New York Venture Capitalist Fred Wilson tells the story that 5 years ago he used to arrive at meetings an hour ahead of time and have a coffee and a Wi-Fi internet snack at the nearest Starbucks.
Recently he visited Irvine in California. There were plenty of Starbucks there, but he ignored them.
Instead he hit Yelp on his Blackberry browser to search for “Expresso in/near Irvine”. This led him to a place called ‘Javatini’s’ where he enjoyed a vastly superior cup of coffee, and the Wi-Fi snacks were free and fast too.
Yelp is a service that allows you to look for local services that have been rated by people who have been there and done that.
Isn’t this new Thoughtware in Action .
If you are a big established business – Starbucks and Big Pharma - with big overheads, there’s almost certainly a “Javatini’s” in your market-space.
It’s doing what you’re doing – it’s in business.
If it’s doing its business better than you, and with much less overhead, then Social Media will allow people to know about it.
And sooner or later you’re ……
And sooner or later you’re going to find out about it too.
Potentially, in a most distasteful way!
Finding the Aroma of the Good Stuff.
So how does Social Media allow people to know where the good stuff is?
There seem to be three main reasons, Good Judges, Good Technology and a Willingness to Participate.
Good Judges.
People are good judges of quality.
A nice demonstration of good people-judgement was shown by Seth Godin.
From 350 applicants he selected 27 semi finalists who applied to join his Alternative MBA Program. After a day of getting to know one another he asked them privately “Who would you like to be in the program with you?” The same 9 or 10 names kept coming to the top of the list. These became the final selection for the Program. Good Judges.
[See: Learning from the MBA Program]
Good Technology.
Anyone unfamiliar with the availability and accessibility of Social Media technology will be astounded to learn what’s out there.
Even those with a deep and comprehensive understanding are in for a bit of a shock. For example, are you familiar with the impact that Google Wave will have on the concept of convergence?
There is some seriously good technology around. And it’s easy to use.
Willingness to Participate
The growth in the number of people participating in Social Media has been matched by their enthusiasm.
Paul Higgings and Sandy Teagle, futurists with Emergent Futures, write eloquently on the significance that this participation has on the future value of major brands.
The enthusiasm that the younger generation have for their internet connection is remarkable.
The Questions for Pharma.
So if Social Media is changing the way people interact with business.
How do people currently interact with Pharma?
What access do people have into what Pharma can do for them?
How does it encourage people to judge the quality of the Pharma offering?
Is there a strategy in there somewhere?
Some organizations are embracing the new Social Media technology.
Dell, for example, is a big established business, yet smart enough to see an opportunity.
A little coffee shop in Irvine is seizing the opportunity.
How long is it going to take for a Blogger like Thinking Pharma to hold up a Pharmaco as a great exemplar of Social Media business communication exploitation?
[Tomorrow’s Blog: What Do You Do With A Sick Organisation?]
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