Some of the great Podcasters note that, in the future, we will have more ear time than eye time.
Ian recently looked at an interesting book by Evan I. Schwartz entitled, "Digital Darwinism". In his book, Schwartz compares the competitive struggle to the battle between species that occurs in the natural environment. He concludes that, in order to succeed, companies must be better than their competitors, much like the survival of the fittest in nature. Whatever market niche they select, they have to be "smarter, faster, more innovative, and more adaptable" than ever, so that they do better than others.
After examining the successes and failures of many different e-commerce competitors, the author identifies key strategies to survive and thrive on the Web. In Digital Darwinism, we are presented with "7 Breakthrough Business Strategies for Surviviing in the Cuthroat Web Economy". They are:
1. Build a brand that stands for solving problems;
2. Allow your prices to fluctuate freely with supply and demand;
3. Let affiliate partners do your marketing for you;
4. Create valuable bundles of information and services;
5. Sell custom-made produces online, then manufacture them;
6. Add new value to transactions between buyers and sellers; and
7. Integrate digital commerce with absolutely everything.
Schwartz is also the author of "Webonomics", which talks about "9 Essential Principles for Growing Your Business on the World Wide Web". Blogging is one of those innovative marketing strategies that helps you survive in the Digital Darwinism world. Blogging uses the concept of social software in allowing for direct and indirect interaction from one individual to a group of individuals.
As a good examples of how big the social interaction has grown, the program "My Space", currently has approximately 40,000,000 dating participants. While this program has a wide variety of social interaction, including dating and teenager participants, from a business perspective, for example, the music business, My Space is an essential place to be. Just because a program appears to be on the surface simply something for consumers, such as a dating service, when you look deeper within the service you may find that it incorporates many niche market produces and services. Therefore, it may well be a business opportunity, given the numbers involved.
The key consideration is whether the program is a fit with your business and, presumably, a growth into more social interaction within the legal profession could be accommodated by this type of social software. Obviously, the networking aspect of social software fits well within the legal profession and it also can provide useful professional resources and resourcing. Social software also allows you to create a personal profile. You can use the software to tell others about yourself and express personal feelings about what can often be viewed as purely legal issues.
An important part of personalizing the professional relationships is to refer back to and link to friends and colleagues whom you do work with to allow the reader to better understand the nature of your practice and the nature of your professional context. For example, you can identify in your Blog an opportunity for someone who does a specific type of wok for you and it is essentially an indirect introduction to that resource for the readers.
That's all for now - all the best, Suzana and Ian. --------
