I sent a client a link to join
"Does this have any commercial value for me as a consultant?"
Great question. Is it a fair question?
Let us do some "thinking out loud" right here in this blog... just to better understand what is happening and to help determine if in fact social media and sites like StumbleUpon are worth further exploration.
For a backdrop or framework, allow me to introduce a resource that you may not be familar with yet: Don Philabaum and his eBook, Internet Dough. Disclaimer: Don is also a client. As I have mentioned on more than one occasion, when I lack the expertise needed in most any subject, I seek out the guru holding the keys to my success in that arena. You know, the old "when the student is ready, the teacher will appear" axiom. Enter Don Philabaum to more thoroughly round out my understanding and appreciation of "Web 2.0 tools" and the use of these tools in to profit from the social media phenomenon. But I digress...
So, what does Internet Dough have to say about Web 2.0 tools? This figure from the book helps explain the difference between the old and the new internet, which is driven in great part by the tools available to the masses:
For me, one of the revelations is the shift in content from "official" sources to "personal" highlighting of official sites. Instead of using Britannica online to study the Black Rhino, Web 2.0 allows me to see what my colleagues or other mentors have discovered about the Black Rhino and what web sites gave them valuable insight.
Consider information sharing before the internet. If we both have read the same book, and if I value your opinion (perhaps as an expert in study of the Black Rhino), I would love to get my hands on your copy of that book. Why? To see what passages you highlighted!
Yes, this is a very simplistic exercise.
For me, simple is better. I can build as much complexity as necessary for any project by synthesizing components into a whole. Social media and the current web toolbox help me to do so in record time. If someone else has studied the Black Rhino in great detail, assembling a database of resources, why should I start over from scratch? Albert Einstein did not. He went out of his way to give credit to the "shoulders of giants" upon which he stood.
StumbleUpon is one of the tools to do likewise.
I hope this answers the question, does StumbleUpon have any value for consultants.
-jeff
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Jeff 'SKI' Kinsey, Virtual Buzz Assistant
www.vBuzz.org | jeff@vBuzz.org
Cell: +1 330.432.3533 | Fax: +1 330.308.0236
Disclaimer: Don Philabaum is a client of vBuzz dot org.
tag: vBuzz.org is a member of the Throughput.us LLC organization.
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