Introduction

More than 4,000—that’s the number of text messages my friend’s 18-year-old daughter recently logged on her cell phone…in a single month! “Not unusual” was his casual reply when I expressed my amazement at the number.

The generation coming of age since the turn of the last millennium—including my friend’s daughter—uses technology as no generation before it has done. “Millennials,” also called “The Net Generation” or “Generation Y” (typically anyone born after 1977^[1]), are not limited to any particular country, region, or culture. In India they’re the up-and-coming generation, now more than 300 million strong, and referred to as “Zippies.”^[2] This new generation is found on every continent, wherever a cell phone signal or Internet connection is available. They rely on technology for information, for entertainment, and for communication. They rely on technology for shopping and socializing, and often for a combination of the two. The recommendations of friends strongly influence Millennial buying patterns and can significantly affect market penetration of both new and existing products.

In The Social Factor I contend that economic and social dynamics (led most notably by Millennials), along with unprecedented technological advances, have propelled us to the next great era in societal development, an era I believe will come to be known as the Social Age. The Social Age is fundamentally different from the preceding Information Age, which was marked by increasing efficiency in the dissemination of information via the Internet, from producer to consumer. The Social Age, on the other hand, leverages the Internet and depends on it, but the Internet is merely a conduit for the Social Age, much as the electrical infrastructure was to an Industrial Age company. Rather than merely the next step in the Information Age, the Social Age fundamentally changes the way we communicate, socialize, and collaborate to create a better world.

Several years ago I led an effort at IBM to tap into Social Age methods of communication and collaboration. As of the time of this writing, more than 300,000 IBMers—one of the largest worldwide workforces exploiting social tools—now contribute to internal wikis and blogs, and use a collection of new social tools. These technologies are driving a new wave of creativity and energy at IBM, as they are at other progressive organizations.

In many ways the Social Age fascinates, frustrates, and remains mysterious to those who stand to gain the most from joining it. Business people the world over often find themselves on the sidelines, like the last kid chosen for the team, unsure of what’s going on around them, and not really sure how to get into the game.

So how does a business, how does your business effectively harness the unimaginable power of Social Age tools to stir passion and gain customer loyalty for your products and services? How do you use social tools to foster creativity and innovation within your company? If you suspect your business is falling behind, relying on what’s “always worked,” it probably is!

In The Social Factor we explore the thesis that a powerful new economy has emerged and profound changes in social and workplace interactions are occurring, driven by three forces: (1) information overload created during the Information Age, (2) standardization of technology that has commoditized essential conduits of communication such as cell phones, and (3) the availability of low-cost, two-way Internet communication including wikis and other social networking tools.

These three forces are irresistibly changing the way businesses compete in the twenty-first century. To effectively recruit, retain, and maximize the productivity of the Social Age workforce, and to foster collaboration with the global market, today’s business must embrace and effectively integrate an array of social networking tools.

The key is to understand the dynamics of the Social Age and then accelerate the adoption of social networking tools by your organization. In The Social Factor, I review the events that led the world to the dawn of the Social Age. We explore the transformation of society that occurred with the advent of progressively less-costly methods of communication—from the phone, to the personal computer, to the Internet, and finally to social networking tools and services that connect the world in amazing ways.

We look at wikis, blogs, instant message, and other social networking services and discover that all these tools are increasingly available on any device—mobile or fixed, allowing you to connect with collaborative communities—any time, anyplace. Social networking has extended to the world of software development as well, and we spend a chapter discovering the powerful benefits available to your organization through open software development. We also devote two chapters to the emergence of “clouds.” These clouds can either be “clouds of knowledge”—developed through the process of “tagging,” or computer clouds, in which the power of massively scalable computers is available on-demand, for development, storage, or for launching a new application. We also spend two chapters discussing ideation and innovation processes in the enterprise—two areas that use social networking tools in a particularly powerful way. In the ideation chapter we also explore the fascinating organic foundation for all the social interactions—the remarkable human brain.

Throughout The Social Factor, we provide you with proven methods to tap into the incredible power of social networking—to ignite innovation, empower your employees, win new customers, and make existing customers even happier with your products or services.

The Social Age is here. Is your business ready? Are you ready?