Increasing Employee & Client Engagement

When I was reading info and researching for my Google Wave article, I ran across another cool but scary Google toolbar.  Google has just launched a new sidebar called Sidewiki.  You better get familiar with this because it takes commenting to a whole new level.  Now TRULY, the conversation will go on with or without you and it is going to be attached to every web page.  So ‘control’ is absolutely gone.  So for those of you still holding on, this will help release that grip.

This is new, so go ahead and install this toolbar immediately…  Go to all of your blogs, websites etc. and see if anyone has commented about you or your products.  If anyone has a bad customer experience and makes a comment, it is going to attach to your page so that everyone who visits and uses the Sidewiki will see it.  That is only half of the bad news.  They can also share it via Twitter and other platforms.  Now the converse is true, if they have a positive recommendation they can post and share that as well.

I knew something like this was coming…  I knew websites would be coming out with social elements attached to them.  I think the next step will be the same thing but internal inside the websites that allow your friends to tag products they like and do not like. It would allow you to subscribe to see those reviews & recommendations like you would on Twitter.

Time to think of a proactive stance… on how you are going to monitor and handle this new platform.  This may be the first, but will not be the last.

I had watched the Video on Google Wave back in May or June of this year.  It is suppose to revolutionize our communication and collaboration.  Email was built a long time ago and now they are building it as if it were built with all the 21st century enhancements.  Wiki’s, chat, Social Media, Document sharing etc.  So is it time to hit the reset button?   I read this great article on 5 Reasons To Dive Into Google Wave that does a good job explaining it a little better.

Google has only released 100,000 beta users…  It will be rolling out soon to everyone. 
I did get a chance to see one of the beta’s and it looks really cool.  I initially thought it was like email, but it really behaves differently.

GMAIL Threads… you probably have seen on GMAIL the new way email is more about individual threads.  You can open up any part of the email thread as if each is a separate conversation that stacks on top of each other.  Google Wave has this but it appears more like a document than an email because it is not a back and forth.  It doesn’t go from my inbox to your inbox and back etc.  It just sits there on the cloud and everyone can contribute to it in real-time. 

So think of it as inviting a group to create and edit a document…  It provides synchronization in real time.  Google is using API (applied programming interface) with this platform like Twitter & Facebook did to help enhance its functionality.  So it will be interesting to see what developers come up with to really make Google Wave cool.

The real question is… what products is it really challenging.  It is obviously revolutionizing what we think of email, but is it also taking on Social Media tools?  Is it trying to compete with Twitter but private rather than public because everyone has to be invited to each conversation?  Live chat etc. 

I cannot wait to see and actually play with this new tool.