Alan Lepofsky opens up an interesting topic in a blog posting of his regarding What makes a social media Guru stating “Is collaboration still part of this world, or is that an old word now? ”
I say Social media, collaboration, marketing anything related to socializing a group does require a level of integration of the people you are integrating with. This is a for mof collaboration. It is no good to try to socialize something alone, and you need to be able to understand your targeted audience.
Rick Sanchez of CNN leverages Twitter into his talk show, allowing himself to not only get questions regarding his broadcast, but to get the tempature of the audience responses. This is a clever way of using Social Media, in is interactive, it is investigative, it builds an instant community and it is collaborative.
I feel the same way about businesses jumping on the Virtual World band wagon too. They come in, build a sexy, sharp looking build or island and then they walk away, saying there is no value. They don’t do anything to foster community, to know their targeted audience, to add value.
Collaboration, Social Marketing, Viral Marketing all of it is not possible without the people, the community, the sum of the whole.
Collaboration Girl 