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What about the SMS?

By Mark Lowry posted May 16, 2011 10:21 AM

  
This is my first of hopefully many blogs to come. It is time for me to take a bit of time from sales and really think about the evolution of social media and the direction of Higher Logic.

Every day, I am presented with new social media opportunities either through meeting with prospects, clients, industry partners or researching new markets. I am very fortunate to talk to lots of people with great ideas and out of the box thinking of how social media can play a role in daily business processes. Social media, whether you are using a public or private solution, has become so engrained in our lives, that there is clearly a dependency and a feeling of “what am I missing” when it is not there.

Last week, I had an experience of feeling abandoned when I lost my home internet connection for several hours. I literally stood around for a bit trying to figure out “what am I supposed to do now?” As pathetic as that seems, it just goes to show how connected we are and how much we depend on those connections to move us forward in our day.

We used to joke at Higher Logic that we were so happy that we were not selling mission critical software: if the social network goes down, no big deal right? Well, I think that now deserves a review. As social media has grown and morphed, it has become inherently essential for organizations to have a robust, stable way of communicating real time. Think of how many times Twitter or Facebook has been the first outlet to notify you of a world event. The mean time between news and information is no longer from when you go to work till the 6 o’clock news, it is on your smartphone through RSS or social media feeds 24 x 7.

Consider that there are now calls for Social Media Contingency plans, somewhat like disaster recovery plans. Here is a great article that makes you think about the bigger picture: http://bit.ly/lrzlyO. If there was an emergency in your area or your building, how would you communicate that? Because social media is now the new “go to” resource, this ups the bar for organizations to a least think about their social presence. Organizations must be able to address members, employees and fans real time.
So when we speak of social media in today’s world and its importance, it still seems tangential and is seen as an “add on” to what we would consider mainstream processes and systems.

Associations and alike have lots of choices of great software platforms to run their membership business. From Association Management Systems (AMS), Content Management Systems (CMS), Learning Management Systems (LMS) to Church Management Systems (also CMS), all, along with the association staff, enable the organization to grow, create and share industry content. But shouldn’t we include in that list, the Social Media System too? I am not too keen on the word system after social media as it sounds somewhat like a mainframe word, so maybe social media software is the way to go? I like it, “Social Media Software” or SMS.

So what do you say, should the new SMS trump the old SMS (Short Message Service)?
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May 23, 2012 09:43 PM

SMS - I like it!