This video starring The Corcoran Group?s Matthew Shadbolt at Real Estate Connect in New York City hardly excites from either a technical or charismatic perspective, but Shadbolt?s story of how he caught the social media wave (with Foursquare) and where he sees the future trends is intriguing, if only for his combination of futuristic perspectives and banality.
Shadbolt is asking us to look at the intersection of groups with mobile and video communication, suggesting the interface of user-controlled media is growing more powerful and prevalent and indicating that social media coupled with video will, indeed, change the way we communicate as individuals and promote our businesses.
Now, I?m not sure how much I would attempt to translate the world of New York City real estate brokers to the real world in architecture, engineering or construction marketing, but equally I sense that we don?t need to be either particularly inspirational or charismatic to ?get it? and begin to see how what had been a distinction between online ?social media? relationships and our in-your-face and personal connections is now blurring to the point that they are virtually one and the same. This also suggests that the boundaries between promotion, distance and spontaneous and spur-of-the-moment communication are dropping to the point that the jigsaw puzzle of competency, communication and creativity are coalescing in a much more personal and immediate framework. (My alliteration skills are reaching beyond safe levels in this early morning blog writing exercise.)
So what should we do with this information?
I?ll add a chapter in my upcoming book on mobile/interface/converging communication ? and throw in a plug for Pinterest in the process.
You should look closely about how you can form a group leadership place within your marketing community, and then put it to work in practice. I sense if you really want to stir the pot and maybe make a difference, one place to do this stuff is within your relevant market-focused associations. After all, Shadbolt did.