The Yaxis Live by Rajesh Kumar

I remember attending Blogcamp 2006 in September in Chennai and getting amazed at the momentum around blogs when the term social media was not so much in currency. Blogger was the platform of choice and blogs on own domain meant you really had deep pockets. Wiki was synonymous with Wikipedia and certainly not heard of in corporate environment. Micro blogging platforms such as Twitter were perhaps taking baby steps – and I certainly had not heard of Facebook then.

Come 2008, and scenario changes completely. Blogging is no more an underground platform of expression of the immediate post teens but we now have people in different age groups adopting it. Wikis are slowly intruding into corporates as a collaboration platform. Platforms such as Facebook is a rage and Twitter has now not just got more mainstream, but even managed to acquire Summize. There are networking sites around all possible hobbies and activity groups and there is a fair amount of device convergence, such as moblogging, or mobile internet, or plain sms. Even staid corporations are adopting Blogs as means of conversation. While corporate websites cannot be replaced by the CEOs blog as a source of information, they serve separate purposes and establish different connects.

It has now become possible to build an information stream on a subject or your choice, in which you are not just receiving or sending cues target to specific audience groups, but respond and participate. It certainly makes the job of those in corporate communications, event management, brand management, even management communication within and outside the companies much more challenging and exciting, depending on what boat you are riding. My interest is in watching the possibilities less from a technology perspective but more to explore and possibly identify some learnings from a marketing angle. It is also worth noting that while Blog consultants are dime a dozen in this world, but all they do is to setup a WordPress package for you with a glossy theme, or install MediaWiki! It remains my view that there are very few professionals who can advise on the content aspect social media. That is the opportunity.

Barcamp Chennai is here and hope to see you there.

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