive, and hardly a day goes by without any of us getting some invitation, posting or tweet. Without a doubt, the world has changed. How we connect and communicate is changing with it, and to ignore this shift as an industry could turn out to be another error in judgment, with dreadful consequences for those who stay on the sidelines.

As an industry, we’re bombarded with e-mail, data and statistics every day. Allow me to add to your burden. Here are some statistics about this environment, taken from the Web:

-- By the end of 2010, Generation Y will outnumber Baby Boomers.

-- One of eight couples married in the U.S. last year met via social media.

-- It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million users; TV, 13 years; the Internet, four years.

-- Social media have replaced porn as the No. 1 activity on the Web.

-- Facebook added 100 million users, and iPhone added a billion applications in nine months.

-- Facebook has more than 300 million users; 50 percent of them log on every day.

-- On average, 8 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day (more than 133 million hours).

-- 24 of the 25 largest newspapers are experiencing record declines in circulation.

The statistics go on, but you may be getting the idea. In case you’re not with me yet, let me point out that you can be a Facebook friend of The Journal of Commerce, or, if you prefer, you can tweet your comments to the magazine and several of its editors. This is a problem for me, mainly because of the 140-character limit. How can anyone say anything worthwhile in only 140 characters?

My first reaction to all this activity and hype and heat was to wonder about how a person could spend so much time blogging and tweeting and whatever it is one does on Facebook and still be productive in their job. I still wonder about this, and I still don’t tweet.

But I have commented on blogs quite a few times. Because there was no easy way to refuse my adult childrens’ invitation to be their friends on Facebook, I can be found there, but I don’t look often and I add even less. However, my LinkedIn account has more than 100 connections and grows every week. It has reconnected me with many people with whom I had lost contact (a good thing) and has connected me to people newly met with whom I share various interests (another good thing). I can control the who and what of my LinkedIn page and it is much more useful than I expected, so I use it regularly. If I know you and you invite me, I’ll reply.

My guess is that similar responses can and will be provided by the users of the other social media sites. They don’t much care that I’m not totally with them yet. They also don’t much care if you’re not part of their networked world yet, either. At the close of 2009, it probably doesn’t matter much that most of our industry is not very engaged in this new way to communicate. If we know what is good for us, this will change before this time next year. Stay outside at your peril.

In the meantime, I’d suggest that those of you on the outside looking in (or not knowing where to look) get with the program. Make yourself aware of what is happening, learn about the sites and talk with your younger colleagues. My guess is you will be in for a surprise and then you will see a light go on (at least I hope so), and then you will ask this person to help you navigate your way through the social networking universe.

When you come out the other side, I think you’ll see things differently and will find some way to participate and begin to explore how you can bring your organization into the fold. Don’t wait too long or you risk falling too far behind. It’s bad enough being behind the curve, it is much worse to be crushed by the stampede that follows the early adapters.

Tweet anyone? Friend me? Invite me? See you online.

Barry Horowitz is the principal at CMS Consulting Services. He can be contacted at 503-208-2232, or at barryh@cms-cs.com.