Amy Shuen's "Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide" offers a wide-ranging view of how business can work in this environment. Of particular interest is the relationship between 'Value' and 'Function'. In the IT world, only the most valuable projects get funded. Those that don't slip into the hack or do-without mode. SaaS, or software as a service, sits between the Build/Buy models and the muck about with Excel and hope it works.
SaaS and its 'on-demand' cousins create an opportunity to extend the reach of a solution by changing the cost-model to one that is shared across a group of clients. This effectively allows SaaS models to reach the long tail of business opportunities. Companies that can not afford to make or buy now can 'rent' so to speak. If the functionality is good enough, the competitive landscape changes radically because their is a real fuzzy line between the 'haves and have-nots'.
From the book:
It seems that social media, and its relationship to marketing objectives, falls into the same pattern. There are certain activities that clearly fall into the high-value therefore we control category. There are other marketing activities that accrue like the post-it notes illustrated above - ideas that may never see the light of day.
Certainly people are talking about things, i.e they are 'hacking' in the sense that it is not highly organized. In between are the functions that a community needs - sharing, opnionating, feedback, and sometimes bitching. If we consider social media as a service then it extends the reach of marketing into the long tail of both customers and marketing activities. To be sure, there are trade-offs on both sides but it seems that it is way to find common ground and level this playing field as well.
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