Collaboration changes Everything!!

Photo Credit: http://www.allfacebook.com

You might have seen many of these (CAPTCHA), and found them extremely annoying and a complete waste of time, well they are not.

Luis von Ahn has found an intelligent way to digitize 2.5 million books a year using “CAPTCHA,” a program that can generate and grade tests that humans can pass but current computer programs cannot. He proves that social media is not only about conversations, it’s about collaboration, it’s about the community at work, and it's about how mass collaboration can change everything.

The video effectively narrates the power of human collaboration using the internet, in an interesting and humorous manner. Ahn is using the precious human time - while registering, downloading a software or making a payment on a website (using CAPTCHA) - to digitize books. His new project, DuoLingo, is even more fascinating. He is using avid foreign language learners to translate webpages while learning the new language for free; using the “learning by doing” method. A beginner gets very simple sentences along with what each word means. As learners translate them they get to see how other people translate it, so they start learning the language, and as they get more and more advanced they get more complex sentences. Using this method, people do learn a language, as they are learning with real content. With DuoLingo, Ahn and his team propose a “Fair Business Model for Language Education” that doesn’t discriminate with the poor. Ahn’s examples of digitizing books and translating web content links to what Li & Bernoff may have called “Groundswell at work.”

That’s not all, people are energizing and helping the groundswell by using and entering these CAPTCHAs, and they’re taking it a step further, they’re embracing the power of  CAPTCHA by creating powerful and creative CAPTCHArt (Internet memes). 

Photo Credit: www.tumblr.com

Photo Credit: www.img.memecenter.com

Photo Credit: www.captchart.com

Li & Bernoff in their book, "Groundswell" say that, “Embracing the groundswell is making customers an integral part of the way you innovate with both products and process improvements.” They narrate the example of how Rob, U.S. Marketing Director for the brand Colossus Unilever and and his partner Babs, Unilever's U.S. Media Director, "helped Unilever not only accept the internet as a marketing vehicle but to gradually give up some control of the brand, embracing the power of groundswell and energizing customers to make their contributions;" by welcoming a cultural change within the organization and providing the Dove's Evolution campaign the right platform. This is exactly what Ahn and his team puts into practice but with masses (not specifically a brand/company); by tapping a fraction of unproductive human time of masses on the web and using it for the benefit of the community at large. 

According to marketing expert Edward Boches, "No social project will be really successful over the long term unless there's some sort of social improvement motive built in, because of the intrinsic nature of social media."

Well, I didn’t know that an annoying activity like CAPTCHA can be so valuable. Please share examples of innovation, creativity and collaboration that you may have seen with the rise of social media.  

Sneak peek into the future - Social Media Trends for 2012

Not all of us can own a DeLorean (time machine) and take a sneak peek into the future. Thanks to the new medium, and of course the works of “experts” who articulate key words, statistics, trends and phrases about the hottest growth area for the online community “Social Media.”

It’s one month past the New Year, however, zooming into the “Social Media Trends for 2012” is worthwhile. The list shown below is by no means complete, however, I attempt to list what experts have to say about top social marketing developments, new technologies, resources, etc. 

Consolidation, integration, convergence 

2012 is listed as the year for consolidation, integration, convergence and the likes by most authors, experts and bloggers. For years’ management lessons have preached organizations the benefits of integrating the different business functions and not work in silos. Experts say, social media will witness a similar trend.

David Armano explains convergence with the example of Domino’s Pizza, posting unfiltered feedback on a large billboard at Times Square. Advertising agency McCann define integration in the form of usage of social media across devices.

John Serpa calls it “Transmedia,” newer ways to narrate real-life experiences in the virtual world. Leo Widrich says, “We will see a lot more apps and companies come to help us free from content overload." 

Social + Sharing 

According to social media expert, Jay Baer, “2012 will be the year of multimedia social network. Photo and video-based social interaction will grow.” On the same note, new multimedia platforms like Pinterest will grow.

David Armano elaborates and uses the term “Social Sharing”, “Sharing that vacation you just booked, or recommending a product, or service from any site to a social network is where sharing goes next.” 

Social + eCommerce
  
Gartner predicts that by 2013, the number - one way that consumers will be interacting with the Internet is via their smartphones and tablets.  Given this, social commerce can definitely be categorized as an upcoming trend for the coming year.

In his explanation, Priit Kallas says, “We will lead into a new era in eCommerce where you can directly purchase from your Facebook account.” Everyone will witness more integration of social media and e-commerce, more than ever.” 

“M-Commerce/mobile tactics will be substantial sources of lead generation including the QR codes, near-field and Bluetooth communications, social check-in promotions, mobile search, mobile Web, text/SMS/MMS, email and mobile advertising,” added bloggers’  Jeanne Hopkins and Jamie Turner. 

Social + Television 

Social Television also climbs up the charts in the social media landscape. Several experts and bloggers like David Armano , Gini Dietrich, Priit Kallas, Elise Moreau say that watching television will get more social and sharable with the introduction of voting on social media  for reality shows  and apps like Get Glue.They also mention that location and mobile based platforms or applications will be big this year. 

“Another way media consumption is becoming social comes from a network called Get Glue which acts as something of a Foursquare for media. Participants can "check-in" to their favorite shows (or other forms of media) and collect stickers to tell the world what programs they love. Watch for more of this this year as ratings rise for socially integrated shows,” David explains. 

Results 

Businesses will increasingly focus on ROI. We experienced this trend in 2011 and will continue to do so this year as well. I second Susan Gunelius's prediction, “Businesses will make more significant investments in social media marketing in 2012, but they’ll also be focusing on the return on investment (ROI).” 

Email + Social Media 

Email celebrates its 40^th birthday this year. Contrary to popular belief, according to Gini Dietrich it’s still effective and is here to stay. “The platforms (email and social media) will complement one another for smarter, more targeted messaging and list-building efforts,” says Jason Miller. 

Here’s a clip recently aired by CBS 5 News that quickly encapsulates the key “Social Media Trends for 2012!”

What according to you will change in 2012? I will be glad if you could help me compile the list!