Are you catching the Wave? I mean GoogleWave.

I am sure almost everyone have heard about GoogleWave by now. Not everyone has access to it yet since it is in the Preview mode, but more and more gain access. The other day, I was invited by a friend and took a peak into Wave world.

I have to admit - I realy like it! Simple yet clear and user friendly layout makes it easy to navigate through.
If I had to describe it, oh wait that's the whole point of this post, I would say that it is the best of MSN messanger and GoogleDocs combined.

In short, Google allows for editing and sharing your work with others in real time.

I am still very new to the whole thing and have a lot to explore. If you would like an invite to try GoogleWave yourself (I have a limit of 8) or found some new feature or application for it - share with me in comments!

Customer is always right! - Right?

ABSOLUTELY!

Many companies are in denial that this rule still applies! It seems they hope that intricate phone menus ("Press 2, press 8....Please hold, your call is very important to us...") and "procedures" available for customer support will hopefully make a person reluctant to fight for what he or she believes to be an unfair treatment or bad service. Unfortunately, it does work at times but I think customers of any company should realize that they are even more powerful today than a few years ago.

You know those buzz words "networking" and "social media"? - well those are not just cool gadgets to share your latest pictures and news with friends - those are the new ways to get your message across, loud and clear. Today in E-Marketing class, Paul Cubbon mentioned a story of a housewife whose washing machine broke and company did nothing to fix the problem. In short, after expressing her dissatisfaction with company through social channels like Twitter, a competitor of this company offered their product as a compensation. This in turn made the original company take responsibility and fix the broken appliances.

From my own experience with HP, I got a taste of real power and reach of one of the most basic networking tools - forum.
Once hard drive of my laptop died a year on a dot that my warranty expired, right at the end of semester with all psychology papers, I did not hesitate to contact the customer service and after being denied any assistance for 3 times I decided to change my approach.
Along with writing a letter to CEO, I joined HP forum and posted my story and started actively participating in that "community".
Two weeks later, I received a call asking to send in my laptop for hard drive replacement.
The main point I am trying to communicate is as a consumer - you need to stand up and voice your opinions. You should feel even more confident than before, that you will be heard because of opportunities to network through social media tools.
For companies - it is vital to remember that someone is always talking and you need to be listening to make sure you are staying on top of your development as a company, as well as player in a competitive market.

"Social media guru" - a real profession or just a cool nickname?

In a recent article by Brian Morrissey on Adweek, Brian brought up an interesting discussion about social media and current possibilities that are opening up for professionals in that area.

Brian refers to a video "The Social Media Guru" that portrays a social media professional who is trying to convince a client in his abilities to use social media to immediately improve client's business by throwing out Web 2.0 terms left and right.
The video is sort of a mockery of how many so called "experts" try to take advantage of current buzz of social media and persuade companies in the importance of using social media for their businesses by solely opening up a series of accounts on Facebook, Twitter and...there is a long list.
Nevertheless, there are variety of individuals, and now organizations that specialize in working with companies to utilize social media tools in order to gain awareness, attract new customers and achieve other goals a company might have.
Main question posed in the article is if there is a viable long term business opportunities for such individuals and organizations. This article left me with an impression that Brian thinks that businesses of this sort are not going to last.

However, I think that in terms of competition - there is always going to be a need for improvement. I mean, people come up with new strategies, channels and tools to reach out to consumers on weekly basis and same will keep happening in terms of social media tools and ways to optimize their success.

Companies will need to stay current and up-to-date on latest trends to be able to successfully compete in any market.
Come on, do you really think the list of websites/communities/social media tools like Diggit, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Ning, delicious (OK, I am tired typing them out) will stop expanding anytime soon? - I don't think so. Even though, many will fail, there still will be plenty left for companies to require people who will know not only how to use them but actually make them useful.