The Currency of Trust

Craig Newmark of Craig's list makes an interesting prediction about the future of social networking saying "By the end of this decade, power and influence will shift largely to those people with the best reputations and trust networks, from people with money and nominal power." Building a digital reputation is about increasing your expertise, advancing your professionalism and building your credibility.

I've read it a thousand times, if you want to be an expert at something, then practice for 10,000 hours. Well what if there was a way to track your hours of expertise to establish your skill level and credibility? Here's an example. If someone asks me a question about training for a triathalon or becoming a Cat 3 bike racer how do they know I have the expertise to give good advice? Well I use Garmin Connect to record all my work out activities and they can see I biked 600 miles last month, ran 75 and swam 12. They can also use goodreads to see all the training books I've read and see the interaction I've had with members about how the concepts worked for me. Now what if there was a way to rate my experience level or gain credibility points that make my advice more worthwhile?

Last year Y-combinator hosted Cory Doctorow where he explained his idea for something called Whuffie bucks. It's a system for recording and building individual trust. It tracks your interaction with social networks and feedback from your contacts so you can develop your reputation. When I think about my personal career I believe that LinkedIn recommendations have value but I think there's a huge opportunity to create a system for developing an online reputation.

The Future of Magazines Is Here

Popular Science has been working with mag+ to release a new way to view content digitally. They will premiere their technology with the release of the iPad.

Mag+ live with Popular Science+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.

How Much Does Workplace Culture Reduce Productivity?

What if businesses started measuring the work you do based on the product you create not the hours they see you working. Jason Fried makes a good point, people don't work at work any more. Getting work done means being productive, being creative and that requires focus and thought; but the work place is filled with distractions like meetings, ringing phones, management and socializing. People are seeing this and we're starting to see a change in work behavior. Tim Ferris encourages strategies similar to Jason to increase productivity in the Four Hour Work Week; on the top of the list: get rid of distractions.

Some workers still need a lot more structure than entrepreneurial life can provide but with the advent of software, video chat and other interactive tools I think we're going to start seeing work life moving away from the office and into an online space.

The Value of Online Relationships

Umair Haque writes an article called The Social Media Bubble where he discusses how facebook and twitter produce artificial, weak connections he coins as thin relationships. The article currently has 214 comments which give some pretty interesting perspectives on how social media is meaningful. Here are a few excerpts from comments that had compelling arguments. For those who still aren't convinced read this article about re-uniting a band for charity.

"There are those of us out there though, who are trying to make it abundantly and transparently clear that a trust network can very well be established right in plain sight, and build on a universal value system of trust, mutual respect, cooperation, and collaboration. I've been working for months to reveal the value and power of building a trust network around yourself, and I've just framed it out."

"the internet has provided the tools to build more trust and more shared experiences in life across geographic boundaries - and that is of enormous worth. The question is whether people use these tools to further relationships - or just grasp for attention from the masses."

"Social media has enabled a great potential to initiate relationships, "it's all about who you know" And that is 100% true. Since I've proactively developed relationships online (NB-mostly with local people) I have created much more opportunities for myself and met more people that I may not have had direct access to before."

"You say "Real relationships are patterns of mutual investment. I invest in you, you invest in me." That's exactly what we do on Twitter and Facebook, we share good information not to promote (maybe a little) but to help others find that information easier while in return they send you good signal to save time. We also discuss in great detail with those "friends" our thoughts, beliefs and opposing views on various subjects. For some of us, this *is* a huge "investment of time, money, knowledge, and attention" that we do unselfishly. This is just as much of a real relationship as one may have with a co-worker or classmate. Some will fade away when they are no longer in the location (or site) but other friendships could stand the test of time."

"Most relationships in social media do not hold constant value. They are not like dollars that can be exchanged at any given point for a (relatively) fixed amount. They hold "potential value" instead of "relative value". For example, you might never realize any value in a certain connection, but then one day when you need someone as a source for x story with which that connection is knowledgeable, or an interview with y company where that connection works, that connection now has an extremely high value. It's the potential that drives these kind of relationships in social media."

My perspective is that social media isn't a fad or a bubble, it's simply in a nascent stage because ultimately it:

1. builds and reinforces our offline connections with people. It lets us continue our conversations, share our discussions and get input from other people in our network.

2. allows us to share things that are interesting and important to us and receive information from others in return.

3. let's us reach out and learn from individuals who previously would have been out of our reach.

Viral Strategy is an oxymoron

Gareth posted a blog response to an adweek article about measuring viral success, something Faris calls idea multipliers. I like the article and the comments because they tear apart the old school model of advertising that is based on persuasion. It goes hand in hand with the idea that communications firms should be innovating, and calls for the need "to stop using research like drunkards use lampposts - for support, not illumination."

For me a brand or product resonates when it's authentic. That means "being immersed in the cultures they want to engage," or "playing a part in adding to or evolving this culture."

Going viral or finding a smart content distribution platform can be important but finding a way to manufacture viral diminishes the authenticity of the message. As online content continues to grow and overtake traditional media I think we'll continue to see brands intertwining themselves in culture so they are part of the experience instead of someone who is just commenting on it.

Augemented Reality Applications

We're starting to hear about augmented reality but this is one of the most functional applications of the technology. BMW uses an overlay to enable mechanics to make repairs by overlaying an animation of what they should be doing and the visuals make it as easy as pie to understand what needs to be done.

Content Distribution

We've seen an increased importance for connections planners or media creatives because buying a 30 second spot is becoming antiquated. Targeting niche audiences and creating meaningful connections with people who care is exponentially more valuable. One thing that I'm starting to see is the merging of a creative idea and a media strategy. Finding a creative way to engage your audiences resonates more than just producing something creative.

Is your content optimized for search? Do you understand and embrace social media? Is your creative engaging, interactive and designed for the more active millennium generation?

According to this article from Business Insider marketing your content to a target audience is shifting from art to science. The fact is you can have amazing content but it will go unnoticed if you don't have a great strategy to disseminate it through those pipes we call the interwebs.

Advertising has seen the advent of the connections planner and media creative who is at the forefront of designing creative solutions to distribute your content. This article makes a few suggestions like
1. design your content with specific audiences in mind,
2. use technology that will allow you to create content at really high quality, and
3. develop a marketing budget that accounts for distribution.