Social Optimisation

People are what make things social. Our interactions with people are online, off-line, in the office, board room, and classroom, with our clients, shareholders, customers, friends and family. So, let us not mix up the terms "social media optimisation" and "social optimisation." Social media optimisation is about maximising the positive impact while minimising the effort when using social media channels for communications with people on-line. Social optimising includes the off-line relationships that are often (but not always) the foundation of these relationships and gaining the maximum mutual benefit from them. Where we are present for face to face interactions, or who we have shared history with can determine a great deal. The end result when we optimise is quality, improvement through learning and dialog, depth in mutual understanding and creation of sustainable relationships. The additional benefit is the we create more time to enjoy our successful relationships and ourselves: balance. Time is the ultimate return on investment (ROI) of social optimisation. Time is money, don't waste it, enjoy it.

Whether you apply these terms to a corporate strategy or to your individual approach, the end results are the same. Optimising requires understanding what you want to achieve, your strategy, applying the best tools to communicate with your people (where are they already), creating a dialog, listening to the response, and maintaining your relationships. Social optimisation requires application of the three basic rules (REAL, RELATIVE and RESPECT) to create sustainable quality relationships that will benefit you whether you are social for recruiting, branding, R&D, team building, selling or just keeping in touch with friends. In the end the "social" comes down to the person at the other end.