Is Social Media A Bank?

If social media were an organization in the traditional sense it would be bankrupt. Yet organizations use it to try and create revenue.

If social media platforms continue to rely on advertising to support them they will be bankrupt. If social media wasn’t “free” it by itself would be bankrupt.  So how do users insure that social media doesn’t go bankrupt? The answer lies within developments that will enable social technology to become an exchange and creation  of higher value.

The Social Value Chain

A value chain represents related processes linked together and each process iteration increases value that is passed on to the next “link” of value iteration.

Fundamentally the internet is nothing more than “links” inter-connected yet the inter-connections rest in silo’s not connected. When something of value is not connected to something else the creation of new value is reduced, constrainted and sometimes not even realized.

Today the internet, in all its forms, represents a continuous flow of value contained in text, images and video. The value is created by the context of the information stored in different containers. Social media has accelerated the contributions of value however the value is not connected to anything that creates context to value sought nor is it easily identifiable or accessible.  While we have search engines that primarily index content that is popular.  The relational attributes of these search engines are centric to key words of affinity. Key words of affinity are not enough to create, contribute or sustain a truly functional value chain.

A New Value Bank

When we use the term bank we think of an institution that stores and lends economic value. When we think of the term value many would quickly reference terms of an economic transaction. We create economic value by what we do. We earn money for what we do and exchange the money for other things of value. What we do and the exchanges we make represent “value creation and exchanges” that are and continue to be produced by knowledge assets borrowed, owned or traded between two or more individuals.

Knowledge assets are contained within human beings.  The human bank contains intellectual capital, social capital and creative capital used to create “earnings” that are traded for things we “value”.  We use our knowledge assets and share them with others, organizations, institutions and society at large. We get hired for who we are which is reflective of our knowledge assets. Organizations use and abuse our knowledge assets to their gain or lose. We share our knowledge assets with family, friends and associates. We exchange knowledge assets in the form of conversations, actions and insights.

The #1 influence over economic output is individual and collective knowledge assets of people working together towards a common aim.  Imagine if our collective knowledge assets were indexed, able to be searched and subsequently used, borrowed, shared and executed more efficiently. Our intellectual, social and creative capital currently sits in silos of information not being used efficiently or effectively. What productivity would be gained? What innovation would be born? What influence would it have on an economy? What currency could be created in the exchanges?

The answers and the new value bank will soon emerge and when it does all things will change yet again.

About Jay: Jay Deragon’s professional career includes providing strategic management consulting services to Fortune 500 companies as well as local small businesses. He has consulted with numerous industries spanning over 25 years of professional experience globally. His current professional endeavors are all centric to the disruptive nature of the social web. He writes at Relationship Economy and provides social media strategic services to businesses large and small. Jay Deragon is an avid student of the emerging landscape of all things social and the subsequent impact on business dynamics. Since 2004 Mr. Deragon has been actively studying, sharing and learning how business as unusual is changing business methods, models and relationships. Life is a journey and the experiences along the way provides learning that furthers the experiences if we know how and what to learn. for more info go here http://www.relationship-economy.com/?page_id=2

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