Social Contacts: A Hairy Open Problem

Our audience of readers is full of entrepreneurs. And what do entrepreneurs do? They market and they sell. Well, at the very heart of the marketing and selling problem is the concept of lead generation. Once upon a time, it was a rather straightforward exercise of collecting names and mailing addresses, and then running direct mail campaigns. As the Internet became mainstream, this was largely replaced (at least in the universe we live in) by email marketing campaigns, so the key information was the email address of a lead.

Today, the problem has once again changed definition. Suspects and prospects are everywhere in the vast realm of social media, watching, reading, commenting, engaging. And to engage effectively with them, we need to reach them through all those various channels.

So, the definition of a lead database has expanded from being Name, Address, Email ID, Phone No, etc. to include Twitter handle, LinkedIn profile, Facebook profile, Blog URL, and more.

Yet, the process of generating such lists with all the Social Contact data remains cumbersome, time-consuming, and necessarily manual. Very little by way of technology has been applied to the problem thus far.

It needs to be.

1M/1M: Mobile and Social Apps Module Of The Curriculum Is Ready

Readers, we have just released the Mobile and Social Apps module of the 1M/1M premium curriculum. In it, you will find a synthesis of the various trends and opportunities that I see at this point, along with case studies and video lectures. I will do an additional module specifically focused on Gaming, coming soon.

Top 10 Social Web Trends For The Decade

How do you achieve that delicate balance between the old and the new and find both depth and lightness – depth that moves at an emotional and spiritual level, lightness that moves us forward?

From Top 10 Tech Trends For The Decade:

Over 500 million people on Facebook indicates a massive shift in how consumers and businesses are viewing the social media movement. Perhaps underappreciated is the fact that everyone now is a brand. Even individuals with hundreds, if not thousands of “friends” are incessantly playing to an audience. Social games, mobile social, social apps, social news, crowd sourcing – all reinforce the trend. A tremendous amount time is being wasted on social networks, but at the same time, seriously productive and valuable work is also being done, leveraging the trend. All told, the social Web will drive the next decade’s evolution of the Internet. Personalization and privacy issues remain TBD.

Let’s take a look next at the Top 10 Social Web Trends For The Decade. >>>

1Mby1M Incubation Radar 2010: Hireplug, India

Hireplug is a SaaS recruitment technology company whose products are designed to help companies to recruit talented candidates from employees’ social networks and boost employee referrals in the process. Hireplug has two components – hireplug.com and the Facebook app We Are Hiring. >>>