I recently read an article in BRW by Neil Shoebridge about how the Internet, mobile phones and MP3 players have changed the business of selling and the creation of marketing messages and that the Internet and other new media had made the medium more important than the message. This means that messages need to be tailored to different media rather than the same message being spread across all media. I think this is an important point given the context of social computing and its impact on delivery of messages.
We have seen in the US presidential candidate race and indeed during our own Federal election here in OZ, that Politicians who want to have street cred are getting themselves on MySpace, Facebook and You Tube to try and tap into wider audience of potential voters. It’s very much about having a conversation and really connecting with your target audience. This makes it a really interesting time to be a Business Analyst or Information architect.
I am finding in my own work and that of my colleagues, that we are getting more and more requests from corporate organisations, media organisations and agencies, wanting help to scope out requirements for making their online presence more interactive and taping into social computing tools. My friend Matt and I have recently been discussing the role of the User in a social computing context and how this role has changed. As Business analysts, we need to be aware that stakeholders now play many roles and ensure that we incorporate these changing needs in our requirements specifications for web sites.
Users are no longer just the audience in a social computing context. They can also be the customer, the consumer, a participant, and part of a community. Users want to comment on your website, review and rate articles and through this contribution, can help the organisation understand what Users see as valuable information on their website. The communication channels to the User needs to recognise these multiple roles and move to greater interaction with the User. We need to ensure that the medium being used is able to fulfill the requirements of the User (in their numerous roles) and marketers need to ensure that the message is tailored and specifically relevant to the audience they are trying to involve and excite.
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