I really enjoyed the section in Made to Stick about the Curse of Knowledge. The idea is that company leaders who construct obscure ideas for business strategies that don't relate to the rest of the staff or the customers can't really be very effective, even if the leader has a clear goal in mind. It's all about how you relay that message in an understandable way that determines your success. Heath and Heath explain that what works instead are stories. People understand your company completely when you give them a story or a concrete vision. They give examples of the FedEx delivery drivers who go the distance on foot if they have to in order to get packages mailed on time, regardless of the obstacles they face. That portrays the FedEx company goals and values much more than any vague business statement could.
I think this really applies to the social media encyclopedia entries the class is working on. Many times we feel the tendency to review the site's "mission statement" or "about us" section to understand what exactly the site's objective or usability is. However, what's usually more effective is when people take you through the site, showing its specific features and telling stories about how the site works or doesn't work. Often, the mission statements for companies are just rhetoric that doesn't really get at the heart of what they do and how well they do it.

The concept that resonated with me the most in Gillin's chapter 10 was that business have to understand their audience in order to be successful. It seems like a pretty basic and obvious idea, but I think it's something that many companies and websites do very well and many companies do very poorly. Gillin discusses how a site could have great content for it's chosen demographic, but if the strategies used to relay that content don't also coincide with the interests of that group of people, the overall message could be ineffective, leaving the site a failure. For example, if you're creating a network community for people who love to play Nintendo, the content on the site will need to be all things Nintendo. This could work great for people to share ideas and experiences about the game system. However, this community could easily fall through the cracks and fail if, let's say, the format of the site is catered more to a business environment. Nintendo gamers aren't going to connect with a site that allows them to send emails or formally discuss the topic; the site would need to reflect the gamers agenda and attitude with a more lighthearted appearance, possibly some games to play on the site, etc. Audience is crucial.