Future Trends in Libraries

Curated by Beth Kanter

http://www.bethkanter.org

 

This article by Brian Solis is bringing together a couple of themes

 

1.)   How SoLoMo and ambient information are causing information overload not only for individuals but at the enterprise level

 

2.)   Social media monitoring is about measurement, but there is a missing piece - making sense of the information.   Community managers are not doing this.

 

3.)  Business intelligence teams are siloed and not working with the social media team on sense making and application of the social media data.   

 

4.)   Better to invest in a human who can make sense of information than more technology ..

 

The idea of the human algorithm is to serve as the human counterpart to the abundance of new social intelligence and listening platforms hitting the market every day. Someone has to be on the other side of data to interpret it beyond the routine. Someone has to redefine the typical buckets where data is poured. And someone has to redefine the value of data to save important findings from a slow and eventual death by three-ring binders rich with direction and meaning.

One place where the human algorithm can have an immediate impact is in social media listening. In addition to tracking simple data signals such as conversations, sentiment, share of voice, and service inquiries, data can present insights into preferences, trends, areas for innovation or refinement, R&D, co-creation, and more. Even though sophisticated tools can help track data points that can lead to these insights, it still takes a human touch to surface them and in turn advocate findings within the organization. It’s the difference between insights, actionable insights, and executed insights.

 

The truth is that a community or social media manager is not tasked with this type of responsibility. Therefore, insights largely remain undiscovered. It takes a new role that unites the disciplines of business intelligence and social media with the perseverance of a change agent. Without it, all of the insights capable of leading organizations to the next big thing will meet their long time arch nemeses: fear and skepticism.

 

 

A few nonprofits, like DoSomething, have invested in data analysts on stff who job it is to steward data and help staff make sense of it.   How many nonprofits allocate the time for sense-making beyond the routine.   Usually, it is part of someone's job description and not enough time is invested in this important process.

 

 

Via Beth Kanter, janlgordon