The advance guard of the blogosphere were afraid that they missed the blogging and social media wave back in 2006 when I wrote Surfing as a Metaphor for the State of the Blogosphere and Don’t Worry You Didn’t Miss the Height of the Blogosphere, which assured folks that the height was nowhere in sight (forgive me, I am from Hawaii):
Truth is, in terms of the height of the blogosphere, it isn’t even a wave yet. A few people have caught the wave already, but it is just forming. It certainly hasn’t crested! It is far from curling. The wave is still only accessible to the top 10%, but the real market is always in that 80%.
Well, maybe we have come upon the tipping point, according to Jay Deragon in his article, Has McKinsey Created A Tipping Point?
In this article, Jay says,
“There has been plenty of discussions throughout the social web about how businesses can gain from the use of social media. marketers from every corner of the earth promote their services to businesses and proclaim “expert status”. However their is only one name in the globe that has the power of getting business leaders attention. That name is McKinsey.”
This may very well be true because McKinsey is, in fact, the living gospel of big business. You, too, can read this article, Six ways to make Web 2.0 work: Web 2.0 tools present a vast array of opportunities—for companies that know how to use them.
Over the past two years, McKinsey has studied more than 50 early adopters to garner insights into successful efforts to use Web 2.0 as a way of unlocking participation. We have surveyed, independently, a range of executives on Web 2.0 adoption. Our work suggests the challenges that lie ahead. To date, as many survey respondents are dissatisfied with their use of Web 2.0 technologies as are satisfied. Many of the dissenters cite impediments such as organizational structure, the inability of managers to understand the new levers of change, and a lack of understanding about how value is created using Web 2.0 tools. We have found that, unless a number of success factors are present, Web 2.0 efforts often fail to launch or to reach expected heights of usage. Executives who are suspicious or uncomfortable with perceived changes or risks often call off these efforts. Others fail because managers simply don’t know how to encourage the type of participation that will produce meaningful results.
What say you? Are we at the tipping point? Can we all start making money now instead of just being gurus, mavens, connectors, and early-adopters? Well, hopefull. Again, from Jay:
This article should be considered a tipping point. When McKinsey speaks business leaders listen and you can bet this article will stir more engagement in social media activities from businesses around the globe.
Via Marketing Conversation , Pitchengine, Chris AbrahamChris Abraham is a partner in Socialmedia.biz. Contact Chris via email, follow him on Twitter and Google Plus or leave a comment below.
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