2009 December | iThnk.com

Social Media Turbo Charges Serendipity

On boxing day I was flipping through the NZ Herald when an article taken from the Arizona Daily Star caught my eye: “High-tech lifestyle steals serendipity”.

The article opens with “Serendipity: In its essence it’s that “aha!” moment of glad and unexpected discovery. It’s an unplanned happenstance that leads to a piece of good luck, or news or insight”.

The gist of the article is that a wealth of information creates a deficit of attention. As a result of information overload we become trapped in a never-ending rabbit hole of our own choosing. We only read things that are relevant to us and only talk to people in our industry or niche – thereby losing the serendipity in life.

It poses questions like: When was the last time you browsed the shelves in a library looking for one book, only to discover another that was more intriguing?

What a load of Bollocks!

What about the “real world” encounters that wouldn’t have happened without online interaction. How many new friends, books, posts, videos, photo’s, stories, ideas and links have you come across simply because you’re connected with people through some sort tech based platform?

Real people have a diverse range of interests that you cannot hide from, whether they’re online or not.

It’s true that I am now able to read more information about my niche (new media & marketing) than ever before, and yes I am further down my rabbit hole than I otherwise would be. But the diversity of both ideas and people I now have access to are unbelievable!

The reason TEDTalks are so powerful is in no small part because “all knowledge is connected”. So if you’re open to new ideas you’re going to find serendipity both online and offline. But if you’re really looking for that moment of kismet, the online world is where you need to be.

Social Media Turbo-charges Serendipity!

Twitter - The 2000+ people I follow on twitter provide me with a diverse range of information, insight and ideas. Even if I wanted to box myself into the world of social media the fact that a large proportion of the tweeps I interact with are “real people” means that at some point they’re going to tweet about something other than social media.

Facebook – Like many people my age facebook is mostly personal crap, like photo’s of your dog and updates about what you’ve eaten for breakfast etc. But the fact that I have 500+ “friends” who again have a very diverse range of interests means that they’re fans of all sorts of weird and wacky pages, and they post links about all sorts of stuff that I never would have found on my own.

Linkedin – While Linkedin is no where near as powerful as FB and Twitter for information sharing, it still has it’s moments of pure happenstance. Just as Mitch Joel’s book describes “The truth is, we no longer live in a world of six degrees of separation. In fact, we’re now down to only six pixels of separation, which changes everything we know about doing business”. The sort of connectivity in the professional world that Linkedin has sparked continually brings about new business relationships, just check out their success stories.

Taking your zest-less offline world into social media might just give you that serendipitous kick you’ve been craving.

It’s easier said than done, but if the last year has taught me anything, it’s that the online world is definitely amplified when you can connect with tweeps and transfer ideas into the offline world. The more you can do this the more tangible that serendipitous kick will feel.

Social Media Support Networks

Recently Jason Leong from Pocketsmith talked at TEDxDunedin about the many benefits of the Distillers family focus for start-ups – check the vid to see just how powerful it really is for the members of the Distiller.

There’s no doubt about it, networks are important in business and life but from my experience they’re also wicked important in social media. I’m by no means even part way through my social media journey but already there have been several key mentors that have helped shape the way I interaction online, the strategy that I’ve taken and the direction that I’m heading in.

Mentors aren’t always older than you, and they’re not always wiser. I believe that much like what happens in the Distillers mentors are merely people who care enough to share their experience and insight, they’re the people who have this community focus.

Real World Mentors

You’ll have your own network of friends and social media peeps, but if you don’t, feel free to borrow mine. I have several real world mentors all of whom have helped me with basic things like getting used to Twitter and how to interact online, and with more complex things like strategy and business plans. I am lucky enough to have had @ophil and @audaciousgloop as well as some of the lads @thedistiller to help me out over the past year.

Having these people in my corner gives me the confidence that regardless of how much I stumble they’ll be there to help me get back on my feet.

Digital Mentors

More is better than less when it comes to digital mentors. They beauty of the socialsphere is that you can connect and garner lessons from hundreds of digital mentors. Some of mine have been @bwagy @guykawasaki @jowang and CC Chapman. I’m not saying that I’ve been successful in applying their teachings, but they’ve definitely helped me get through hiccups and push through problems. Some of these mentors don’t even know just how much they’ve helped me.

If there is one thing that I have learned from the last year its that you can never do it alone. So perhaps in 2010 we should all think about business as a community of mentors rather than competition. There’s no reason why we can’t all have a piece of the pie.

Is The Era of The Agent Over?

What happens to the gate keepers of old?

They once had all the chips, held all the cards, housed all the information, controlled the access rights and clipped the ticket as we made our way through their system. But in the same way that the web changed the game for Britannica, CD stores and book retailers, nowadays real-estate and travel agents are also being rocked by change. So how are they coping?

If you think about the changes that have reshaped the travel industry over the last few years, mainly the fact that it’s now economical for airlines to sell their own tickets, you couldn’t be blamed for thinking that the era of the travel agent is well and truly gone, but you’d be wrong. Looking at the change and re-structuring that STA have gone through in order to stay current, it’s easy to see that the era of the agent is far from over.

Moving from Gate Keeper to Enabler and informer

The rise of the social-web presented STA with a similar problem to that faced by many other embattled industries. Travel blogs, reviews, C-2-C connections and web based innovations were leading STA towards irrelevance. But rather than sticking their heads in the sand and hoping that the web would go away they’ve embraced the social-web.

Already working with the most powerful oxymoron of our time “mass customisation”. One of the ways that STA has enhanced it’s service is by encouraging travellers to share their experience is through the STA blog network.

You can create your own STA travel blog on the STA site to share your experiences with the world. Although STA stop short of rewarding bloggers for their efforts, they’ve recognising that almost anyone can set up a blog, so STA have included a few value enhancing features. Such as a message board, video uploads and automatic sharing to facebook which make it slightly more attractive to blog on the STA site.

Recognising that information shared between friends is the most powerful form of advertising, STA has developed a referral programme. In much the same way that Threadless.com encourage sharing through giving away Threadless credits, STA also encourages you to refer a friend through rewarding successful referral with Travel vouchers.

So has their business really changed?

While we as consumers can still bypass their offers and go straight to the airline for tickets, the value network which they’ve created means that we chose not to. We choose to use this middleman because they’re no longer a merely a gate keeper they’re now a value added service provider, an information aggregator and an experience enhancer.

It would have been easy for STA to design a web strategy to try and bring people into their “real world” stores, instead they’ve focused on their core purpose and used social tools to enhance travellers experience, and help them make better decision.

iThnk it this is a lesson that other agents could learn from, what do you thnk?

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