Lee keep at it, it can get lonely when you're as far ahead of the pack as you currently are.
I've only been really involved in all this stuff for 6 months - yet I've watched a number of startups emerging around me.
The crowd's going to starting catching up - they just haven't realised they're behind yet.
Stephen Hamilton
· 3 years ago
Hey Lee. I feel your pain. However, I'm not sure that Australia is 3-5 years behind. Australia typically has a very high uptake in communication technology. I think that few people in the entire world are really leveraging what Web 2.0 can do for them (yes, I include myself in that category). As much as I like to give Adelaide a friendly jibe, I don't think that your suffering due to your location. A good idea is a good idea, and smart people (yes, there are many in Adelaide) will recognise a good idea for what it is.
It will just take some time. Which is fine. The whole set of tools available to us are only going to be improved with another 6-12 months.
However, I have a couple of thoughts that may be of some immediate help. Perhaps you're preaching to the wrong congregation? If small businesses aren't picking up on this, try corporates (Adelaide has many larger Australian companies based there). Retailers not working? Try service industries. You get the idea. Only you can work this out.
In general, I think many Web 2.0 people don't explain what they do very well to regular folk. The ones who figure out how to be an interpreter will win.
Also, one other idea is perhaps rather than trying to sell this idea to people up front, perhaps a model whereby you get compensated on measurable results would be more appealing. Of course, I don't know how to implement that model, but it may be something worth thinking about.
I hope these off-the-cuff musings help in some small way.
Dave Traynor
· 3 years ago
Lee -- You raise a good point. But I think the effort is worth it. Like it or not, you are at the forefront of implementing these new ideas in businesses. And that is a tough job. In some ways, it's easy to come up with great ideas -- and the Web gives companies an easy way to throw them out there for widespread consumption. But businesses have a responsibility to be be, well, responsible. They can't just try out every new idea and see how things go. So they need need to be convinced that it's worth their while and that it will ultimately be good for shareholders, customers and employees alike.
One thing I've noticed is that for an idea to gain traction, it has to be proven to be a time-saver. People are too busy to implement something that means more work - either for them or their team - no matter how appealing the results might be. So we need to come up with a way to demonstrate how implementing these Web 2.0 ideas will result in improvements across the board - time savings, costs savings, revenue generation etc. If not, they won't fly.
Simon Wakeman
· 3 years ago
Hi Lee, Spot on post. I do a lot of PR and marketing for a local authority in the UK. I regularly higlight the direction the web is going in, and what new PR channels look like in the web 2.0 world.
But that doesn't mean it's right for their activities at the moment. It is great being an evangelist and always trying to move things forward, but it can be a lonely place to be.
The world will catch up when it's ready, but without people like us pushing the envelope the world would move forward a lot slower, and would be a lot more boring place to work in our business.
cheers, sw
ps have listened to every podcast so far -keep up the good work!
Allan Jenkins
· 3 years ago
Stick with it. I have the same feeling, but I had the same feeling in 1994-1997 with Web 1.0. No one bought it at first, then a few said "yeah... ok, but..." ... and then, whoosh... from 1997-2001, I didn't bill one hour for off-line communication consulting.
Dave Traynor makes a good point: we need to prove benefit in both improved communication and in better use of resources. Frankly, I think we all get a bit too evangelistic about the first, and spend too little on the second -- I know I'm guilty of it.
Allan Jenkins
· 3 years ago
After making my last comment, I found this post over at Scoble & Israel.
Hey everyone -- sorry for the delay in commenting; technology issues (as yet still unresolved).
Thanks to everyone for extremely clever insight and wisdom -- we really DO belong to a smart bunch of folks, don't we?! It's my honour to be a part of the group.
I agree that the 'pitching' dance has to be right -- and the risk that I haven't been pitching to the right companies, Stephen. I also agree with Dave that with *any* technology we need to demonstrate ROI over CoolFactor; it's heartening to see at least one evangelist trying to shout from the rooftops in a language that small/medium sized businesses will (hopefully) understand; thanks for the link, Allan -- I'll blog it later today so that my small business clients who subscribe to my feed might follow it and be pleasantly surprised.
But I save Paull's comment for the 'comment of the week': "The crowd’s going to starting catching up - they just haven’t realised they’re behind yet." Now, THAT'S optimism!! :-)
All Comments
I've only been really involved in all this stuff for 6 months - yet I've watched a number of startups emerging around me.
The crowd's going to starting catching up - they just haven't realised they're behind yet.
It will just take some time. Which is fine. The whole set of tools available to us are only going to be improved with another 6-12 months.
However, I have a couple of thoughts that may be of some immediate help. Perhaps you're preaching to the wrong congregation? If small businesses aren't picking up on this, try corporates (Adelaide has many larger Australian companies based there). Retailers not working? Try service industries. You get the idea. Only you can work this out.
In general, I think many Web 2.0 people don't explain what they do very well to regular folk. The ones who figure out how to be an interpreter will win.
Also, one other idea is perhaps rather than trying to sell this idea to people up front, perhaps a model whereby you get compensated on measurable results would be more appealing. Of course, I don't know how to implement that model, but it may be something worth thinking about.
I hope these off-the-cuff musings help in some small way.
One thing I've noticed is that for an idea to gain traction, it has to be proven to be a time-saver. People are too busy to implement something that means more work - either for them or their team - no matter how appealing the results might be. So we need to come up with a way to demonstrate how implementing these Web 2.0 ideas will result in improvements across the board - time savings, costs savings, revenue generation etc. If not, they won't fly.
Spot on post. I do a lot of PR and marketing for a local authority in the UK. I regularly higlight the direction the web is going in, and what new PR channels look like in the web 2.0 world.
But that doesn't mean it's right for their activities at the moment.
It is great being an evangelist and always trying to move things forward, but it can be a lonely place to be.
The world will catch up when it's ready, but without people like us pushing the envelope the world would move forward a lot slower, and would be a lot more boring place to work in our business.
cheers,
sw
ps have listened to every podcast so far -keep up the good work!
Dave Traynor makes a good point: we need to prove benefit in both improved communication and in better use of resources. Frankly, I think we all get a bit too evangelistic about the first, and spend too little on the second -- I know I'm guilty of it.
http://redcouch.typepad.com/weblog/2006/05/i_ju...
Thanks to everyone for extremely clever insight and wisdom -- we really DO belong to a smart bunch of folks, don't we?! It's my honour to be a part of the group.
I agree that the 'pitching' dance has to be right -- and the risk that I haven't been pitching to the right companies, Stephen. I also agree with Dave that with *any* technology we need to demonstrate ROI over CoolFactor; it's heartening to see at least one evangelist trying to shout from the rooftops in a language that small/medium sized businesses will (hopefully) understand; thanks for the link, Allan -- I'll blog it later today so that my small business clients who subscribe to my feed might follow it and be pleasantly surprised.
But I save Paull's comment for the 'comment of the week': "The crowd’s going to starting catching up - they just haven’t realised they’re behind yet." Now, THAT'S optimism!! :-)