User Experience vs. Living Experience

It seems to me that there is a growing emphasis on user experience for online communities and IT projects. People are being more vocal about their discontent on the deliverables of a project rather than just accepting something because they think that is their only choice.

There’s another growing trend in personal development and self awareness and creating a valuable experience in one’s own life. I think it’s another one of those trends that is part of a larger changing picture. User experience is increasing in importance in programs and projects, as well as in a person’s own life.

It’s kinda neat to see a link like this in two seemingly unrelated areas. Where else is the ‘user experience’ becoming more of a focal point?

Companies will pay

My attitude used to be ‘Why would anyone pay for services on the web when there are so many free services out there?’

My attitude now is ‘If I were running a company account, and my reputation and brand depended on using services that are currently free, I’d be willing to pay for an account that guarantees me security’.

By security I mean that I have the comfort that some hacker will not hijack my Twitter account, that the private cli.gs I am creating are not replaced with some bogus blog post, etc.  So really, I don’t want to pay for your service, but I do want to pay for a guarantee that my information, brand, messaging, everything I am choosing to place on your service is safe with you.  That’s one way I can see Twitter, or any other social media platform currently struggling with a model, making money.  And that’s what I see as one less barrier to the adoption of social media tools by larger corporations.  Yes, it’s fantastic to want to engage and converse and build relationships with peers and customers alike, but I’m sorry, it’s still too much of a risk.

Show me a Twitter platform or a private link tracking system that I can trust 100% and I’d love to jump on board, use the tools… and even pay you for your service.

What else will drive more online content?

A greater rate of adoption of Macs.

I received an email today from one of my friend’s with a .wmv file in it.  Surprise, surprise, .wmv files don’t open on Mac computers… at least not in Quicktime without an extra plugin installed or without download Windows Media Player for Mac.  Creating the content so it is available streamed online, I believe, would eliminate the need for me to continue to download plugins for programs on my computer that will allow me to view/listen to this content.

There’s more to it I’m sure.  But bigger picture… online content will eliminate the need for many plugins and cross-compatibility issues.  Not to mention more space in my inbox.

The one question you should ask about social media…

If ever you run into me at a conference, or out with some of the other #yyc Twitter folk, I’ll have all sorts of good reasons for you to join Twitter (or start a blog, or Facebook group or LinkedIn account).   I may even get you to sign up.  I love this stuff, I love talking about it, using it, seeing opportunity after opportunity come up, cheering for those with successes, learning from those with failures.

When I first got started in the online social media realm (which wasn’t that long ago), there was some ruffled feathers (not mine, nor did I cause them) over people calling themselves social media experts, and other contributors calling these people out.  There have been discussions about whether there are even social media experts, what constitutes an expert or if we should even be using the term ‘expert’ at all.  The latest post I’ve read, Beware the Social Media Charlatans cautions you to take all of these ‘experts’ with a grain of salt.  I agree.

I think, if you want to get started in the social media realm, either as an individual or as a business, you need to ask one question:

Does this make sense for me/my company?

If you can see an obvious benefit, then yes, absolutely, jump in!  We’d be glad to have you.  But if you cannot see a clear cut benefit to using social media, maybe it’s not the right time for you.  Maybe you need to spend some time lurking and listening to fully appreciate the opportunity it can bring or maybe, and I cringe at these words myself… but maybe it just won’t work for you.

There are so many factors at play in online social interactions that really are barriers to entry for a lot of folk.  Knowing the tools, having the time to devote to listening, conversing, sharing information… it’s a lot of hard work and you will only get out of it what you can put into it.

So, if you have the time, the resources, and a clear vision of what you think you can gain from this… kudos.  I’ll be excited to read about your experiences and successes.  But if you’re still fuzzy on where the benefit can come in for you, I suggest you talk to some people using these tools first… perhaps not the social media cheerleaders out there, but just the real day to day people who can maintain an impartial view.  But where do you find those people?  Well… in the social media realm of course.

Community building – what defines you?

I was reading about the 9 Worst Social Media fails of 2009 and a point made in the Motrin Moms example about Mommy Bloggers tarnishing their own reputation made me recall another post I had read about how agencies could potentially represent communities rather than companies someday.

What does this mean to the online communities we are creating?  How does the content and perceptions we put out there define the community we are a part of, and what can we do about perceptions that are created that we do not want to be associated with?

I think that, like any offline community, online communities will slowly develop a set of characteristics that define them and their members.  For those members who do not like what the community has become, they’ll leave and find something more aligned with themselves or create something new.  Much like neighborhoods, religions, political parties, etc. evolve, so too will online communities.  The evolution of the online community could be in support of it’s offline community, or it could be something entirely new.

So what does a community use to define itself online?  Can it be defined by the tools it uses?  For example, the Twitter community is continuously growing here in Calgary, but is it right to call it the Twitter community?  Or is Twitter simply the means by which like minded individuals choose to communicate with one another?  What happens if a large enough group of individuals joins Twitter and changes the primary function of the tool?  Or the perception of what this community is all about?  Does that kill the community?  Does an individual person using Twitter come with a preconceived notion about what people on Twitter are like? And if functions do change, or users do not like the evolution of the community, does the original community continue to exist, but simply moves elsewhere?

It’s a bit nomadic, but if you think of the web as a flow of information, it seems natural to think that communities will seek out more like minded individuals, and in a space where they may not like what new users bring to the table, there will either be enough of a majority in the community to preserve what it has built, or the community will move on and find a different way of defining themselves.

How do you define an online community?  Where do you fit in?  And what do you do if you don’t like what’s happening?