We recently expanded the Share functionality on the top of our abstract pages by adding Facebook and Twitter to the Digg, Delicious, and CiteULike options.  Our community asked for the ability to easily post or tweet about research that was important to them and has already created thousands of SSRN links on Facebook and Twitter.

This ease of linking and accessing content is beginning to create interesting opportunities.  Google* and Bing are continually adding features to enhance their results but it has become a cat and mouse game trying to provide the best, non-manipulated results.  We are starting to see a lot of interesting research regarding the use of social networks to provide recommendations using a “wisdom of friends” approach.  It makes a lot of sense to us.  When you think about it, don’t you value the recommendation of a trusted friend more than a search engine algorithm?

* I love the 40th Anniversary Sesame Street doodles this week, especially today’s Cookie Monster!

From Octane magazine: “Keeping Up With the Cyber Current”:

In the June 2009 issue of Octane, Entrepreneurial Organization’s quarterly magazine, I outlined SSRN’s “three-step approach” to expanding our online presence through social media.  The approach is an ongoing process that allows us to evolve and accommodate the needs of our users as technology evolves.  As part of this expansion, SSRN added sharing technology for popular sites, such as Digg and Del.icio.us, and joined Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.  Our three-step approach is:

It is definitely a learning experience for us and I look forward to your feedback about how we can improve.  Please comment below or write to me Gregg_Gordon@SSRN.Com .

Today’s post was originally going to be a quick one describing what we are doing with “social networking” and how to follow us.  It still includes instructions below, but I was reviewing my notes from Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody for my AACSB presentation last week and realized a couple of fairly obvious points.

First, as scholarly research has moved from a model of scarcity to one of information overabundance, content is no longer king.  The conversation that surrounds the content is king, along with the innovation that occurs because of the easier access. My simple definition of innovation is the ability to create new things by being exposed to a broader and deeper set of existing things.  Easier access to research and the conversation facilitates innovation.

Second, access needs to be based on each user’s perspective and personal style.  Just as we digest food in different ways (sitting at a quiet table for two, standing at the sink, etc.) at different times, we digest information in different ways at different times.  The key is to provide access in variety of ways that work for different people at different times.

Thus, we are expanding how you can get content from the SSRN eLibrary and will continue to expand as new and different means are created.  As Chris Anderson wrote, “Long tail businesses treat consumers as individuals, offering mass customization as an alternative to mass market fare.”  We aren’t there yet, but we are trying.

OK, back to the originally scheduled post …

With the growth of the Internet, social networking has expanded to allow a person to connect with another person in real time regardless of geography or to access information no matter where it is stored.  We see a plethora of opportunities for the SSRN Community using these tools.  As a first step, we have joined Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn and will post updates, announcements, and other items to them regularly.

Here is how to find us:

Twitter:
http://twitter.com/SSRN

Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rochester-NY/SSRN/36086731835

LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin.com/groupRegistration?gid=40866