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Every time you want to think about social media, try imagining a huge place where people just get together to talk, debate, laugh, work and do most of the things that they do in real life, with the only exception that distance is no longer an issue. One of the most interesting possibilities that this new (is it still new?) movement, fad, culture, or whatever you want to call it brings to the table, is a whole new way to collaborate with each other. It opens up a door that couldn’t exist before because of obstacles like geographical distance and lack of social tools. Well, fortunately, we have that now, those tools are here. Collaboration can take the next step.

Between Companies

Thanks to the access that companies now have to their customers’ opinions on a massive scale, they can now work together to establish connections and partnerships that can make sense for all the parties involved, not only from a financial point of view of the companies, but from the point of view of their customers as well. As long as companies are responsible, the possibilities of collaboration are endless.

Between People

This is happening so much right now, it’s ridiculous. You don’t have to be the wisest or most informed to realize that one of the reasons people are loving social media so much is because of how they can work with each other. And when I say work, it’s usually fun. I have been part of more than five ebooks already, all of which have had more than a dozen people each contributing to the project. We are loving collaboration and that’s only going to increase.

Between Both

Here’s where it gets interesting. And challenging. On one hand you have the people, those that have been cooperating and collaborating for a long time now and that love doing it. They have the knowledge, and the respect of their peers if they have been doing it responsibly. On the other hand, you have the companies, those that have the resources and the motivation to create something impressive. The problem is that they don’t know how to collaborate, how to step down to the level of individuals to cooperate with them. If these two can sort out their differences and consider the each other’s best interests, collaboration with social media will definitely be a force to acknowledge.

What Will Happen?

I truly don’t know. Predicting is always hard, and I’m not a fan of listening to predictions. But I am gonna say this: the potential is there. As an individual I’m already seeing it. But if we are truly going to have an impact, if companies are really going to benefit from this possibility, it’s something that time will tell.

Carlos Miceli. Argentinian. Questioner of things. OwlSparks’ blogger. Freelance writer. Entrepreneur. Every day philosopher. Skill learner.

Tags: Blogging, Business, collaboration, community, content, content creation, conversation, Social Media, teamwork