Continuing our informal series of interviews with BlogPotomac speakers at the Final BlogPotomac (October 23, at the State Theatre, register today!), crayonista Jane Quigley joins us to discuss the future of social media. She is the lead for the afternoon sessions, and has one of the sharpest minds in the business.
With more than 14 years in the interactive marketing space, Jane has a true excitement for all things Social Media. She has implemented a number of social technology applications and campaigns for her client’s marketing and media schedules, including white-label social networks, corporate blogs, mobile campaigns and more.
BP: What social media application or network is really exciting you today and why?
JQ: I’m really enjoying Posterous. It’s even easier than Tumblr – the original mobile blog. All posts are done over email, the iPhone app or a “Share on Posterous” bookmarklet. It’s really the first mobile blog that is really “set it and forget it” = I never worry about formatting issues.
Also – I have a lot of respect for the Posterous team (Garry Tan and Sachin Agarwal). I’ve had mine for over a year and have been really impressed by the consistent performance and feature updates. The right features at the right time – no feature bloat. And they really use their own product. Not only do they each have a couple of Posterous blogs, which they consistently update, but they comment and favorite other user’s posts each day.
BP: In your mind, what’s the biggest barrier facing corporate adoption of social?
JQ: I don’t think there’s that much of a barrier anymore – most companies see the need to connect more intimately with their customers (and their employees). Where I see the disconnect is that most social media consultants don’t see the Big Picture. It’s not “where does social media fit into my marketing plan” but “how can I infuse conversation into all of our marketing”.
It’s so much more than a tactical plan – it has to start with strategy.
BP: What current or future technology do you see impacting social the most over the next five years?
JQ:I think it’s whatever is the easiest – that’s why Twitter works over Friendfeed, and Facebook over Orkut and the rest. The KISS-methodology works every time.
Besides that I’m keeping an eye on the localization of social – Foursquare and Gowalla, as well as a Techcrunch50 entry, CitySourced, which looks like a social/mobile Neighborhood Watch.
BP: Do you think social media has positively or negatively impacted society and why?
JQ:I think that the effect has been mostly positive – but I also think that too many people take many posts and reports at face value. Not many people are taking responsibility for fact-checking or researching what is true and what is opinion. Opinion is not fact. We can’t afford to be lazy.