A few years ago I started to get frustrated with the way the market (vendors, press, analysts) was focusing primarily on how "social" could help teams and communities. While of course there are great benefits to this, I believe it leaves out the most important target, the individual. That's why I started my "Don't forget the ME in social MEdia" campaign.
I strongly believe that in order for people to learn to openly share and help their colleagues, they have to first come to grips with how they themselves can benefit from "being social". Once a person understands this, and more importantly appreciates it, they are then much more willing to "pay it forward" and help others. This is often referred to as the "What's In It For Me" (WIIFM) test.
This week in celebration of their 10th anniversary, Facebook launched a new feature called Lookback. Lookback creates a minute long video that showcases some of the highlights of the things you've shared on Facebook since you joined. While many people have become annoyed that their Facebook timeline is now filled with people sharing their Lookback videos, I think they're missing the point. While it may be nice to watch a few your friends and family's videos, the main benefit is that your own video should provide you with 60 seconds of joy. Almost every one I've spoken to said their video made them smile, sometimes even cry.
One of the areas I've been working with several enterprise software vendors on is how to help employees know which of their content is most effective and where they should (and should not) be spending their time. This is a topic I refer to as Personal Analytics. While Lookback isn't actually an analytics tool, it does highlight a few of your most popular posts. This is a good first step, and I'd love to see more enterprise software vendors provide a similar snapshot feature.
Kudos to you Facebook on not forgetting the ME in social MEdia.
Futher reading:
Don’t Like Your Facebook “Look Back”? You’ll Be Able To Edit It Soon on TechCrunch
How to download your Facebook Look Back by Willington Vega
