Chapter 10. Velocity, Flexibility, Economy

Think that social media has nothing to offer your "traditional" business? I can give you reasons along any of three points of view: velocity, flexibility, and economy. As our tools come closer and closer to approximating and/or enhancing human interaction and further away from requiring an abundance of technological expertise, those who are exploring and sampling these tools are at an advantage that can be measured in speed, adaptability, and cost of operation.

We aren't talking about the marketing department. We aren't equipping PR professionals. This isn't a new set of tools for launching campaigns. These are tools to improve interaction, and they are incredibly powerful and game-changing ideas when you consider that most of these solutions have much less impact on traditional business resources.

VELOCITY

In the United States, in 2008, a "smart" cellular phone costs as little as $150 for the device and under $50 for an account with a data plan. Wifi hot spots are on the rise. A reasonably good laptop with built-in wireless capabilities can be purchased for under $500. With these two types of units as the base system, we can deliver the following capabilities:

  • Instant communication in voice, text, e-mail, photo, video, and even geolocative

  • Information browsing, including SMS-based and voice search (Google[41])

  • Presence status information (Twitter, Jaiku,[42] Six Apart[43])

  • Shared documents (Google Docs[44])

  • Voice conferencing (FreeConferenceCall ...

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