We Can Monitor the Zeitgeist of Humanity With New Media Technologies

The monitoring the Zeitgeist of Humanity using new media technologies and tools isn’t the point of this post, but it should be the takeaway.

Why? Because the power of social technologies to empower humans across the globe to change the world for good and to live from a place of purpose is a key way we should all be using social media regardless of how we use it in our business lives.

Forward wind to Scott Klososky and a talk I heard him give recently (word on that note – if you haven’t heard him speak, find out where he is and go. He’s incredibly inspiring).

Because we know what we know and don’t know what and who we don’t know, it’s easy to think we have heard every talk and every speaker who has anything to ‘gift’ an audience in the world of social media if you live and breathe it every day. That said, we all have our own micro-circles we travel in and Scott isn’t really in circulation in mine.

Here are some takeaways, summaries and key points:

Word-of-mouth is driving more leads than search is right now and he went into the transition from Web 1.0 to where Web 4.0 will lead us to give us a snapshot of where we are today. From his vantage point:

1. Web 1.0 was about connected organizations, i.e., building websites so you can connect with customers and other businesses. It was the start of the death of paper mail (note: the postal service is now losing $3 billion a quarter) and of course the decline of newspapers.
2. Web 2.0 is about connecting people (social technologies) which is obviously changing the world and how we interact with each other. We can connect with people in ways we never have been able to before.
3. Web 3.0 is about pervasive computing, where mobile devices will be able to control everything. Every device will be connected to every other device. We are already seeing pieces of this in place today.
4. Web 4.0 will be about connected intelligence (s).

Let’s look at various stages of immersion with social technologies:

• Consumer-to-Consumer
  • Connecting with family and friends
  • eWord-of-Mouth
  • Rating & Recommendation Systems
  • UGC (user-generated content)
  • Citizen Journalism
  • Discussion Groups
  • Business-to-Consumer
    • Socially-Directed Buying
      • SEO and PPC
      • Social Media
      • eWord-of-Mouth (applies to both areas obviously)
      • Organizational Voice (so many companies do not put enough time or thinking into this point, which frankly I think should be at the top)
      • Online reputation management
      • Crowdsourcing
      • Location-based marketing (geo-loco is growing, i.e., Foursquare, Gowalla)
      • Viral Video – Old Spice success (so he’s sexy, okay, very sexy) and United Breaks my Guitar disaster are great examples.
      • Business-to-Business
        • Socially-Facilitated Selling
          • Social CRM
          • Social recruiting
          • Rivers of information
          • Online industry experts
          • Organizational voice
          • Online reputation management
          • Virtual team support

Renee Blodgett

Renee Blodgett is the founder of We Blog the World. The site combines the magic of an online culture and travel magazine with a global blog network and has contributors from every continent in the world. Having lived in 10 countries and explored nearly 80, she is an avid traveler, and a lover, observer and participant in cultural diversity.

She is also the CEO and founder of Magic Sauce Media, a new media services consultancy focused on viral marketing, social media, branding, events and PR. For over 20 years, she has helped companies from 12 countries get traction in the market. Known for her global and organic approach to product and corporate launches, Renee practices what she pitches and as an active user of social media, she helps clients navigate digital waters from around the world. Renee has been blogging for over 16 years and regularly writes on her personal blog Down the Avenue, Huffington Post, BlogHer, We Blog the World and other sites. She was ranked #12 Social Media Influencer by Forbes Magazine and is listed as a new media influencer and game changer on various sites and books on the new media revolution. In 2013, she was listed as the 6th most influential woman in social media by Forbes Magazine on a Top 20 List.

Her passion for art, storytelling and photography led to the launch of Magic Sauce Photography, which is a visual extension of her writing, the result of which has led to producing six photo books: Galapagos Islands, London, South Africa, Rome, Urbanization and Ecuador.

Renee is also the co-founder of Traveling Geeks, an initiative that brings entrepreneurs, thought leaders, bloggers, creators, curators and influencers to other countries to share and learn from peers, governments, corporations, and the general public in order to educate, share, evaluate, and promote innovative technologies.