Can You Help with Shel’s SAP Global Survey on Social Media?
Social media expert, author, speaker and consultant Shel Israel has invited suggestions for names of people he might want to interview for the global survey of social media, which he is conducting as a project sponsored by SAP. You can nominate someone you think would be suitable, including yourself.
As he says in his post Explaining the SAP Global Survey, Shel has been contracted by SAP to investigate the impact of social media on business and culture around the world. He is doing this basically through email interviews: he sends questions and then posts the answers on his blog.
So far he has interviewed 51 people and the results make absorbing reading for anyone interested in social media in a global context.
The survey has a business focus, but Shel and SAP see that as extending into “youth, education, government, non-profit, citizen journalism and most anywhere that social media is causing change”.
At BlogWorld Expo I had the good fortune to sit in on a session with Shel and Mike Prosceno from SAP. Shel talked about the survey. He also shared lessons he had learned so far from the survey. From my handwritten notes these were:
Lesson 1 – I am not in control. They are. It’s better that way – trust your audience.
– in every company surveyed, people under the age of 30 and above the age of 10 are driving social media
Lesson 2 – It’s kids’ stuff. That’s the compelling reason to adopt it.
Lesson 3 – Social networks is the killer app. Everywhere.
– we like to tell each other stories: social networks allow us to share things with people who don’t live next door to us
Lesson 4 – Measurement is not yet adequate. But progress is being made.
– we’re not quite sure what to measure: no one so far has been able to measure the avenues of influence
Lesson 5 – The Long Trail of geek-to-enterprise is getting shorter.
– kids may overtake the geeks anyhow
Lesson 6 – The world is not yet flat, but it’s getting hillier. Closing chasms.
Lesson 7 – Culture matters with countries and companies
It was good to hear Mike Prosceno say at the end of the session that SAP were considering continuing the project. Looks like they came through.
If you have suggestions for Shel, people he might contact, a lead, or think you should be interviewed, contact him via email at shelisrael1@gmail.com
Des Walsh
Business coach and digital entrepreneur. With coach training from Coachville.com and its Graduate School of Coaching, and a founding member of the International Association of Coaching, Des has been coaching business owners and entrepreneurs for the past 20 years. Over the same period he has also been actively engaged in promoting the business opportunities of the digital economy. He is a certified Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) coach, and a certified specialist in social media strategy and affiliate marketing.
