A useful elephant in London In 2012 we will be useful to people who want to learn how to grow social, community-empowered businesses. Not that we weren't in 2011, but usefulness will become our obsession as we put the work of setting up a business and figuring out who we want to be behind us.

  1. Our courses will be essential tools and our partners will be fellow mentors.  In 2012 our online courses will become platforms for other consultants and team leaders to use to educate and mentor their own people. So people can learn when they want and connect with people who can mentor them for many years to come.


  2. New courses we produce this year will be even more helpful. Online social business courses that drill down into professions such as public relations, human resources, as well as skills such us understanding video in daily story telling will all be part of our releases in the New Year.


  3. We will share what we learn through our social channels to keep people on top of current ideas, approaches, strategies, and tools. And we'll do it in a way that makes sense for each network. For example, we will share and converse a bit differently on Google+ than we do on Twitter because people relate differently and have different expectations on each network.


  4. We will make sure that our people are available and accessible. Using new tools like Clarity.fm we'll be helpful when people need us most.


  5. We'll be online and in the flesh, building relationships and sharing our insight with people who want to change and grow, and become more human in how they approach business and the people that they help.


A Growing, Collaborative Work Culture

To try to explain the culture we intend to grow in 2012, I couldn't say it better than Jason Fried in explaining how his company, 37signals operates (below). We use their products and consider them the most useful and helpful tools in our daily operational toolkit. It makes sense that they are bulit by a culture that is the model we are growing Sociallogical on.

Jason explains it best himself in this interview with Inc Magazine:

Useful, Partner, Produce

Following Chris Brogan's suggestion, our 3 words for 2012 are: Useful, partner, and produce. In addition to being useful, we will seek to partner with great people with great insights who can help us produce useful products, content, and advice.

It's going to be a great year!