Small World Labs

We're happy to announce that Small World Labs has sponsored Aberdeen Group's Customer 2.0: The Business Implications of Social Media report. It is a comprehensive and interesting look at how social media is being employed to impact customer experience. The is available for free through the link below:

http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?spid=30411305&cid=5195

I'm heading out to SF for the Social Networking Conference http://www.socialnetworkingconference.com/ July 10-11th. If you are in town and want an expo pass email me (seder at smallworldlabs dot com) and I'll get one for you. We are in Booth 205.

Michael Wilson will be speaking on the 10th at 2:30pm in a presentation called "What you need to know about Web 2.0- Top 5 Social Media Myths Debunked." in Breakout Room 1. He is also speaking on the Social Software panel on June 11th at 11am.

For those of you who can't make it... I'll fill you in during the event.

-Sam

If you're in Austin this Thursday, June 19, check out the Interactive Austin 2008: Putting Social Commerce to Work conference. Most of the participants in the panels and keynotes are from the Austin area (which bodes well for the growth of the social media industry here) as well as folks from GigaOm, Sun Microsystems, AMD, Walmart, and BusinessWire.

After a long travel day I came into the office re-invigorated by the activity at the Enterprise 2.0 show and the amazing people we met. There are 3 big take aways I came up with during the E2.

- Enterprises are much further down the road than most of us assumed when it comes to the level of sophistication in which they understand social media. That being said, I the cultural barriers to adoption might be a more significant obstacle than any of us anticipated. Can we make Now is Gone and Groundswell and manditory read for anyone VP level and up at all Fortune 1000 companies?

On Wednesday, June 11, Small World Labs and Telligent will be co-hosting a white label social media software debate at the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston. Participants will include Michael Wilson, CEO of Small World Labs; Rob Howard, CEO of Telligent; Aaron Strout, Vice President of New Media of Mzinga; and Sam Lawrence, CMO of Jive Software.

Earlier this week, Forrester analyst and social media man-about-town, Jeremiah Owyang, offered commenters a chance to get free pases to a conference for their thoughts on the future of White Label Social Networks (like the kind we build) on his blog. Some 3 days and 28 comments later now, and one of the shocking revelations now was that many comments focuses around the idea that white social networks are doomed to fail, subsumed by larger platforms.

Over the weekend I had a conversation that resonated with me so much that I've actually woken up in the middle of the night thinking about it twice now. The background is that I was spending the long weekend with a group of my in-laws' friends. As I've mentioned before, one of my highest goals as a technology marketer has always been to be able to explain what I do to my mother who is a technophobe. This requires stripping away jargon and determining a way to convey the value of a technology that resonates in the off-line world.

Too often people in b2b solutions get wrapped up in the details of how clients use the technology and not the bigger picture. Recent events have help me raise my head up and I'd like to take a moment to recognize two of our clients- Save The Children and Beliefnet.

Are you a white-label social network provider? Are you exhibiting/sponsoring Enterprise 2.0? If you answered "yes" to both questions then I'm calling you out to join us on Wednesday night for a white-label battle royale. Before you start practicing your signature body slam, hold on, I'm talking about the Enterprise 2.0 Social Network Shoot Out.

Here are the details:

HR has never been the poster child for early technology adoption but this report from Forrester's Zach Thomas makes a pretty convincing case that HR in large corporations stand to gain from embracing corporate social network. Gains in retention, workflow, and recruitment alone seem to make it a no-brainer. A word of advice for HR departments currently investigating social media, don't get thrown by the technology in the market.