Business Goes Virtual - Chapter 4 - The Power of Sharing

The fourth post of my Business Goes Virtual blog series continues with “Chapter 4 - The Power of Sharing”. Knowledge hoarding has become a major problem for companies and causes many lost opportunities. With a newer generation overtaking the workforce, hopefully their innate sharing ability can help with this problem.

There is research that supports that different age groups share at different levels. Returning to the Forrester research that resulted in groundswell, we can see some compelling evidence. For example, using the creator category of the Social Technographic ladder as an example, we see a distinct difference by age. Based on Forrester’s most recent research that was conducted in early 2010 and included 26,913 respondents, we learned that different age groups of creators share more frequently. Recall that creators are those adult Internet users who write or upload video, music, or text, in other words share what they know. The following is a breakdown by age group and the percentage of each age group that create content (share):

• 46% of 18– 24 year olds create and share content
• 32% of 25– 34 year olds create and share content
• 23% of 35– 44 year olds create and share content
• 19% of 45– 54 year olds create and share content
• 12% of those 55 or older create and share content

Perhaps the time is right to stop the debate on the merits of sharing and instead harness the power of the desire to share.

Are you guilty of knowledge hoarding? What are some tips and lessons learned about knowledge hoarding/sharing over the course of your career?

Buy a physical or electronic copy of Business Goes Virtual: http://www.businessexpertpress.com/books/business-goes-virtual-realizing-value-collaboration-social-and-virtual-strategies

The content includes:
PART I - THE CONVERGENCE

Chapter 1 - Virtual Business: Real or Imaginary?

Chapter 2 - The New Face(book) of Organizations

Chapter 3 - Real Leadership in the Virtual World

Chapter 4 - The Power of Sharing

Chapter 5 - Making Sense of Virtual Worlds

PART II THE STRATEGIES

Chapter 6 - Any Place, Any Time

Chapter 7 - The People Know Best

Chapter 8 - Everyone Has a Stake

Chapter 9 - Real in the Virtual World

PART III THE WAY AHEAD

Chapter 10 - What Every Leader Needs to Know