The Social Cloud of the Future

The Dreamforce Expo kicked off this week with a rumored 90,000 attendees from 150 countries there. Sponsored by Salesforce.com, the purpose of this expo is to help businesses around the world realize the power of cloud computing. Cloud computing uses the internet to host data and provide information and services effortlessly to consumers.  While cloud computing is not a new idea, the big revelation from Dreamforce is how important social media is going forward.

In one example, Salesforce.com unveiled their new product called Marketing Cloud. Marketing Cloud allows companies to simultaneously track their brand power across every social media platform and also helps influence prospective customers these companies have already identified through Salesforce.com. That is certainly a more traditional way of thinking about how to use social media. However, there are many other innovative thoughts being unveiled.  GE Aviation is actually trying to outfit their airplane engines to be able to send status updates via social media that pilots and engineers can monitor to ensure everything is running smoothly. Salesforce.com is also unveiling Work.com which will allow corporate human resources to use social media in the work place to better motivate and track employees.

While there is no denying that humans are social beings, could these new ideas cause social media to become overused and too penetrating in our life? Will we be working through Facebook and Twitter in the future, while at the same time, trying to manage our personal lives through those mediums? Might it be necessary for all of us to create multiple accounts in order to manage all of the different areas of our life?