I sat down tonight with notes and ideas for a blog post about how Twitter and tools like Spy have the potential to evolve business ettiquette for the better.  Those who attended or viewed via Spy or search.twitter.com the Best Buy Connected Digital Strategy Meeting (#bbyscds) last week or who participate in the Creative Summit (#bbycs) being held later this morning at 9am CST can witness the beginnings of this phenomena.  It is fascinating to me to imagine how many old-school enterprise leaders would throw you out of their office if you said that they should encourage employees to write and engage in an online social application while they present important strategies from the front of the room.  I will have to get back to writing this one soon. (My business etiquette post)

My conversation last week with Laura Fitton included her suggestion to read and follow Doc Searls and his Vendor Relationship Management Project. 

It seems there are PILES of blog posts and wiki entries to read, not to mention Searls' Clue Train Manifesto.  These links were just shared with me for the first time a few hours ago so clearly, I have reading to do.  I've touched only a few paragraphs from the Harvard wiki (linked above) so far.  I was surprised to see only about 100 people following VRM on Twitter.

I say "surprised" because it is this project that feels like the answer to some monumental business challenges in the monetization of social media.  In addition, Project VRM could be mining the ore that can eventually turn into the business model for traditional retail enterprises. 

My initial reading pulled my eyes wide open as I considered my work on BlueShirt Nation Bazaar.  Bazaar is part of Best Buy's internal social network that is being used to connect vendors directly with Best Buy employees.  Bazaar is on the tail end of an intial test (about five months) and is nearly ready to scale up for broader adoption.  I mention Bazaar as I believe it could serve as a VRM tool in the near future by giving customers a way create direct relationships with vendors.

Since I have so much to learn about the topic, I will not attempt to write at length about it yet.  I just felt compelled to mention this enormous and very shiney distraction.