Logic+Emotion

Here's To Integration (and more) in 2011. Cheers.

A recent conversation made me realize that 2010 was simply a BLUR of activity. I experienced and did so many different things, that it's difficult to even sit down and track how the year went. A few highlights stand out for me professionally. I'm proud of the fact that we launched and actively sustain what I consider to be a proof point of acting as a social business. With over 100 employees who have contributed on Edelmandigital.com and our digital embassies on Slideshare  and Twitter, these remain healthy pilots which demonstrate that employees can act as corporate ambassadors when they generate perspectives and freely engage with our stakeholders. We've also been able to contribute meaningfully to both the idea and execution of community engagement and how this matters to brands and business. I was thrilled to see a call out from NBC network recently on the topic, knowing that we are influencing how they structure and deploy for public engagement. Outside of the digital world, it was exciting to see ourselves covered in print in the type of depth that a publication such as Contagious Magazine can offer.



In addition to working with some of the best people in the business at Edelman (you know who you are), I've been fortunate to work alongside some amazing clients who are really pushing the envelope one day at a time at very big organizations. Julie Haddon & Richard Brewer-Hay & Team from eBay, Brian Wallace, Michelle Kostya, Baldev Solank, Becky Caroll & team from BlackBerry/RIM, Lou Ragg & team from MGM, Katie O'brien and fellow "social media calendar man" Jay King of Ben & Jerry's... these are just a few I can recall but thanks to every client I've been able to work with this past year.



A few other highlights from 2010 include collaborating with the folks from Johnson & Johnson where we facilitated a high energy and engaging white boarding session at Blogworld. It really opened my eyes to the issues the health care world is facing due to social technology disruption and patient empowerment. I spent some time with old friends at events this past year and met new ones in places such as Portugal. In fact, travel became a bit of a full time job for me in 2010 whether it was surviving Heathrow snow induced madness in London or realizing that Seattle has one of the best social media communities in North America. I've gotten to know places like Toronto, Montreal, LA, San Francisco and Silicon Valley a little better and thanks to my wife, took some much needed time off in Barcelona to recharge the batteries. Another form of battery re-charge I've taken up is doing some artwork while I travel. It's therapeutic. :-)

While on the topic of travel, I have to express thanks to my family who has infinite patience in this area and while it's difficult they always make coming home worth it.

In short, 2010 was a blur of projects, people, connections, launching stuff, training staff and doing my best to keep some type of work/life balance. That has not been easy at all. But, the formula is simple really and what I will carry into 2011. I love what I do, which is helping business and brands act more human. I believe there will be HUGE benefits to the companies who can pull this off in the years to come because of social, economic and technology drivers.

Think about it: most of us are overworked, our home values (if we can even own one) is a fraction of what it once was and we've seen our friends and family members lose their jobs and struggle just to make it. We don't want to do business with faceless companies—in fact, we don't TRUST them. We demand more and we are empowered via social technologies to make these demands.

I believe all of this firmly. I believe there are tremendous opportunities, but it will require serious INTEGRATION. And that is the word I am going into 2011 with. I will continue to write periodically for the Harvard Business Review, and I am in the process of planning our annual SXSW event with Dell's Richard Binhammer (Allhat III). But most of all, I'll be very focused on the idea of integrating "social" in every part of my career, from how we work with clients to how we as Edelman and I as an individual move forward in the business world. 

So THANK YOU everyone who has come along for the ride. The old friends I've re-connected with, the new friends I've made, the colleagues who challenge me daily and my family who remains my source of strength. Here's to 2011. Cheers.

Discussing The Post Consumer Era

A couple of years ago I wrote a blog entry on "marketing in a post consumer era".  The basic premise was that economic, social and technological conditions are impacting how "consumers" behave making us less reliant on mass consumption fueled by mass marketing and more savvy, thrifty, and fickle. So when I got contacted about discussing a related topic on the RT program called "Cross Talk", I jumped at the opportunity. Here's how it went, and here in a visual is my basic premise on "post consumerism", what influences us and how we decide:

Beyond Branding: Becoming A Social Business

David Armano from Michael A. Stelzner on Vimeo.

I recently chatted with Micheal Stelzner from Social Media Examiner and after a bit of a chuckle, we got down to business, specifically the business of being a more social organization. What does that mean exactly? Well, it goes beyond social media marketing and there's a good chance your organization will be grappling with some of the issues we discussed in this interview if your goal is to leverage social media for the benefit of your business. More to come in 2011...

Joy

Here's a little creation that I put together on my flight from NY to Chicago. Forgot to post it on the blog but instead shared it a few other ways. But the holidays aren't over just yet so here's hoping that we are all able to slow down enough to experience the simple joy of reconnecting with family and friends.

Social Media Marketing Won't Fix Your Infrastructure Problem

I'm fortunate to be sitting in a nice room, sipping a cup of tea on a cold English morning as opposed to being stranded on a hard airport floor as hundreds of others are (for now). Though I hope to get home soon and really have no idea when that will be, I'm having a bit of an epiphany—which solidifies what my perspective for has been for years now.

Infrastructure (or the lack of) is the ALWAYS at the core of most issues
By infrastructure, what I mean is a certain set of resources, preparedness, technological relevance, tools, people, hardware, guts, nerve system. The essentials. As the British government debates on whether it makes sense to invest further in their transport infrastructure, the debate hinges on a certain question:

Will it be this cold in the years to come?

This question is an important one, as it's a pragmatic way to look at the problem. If the answer is no, then perhaps there is no need to invest in better systems. If the answer is an absolute yes, then an investment over time might be wise. Let's look at another question:

Has social technology fundamentally impacted how we view media, and conduct business?

Ok, this is a two part question. Let's say your answer is yes to media and no to business. On the surface level what seems to make sense is to invest in the media part (whatever that is) and ignore the business part. Problem is, as you dip your toes into social media waters, it quickly becomes apparent that media as we know it has changed. Networks don't operate the same way media operations worked. They have their own economies. They in fact blur lines between employees, customers, advocates, detractors and empower individuals to become stakeholders in the areas you wish to do business in.

So, the lines between media and business become less clear than we imagine and marketing doesn't live in it's own blissful bubble anymore. In the networked world, the expectation is that being a node on the network means you are representing the entire organization/business and not just the marketing arm.

Back to Heathrow, London, Infrastructure and my uncertain near term prospect of leaving. Heathrow provides a service and is a business. Like any business, it does marketing—has employees, conducts communications initiatives, manages crisis situations (right now) and operates a series of systems that allows it to function. It can't market itself out of this scenario, but it can look at its systems moving forward.

Food for thought in 2011. Every business has a series of systems and infrastructure in place to keep it running. Even if the goal is to EVOLVE the communications/marketing arm of your organization because you fundamentally believe that the game is changing—there is no way to do it without picking up the hood and looking at the engine. Not just the oil or the windshield fluid level, but the ENTIRE engine.

Only then can you diagnose what needs to be fixed, so that engine can run how it needs to. Take a lesson from Heathrow and think about your own infrastructure as you plan initiatives for 2011. Does anything need fixing BEFORE that snowstorm hits?

Why Social Initiatives Span Business Silos

Due to weather conditions, Heathrow airport has been thrown into complete chaos, shutting down and leaving hundreds of travelers stranded (I'm writing this from London and will have to head there tomorrow). Aside from the major inconvenience, it also serves as a clear demonstration that companies who initiate social initiatives (such as a Facebook page, Twitter account etc.) will naturally over time learn that they serve several functions. As shown below, Heathrow (thankfully) has been using its Twitter presence to provide updates that are better than what you'd get from many other sources:

Now take a look at what how their digital embassy runs during less critical times:



It's a simple example of an organization which uses it's social properties in ways that blur the lines between marketing, communications, and customer service to a certain extent. Why does this matter? Because increasingly social initiatives are looked through a primary lense. That lens could be marketing, but what happens when your consumer package product gets recalled? The point is, as I've made numerous times before—"social" is bigger than a single discipline and requires coordination between them:


And now that I've gotten this post out of the way, wish me luck on getting home from the UK. I'm going to need it!

Participatory Economics: The Supply + Demand of Participation

I'm on the tail end of my week in London and I was able to sit down with colleges Stefan Stern and Robin Hamman where we had a brief but rich discussion on the idea of being a social business (podcast here). We discussed quite a few things from emerging start up models to communications in a social age, but one of the things I brought up was the mainstreaming of participatory economics. My theory is that social technologies and the online behaviors they enable leads to more participation from what use to be static audiences and "consumers". But as a result of this, a demand is generated for participation to be reciprocated from business and brands. If this is true (and I think the needle is moving in that direction) does big business have the supply to meet the demand of participation?

Edelman: One Year Later

 
The fact that I am writing this post from our London office and that it will be short and sweet will probably tell you all you need to know about my past year (it's been pretty busy). In fact, a colleague celebrating her year had to remind me that I too had made the milestone. As those of you who follow my moves know, I've been deeply involved on a number of initiatives that have me flying across the country and world and some days I don't even remember where I am waking up.

But I'm happy to say, I feel like I'm moving forward here in helping both our business and clients evolve in a dynamic space that changes not yearly or monthly, but sometimes hourly. I'm tempted to look back and think about some of the launches or experiences, but I'm focused on looking forward. I often get asked by people—sometimes peers why I don't go off on my own. The answer isn't as simple as the question but I'll answer it in the words of two other people from Edelman. Steve Rubel is obsessed with the Yankees and he constantly compares us to his favorite team. He thinks we have a deep bench and I agree.

And I once heard Richard Edelman tell a story about being the best stone mason in the world vs. having the ability to build cathedrals. As skilled as a stone mason is—they cannot create a thing of complexity, beauty and functionality such as a cathedral. For that, you need others. You need both skill and scale. Looking forward to the next year, I'm excited to do my part in the building of cathedrals.  Special thanks to Rick Murray for the opportunity and everyone across our offices that I have the pleasure of working with. Cheers. 

Six Social Media Trends For 2011

Originally published at Harvard Business Review

It was a banner year for social media growth and adoption. We witnessed Facebook overtake Google in most weekly site traffic, while some surveys reported nearly 95% of companies using LinkedIn to help in recruiting efforts. In my outlook for last year, I cited that mobile would become a lifeline to those looking for their social media fixes, and indeed the use of social media through mobile devices increased in the triple digits.

I also outlined how "social media would look less social" or more accurately exclusive, and indeed, we've seen the re-launch of Facebook groups, which focus on niche interactivity, and more recently, the emergence of Path, billed as "the social network for intimate friends" which limits your network to only 50 people. The past year also saw some brands go full throttle on Foursquare's game-like geo-location platform, attempting to reward mayors and creating custom badges for the network's power users.

In other areas, such as social media policy, I was less accurate. Conversations around the topic did begin to take place, But a global survey indicated that only 29 percent of companies even have a social media policy. That's not as high as I expected.

So what could we see happening in 2011? I'll take a stab at six trends again. In no particular order:

It's The Integration Economy, Stupid. From Ford, to Dell, to Starbucks (client), to Jet Blue, and a host of other companies who have pioneered early uses of social media for business, 2011 will be the year these companies take a serious look at integrating social media, not only regionally but globally. Don't be surprised if the same companies that piloted programs such as Ford's "Fiesta Movement" and Starbuck's Foursquare programs also become the first companies to take on the huge challenge of integrating social media into all facets of business from global marketing to crisis management and beyond.

Tablet & Mobile Wars Create Ubiquitous Social Computing. As competition heats up in the form of cheaper, smarter phones and an assortment of tablets that may hit the market (a $35 Tablet in India?), technology consumers will come one step closer to being connected 24/7, and in more powerful ways than previously possible. Social networking will be on the go, out of the house, and out of the office. More competition, variety, power, and affordability in devices will fuel the increase of ubiquitous social computing.

Facebook Interrupts Location-Based Networking. If 2010 belonged to Foursquare and its playful, competitive and sometimes addicting ecosystem of badges, mayorships and specials, it's likely that Facebook will rain on Foursquare's parade in 2011. With tons of data and the architecture behind Facebook's response to Foursquare about to be rolled out globally, Facebook is well positioned to actually make location based services useful to business.

Average Participants Experience Social Media Schizophrenia. While social media schizophrenia (the overload of multiple social profiles) is nothing new to tech mavens, it will become something that more and more "average" users experience as they tweet, Facebook, G-mail, chat, Skype, BBM, SMS, and Tumble their way across the social web. While many mavens have adopted ways to manage and cope, average users may find themselves at the beginning of the curve in need of a 12-step social identity program. This may lead to increased demand from typical participants to have a more integrated and simplified social graph and an opportunity for platforms and companies alike to meet this demand.

Google Doesn't Beat Them, They Join Them. In 2010, Wired told us that Facebook could beat Google to win the net. But even at the end of 2010 after failed attempts to create their own networks such as Buzz, Google could prove that the best way to beat Facebook, Twitter, and the rest is to do what Google does best: Index them to pieces. Indeed, I've already noticed Google's algorithm has become smarter about Twitter data. I only have to type in a few words to locate old tweets. It's possible that by sticking to what Google does best, they may be able to take advantage of the social web by indexing any and all social data they can get their hands on. Expect the Googleplex to "strike back" in 2011, and perhaps demonstrate that they may figure out their role and relevancy on the social Web.

Social Functionality Makes Websites Fashionable Again. After several years of being told to "fish where the fish are," businesses realize that users expect social integration to existing Websites. Sites such as AMEX Open forum serve as a model for how networks such as Twitter can integrate with the Web experience. Websites will increasingly serve as "digital hubs" that integrate social activity from many platforms. For example, Apple's music social network, named Ping, recently integrated Twitter. While the integration has kinks, it demonstrates that even the most iconic of brands realizes that they do not exist in their own walled garden. They must integrate to be relevant in a socially connected world.

These are a few emerging trends that come to my mind. I'm interested to hear what you think as well, so please weigh in with your own thoughts. Where do you see social media going in 2011?

Image Credit: Valentine Westphal