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June 2011
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Google+ leverages Google’s strength as a communications platform
I’m watching the Google+ “launch” with great interest because at its center appears to be great “friend management” tools (see links below for the best detailed reviews).
Friend managment has been the bane of my Facebook experience because I don’t want to share everything with everyone. I also made the mistake of accepting far too many friend invitations with the result that I share very little on my “personal” account. While there are tools like Facebook Groups and friend lists, they are incredibly cumbersome and difficult to use.
Google+ leverages the fact that you already have your “real” friends listed and possibly even organized in your address book. This is especially true if you are using Gmail. Take a look at your Gmail address book and you’ll see your top 20 contacts already identified. Google knows this, and also knows who you frequently email together as a group (parents of your child’s class, book club, family reunion email list, etc.) and uses that information to drive the insight needed to suggest natural groups for you to form inside of Google+ Circles.
Google can leverage all of that behavioral information into helping you easily manage your relationships. Because face it–who you share with, how often, and with what other people you do that sharing provides valuable insight into the nature of the relationships.
Now for the scary privacy part — remember that Google also “reads” the contents of your email to show you ads on the side of Gmail. For the most part, we’ve gotten over this. But what if I gave permission (note: permission is crucial!) for Google to make recommendations on if and when I should add someone to a group? If I’m emailing someone frequently about biking trails, Google+ may suggest that I add that person to my biking Circle. Fundamentally, you would have to have a deep, trusting relationship with Google at a different level for this to happen. But the benefits could be tremendous. (See my post “In Google I Trust” for more discussion on this.)
Take that level of trust to a different level if you have an Android phone. Would you be OK with letting Google mine the contact, call, and texting data on your phone to help you build a more social experience with those people you communicate the most? What about your Google Calendar or Google Voice data?
I say this because most of my communications, both personal and professional, are run on Google’s platforms. Facebook does not have insight into all of the “real” sharing that I do in real life, while Google does.
My take on how this will play out is that Google has the natural ability to pull together groups based on communication patterns, and to also leverage the natural groups that already use communication platforms. It will be a no-brainer for Gmail to start using Google+, a much harder sell for non-Gmail users.
The result will be unified sharing, as opposed to unified messaging, on Google platforms. This won’t happen overnight and it will be far from being a “Facebook killer”. Rather, it’s a smart move by Google to leverage its strengths in communication platforms, algorithms, and trust of core users to move into social.
Lastly, I don’t expect Facebook to stay still for long. Look for them to roll out improved friend management tools in the near future. But regardless, they will always lack the behavioral intelligence to help me truly manage my friends, unless I am a devoted Facebook user.
Links to detailed reviews:
Leadership Lessons, with Charlene Li and Ken Blanchard, co-author of “One Minute Manager”
I’m very excited to announce Altimeter’s next webinar with special guest, Ken Blanchard (@kenblanchard), co-author of the “The One Minute Manager.” Like many people, I have a well-worn copy of the book on my shelf and it’s a reminder to constantly connect, share, and invest in relationships. This is all the more true today, with the many opportunities that new technologies provide us to do this not only easily but also at scale.
Tapping Ken’s deep experience in leadership, we’ll discuss the timeless lessons of leadership, and also what has changed. We’ll also look at what people as individuals need to do differently today in order to be more effective.
But most of all, bring your best questions as there will be plenty of time to ask questions. Don’t lose this chance to meet and talk with Ken Blanchard!
Please register below, and help us by forwarding this message to interested peers and colleagues.
Webinar: Leadership Lessons: The Power of Relationships in the Facebook Era, with Ken Blanchard & Charlene Li
Register for this webinar at: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/872433659
Date: Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Time: 10:00 AM – 11 AM PDT
Description: Join Ken Blanchard and Charlene Li for a conversation about how to apply the timeless lessons of leadership during a time when organizations are being transformed by social technologies. Ken, the co-author of “The One Minute Manager,” brings 30+ years as a renowned leadership expert, respected consultant, author, and keynoter.
Together, Ken and Charlene will discuss how the simple truths of leadership still hold true, even during this age of social media. That’s because both hold relationships at the center of their leadership and business philosophies. Specific topics include:
- How do you unleash the power and creativity of people inside an organization?
- How do you honor the contributions of your founders and long-time employees even as your organization grows and changes?
- How do you bring out the best in others?
- How can you successfully use social technologies to achieve these goals, while remaining true to how you are as a leader and as an organization?
Don’t miss this opportunity to hear Ken Blanchard and Charlene Li share timeless wisdom about human relationships, even as technology amplifies the speed and volume of interactions. Learn from two experts about how to keep relationships at the center of your leadership efforts.
Groundswell Paperback: A Look Back Three Years Later
Three years ago, Josh Bernoff and I proudly launched our book, Groundswell. To our astonishment, it has sold more than 100,000 books and now a new, updated paperback version is available (links below), with two new chapters on how to use Twitter and social maturity.
A lot has changed over the past three years – in May 2008, Facebook and Twitter were still nascent and the iPhone had no apps! To address this, Josh added a new chapter about Twitter. But the theme of the book — that you have to focus first on the relationships created by social technologies (and not the technologies themselves) – still resonates today.
At the same time, very little has changed. One of my favorite examples in Groundswell is how Dell responded to one of their notebooks spontaneously bursting into flames in June 2006. The chief blogger, Lionel Menchaca, wrote a blog post titled, “Flaming Notebook” that linked to a photo of that laptop on fire. Talk about guts! That was five years ago, and as a whole, organizations still lack the maturity to be able to truly engage in an honest, authentic dialog – despite their adoption of social technologies.
Groundswell has a new chapter discussing social maturity and Forrester published a report this week on the topic. My organization, Altimeter Group, has done research and consulting on this, as have agencies like Dachis. The fact that so many people are chiming in on how to address social strategies is an indication of the strong interest. But the fact that so many organizations are still treating social as a marketing and messaging channel demonstrates that we still have a long, long way to go.
A key reason why I wrote my second book, Open Leadership, is because leaders could viscerally feel the change that social media was causing in the pit of their stomach – and they lacked the framework to understand how to think, act, and lead in a new environment where relationships were being formed in these new channels. Leadership is built on relationships, and leaders in general have failed to grasp this change.
But by far my favorite part of the new paperback edition is the quotes from readers describing the impact Groundswell has had on them. It is the most gratifying and humbling experience as an author to know that your words have had an impact. I love it when readers show me their books that have been highlighted, dog-eared, and filled with post-it notes. (This photo is from Elizabeth Gebhardt, who showed me her book at an event in 2009.) And I am especially awed when people tell me that Groundswell inspired them to start new jobs or even careers because of the inspiration they got from the book.
So from the bottom of my heart, thank you to all of the readers of Groundswell, and I hope to all of the new readers that you find it just as relevant today. It has been a joy hearing from you over the past three years and I hope to continue growing the relationship we’ve begun!
Where to buy the Groundswell paperback:
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