Logic+Emotion

Productizing Ideas

Can an idea be owned? I'd say it can certainly be rented for a while. The question then becomes how does a renter make the most of their property? In Linchpin, Seth Godin tells us how important it is to ship something. I'd add that the packaging is equally important. The value chain today looks something like this. Text has value but it's like the wind—e-mail, tweets, and comments allow for widespread communication with low effort. Blogs take it up a notch. Decks put even more form to it (if you know how to build decks) Apps and books package thoughts even further.

The reality is that all of these things together can bring an idea to life and really keep the idea alive. The act of creating a book is likely different from the act of promoting it. The tweets, e-mails and posts that were less important in the act of creation may become more important in the act of distribution.

But as it's been said in Linchpin and likely in lots of other places in other times, the question in need of an answer is "did something ship"? In other words, owning or renting an idea is likely impossible if you haven't shipped out something tangible that's worth sharing.

Most Marketing Is Unremarkable

The e-mail came in like hundreds of others. I read it, thought about it and took the e-mailer up on their offer to unsubscribe.  Frankly, I was upset that I ended up on the e-mail list. I never asked to be. And while it tried to come across as humble, real and authentic—it just didn't really do it for me. It took time out of my day that's valuable to me. I felt inconvenienced to have to go through the unsubscribe effort, though strangely satisfied after it took.

The reality is that most marketing is unremarkable. It's an annoyance. An inconvenience. A reminder that I'm just another cog to serve the benefit of the individual, brand, or company who wants me to do something for them.

It doesn't have to be. Make a connection. Make it real. And I'll pay attention. It's hard work and difficult to scale. But it's more difficult to unsubscribe from a relationship. And that's the bottom line.

Do I Know You?

Or does it "feel" like I know you? I often get asked for favors which either tap my time or perceived influence. I can't do everything I'm asked to do to help, but I've noticed a tiny little process that goes on in my mind whenever I'm asked for something. At the end of the day, I ask myself "do I know you"?

In reality I don't. In the traditional sense, we can only come to truly know a finite amount of souls in our lives. But with ambient intimacy firmly in place in modern day living, it's possible to feel like you know someone. Do they make an effort to talk to you in your Twitter stream? Have they commented on your site or Facebook page? Have you recieved an e-mail in the past with an introduction when you weren't even ambiently aware of them.

In other words, you can feel like you know someone even when you really don't. And believe it or not, sometimes this is enough to exchange a small favor, share an encouraging word or engage in a micro-interaction. Breadth should never replace depth, but sometimes you'd be surprised how meaningful it can be.

Facebook Places From A User Perspective

There are plenty of articles and perspectives to read on Facebook Places ranging from privacy concerns to speculating what it means for marketers and business. The question you have to ask yourself is do these authors, journalists and analysts actually use the technology? I've been playing around with Places a bit and here are a few first impressions followed by a takeaway from someone who regularly uses Foursquare.

1. Getting Started On Mobile

Places is currently only available in the U.S. on iPhone with BlackBerry and Android development to follow. The feature is placed prominently within the application and is easy to take notice of. Compared to a native app, this is an extra click though not hugely inconvenient

2. Adding Venues

Much like Foursquare, venues are added by users (they can be claimed by owners). The process is fairly intuitive and fast though it can take some time for the map (Google) to accurately geolocate. Overall though, adding locations is a snap.

3. Checking In

Checking in is also similar to most gelocation services in that it pulls up the nearest venues which exist. Places also keeps track of the number of check-ins.

4. Controlling Quality

Also mimicking similar platforms, Places lets you flag venues in a variety of ways. Since it's very early on, these community features are yet to be tested and rely on the vigilance of Facebook users.

5. Broadcasting & Engaging

Places lets you combine status update with location update on par with other platforms but on the Web interface it also displays a nice rollover with a small map. One of the biggest differences at this point is that you have to manually tag friends as opposed to it self populating (Foursquare does this in combination with Twitter).

Summary
From a user perspective, Facebook places is not bad, which is a bit of an accomplishment for a new launch. From a platform perspective this is not great news for the competition. However, there are some serious issues and the biggest is lack of integration with other platforms such as Twitter. There is also no reward system (badges) which some Foursquare users like and others care less about. The experience though shows promise and for Facebook it's yet another source of behavioral data which will prove to be valuable to advertisers and brands. In short, as a user it's off to a decent start. If your Facebook connections use it, it's likely you might as well. If users adopt the behavior as Facebook rushes to support other mobile platforms and global locations it could gradually make the act of checking-in as common as the status update. If this happens, organizations with physical locations will have to take a very close look at this and what it means for their business.

The Sociology Behind SXSW Panel Picking

First let me say that the SXSW Panel Picker process and concept is an ingenious marketing idea that incorporates social hooks, buzz, content distribution and most importantly taps into a basic human driving force—competition. In the first week of the SXSW Panel Picker, if you observe closely you'll notice several different promotion techniques. Each teaches us something about how we market ourselves in a digital, social and flattened ecosystem.

Rising Social Tides Lift All Boats
Several peers have taken an approach where they've curated panels from others they either respect or know have formidible networks and are proactively promoting these lists without asking for anything in return. Two great examples of this are from Sarah Evans and her 15 panels to thumbs up list as well as Liz Strauss and Terry Starbucker who created a Friends of SobCon panel list. Both approaches execute against the "sharing" principle of social media in which you freely share what you have (in this case an sudience—and it comes back to benefit you.)

The Personal Touch
I've recieved several e-mails and or DMs (direct messages on Twitter) that have given me a heads up on a topic based on my interests. In some cases the individual put forward a reciprocal offer (support me and I'll support you). In other cases the approach was a soft promotion of their panel wrapped around a personalized message.

Broadcast
Even with social networks firmly in place, we as human beings demonstrate that we like shortcuts. E-mail lists, Facebook status updates (and in some cases Facebook ads), Tweets, Linked In, etc. are all being used a megaphones to "announce" panels. Some broadcast efforts can be very niche (and less of a shortcut). For example, Len Kendall sent e-mails to his distribution list of 365 contributors (though he only did so 40 at a time due to Gmail constraints). While I don't have the data, I'd estimate that some of these techniques can be effective but it also comes down to the quality of the individuals networks as well as the quality of the proposed panel. For example, I've clicked on a link in an e-mail only to not vote up a panel if it was underwhelming. I've also done the opposite. I've at least read all of the e-mails on panels that have been sent my way.

Advocacy
Advocacy can in some ways be divided in paid and earned. I've had PR practitioners submit panels on behalf of their clients and I've also seen people advocating for others simply based on the fact that they feel a certain loyalty or affinity for the panel organizer. Since I'm not paying anyone to help me, I've been fortunate to experience some of the latter via the comments in my own proposal. Both paid and owned can be very effective and likely are not mutually exclusive.

Social Karma
Social functionality such as comment fields enables social behavior such as reciprocity. While it's not unheard of for someone to say a nice thing not expecting anything back, it's widespread that we do, hoping someone will return the favor. Leaving comments and showing support for others in public settings can signal a "favor" which doesn't have to be repaid, but if does will not go unnoticed.

Collaboration
Creating Wikis such as Damien Basile's Google Spreadsheet allows users to add, edit and update panel submissions in a collaborative manner while gibing the curator (in this case, Damien) the social currency for setting it up and adding his panel in the first slot.

I've only scratched the surface on some of the behaviors and techniques I've seen in regards to the SXSW panel picker. They are a sign that the approach works as it activates the network creating interest, as well as narrowing down the large number of submissions. The approach makes for some interesting behavior watching. So what have you noticed?

Why PR's Future May Not Look Like PR

Last year at SXSW, I handed over the panel I proposed to my former colleagues at Dachis Group (Social Business By Design). This year will be different. I've submitted a panel on why PR's future may not look like PR.

The description:
When You Think of PR (Public Relations), your first impression may be of the silver tongued "flack" spinning a corporations' news, putting a positive slant on everything. With advances in networks, online communities and the ability of the average individual to become their own content producer and influencer—the face of PR is changing, shifting the focus from communications to engagement in increasingly public spaces both online and off.

What I'll Cover:

1. What Is PR?
2. How Is PR Evolving?
3. The distinctions between communications, engagement and why it matters
4. Measuring sentiment, share of voice and forms of participation
5. Leverging social and other emeging channels in the management of a crisis

Disclaimer
I work for a Public Relations firm (Edelman) with no formal background in what's traditionally been called "PR". I have a million ideas in my head about where this is all going. If you want to hear them, you'll have to vote.

Fire Your Marketing Manager & Hire A Community Manager.

Originally posted on Harvard Business Review.

Okay, maybe that’s going too far. I don’t really recommend firing your marketing manager. I do however believe that most companies will eventually need to hire or contract with a community manager, if they haven’t already. A recent BusinessWeek article called “Twitter Twitter Little Star,” describes social media as a booming industry which has caught the attention of corporations everywhere, and suggests the role of a “social media director” and what that person should do. I’d like to dig a bit deeper into why this core function is necessary to create what’s becoming known as social engagement. I’ll call the role the community manager.

A community manager actively monitors, participates in and engages others within online communities. These communities can be on Twitter, Facebook, message boards, intranets, wherever groups of people come together to converse and interact with each other. A traditional marketing manager is likely to have little experience with this function. Historically, community management developed outside marketing, in areas such as community organizing (politics) or in niche verticals such as the video game or software industry, which are no strangers to digital outposts such as message boards.

A community manager acts as an ambassador for your organization, whether that person is an employee or contracted to manage your social web presence. A good community manager gives a human form to the faceless corporation. On Facebook Whole Foods, for example, community managers have created a forum that impels customers to respond to its posts. They also often informally engage their customers in the process.

A community manager must be a good or great communicator. He or she of course needs to be social, and understand the social mores of the communities served, and have a strongly developed sense of ethics. He or she should know, for example, when deleting a member’s comment is wrong or justified and be prepared to explain why. Enthusiasm is also required. Finally, a good community manager will be well connected, forming relationships with the right people in your communities, the individuals and groups you want on your side.

No doubt companies are flocking toward non traditional job descriptions like community manager. If I were building my my all-star business team, I’d think about how community management works and why I might need a few good ones on my roster.

Media Isn't Social

Several weeks ago I delivered a 16 minute TEDx talk titled "reinventing social media". Typically I like to frame topics outside of the social media bubble, but in this instance the topic itself and the purpose of the talk was designed to get us all thinking about things a bit differently. You see, businesses, brands and organizations are truly struggling with the disruptive nature of social technologies. In fact, the term "social technologies" is part of the problem—we are all fixated on the technologies and meanwhile the real action lies in harnessing the change brought about by human behavior enabled by technology. I used the simple story of how a colleague shared a book with me. The book itself (media) is not social—the interactions, communications, stories and conversations that involve the book are.



But to say "it's about people" is too simplistic. Toward the end of the talk, I made my case that in a couple of years it would be unlikely that I would even be talking about "social media". This thesis based on the belief that "social" translates into the conversion of an organization which requires shifts in culture, technology, process and ultimately behavior. If an organization does not empower its people to behave in a productive and beneficial social manner than can we actually use the word "social" to describe it? If the organization has not begun integrating these changes across several functional groups as opposed to leverging just one (such as marketing) then is it really taking advantage of some of the changes I discuss in my talk?



I believe that the answer is no. It means that one part of the business is behaving a certain way while the others behave differently. This would be like your head looking at the person's face who you are having a conversation with while your body is walking away from them in mid conversation. So in order for "social media" to become reinvented, to go with the theme of the TEDx discussion, it has to change (or we need to). And change as we all know always begins with people—so our focus needs to turn here. Hope you like the talk and as always feel free to share your own thoughts.

Report: 8 Criteria For Facebook Marketing Success

The 8 Success Criteria For Facebook Page Marketing View more documents from Jeremiah Owyang.

While the current trend in all things social is demonstrating ROI (did Old Spice Increase sales etc?) There remains a lack of emphasis on actually executing well in social spaces with the assumption that this is simply where customers, consumers, employees etc. will go to seek information and interact. That's why I think Altimeter's recent report listing out 8 success criteria specific to marketing initiatives on Facebook is a breath of fresh air. I was fortunate to help inform the report as an ambassador for Edelman Digital, and was happy to see best practices featured from brands we work with such as AXE (client). That aside, the report is worth reviewing and digesting as it goes through the 8 criteria in depth backing it up with examples:

With the above criteria in place, Altimeter has drafted a simple framework for brands and organizations to keep in mind as they build out their digital embassies in the Facebook ecosystem. Using this criteria, Altimeter then selected a few brands to evaluate calling out specific best practices and areas for opportunity. Here's how the brands fared when compared with each other:

 
At minimum the report offers a few choice insights and examples of brands to look at and learn from while you are developing your strategies and tactics for this space. Specifics such as being inconsistent or not addressing angry comments serve as early indicators to learn from as companies develop their rules of engagement for Facebook and other digital embassies. While other studies focus on devising formulas that assign dollar values to Facebook connections, reports such as this offer a few high level guidelines for how to best navigate through social systems such as Facebook. Have a read and chime in. What are your best practices?

Why I Have a Boring Title

I lived and worked through the original dot.bomb. For those of you who don't know what this was, essentially it's a term that described the bursting of an irrational bubble fueled by reckless funding and many Web ideas that were simply ahead of their time or simply not good ideas. During this time, I witnessed several silly titles ranging from Chief People Officer, to Director of Fun, and anything with the word "innovation" in it.

My title is boring. SVP, (Senior Vice President) signals the level I hold as an Edelman employee. "Digital", signifies where I spend much of my focus. It's literal, straightforward and not very clever. And I'm not entirely sure it should be. Lots of folks in my shoes would likely rush to integrate the word "social" into the title. This is, of course the flavor of the week—and is understandable.

But as a matter of philosophy, it comes down to what you think really makes your job. Having the right words in your title mean nothing if you can't put them into practice. For yourself, for your co-workers, your peers, or your clients. Yet it's the first place we look to. We start with the headline and then write the story. But as someone who does fair share of writing as a form of professional and personal communication, I can share a little secret with you. After I've written a piece, I often go back and change the headline to reflect what I've written. Sometimes it's not even close to what I started with. This and my experience during the dot.bomb have taught me that the story is more important than the headline. And I'd rather have a boring title than a boring story.
Image credit: UglyKitty

Judging Social Initiatives

Can your efforts in social media be judged? Sure they can. Do you deserve an award? That's debatable—but from a sociological perspective, awards will be around as long as human beings are since validation is a fairly powerful driving force in the lives of social beings (and human beings are social).

That said, I'll be part of a judging panel for one of the first ever social media specific categories in an industry event. The Jay Chiat Awards for strategic excellence also known as the "4As" and popular with the planning community has included a track for social media strategy. Former colleague Peter Kim will be acting as chair and I'll be joining forces with:

• Joseph Jaffe, Chief Interruptor at Powered
• Jeremiah Owyang, Partner at Altimeter Group

But what will be my personal criteria for judging? Here are a few things I'll be looking for.

Innovation: Was this something that pushed the boundaries of the medium? Specifically in tech, content or human engagement? Did it innovate in a strategic fashion?

Sharibility: We others compelled to talk about it? Did it get shared and was it passed around the community via word of mouth?

Community: Did it serve the community in some way? Was it useful? Did it provide value to a community in a way that was mutually beneficial to both members and the brand/organization?

Connectivity: Did the initiative connect individuals—did it foster participatory and or social behaviors?

Relevance: Was it “socially appropriate?” given the nature of the network(s) it was deployed in? Did it cause natural adoption as opposed to being forced?

Authenticity: Was it true to both the social ecosystems it was deployed in as well as the brand?

Accountability: Did the initiative result in something tangible? Was there a change in perception, behavior, or a financial benefit in the form of profit or cost savings?

These are some things I'd be looking for. So if you were me—what would you look for?

Social Media is F**king Addicitve

 

If you haven't seen it already, the third installment of the infamous slideshow, "What The F**ck Is Social Media?" has been published over at Slideshare by Marta Kagan. Since I'm a sucker for good visual communication or any good communication for that matter. I highly recommend flipping through it as it's both informative and entertaining. And it contains a few updated stats:

1. If Facebook were a country, it would be the third most populated in the world, ahead of the United States. 
2. If Facebook were a country, it would be the third most populated in the world, ahead of the United States. Only China & India are more populated. 
3. 500 BILLION. The number of minutes spent on Facebook per month. 
4. 500 BILLION. The number of minutes spent on Facebook per month. LAST YEAR, THAT NUMBER WAS A MEASLY 150 BILLION. 
5. The amount of content 25 BILLION. (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) shared each month on Facebook. THAT’S MORE THAN 6X LAST YEAR’S VOLUME.
6. 500 BILLION. The number of peer influence impressions Americans generate per year via social media. 
7. 500 BILLION. The number of peer influence impressions Americans generate per year via social media. 62% of those impressions come from Facebook.
8. 24 HOURS. The amount of video uploaded to YouTube every minute. 
9. 24 HOURS. The amount of video uploaded to YouTube every minute. THAT’S MORE THAN DOUBLE LAST YEAR’S VOLUME. 
10. 2 BILLION. The number of YouTube videos viewed per day. 
11. 2 BILLION. The number of YouTube videos viewed per day. THAT’S TWICE AS MANY AS LAST YEAR. 11
12. 4 BILLION. The number of images hosted on Flickr. 
13. 4 BILLION. The number of images hosted on Flickr. THAT’S 13X MORE THAN THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
14. ONE-THIRD. The proportion of women aged 18-34 who check Facebook when they first wake up—even before going to the bathroom. 
15. NINETY-FIVE. The percentage of companies using LinkedIn to find and attract employees. 14
16. NINETY-FIVE. The percentage of companies using LinkedIn to find and attract employees. 59% use Facebook and 42% use Twitter. 
17. 1 in 6. The number of marriages last year between people who met through social media. 15
18. 1 in 6. The number of marriages last year between people who met through social media. THAT’S MORE THAN TWICE THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO MET AT BARS, CLUBS, AND OTHER SOCIAL EVENTS COMBINED. 
19. 27 MILLION. The average number of “tweets” per day on Twitter. 16
20. 27 MILLION. The average number of “tweets” per day on Twitter. THAT’S 8X LAST YEAR’S VOLUME. 
21. 7 HOURS. The time it took for LeBron James to amass his first 150,000 Twitter followers. 
22. 7 HOURS. The time it took for LeBron James to amass his first 150,000 Twitter followers. It took Bill Gates 8 hours to reach 100,000. 

And of course I had something to say about social media. I stated the obvious:

Social media is the crack cocaine of the Internet. We want it, we need it, and we go into withdrawal when we don't get enough of it.

For me, that pretty much says it all. Translation: it's here to stay and we're all going to have to get used to getting our fix as part of our daily lives.

Six Digital Trends To Watch

Originally posted on Edelman Digital

My colleague Steve Rubel and I wear many hats at Edelman. One of those hats is keeping an eye on the trends unfolding in real time and deriving meaning from them as they pertain to organizations and brands. Attached to this post is a slideshow where we identify what these trends are and at a high level how your organization needs to plan accordingly for them. They are:

1. Marketing in the age of streams

Your customers, consumers and employees are no longer only visiting static Web pages but participating in conversations which increasingly occur off domain in “streams” flowing from Facebook, Twitter and even apps. In order to catch them, you must be highly relevant in their streams.

2. The Googleization of media

Quality Content and potent social connections in addition to traditional keywords are influencing how visible you are to the search engines. Everyone is media.

3. The data decade

Data is increasingly becoming available to anyone and everyone. From it we can derive insights into behaviors. We must become “data junkies” to fully harness this trend.

4. Business becomes social

Moving from designated spokesperson to employee engagement at scale—business itself is beginning to look more social as organizations start to engage all stakeholders in open and mutually beneficial ways.

5. Location, location, location

Where you are is becoming the new what are you doing as multiple platforms begin to adopt the new geolocation status update generating new kinds of data.

6. Private becomes public

Despite privacy concerns, applications and behaviors which support social sharing are still going strong as what is considered private becomes re-defined as we continue engaging in networks.

We believe these trends are not future gazing but what’s happening at this very moment and that they will cause organizations to adapt to change, adopt new practices and innovate accordingly. For more industry insights, ideas and perspectives you can visit our newly created “branded channel” on Slideshare.

Preparing A Social Readiness Gameplan In Seven Steps

 

Photo Credit: Avanash Kunnath | Originally posted on Jive Talks

Two industry articles recently surfaced which caught my attention. The first on Media Post indicated that more than half of the companies polled for the article go at social media initiatives without a strategy. The second, from eMarketer included some statistics behind common social initiatives but indicated that there was a gap between tactical implementation such as reserving URLs and properties which most organizations were already doing, to planning for relevant protocols which many had not. Both pieces left me wondering—are organizations really preparing themselves for a day where engaging in public will become more mainstream, ubiquitous and even expected? In other words, will the organization truly be “social” when they need it most? To help answer this question, I’m going to list a few core “plays” that your organization should be incorporating into their gameplan if they truly want to move toward making their business more “social”.

Play 1: Active Listening & Analysis
It’s often repeated, but common sense dictates that this is where you begin. Your organization should be aware of what’s being said about it and where it’s being said. There are a variety of social media monitoring tools which make listening possible ranging from the free to the more expensive. Other articles exist to point you to those tools—this one is designed to stress that it needs to be in your gameplan and more importantly integrated into your business model. For example, The Gatorade brand took listening and analysis so seriously that they actually had a physical “social media command center” built into their Chicago headquarters. But whether your listening is digital, physical or a combination of the two, what’s most important are the insights you derive from doing it.

Play 2: Influencer Mapping & Network Dynamics
Call them influencers, mavens or connectors—these individuals exist in both an organization’s internal and external networks which are relevant to your organization and it’s your job to find out who they are and what motivates them. But it’s not just the influencers that matter, it’s the overall way the networked ecosystem works and how it responds to things such as perceived threats or hot conversational topics. Before your organization enters any social ecosystem, it should have spent some time studying the network dynamics around it. Services such as Networked Insights, Skyttle, and others like them exist to provide select intelligence which can arm an organization with the knowledge it needs before ever stepping foot into a community.

Play 3: Technology Assessment, Integration & Adoption
Technology is key in developing a social readiness gameplan because it’s what accelerates anything from collaboration to communication. Internally, the right technology may not be in place in order for your organization to move as quickly, intelligently or as socially as you would like. This is where solutions such as Jive and others come into play. Externally, the plumbing is complex but also open in many cases (API’s). In both cases there needs to be an assessment of what can or can’t be done. How it integrates with what’s already in place and who is likely to use it.  For external integration examples, think Facebook connect—for internal, think of your legacy intranet and what might replace it. In both cases, perform audits to determine what technology will best serve your purpose, goals and business culture.

Play 4: Organizational Planning (People & Process)
Technology alone never solved anything—it is the human capitol part of the equation that completes the picture. Change requires existing processes to be re-designed. Rules of engagement should be put in place that act as guidelines for how to engage for the mutual gain of the organization and it’s stakeholders. Training should be implemented. Policies need updating and every business unit within the organization that plays a role in the gameplan should know the rules even when they change.

Play 5: Strategy
No game plan is a plan without a strategy in place which outlines what needs to be done before you actually do it. What’s most important is that you think before you act. What’s the competition doing? Who is succeeding? Who is failing? What does success and failure actually look like for your initiative—and HOW will both be measured? These questions should and can be answered before any substantial initiative begins and that in a nutshell is what strategy is.

Play 6: Pilots, Programs & Transformation
If strategy is the plan inside the gameplan, then consider pilots (small, bite sized initiatives) the scrimmage. Pilot initiatives allow you to test theories on the field taking calculated risks. They should be small by design. Successful pilot initiatives often inform and sometimes evolve into more ambitious undertakings. A pilot could be platform specific, such as testing a collaboration tool with a department vs. the entire organization. Or externally, establishing an embassy on Slideshare vs. ramping up dramatically on Facebook. Pilot projects when done with success and shared around the broader organization can occasionally lead to a larger business transformation.  

Play 7: Measurement, Metrics & Success
Every organization will determine and measure success differently. For some it may be sales. For others it’s adoption of a platform. For some it’s measuring the levels of participation or specific actions such as a sign up, donation, or even saying a positive word in a public space (sentiment). Whether it’s increasing visibility, driving sales, or generating a cost savings, your game plan should include what you intend to measure and how you will measure it. 

Consider the above a high level checklist for your organization in the quest to evolve it into a more connected brand and ultimately a social business. Perhaps you are doing many of the things listed in here. Perhaps you are just starting. What’s most important is that you have a game plan in place which is strategic enough to get you started and adaptable enough to change as fast as conditions in the game do—because change as we all know, happens.

London Calling

 

Next week (June 23rd-26th) I'll be spending a few days in London for business. Since I know a ton of you in the area (though have not met many in person) I've "enlisted" long time virtual friend George Nimeh who has graciously offered to plan a Tweetup in the area. It's on a Friday night, so you have no excuses. Hope to see you there. In other news, I've been using Plancast more often to plan my travels. The social aspects of it as well as the mobile version make it a nice option. If you're in London next week—come out and say hello. Below is the Plancast widet which I've added to the right column of the site.

Facebook's True Story Is Agility Not Privacy

Originally posted at Harvard Business Review

Privacy. It's the key word in most Facebook-related headlines these days. But it's not the key idea. I believe that what's really being tested here is not the limits of privacy but the notion of agility — the ability of an organization to implement rapid iterations in their products and services for better and/or worse.

Since its inception, Facebook has been a poster child of agility, demonstrating practices often associated with the agile software design movement. Agile software isn't new, but the idea of a business as hugely influential as Facebook applying agile principles to its platform (and maybe to its business model) is new.

Facebook's pattern has become nearly cyclical. This recent privacy kerfuffle is in some ways just a repeat of Facebook Beacon which was introduced then quickly killed due to privacy concerns. Nevertheless, the platform grows. Facebook has produced a highly addictive and constantly evolving social platform that keeps users coming back for more despite regular complaints about not just privacy, but the user experience itself. If Facebook were a city, it might be my hometown of Chicago, where they say "if you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes." If you don't like the latest Facebook feature, wait 5 minutes, or days or weeks but not much more than that, for some type of significant tweak or new feature rollout.

The product itself (the platform) evolves nearly in real time. It changes so fast it feels as if everything is "beta." One day you'll log-in and notice a different layout, a new button, a new feature or some entirely new integration. The next day the company changes the entire social ecosystem by opening up its social graph to third parties.

The company's becoming an agility case study worth watching. As Facebook tends to push aggressively, then scale back based on user feedback the larger question is do we as human beings want this type of non-stop cyclical change? The answer usually lies in the experience itself. How many versions of software and hardware has Apple pushed out? Why is a BlackBerry product (disclaimer, Edelman client) endearingly referred to as a CrackBerry?

If Facebook can keep the experience addictive, we as users are likely to happily follow their rapid iteration. Facebook's agility is directly tied to our addiction. Where platforms such as MySpace evolved more slowly, Facebook evolves in real time and we've rewarded them for this by signing up by the millions. Is working this way sustainable in the long term? We're about to find out.

The Social Business Manifesto

Way back in 2005, I came across a blog. Not just any blog—it was called "The Social Customer Manifesto". I found it to be so interesting and compelling, that it was one of the first blogs I left a comment on (I had mostly been a passive observer prior to this). Five years later and I feel like I've come full circle as the author of that blog (who I've come to know), Chris Carfi has joined Edelman—the company I work for. In his honor, I thought I'd write a short post, flipping his model of a manifesto from the customer, to the business. Enjoy and welcome Chris!

• We will no longer view you as "consumers". Instead, you are co-creators, participants, and advocates.

• We will actively listen, and participate authentically because we know you demand nothing less.

• We will meet you on your terms, not ours.

• We will provide value, not noise.

• We will evolve our workforce to meet the changing demands of a networked economy.

• We will focus on your needs vs. our messages.

• We will build relationships that connect us in ways where we all benefit.

• We will act ethically and transparently, because it's no longer a choice.

• We will respond to changes quickly—we will adapt.

• We will move forward with you, not without you, because you are our future.

Welcome aboard Chris! Let the Karaoke begin. :-)

People, Places & Events

You may have noticed that I've been doing less speaking (and blogging)—the truth is I'm extremely busy working on multiple initiatives over at Edelman, so I am being selective about any travel I take on. But I will be picking up the pace a bit over the next few months. Here's a short list of places and events I'll be at. If you find yourself at one of them, be sure to say hello.

Ontario, May 17-18
I'll be opening up the Future Flash event discussing the changing role of PR, alongside other folks from places like BBH Labs and AKQA. Future Flash is a Contagious Magazine event.

Montreal, May 19
I'll be joining Steve Rubel and several other Edelmanites for a Social Media Summit (Invite Only).

Porto, Portugal,  June 1
I'll be speaking at Impacto, at the University of Porto Business School. 

Barcelona Spain, June 3-7
This is strictly pleasure—will be visiting Barcelona (have suggestions on what to do?, leave a comment!)

New York, June 8-10
Attending events during Internet Week.

Toronto, June 22
I'll be Keynoting the CMA (Canadian Marketing Association) event on social media/business.

London, June 23-26
Will be in London for business and hopefully connecting with some industry friends.

Washington DC, July 11
I will be speaking at TEDx (and looking forward to it).

Hope to see you at one of these venues!

Poolside Chat With Joseph Jaffe

Originally posted at Edelman Digital

I recently had a chance to sit down with Joseph Jaffe, author of Flip The Funnel and Chief Interruptor at Powered. Joseph and I recently teamed up to do a series of talks with Symantec (client). We discussed the role of “thought leadership”–it’s relevancy and balancing both thinking and doing. Don’t let the poolside background fool you, we’re both working very hard at helping large organizations integrate social media into the way they do business. Enjoy the chat.

Why Social Sharing Is Bigger Than Facebook & Twitter

 
Originally posted at Harvard Business Review

The digital landscape is being reshaped by the news that Facebook is opening up its social graph. Twitter, too, has made waves by acquiring companies that made third-party services for Twitter.

But if you take a closer look, this is part of a more macro trend that transcends two social platforms--despite their emerging dominance. That macro trend is ubiquitous sharing: What are you doing? Where are you doing it? Who are you doing it with? What do you like? These used to be things we kept to ourselves or shared with our friends and family. Now we're willing to broadcast them to whomever is willing to listen.

Social media has led to "social sharing," the broadcasting of our thoughts and activities. It's not a fad. It's a sociological phenomenon, accelerating at light speed. The latest incarnation of social sharing: A platform called Blippy allows you to connect to your social system and share what you bought and how much you spent at retailers like Target, Netflix, Amazon, and Zappos, to name a few. Not only can you log-in to these services quickly from an existing social network, but you can share across multiple networks. Knowing what people are buying when, and how much they're willing to spend is creating a feeding frenzy among marketers looking for the ripple effect.

Not even the drumbeat of privacy concerns seems able to slow down the trend. It was recently reported that Blippy members' credit card information was showing up in Google's search results. Blippy is still going strong though. We are becoming ever more willing to share ever more information with the world. Here just a few implications to consider when it comes to the changing face of sharing in a social age.

Data Gathering. The more we know about an individual, the easier it is to sell something. Someone will amass socially shared data (this is where Facebook is placing bets) and businesses will tap it for profit. Google's integration of archived tweets reveals that even real time data can be sorted and mined. A business may not own the data from all of the sharing, but it's likely they will want it.

Knowledge Sharing & Collaboration. Conflating internal and external social sharing could profoundly affect how we work. Newer internal platforms such as Chatter from Salesforce not only borrow from the Facebook school of platform design, but they also integrate with external networks such as Twitter. The future of social sharing for the large organization could be making the two worlds come together in a secure fashion for the enterprise.

Content Distribution. Social sharing becomes the ultimate form of distribution. Any business or individual who produces digital content in any form will be tweaking how easily the content can be shared, whether by adding a "like" button or designing the content itself to be sharable.

Social Currency. Sharing on the social web acts as a form of currency. Sharing useful information that might help someone within your network scores you points and builds equity. Finding a deal and sharing that with others can put you in someone's favor, and maybe then they will find you a deal. It's important to recognize that all this sharing isn't some useless impulse. There are reasons why people are willing to share so much. Creative expression is part of it but also, there's often a benefit, value, to the individual who shares.

Social sharing is a major behavioral shift, the most important so far of the 21st century. And the information we choose to share with friends, co-workers and even strangers, is re-defining the idea of what's private and public before our very eyes.

Social Business Planning: Aligning Internal With External

 

Some small businesses start without a business plan, finding success in a breakthrough product or service early on and building upon that success organically. However, it’s inevitable that the venture will need to have a structured business plan put in place at some point if the business is expected to scale, expand and ultimately thrive. This well understood concept is the basis for what I’m informally labeling “social business planning”, yet from my experiences working across multiple organizations, the current focus remains on social media programs (the external) without putting in the appropriate social business infrastructure (the internal). Sound like theory? It’s not. Many of you reading this are probably initiating your own versions of social business planning and if you aren’t you will be.

Parallel Path Planning & Implementation

 
There are several considerations to factor in while aligning your social media programs with your social business infrastructure. The first is that in today’s agile world it’s realistic that neither comes first. When I visited Dell several years ago, it was clear that the company had leapfrogged others in the social space because they were not afraid to take risks and implemented “pilot programs”. Pilot programs are small, manageable initiatives where progress can be made rapidly and leveraged as proof points while gathering data. Today, you can be assured that Dell is looking to scale and integrate social into their entire business model and this will likely be an ongoing process which requires a good deal of incremental change. But this is inevitably the next step. So in a digestible format, how does social business planning break down? I have a few thoughts:

Employee Engagement:
The program side of social media often includes initiatives where brands and companies perform outreach toward customers or engaging them in the hopes that they will advocate on behalf of the company or brand. Employee engagement is a similar model but focused on employees and it acts as an umbrella over much of the social business infrastructure. When Nokia implemented an internal forum where employees could freely complain about the company anonymously, they in essence created a form of employee engagement where they are able to gain valuable insights. Companies such as McDonalds are known for engaging employees prior to launching major branding initiatives. Specific to social media, engaging employees in semi-public environments such as Facebook is where the lines between social media and business blur. Helping employees engage each other on secure internal networks can help ensure that they socialize internally since it’s likely they already do this externally.

Training
 
I often hear from companies that they have the most personal and effective sales and customer service reps. This is followed by the fact that few of them feel comfortable leveraging social networks for the company, or that the organization has not taken steps to formalize this as a function. Before any formalization can occur, it’s worth considering that your representatives may need training just as they did in traditional channels. Providing customer service in social spaces often means that you are engaging in public and not everyone is naturally comfortable with this. Some companies have found success through their business culture—Best Buy being one of the few to succeed in modestly scaling customer service via social systems. If your organization doesn’t naturally lean toward engaging in public spaces, you’ll need to identify the people in and outside of your organization who are and have them systematically train others. I’d recommend training start with small connected groups and gradually expand through the organization. Edelman’s belt system is a good example of a training program which can work at scale, moving your employees from rudimentary to more advanced levels of social media proficiency.

Process

 
The speed at which social technology moves translates to the need for new processes to be in place. Whether it’s Motrin Moms or Dominos, it’s been well documented how real time the internet as become. A crisis can go full blown in literally minutes and hours and doesn’t take weekends off. Organizations will have to take a second look at their existing process models and find ways to streamline as a result. This may mean opening up new channels of communication between departments so information can flow freely, or removing single approval bottlenecks and replacing them with multiple sources of authority (think nodes on the network as opposed to silos). Process will have to be intentionally re-designed not replaced with chaos.

Organization Models
 
Implementing a “social media center of excellence” or committee that works with core and extended teams cannot occur without there being some changes in the way your company organizes and staffs employees. Some companies such as Comcast have begun organizing around their service groups. Others have marketing playing a more prominent role. Each organization will likely organize and staff differently when it comes to integrating programs with infrastructure. Altimeter Group recently shared some of the models they are seeing emerge in this space. 

Knowledge Sharing

My experience in the workforce has been that people don’t naturally share what they know and that even if they wanted to, IT departments have struggled with finding the silver bullet of technology that allows them to. In contrast, the external social networks allow us to share knowledge like crazy. In my estimation, platforms such as Slideshare, blogging and Wikis have actually changed how people view knowledge sharing. Instead of being rewarded for hoarding what you know, participants are rewarded with visibility and accolades. This is a complex problem for organizations and I’m not going to solve it in this post, but suffice it to say that your social media programs are less likely to be successful if you can’t even share internally. 

Policies & Guidelines
Several years ago organizations instituted guidelines around blogging. Social media has evolved into much more than that since then. Real time communications and location based services signal what we are doing, when and with who. Policies need to be updated constantly and more importantly be relevant to companies who activate their workforce in social systems. Guidelines should provide employees with basic rules of conduct within the relevant social systems. At minimum, I’d recommend that your organization revisit both areas and ensure that they are still relevant and actionable.

Culture
 
More specifically your corporate culture and don’t be fooled your company likely has one—every social system does. Before Zappos, Southwest Airlines was engaging customers via Twitter. They were also one of the first to launch a highly engaging and informal blog. How? They have an entrepreneurial and scrappy corporate culture which stems directly from their founder. The culture of your organization is likely going to be tied to the success of your social business planning and any initiatives that involve engaging participants authentically. Cultures can be notoriously open or closed and everything in between. Consider though that even secretive corporate cultures such as Apple benefited by opening up (in an intentional way) their ecosystem such as the App Store. I’m not an expert in transforming corporate cultures, and common sense dicates that it’s amazingly complex. But, companies such as P&G have historically experienced transformation in areas such as innovation and design. It likely takes a long time, but it’s possible and in my opinion may be needed for the best business results when it comes to “social”. 

Follow The Money

 
Which brings us to the conclusion. What are results? That’s fodder for further analysis. But consider the above chart from Forrester. It estimates that the highest increases in spending will be in the areas of social media and mobile technology. Why? Because attention has shifted from broadcast to networks and this trend isn’t going to reverse itself any time soon. If you accept this as a viable thesis, then making the case for investing in infrastructure or “social business planning” shouldn’t seem very far fetched. So what have I missed here? What would you include? How are you performing your own version of social business planning. I’d like to hear about it.

Toolkits: Social Technologies Listed

 

I'm really liking the simplicity and usefulness of the Toolkits feature recently launched over at Oneforty. From the perspective of a creator, it's a simple way to create a visual list of some of the tools you use, categorize them and make them sharable. From the perspective of a content consumer, it's an interesting way to browse through selections and connect the dots for yourself. If three or four people you know and trust are using the same tool—it's likely you're going to want to check it out. I created one called "The Social Business Toolkit". Have a look and compare it with others.

Getting The Basics Right

This post isn't about Foursquare or the latest social buzzword bingo, so I assume it will go largely unread and that's a shame. I'm on month four at my new gig with Edelman Digital. My job is to consult with multiple clients across global social initiatives, support staff across various regions, grow business, and I've also been tasked with ensuring that our own Web presence becomes the industry standard.

Employee Engagement
As I recommend with so many clients, to be successful with any social initiative (a non-automated program that involves engagement between live human beings) often requires changes in areas such as staffing. So the numbers in this chart which I'm fairly proud of are only possible because we chose to create the role of a "community manager" and were fortunate enough to find the perfect candidate to fill that role. The lesson here? Bootstrapping only takes you so far.

Corporate Culture
A number not on the chart but essential is that we've had 30 contributors in 30 days. Not simply one anointed "company voice", but 30 individuals ranging from new employees to veterans who feel empowered to speak and engage with the support of the company. To be fair, being a communications firm means this is in our heritage, but it's still not easy to execute against regardless of any industry.

ROI
At this point you may be asking, "do these numbers matter"? Well, they are metrics—and metrics are signs to be analyzed. But, from a business perspective we work in an industry where attracting the best talent for what we do is critical. The traffic and increase in applicants in the careers section is a good thing. Also, new business leads have been coming in through the site. That's probably the easiest way to cut through the clutter of "is this worth the effort" and also a positive sign.

Well, it's only been a month and I'm proud of these metrics and more importantly the team who powers the results. I'm really happy to see something like this become a contagious effort (with more people raising their hands to contribute). It's only one aspect of my job, but it's also one of the more enjoyable ones. These are the basics—putting in the right infrastructure, getting the strategy right, building things, creating momentum, changing how things work gradually over time and moving forward. It's not as sexy as the latest technology, but it's closer to real life.

Interactions, Engagement & Ecosystems

  

A "media" model composed of paid, owned and earned efforts is nothing new—however it’s useful to think about this landscape in tandem with the different ways we interact and engage which are enabled through technology. There are essentially three forms of digital engagement which can often overlap (engagement in a single initiative can include all three types) but each form can tend to dominate the experience. It’s important to remember that the type of engagement is contextual to what a participant wants to accomplish.

Types of engagement:

Interactive
This type of engagement is, as its name suggests highly interactive by nature, though what’s worth noting is that there is no social component to it. The primary interaction exists between a person and technology or human to computer. Examples of interactive engagement could be an ATM, or an e-commerce experience or microsites. It can also be a game, video, or any other experience where users engage a system or interact with content. The key distinction is that interactive excludes social interactions between participants.

Social
Social engagement requires the interactions between live human beings (not machines) and/or groups with each other. Most common forms of social engagement can occur on off domain networks such as Facebook and Twitter but can also occur on domain such as corporate blogs or by using the integration of off domain services. The key differentiator for social engagement is that it goes beyond human to computer interaction as described in interactive engagement and usually involves social behavior such as “friending” or human to human direct engagement.

Mobile
Mobile engagement happens exclusively on mobile device as opposed non-mobile device such as a desktop computer. It also takes into context the user behavior of individual(s) who are in mobile situations such as traveling or moving from point A to B. Context in mobile behavior is critical as user activity is influenced by the actual state of being mobile. It’s also worth noting that “mobile” itself may gradually be re-defined over time with devices such at the iPad which blend stationary and mobile behaviors as well as geolocation platforms such as Foursquare which makes mobile activity hyper-local.

Where engagement happens:

Engagement can happen either on domain or off domain and initiatives which include any form of media or content can fall into the following categories:

Paid
Paid efforts always require some type of monetary exchange in order to have initiatives placed on properties whether they be traditional outlets such as display advertising or non traditional outlets such as blogs or advertising within off domain such as Facebook. Paid placement in search initiatives also falls into the category of paid as long as results are tied to non organic or paid searches.

Owned
Owned media typically does not require monetary compensation and can occur on both on and off domain properties that the organization has control over (Facebook pages are off domain, where Websites are on domain but both are owned). Owned properties offer organizations the most control as they can decide what media to promote although off domain properties must be monitored closely as they often support social engagement which cannot be controlled but moderated.

Earned
Earned media nearly always takes place on off domain properties such as forums, blogs, social networks and also mainstream publications. Media is typically earned through word of mouth or unpaid but highly visible results in both search engines and social media referrals. Earned media can also be amplified through outreach initiatives. The core distinction for media which is earned is the absence of overt payment to the property owner for the results.

What This All Means
As stated in the beginning of this piece—much of this should not be new, however it does present new opportunities and challenges for organizations looking to stay in lock step with their customers, consumers and employees. The media ecosystem must be purposefully orchestrated and appear seamless to the individual and groups you are hoping to reach. From a technological perspective, this means potentially adding systems equipped with workflows such as Social Talk or Awareness which allow you to better manage your entire social ecosystem. From a people process, this could mean training and staffing differently. But from the perspective of the people who you want to activate—it simply means that you are relevant to their digital lifestyle. This translates to the the following: we must better understand how people want to engage (IE their motivations and behaviors). For example, the context behind when they want to act "socially" or be left alone and when they are “on the move” vs. stationary. Also, each form of media is its own micro ecosystem within a broader macro media ecosystem—Facebook’s latest addition of community pages could potentially create micro-ecosystems within the broader Facebook environment.

Having intimate knowledge of how these ecosystems thrive (or not) will help us figure out how they can work best together. In other words, get ready to go both wide and deep as you plan digital initiatives. The future of communications will require organizations to be effective both in engaging participants via micro formats while taking a step back and managing media and interactions across the macro (all social, interactive and mobile touch points)—and that’s just on the digital front. The bigger picture? Integration between the digital and real world because this is where it all comes together.

Getting Social With eBay

Originally posted on Edelman Digital

Last week Edelman hosted a strategy session with our clients and partners at eBay and I had the opportunity to pull two of eBay’s social media leads aside for a quick chat. Richard Brewer-Hay has been with the company just over two years and has already brought a face to many of eBay’s social initiatives through his eBay Ink blog as well as his consistent engagement with eBay users in forums and nearly every community imaginable. Julie Haddon, a former Twitter employee who recently returned to eBay after working there from 2003-2006, has moved back to the iconic brand in a global social media strategy role.

While eBay already has a presence on social touchpoints such as Twitter, Youtube and Facebook, the day was focused on looking at how the brand can dial up engagement with buyers, sellers and employees in a meaningful and scalable way. We’re very excited to be a part of this as eBay boasts some of the most engaged users on the planet and this makes for fertile ground. Have a listen to what Julie and Richard have to say and think about how it applies to your own organization.