Not me but Henry Jenkins

If you are at all interested in Web 2.0 and Social Media you should take a look at the work of Henry Jenkins of MIT (Wikipedia entry). This is his page at MIT.

Henry does academic work into the world of games, traditional media and new media to see how it is impacting society. His work on the Comparative Media Studies programme at MIT is fascinating as it goes to the heart of social media and active audience engagement.

Relevance for business people?  Think - engaged customers and engaged employees.

I come from the pre-digital world but my kids have never known a time without PCs, mobile phones and satellite TV. They have different attitudes and behaviours to me as a result. Should we care?

Yes.

At a societal level youth attitudes and behaviour are important. Politicians, policy makers and educationalists have to understand what motivates them. Equally what motivates older members of the audience to get engaged in social media? What prompted my late Father at 78 to get himself trained to use the internet and then get my Mother to use it?

Equally if we are in marketing or HR the youth group could be critical for the future success of your organisation.

Marketing need to understand and communicate with an important group of prospective customers.

HR need to engage with future employees and managers of tomorrow and motivate them.

Click here to listen to a podcast interview with Henry.