With some CMO’s or executives just now asking the question “Have you heard about MySpace?” and just now thinking about how their company can become involved with MySpace, it brings up a greater underlying question. It was also a question one of the MBA’s asked last Thursday.

With technology and social media changing so quickly, are companies ever able to keep up?

Let’s think about the question for a minute. Does technology and social media move fast? Well… first there was Friendster, then there was MySpace, now it’s on to Facebook. Along with Facebook, however, there are blogs, then there is Twitter (and Utterz, oh and Jaiku), and Seesmic isn’t far behind, I’m sure. This isn’t even mentioning what is going on in online video or audio. Let’s also not forget social news sites like Digg, Reddit, and Del.icio.us (along with Clipmarks, Ma.gnolia, and more), either. So yeah, I guess it does move fast.

Then of course there’s all of us leading/bleeding edge marketers who, without a doubt, display forms of the shiny object syndrome. S.O.S. is where we all move flock to the newest, shiniest, and prettiest social media property. Is it necessary? Well, if you want your company to be exceptional (not just mediocre, or good, but exceptional) I think as both a marketer and a company it’s necessary to look at the horizons, experiment, play, and see what’s out there.

I know, that’s not the point. The question was “can companies keep up with social media?”Probably not. But I think the question becomes clearer when reframed.

Do companies have to keep up with the latest social media trends and technology?

Here’s what I think, and I am curious what others thoughts on this are When it comes to social media, there is an underlying element to all of it. That is, social media is governed by particular principles. In essence, these principles are connecting, sharing, and experiencing.

At this point, these principles don’t make up a list of handy dandy “best practices”that most companies are used to having. I’d say on the one hand, this makes things very difficult for companies, but on the other, it makes it easier than it ever has been. It’s easier because there’s freedom.

I think once companies invest the time into learning how these principles of connecting, sharing, and experiencing really work in social media, they’ll like the fact that aren’t any best practices. They’ll like it because they don’t have to keep learning a new set of “best practices” for each social network. That’s where the sense of freedom and ease will come from. Once a company has learned how to apply these principles and authentically converse with their community, keeping up suddenly isn’t so important. It won’t matter whether they are Blogging, on MySpace, Facebook, or Twitter because they could be on any one of those and, with the right mindset, successfully use it as a tool to connect with their community.

So can a company keep up with the speed of social media and chase after the newest, shiniest network? I think so long as they learn and really integrate the mindset behind social media all, they won’t have to. The sites are just tools. It’s the community that matters.

(p.s. if you’re the woman who asked this question and you start a blog within the next week, contact me and I will link to you :) I’m referring to the person who was in the 2nd row, 3 seats in from the far right.)

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