(taken from Jeremiah Owyang’s blog) As Brands Continue to ‘Pollinate’ the Social Web, Expect Corporate Websites to Aggregate
Categories: Aggregation, Future of Social Web, Pollination, Social MediaPosted on July 1st, 2009
Brands are pollinating the social web with easy-to-share features like Sharethis. As conversations splinter across the web, brands must prepare to aggregate those same conversations on their corporate website. As a result, the trusted conversations will centralize back on product pages.
[Trusted conversations have fragmented to the social web --shifting the balance of power to communities]
Social Pollination: Brands Currently Spreading to Communities
Why: Brands are trying to let their corporate and social content spread to many different communities in Facebook, Twitter, Email and others.
Examples: Any blog post, press release, or product page that encourages readers to share the content to other locations. Any brand created Facebook fan page, flickr account, or Twitter account.
Risks: Letting content spread to other locations causes some angst, as brand managers now must monitor content and discusions elsehwere on the web. The command+control mentality of “our corporate website is central” no longer holds true as people can share content using browser features like social bookmarking tool Delicious, or sharing links in Facebook.
Vendors: A variety of tools have appeared such as sharethis, addtoany, addthis and others. Incumbant players include: email, Facebook, Twitter, and Delicious that encourage content to be shared within those communities.