Less Friction, More Done.

A big part of Web 2.0 has been about making it very easy to connect and share thoughts and ideas. Look how easy it is to sign up for a Twitter account or post on Facebook. Using these networks for communication is a lot easier than email. A lot? A wicked lot. Allow me explain with an example: let's compare helping a friend find a caterer.

• With email, you read the subject "Need help finding a caterer".
• You've now got to decide whether to open it, and in this case, you do. You then read the message and find out your friend is looking to cater her parents 50th anniversary.
• You can recommend a caterer, so now you hit reply (or may be reply all, a second decision), type in your response and click send.

What's the cost? Not much -- a couple small decisions, a little typing, and 3 clicks.

• Now on Facebook, you read essentially the same message as a post that shows up in your News Feed.
• You decide to share your recommendation, click in the comment box and simply type in a sentence or two and hit return (or click Share).

Done. With Facebook, one less decision, a little less typing (no salutation, no closing), and 1.5 less clicks. It may not seem like a big difference, but if you add up all the times in a day we could help others, the difference is significant. How significant? The answer depends on how many users, but it adds up pretty quickly -- have you seen the valuations of Facebook or Twitter lately? Low friction adds up.


Social business solutions also need to take as much friction out of the system as they can. If you read this Blog, odds are you use CubeTree, which means you’ve taken some time and set up your account, filled out your profile, and found people and groups to follow. As you use CubeTree at work, I bet you’ve run into more than one co-worker who was slow to set up their account. I meet folks like this often, and for the most part, it’s not that they’re fundamentally opposed to using social software, it’s that they’re busy with work, family, etc, so finding time to get started is difficult. There's too much friction to get started on social. With the latest release of CubeTree, we’ve made it a lot easier for people to get going on their internal social network.


Now your CubeTree accounts are provisioned, your profile is populated, and you’re also connected to others because CubeTree looks into your profile and sets up connections and groups based on that data. In fact, group and personal activity feed items start as soon as you turn CubeTree on for your company, even before someone logs in.


Those who have been putting off setting up their account will start to receive emails with summaries of discussions and links to participate. It's in our nature to contribute, so It’s only a matter of time until the social procrastinators click on one, and when they do, they won’t have to create an account, they won’t have to fill out their profile, or even set up following relationships. They will just have to click in the comment box and contribute their idea. Increased participation on your company's social network will greatly enhance its value. Will the valuation rival Twitter's or Facebook's? It's not likely, but one thing is for sure: Less Friction, More Done.