Logic+Emotion

Search + Social = Authority x Influence

Search Is Information Based
There are two primary ways a digital participant finds content across the digital cloverleaf (paid, owned, earned, social properties). One scenario is to initiate a search using a popular search engine such as Google. Most recently Google has tweaked their algorithm to reward authority and quality of content as opposed to what is considered to be of lesser quality such as link farms. This move presents an opportunity to communications professionals and who can provide quality content which can land in a respected earned media property which wields authority. Search activities are usually information driven meaning a digital participant is seeking specific information. The results of their targeted searches which are increasingly ranked by authority and quality dictates what they will amplify to their own networks using either e-mail or a variety of social platforms to spread the information.

Social Is Influence Based
Media is also found (and talked about) on a variety of social platforms ranging from blogs, message boards, Twitter, Facebook etc. The attention of a participant is obtained typically through a “stream” or “friend” of a connection. Media is then digested and shared generating conversations. If enough conversations are generated, these result in the formation of signals which register across the digital media cloverleaf. In this scenario, digital participants are influenced by their connections to digest, amplify and discuss media.

Search & Social Intersect
Search & social do not exist independently, but co-exist in a dependent fashion. For example, it’s common practice for journalists of respected media outlets to monitor and even source conversations which occur on social properties. An article on an influential media outlet citing the source of the conversation can in turn can affect the search results of a specific phrase. The opportunity exists through targeting what participants are searching for and pursuing strategies which generate the right kind of conversations around these topics. In addition to conversations, the right kind of content can also be picked up. Every initiative in digital needs to integrate how search and social relate to each other around a specific topic and category which you wish to influence.

Aggregate, Curate & Syndicate
A sample scenario: A competitor launches their competing product generating targeted signals which register on the Web. Digital participants search specific phrases to find information and news articles on the launch while simultaneously conversations across social and digital media properties erupt. Results in search and social begin to influence what a participant thinks (the consideration loop begins). Analysis of search engine rankings targeting specific search queries is initiated. Insights and data are converted into a communications and engagement plan designed to create a set of new signals. Communications and engagement initiatives are launched across the entire digital cloverleaf (paid, owned, earned etc.) and syndicated leveraging partnerships. If communications and engagement initiatives take hold, increased activity across networks resonate and search rankings become positively affected. The combined results in search and social can now influence what a digital participant pays attention to and takes action against. The process is repeated as new signals are monitored.

This is how search and social can and will work together.

A Construct of Connectedness: The State of Community Management

The 2011 State of Community Management

View more documents from The Community Roundtable

Our friends over at the Community Roundtable have done a wonderful job of summarizing key insights on the state of community management as it relates to the emerging development of social business. I was tapped to write this years Introduction to the report which is full of both breadth and depth of insights and information on the maturation of digital community building as a business strategy.

The report is comprehensive and will take a while to absorb, but it also puts forth a tangible framework which outlines the maturation of managing communities:

There are a ton of great takeaway from the report, but I found that a constant theme was the combination of both content (in the forms of aggregation, curation, and amplification) and engagement between community members and ambassadors for the organizations who help grow them as a constant storyline which re-emerged in different scenarios.

When you have a moment, download the report, grab a highlighter and spend some time with it.

Your Social Business Problem Isn't Technical

At first glance, this looks like a technical issue. The person managing the Chrysler account probably meant to send the tweet from their personal account. This is an assumption—I have no knowledge if that's the case or not. But, the individual responsible worked for a firm which serviced Chrysler and was terminated as a result of the communication, so that lends credibility to the theory.

So let's say the tweet was meant to be sent from a personal account. The firm's client—Chrysler is based in Detroit and it's probably not good etiquette to be insulting your client's city given the partnership. So the issue may not be as technical as we think.

The example underscores a fundamental truth in doing business in a connected age. Your employees and partners must understand how to appropriately engage in public (social) spaces. Mistakes will continue to happen because you can't have real time communications in social spaces without human beings doing them. But it underscores the importance in all public communications whether they be personal or corporate. This in particular isn't a technical issue. It's a people (and process) issue.

How to Craft the Perfect Quora Answer

The following is a guest post from Joe Chernov. Joe is the Director of Content for Eloqua. Co-chair of WOMMA member ethics panel. You can read more about Joe here: http://www.jchernov.com

Q&A sites, whether they be Quora, Focus, Namesake, ChaCha, Aardvark or good “old fashioned” LinkedIn Answers, are all the rage.  In fact, Matt Creamer of AdvertisingAge recently pointed out that Quora has received as much press in six months as Answers.com – the 18^th biggest site in the US – earned in six years.  Given the rise in attention paid to this category, participants are left with one question: How can I contribute answers that are disproportionately influential? 

Inspired by Sebastian Wernicke’s hilarious and provocative “Lies, damned lies and statistics” TEDTalk, my colleague Andrew Moravick and I decided reverse engineer exactly what you need to do to craft the perfect Quora comment.  We studied nearly 500 answers spanning 50 Quora questions on topics related to marketing, advertising, demand generation and social media, then identified three sure-fire ways to ensure your answer ranks among the most discussed and “voted” posts.  They are:

1.     Answer first,

2.     Include links or (better still) graphics in your answer,

3.     Stick to a word count of 100 to 200 words.

Let’s have a look at each.

Answer First
Speed is becoming the great equalizer when it comes to social business.  Anyone unconvinced of this fact should read David Meerman’s Scott’s Real-Time Marketing and PR.  (You won’t remain unconvinced for long.)  Quora is no different.

Social currency was assigned asymmetrically to the first answer.  Take “mentions” for example.  People who answer questions on Quora often reference answers posted by others.  (This is social media, after all.)  Well, a whopping 60% of all references point to the first answer posted.  Similarly, “votes” – Quora’s answer to Facebook “Likes” – are disproportionately awarded to the first answer posted.  In fact, our study found that 41% of all votes are cast for the first post.

 

You Don’t Know Everything
Social media – especially when it comes to Q&A sites – is a credibility game.  Bombastic consultants who claim to know everything are ignored.  Sales-thirsty vendors who rush to the close are panned.  But the Quora community will embrace both consultants and vendors, provided the person has value to add.  Without question, the best way to value is to incorporate supplemental content into your response.  In fact, answers that contained links or graphics were mentioned in subsequent posts more than twice as often as those that didn’t include additional resources.  They also received three times as many votes as their link-less counterparts. 

As an aside, incorporating graphics into an answer might be the secret to Quora.  Although the sample size was relatively small, answers that included a graphic were nine times more likely to be referenced by someone else and five times more likely to earn a vote.

The Magic Number
Who would have thought that there would be a “magic” word count for voluntarily answering questions online?  But there is.  It’s 145.  Or, more specifically, 160 words if you want others to reference your answer; 130 words if you are hunting for votes.

Of course, that level of precision is absurd.  But without a doubt there is a correlation between word count and popularity.  Short posts add little value (they tend to applaud more established community members), whereas long posts run counter to the short-attention-span theater that is social media.  The graphics below suggest Quora members strongly prefer answers in the 100 to 200-word range.

Of these three tips, which is most important?  Generally speaking, being first is the most reliable way to ensure your answer echoes throughout the digital halls of the thread.  But what if you aren’t tethered to your computer?  Is it possible to play “catch up”?  Absolutely.  Embed a graphic in your answer and keep it to about 150 words and your contribution is likely to be as popular as the first in the thread.

Social Media Milestones: The Visual

  
Over at Edelmandigital.com, we're celebrating the year anniversary of our re-launch as we gear up to work on the next iteration. Rather than brag about what we've managed to accomplish—we decided to put out something that might be useful. The "social media milestones" visualization highlights a few major events which unfolded over time. We couldn't fit everything—but included some biggies. You can download a full size version here.

SocMetrics Combines Influence, Events & Expertise

Every year at SXSW, there is activity in the startup communities and new services pop up which attempt to catch the SXSWave and benefit from the attention. This year, SocMetrics has caught my attention. What it does is deceptively simple. It takes data from social event planning platform Plancast (one of my favorites) and ranks attendees by influence.



The influence ranking is imperfect as you'd expect. As of now—it's relying primarily on Twitter footprints and "shares" via Blogger. However where it gets really interesting is in the categorization of influentials. It assigns labels such as "fitness" "food" "moms" "wedding" "design" "tech" "social media" to indicate what category an individual has influence, interest or expertise in. What surprised me about it that as I reviewed some of the labels for several attendees, the categories were in many cases pretty accurate. Not all, but in many and this is significant.


I think there's something here. Events are where social, digital and physical merge and relationships are often forged or reinforced. Having a way to understand the influence levels of attendees and how they break down in terms of the topics they "cover" can be especially useful in identification activities and engagement programs. It's worth watching.

Does PR Have a Future?

Two years ago, if you told me that I'd be working in the "public relations" industry—I would have looked at you as if you were insane. My impression of PR was that of an industry with a narrow focus and goals which included spinning stories so that the clients a firm worked with would appear better than they really were. I didn't know a lot about public relations from an industry perspective, but for whatever reason that was my impression. The cartoon above showing a "flack" shamelessly networking wasn't far off from what what I had imagined.

However, as I began to investigate and meet some of the practitioners in this broad mixed bag we call the "social" space—I began detecting a pattern. Many of the first movers were either working in the communications group of an organization or had communications (PR) training in their background somehow. Not all but many.

On top of that, there were a few firms that seemed to be going deep in this emerging area—offering training and working with businesses in a way which integrated communications in a more social fashion. Edelman (my employer) was one of these firms. And these indicators got me thinking differently about the field and where it might be heading in the years to come. Below is the last slide of a presentation I gave nearly a year ago:



The thinking is that over time as a business becomes more "social"—it begins to gradually move away from totally rigid job descriptions to allow for more flexibility in the things people do as part of their jobs. Instead of a handful of people who officially represent an organization, each employee becomes a representative every time they engage in public (social networks) especially when that engagement is related to what they do for the organization.

It's an extreme vision to some degree—though one can make the argument that we are already seeing the early signs of this now. So what happens to PR? Possibly the same thing that happens to marketing, customer service, and other business functions. It could possibly become "integrated" into the jobs of more people both in and outside of the organization.

If "everyone" is a spokesperson to some degree—does public relations cease to exist? It's probably not that simple since the reality is that "communications" will not end up as a free for all activity, but as something which evolves into more than just communicating but also interacting. In my mind—the key is relationships. Manage the relationships between all critical stakeholders who can make or break your business, and you hold the key to a more sustainable way of doing business. Sound like PR?

If you think this is something you'd like to discuss more—I'm teaming up with Richard Brewer-Hay of eBay (Edelman client), to facilitate a lively core conversation on this topic at SXSW. Hope to see you there.

Is Social Business Innovation?

Watch this video, because it's worth watching. But don't confuse social business with innovation. Social Business can lead to innovations—but it's inherently about doing business in a more connected, open, transparent, collaborative, ethical, and ultimately human way. All of which can affect the bottom line of your business. Sound innovative? Yes. The two are related, but not necessarily the same.

Targeting Influence

The e-mail landed in my inbox and I immediately had 2 reactions. The first, was that of marveling at the brilliance of the idea—one of the ways Klout will seek to monetize will be through targeting influentials in a new kind of e-mail marketing initiative based on ones influence. I can see a great deal of brands signing up for this—who wouldn't want e-mail access to individsuals on the Web with large and effective social footprints?

My second reaction was that of surprise. Why was I being targeted by Nike basketball? I never talk about sports, don't follow teams and am not all that involved in local sports sans whatever my boys are interested in doing which at the moment is tennis. So why did the e-mail proclaim that I had "serious basketball klout"?

I don't. What I do have is a larger than normal "social graph" that shows signs of life as measured by certain digital factors (and this is only Twitter and Facebook)

Klout's scoring system is highly imperfect, BUT seeing the e-mail caught my attention because I realized that the future of tapping "influentials" will come down to targeting, and the quality of how well this gets executed. So when the next e-mail comes from something closer to my interests—I'll know they are on to something. The future of harnessing influence will be highly targeted. 

Trust: From Fortress To Wedge

Edelman's 2011 Trust Barometer was officially launched yesterday and as usual it generates a lot of coverage and conversation. I always like to wait a little bit after announcements like this, after the dust has settled to see if there is a nugget which hasn't been covered much. From what I've seen both in the press and social networks, much of the discussion has been around the findings of the US having a generally low trust rating. Colleague Steve Rubel, did a nice job capturing insights around why trust in "friends" is dipping from previous years while trust in experts is rising. Also, a rise in trust (or willingness to trust) a CEO has been widely covered.

But there was less analysis on what I think is truly insightful and that is the shift from how organizations used to try to establish trust and a newer way of looking at it. To me, the above model represents the following:

The Fortress
In this model, an organization attempts to build an impenetrable fortress which is focused on protecting their reputation on their terms. There is a lack of a willingness to engage stakeholders (such as customers or employees), unless it is on the terms of the organization or toward their benefit. The impulse is to control the flow of information from the top down. Only designated spokespeople had the authority to talk to members of the press and when they did, it was from highly orchestrated corporate talking points. The organization protected what it knew at all costs, and the sole focus was on the bottom line. It's a fortress approach because it's defensive and sees not only the competition as a threat but in some cases public opinion which is a necessary evil to be dealt with.

The Wedge
The wedge takes a different approach. Rather than focus on protection of the brand and control of the message (and information flow) it creates a sharp, focused point through radically different business practices. Instead of manipulation, it proactively practices business in a more transparent fashion This doesn't mean it gives away trade secrets, but it becomes more ethical in how it conducts business. It becomes more trusting of its employees viewing them as potential ambassadors verses a workforce full of individuals who are looking to give away competitive secrets. Instead of taking an aggressive and defensive position of shielding itself from attack, it uses the sharp edge of the wedge to go on the "offense" via engaging with its stakeholders. It listens to them and actually talks back. Sometimes in public forums such as social networks. Lastly, it approaches business with a purpose, which in this day and age many businesses should consider. It seeks to profit responsibly and understands that as the business thrives, it has an obligation to give back to society. Think about how a wedge works. It doesn't take on a barrier by force—it finds an opening and starts there. Gradually a wedge can open closed doors.

This is the new trust architecture. A mandate to organizations that closing yourself off to the outside world and only communicating when it's to the benefit of your organization will NOT generate trust and goodwill from the people you want to do business with. Each year, the Trust Barometer makes the case that organizations which are trusted, reap financial rewards. This is a good time to think about if your organization can ever move the dial from a fortress mentality to a wedge mindset.

An executive summary of the Trust Barometer findings can be found here:

2011 Edelman Trust Barometer: Global & Country Insights

View more presentations from Edelman Digital.

Community Manager Appreciation Day

Edelman Digital Celebrates Community Manager Appreciation Day

View more presentations from Edelman Digital.

Originally posted on Edelman Digital
Community Manager Appreciation Day officially began last year when Jeremiah Owyang declared the fourth Monday in January a day to celebrate community managers around the world. Community managers are problem solvers, relationship builders and the brand representatives engaging on the digital front lines daily. As a community manager myself, I’m proud to be part of this emerging field of passionate digital ambassadors. At Edelman, we have community managers that perform activities on behalf of our clients. We thought we’d turn to these talented individuals for tips and advice for community managers. We also gathered advice from others in the field that either perform community management or champion the profession/activity. Take a look through the advice of our global team and the brand representatives from Boingo, HP (client), Radian6 and many more.

Quora Underscores Need For Corporate Ambassadors

Unlike Facebook but very much like Facebook Groups, Quora the social Q&A ecosystem is designed to support individual participants, not companies (for now). In either case, it's increasingly becoming clear that this is a place where people talk about companies and brands. As Altimeter analyst Jeremiah Owyang recommends, this is a domain where a business should "monitor and respond". From Jeremiah's blog:

"Businesses Accounts Not Allowed…Yet. Now, If you’re involved in supporting your customers in the social web, either you’re a brand manager, or a community manager, your job is to go where customers are online and respond to them.  While Quora doesn’t currently allow business profiles on the site (see how the Mashable account has been suspended) you should expect in the future that this would be a potential revenue stream for Quora to offer ‘buy outs’ for Q&A just as LinkedIn has done in the past. "

I suspect that there will increasingly be brand and company mentions on Quora like the one pictured above (disclaimer, eBay is an Edelman client). The reason is twofold:

1. Like any conversation ecosystem, people will mention companies that are relevent to their interests.

2. Much like the blogoshphere, Quora is shaping up to be a marketplace of opinions vs. a simple Q&A social network.

Recommendation: Monitor, Discern & Engage Where Applicable

Quora (and other ecosystems such as the blogoshphere & message boards) highlights a key distinction in running a social business. Unlike social marketing, where Facebook apps and bought media (promoted Tweets etc.) require little human intervention, Quora requires a more human touch. For organizations who wish to do more than listen, this means training, equipping and deploying (TED) corporate ambassadors.  For many organizations, this will present a challenge as most corporate cultures are uncomfortable having their employees engage in public spaces unless they are official spokespeople. For the advanced social business who is already busy implementing the TED model, ecosystems such as Quora are merely another destination where envoys for the organizations are to be dispatched.

Whether it's observing engaging or both, the opportunities for your organization include the following:

• Business Intelligence
• Reputation management
• Education
• Advocacy

On the engagement front, corporate ambassadors will be essential whether it's behind the current individual profile structure or a future business account. Consider implementing a TED infrastructure if you think your organization is ready to engage directly.

I'll continue to dig into Quora from time to time. If you are interested in following me there, go here.

The Six Pillars of Influence

Everyone is talking about influence, so I added my perspective (based on personal experience) in my latest contribution to the Harvard Business Review. In the article, I lay out six critical "pillars" (not to be confused with metrics) which I find are significant factors when analyzing influence from both a traditional and digital perspective. They are:

Reach:
The most obvious, this relates to the size and potency of an individuals "social graph", or if you are looking at it from a traditional perspective it's the "platform" an individual has which helps them be heard.

Proximity:
This is likely overlooked with the exception of those who study network dynamics. Proximity indicates the relationships between people and how they are connected. Close proximity or ties typically indicate friends relatives etc, while loose ties have less proximity. Both ties however can be effective in influencing behavior.

Expertise:
Perceived expertise in topics or subject matter establishes influence as well though is difficulty to pin down and measure. There are correlations between reputation and authority here as well. But if an individual establishes themselves as having expertise (validated by trusted sources) this becomes a major factor.

Relevancy:
The relevancy of influentials to their communities, networks or audiences is also a significant indicator which affects how much influence one has the potential to yield within that group or community.

Credibility:
Established by the activities of individuals through their thoughts, actions and what they generate. Indicators of credibility are tied to reputation, word of mouth, referrals etc.

Trust:
Often a result of several of the above factors but extremely critical in the effectiveness of influencing a thought, behavior or action. Friends and peers can be trusted sources in cases while in other cases, known or unknown entities with perceived expertise.

While there are likely other important factors—these are good indicators though some are difficult to quantify (such as credibility). However the amount of times an individual is mentioned by others on a specific topic and the link to how much visibility is generated are metrics which can be measured. So how are you thinking about influence these days?

Are Quora Votes A Viable Metric? Influence, Popularity, Expertise, Campaigns & Currency.

As I mentioned in my brief recent post on Quora, I would be digging into it a bit more. First, if you want to know more about the service, here is one of the best descriptions around. I particularly like this part:

"It’s like the community side of LinkedIn, merged with the organic networking of Facebook, smashed up with the informative aspects of Wikipedia, topped with a dash of the “I just can’t see this catching on” from Plurk. With blog comments."

Now, lets get to the business of dissecting an interesting detail about the service. Let's say someone asks a question about the company you work for or a brand you really like. More specifically, the question itself could itself be unflattering or could be resulting in answers that put the company/brand/product or even issue in a negative light. But you may have information which answers the question credibly, adding value and depth to the topic. While you may edit answers and even the question itself, one of the best ways to "be seen" on Quora is to have your answer "voted up" by others. Think page one of Google or getting voted up in Digg. Now this is one specific scenario to illustrate a business case. Quora is ultimately a search engine play, meaning that while it is a network, it is not a walled garden and what gets said about you can be found, tweeted out and shared on any popular network including facebook. In my opinion, getting "voted up" much like a re-tweet, Facebook Like, is an emerging metric. I would not overstate it's importance since the service is in its infancy, but I'd watch it. So with that, here are a few factors to chew on.

Popularity
Many will say that getting lots of votes that pushes your answer up on a page is about popularity. And this is partially correct. As someone who has a considerable network, I find that it's easier for me to get votes without ever having to ask for them. People read my answers and my popularity gives me broader distribution therefore increasing my chances.

Expertise & Quality
Others will say that it's a quality answer or one that adds value & expertise that gets votes. This is also true in my opinion as many of the answers I see with votes are often simply good answers. Despite my reach, several of my own answers have not gotten lots of votes. This has something to do with variables in both the question and the answer, but it discounts popularity as being a sole indicator.

Lobbying & Campaining
A third viewpoint is that Quora's social system can be gamed. Gaming a system in this case may not be the most accurate description here while it's true that many social systems can be gamed. For example, there are services which increase your Twitter following. In the case of Quora and getting voted up on a page—a more accurate way of looking at it is campaigning. Anyone can e-mail their friends, mobilize co-workers or campaign for votes either in public or private however this makes a statement. For example having employees vote up an answer that is favorable to their company leaves a trail and can send a message that either someone conducted a campaign or that the employees are genuinely motivated to engage. In other words, it's a gray area.

Social Currency
A fourth POV is that participants could use votes as "social currency". In other words, you vote mine up and I'll vote yours up. Again this is merely another proof point that Quora is a social system. In other social systems such as the blogoshphere, links are often traded as currency. Favors are simple a staple of social interactions.

Why It Matters
There are reports of journalists beginning to use Quora and sourcing opinions from there. And as I mentioned, Quora may indeed be something Google ends up integrating—it certainly has the potential to show up in searches on the open Web. Participants can share questions and answers with their social networks so it has social amplification built into it. This is why I believe that the placement of an answer on a page could affect your business. But beware, that much like all social media—unsavory or unethical campaigns to alter information tend to come back to the person/company who tries to influence outcome in a way that isn't accurate, credible or is misleading.

Deconstructing Your Social Business Plan For 2011

It's 2011 and as you gear up for planning initiatives for the new year, it's the best time ever to take a step back and think about what needs to be done before you take action. But before even doing that, you may want to think about how you've approached initiatives in the past. Here's a simple framework to consider:

Implementation & Execution
If you've launched anything—whether it be a Facebook page, Twitter account, YouTube, or an internal communication/collaboration platform then you are to be congratulated because you have executed. However, many organizations who have jumped into the social waters now find themselves dealing with new challenges. Large organizations who operate globally may have scores of digital embassies which do not coordinate or exist within any defined architecture. Departments may have launched pilots as rogue efforts which initially were successful but are difficult to scale. Marketing, customer service, HR, IT, and a host of other operational groups may be in turf wars over who runs what. Your business partners may be engaging in their own turf wars. In short, getting something executed and maintaining it is a great place to be in, but it also creates new challenges which require formalization as the space matures.

Digital & Social Channel Strategy
Above any execution should sit a sound strategy. As touchpoints in the digital world become seemingly infinite and the need for integration becomes more important, organizations are often forced into taking a strategic approach at the "channel" level. This means taking a look across the enterprise at all social initiatives and how they should work. What should a company's Facebook presence be leveraged for primarily: Marketing? Sales? Customer Service? How do the social touch points integrate with other off domain and on domain properties? What type of content is generated? How does this integrate? How should any digital embassy represent the brand? These are all strategic efforts which help inform and direct tactical execution and implementation.

Social Business Planning
In my opinion, this is where you may want to consider starting if you are really serious about scaling and integrating across a large enterprise. Social business planning is the infrastructure that comes before you even begin to work through your strategies that drive your execution. It impacts three core areas which you can think of as the "3P's" if it helps:

• People
Hiring, re-org, training, corporate culture, writing new job descriptions, policy or in short anything that involves the human capital which is needed to power social initiatives. Specifically, how they need to function or work with partners in order for the business to ensure that social initiatives will be more genuine, valuable (to all of your stakeholders) and integrated.

• Process
The rise of social media and your organization's response means tweaking, re-inventing or coming up with new processes for doing things. From updating engagement guidelines to workflow models to integrating process between existing business units and re-calibrating them for social media. Process acts as a road map for any organization looking to operationalize and act at scale.

• Platforms
From social platforms which your external stakeholders use to the internal platforms which your employees leverage—your technical infrastructure must be planned for growth and scalability. This requires a complete assessment of what's available now, what's coming in the future and what types of platforms can be used to manage others (social CMS) for example.

For a real world example of how all three come together, consider Dell's social media command center. People are required to run the center, a process is needed for how the people share and communicate the data/information and platforms are used to extract the social data (then back to people to make meaning from it). This all had to be planned in advance for it to operate. The bottom line is that all three steams are essential for best results. It's likely that you've already begun one or two, but this is the best time of year to consider how all three can work together. If the decision were mine—I'd say start with social business planning and get the right infrastructure in place but don't stop there, be flexible enough to tweak your social business plan as your integration matures.  

 

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...

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?

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

Scenario Planning + Managing Your Inevitable Social Media Crisis

Source: Decision Strategies International

I see it weekly if not monthly. Brand or company X goes about their business on a social platform, marketing, putting out fun apps, doling out coupons and yes in some cases, engaging. Then one day, they get attacked by their customers or perhaps an advocacy group. The response tends to always be the same.

Shut it down.

In my estimation, the organization, business or brand in question has not gone through the rigor of scenario planning, and doing the fire-drills to prepare for attacks in social media. The biggest farce any organization will believe in social media is that they will be loved the moment they engage in social media. They may be. They will likely be hated as well and everything in between.  Here are some thoughts that every organization who chooses to participate in social media should consider before, during and after they build their followers, fans and attract foes.

Plan For Multiple Scenarios
Get into the habit of mapping out every possible scenario that can happen to your digital embassy on social networks and plan for whatever you can think of happening both good and bad. Document the plan, then translate it into guidelines and put it in a place where everyone who maintains your social presence can access it. Update it regularly.

Practice "Social Media Fire-drills"
Run your team through exercises periodically. A good time to do this is during a training session when everyone across multiple regions can be in the same place at the same time. Replicate a crisis situation that you've seen happen to a competitor and make up ones you have not seen before.

Forget The Silos
Get your marketing, PR, and customer service people out of their silos ASAP when it comes to your social media initiatives where the public is involved. At minimum, set up a direct line of communication where stakeholders of each core discipline can be alerted the moment a scenario erupts and ensure that the group has some way to connect with each other. Even an old fashioned e-mail alias can help here.

Create "Dark Pages"
Have back up pages, tabs etc. that can be launched and customized at the click of a button when an attack or unfavorable scenario arises. Ensure that the right members of the team can launch this as needed.

Be Ready For Anything
The bottom line is that a truly social business must be prepared for any scenario thrown at them in in public forums. "Shutting it down" demonstrates that the company has not thought through the implications for how people engage in public and what they expect in return. A company should absolutely protect itself when needed, but build up a toolbox of techniques that serve this purpose and the needs of the community it serves. My recommendation is to start planning for multiple scenarios the minute you decide you want to "be social" and expect that anything and everything will happen. But don't let that stop you, just be ready for it.

Talk Isn't Cheap

What's the value of a conversation? Or hundreds of conversations? How about thousands? Should we place a value on them? Paul brings an interesting observation to the table—"you are basically paid to chat to people". And "chat" sounds so unimportant. Consider that the brief exchange above was triggered by this article in Ad Age which discusses the relevancy of brands on Facebook. This sound bite in the article in particular caught my attention:

"As it turns out, many people in social networks don't want to talk about your product, they just want to talk. We've long known that inserting brands into social-media channels requires a conversational touch, but many are surprised by just how conversational."

Yet we are surprised and confounded by this fact. Social technologies empower people to talk about what THEY want to and not about what YOU want them to. So, let's assume for the moment that this statement is a current reality. The next question becomes is there value to letting people talk about what they want to discuss? I believe there is. In fact, I believe that it's better than any focus group your company has ever conducted, and yet it's likely that your company still invests hundreds of thousands of dollars on traditional R&D and focus groups. In some cases these conversations (both positive and negative) leave a considerable "long tail" on the internet which can potentially grow your business or damage your reputation. Consider this increadible story on how one internet business actually thrives on negative comments to sell products thanks to exploiting loopholes in Google's search engine algorithm.

Social media's core innovation is directly related to unleashing and distribution of the opinions, thoughts, words, videos, recommendations etc. of both individuals and organizations alike. Why are we surprised that it takes a conversational touch in order to elicit some type of response? We shouldn't be. We also shouldn't be surprised that the touch actually does involve an investment of some sort and can result in measurable results—and results that are much more difficult to measure, like how a person feels about your brand/organization/company after you've allowed them to let off a little steam. Or, we can just dismiss it all as chit-chat.

The Anatomy of a Movement

Originally posted on Harvard Business Review

Given last week's election results, it's a good time to think about movements. Wikipedia defines a social movement as "A coordinated group action focused on a political or social issue." That allows for quite a spectrum of movements. The civil rights movement was designed to bring equality to a system where it was it was lacking. President Obama's campaign had many movement-like qualities. Most recently the Tea Party movement proved that when they gain momentum, they're hard to ignore forces. Indeed, the Tea Party led to a counter movement, The Coffee Party, that first appeared on Facebook.

Movements can be desirable weapons in the war to influence behavior, but you need to understand how they work. They are not the same as a major advertising blitz or everyday communication initiatives. The key difference is participation. An ad campaign is something you do to people. A movement is something people choose to do. Can you harness the power of a movement in your business? The following is a basic anatomy of what makes a movement successful.

Ripple Effects. Movements are exceptionally prone to contagious behaviors and assets. Often, it starts with a single piece of communication, an e-mail or blog post, which is sent to one group of people and shared with hundreds, then thousands, then millions of others. Ripple effects in movements spread ideas and make the movement itself viral, but it can be hard to predict what communication will make that first ripple.

Decentralization, Organization & Values. Effective movements are often grassroots ones, but that doesn't mean that they're disorganized. The Tea Party has no single leader but it it's organized digitally well enough to spur rallies across the country. Boy Scouts is another organization with a de-centralized and hyper-local infrastructure. Den leaders ensure that scouts partake in events and do the things needed to achieve status within the organization. In addition to the organic infrastructure, The Boy Scouts embody a crystal clear value system: "To help other people at all times; To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight." This value system drives nearly all activities and acts as a "master narrative" for the organization.

Sustainable Chatter. The difference between something that's just viral and a movement is that a movement's chatter has to be sustainable beyond initial, passing curiosity. People may gather around a water cooler to discuss happenings on their favorite shows or perhaps the performance of a sports team but it doesn't make these fleeting events a movement. Sustainable chatter may ebb and flow but it's always there. Think of it as buzz on steroids.

Advocacy. Movements are fueled by participants who believe in them strongly enough to volunteer their advocacy. They're the idea champions. The initial Obama campaign successfully created advocates by the millions through activating youth and minority voters along with tapping into the shared values of Democrats and independent voters who embraced both the message and the momentum.

Critical Mass. At some point, movements become unstoppable. Years ago Dell Computer found itself facing a movement against its service. A negative blog post that used the phrase "Dell Hell" helped the anti-Dell movement reach critical mass and damage Dell's reputation. Dell had to respond by launching its own counter movement in the form of a corporate cultural overhaul. The company now boasts a small army of social media savvy corporate ambassadors. Critical mass often leads to the measurable objectives of a movement whether it's the implementation of legislature, awareness around an issue or a desired behavior which aligns with the goals of the movement.

Movements are powerful and there's no doubt they work. But they can also be rare and complex as they combine planning with spontaneity. So can you create one either within or outside of your organization? Of course you can, but like any movement they sometimes start underground and they always need a spark to ignite them. There are two questions which need to be answered in the creation of any movement: What needs to change? And what is the spark needed for ignition? Find the answers to those and you've taken the first step toward change.

Social Business From The Top Down

When most people talk about the idea of being a "social business" the emphasis is usually placed on the emergent behaviors of all stakeholders which point to working, playing and doing business in a more social way. For example, we've looked to technologies like Yammer which promised to connect the work hive in real time (for some organizations this worked and for others it didn't). But the overall focus has been on activating the network, igniting cultural change and connecting the nodes both inside and outside your organization. Today, I was reminded by our CEO Richard Edelman who blogs regularly, that a social business is impossible without examples being made at the very top of an organization. Have a look at how he writes in regards to an anti-smoking campaign he initiated at Edelman (my employer):

"I went to the Washington office on Monday, visiting with clients and journalists. I also had a staff meeting before going to the train. As I do at every whistle stop, I provide an update on the firm and then the office. I always conclude with an offer-- $2,000 to any Edelman person who agrees to quit smoking. He or she has to sign a contract and give the money back if the commitment is violated before six months. No blood tests are required; word of honor is good enough for me. Alison Armentrout, who is a senior account executive in our digital strategy group in DC, came forward on Monday, with a little bit of encouragement from her fellow employees. We shook hands on the deal and the check is in the mail.

I told my usual story about how at age 7, I saw the Ad Council’s public service spot that spoofed the Marlboro Man, showing him sauntering into the bar in the Wild West, ordering a beer, then collapsing in a coughing fit. I was so scared by the ad that I promptly took all of my dad’s cigarette packs and stuffed them in the toilet. After the third time repairing the facilities, the plumber told my dad to stop smoking or get rid of the kid. I won and he lives on at age 90, overcoming the addiction that he developed while in the US Army when cigarettes were provided free and were a way to stay warm in frozen France in 1944-5."

A social business is not built overnight. Marketing won't get your organization there and neither will spin. Becoming a social business does involve the breaking down of silos, but never underestimate top down influence. Richard's candor and openness (and professionalism) signal that the individuals in the organization have "permission" to think and act this way. Social organizations require both top down guidance and organic initiatives which make the organization more connected and adaptable. In some cases, it all starts at the top.

5 Social Business Use Cases For Facebook Groups

Originally published at Harvard Business Review

Facebook Groups have been called "Google Wave for Humans" by some and "spam" by others. They have the potential to benefit your business, brand, and organization in ways that are probably slightly ahead of our time. In the mean time, what does it mean? I've taken a deep dive, and here are a few ideas for how I think Facebook Groups are the latest evolution in the gradual socialization of business.

Power To The People. If your organization, business, or brand wants to set up and staff a "digital embassy" on Facebook, then your primary vehicle is an official page. In Groups, the power shifts from the official organization to the unofficial "ambassadors," the individuals. People, not companies, start groups. But these people can be employees, subject matter experts, influencers, anyone. Facebook Groups have always been built on this, but the latest iteration puts the feature front and center, includes viral loops (members in a group can invite other members in), and empowers administrators of groups to share the power with others in it.

The Micro Collective Is Your Focus Group. It's likely that advocates of your organization can and will form groups around subject matter that's relevant to your business. For example if an influential mom organizes a group around parenting and your company manufactures parent products, you'll want to get invited to the group. But it will still be the decision of individuals, not the company to invite a company rep in. If you have employees who are trusted and part of these communities naturally, you have the opportunity to gather opinions, ask questions, participate and perhaps gain intelligence that makes your products better. Small, high-quality groups would be ideal for this, and the group chat feature could become an interesting tool. It's critical for organizations to realize that any deployment of "ambassadors" would require meaningful participation and respect for the organic rules of any group. Try pushing too hard or using the group for something the group doesn't want it used for, and you'll be out.

The Social Press Briefing. Uber-influential former Microsoft (client) employee Robert Scoble created a group titled "Tech Leaders & Influencers" which quickly scaled to more than 500 members. The group is already at risk of losing its exclusivity as it scales, however other groups may likely be created using the "secret" function which hides more activity. Groups possess the the potential to gather a high signal to noise ratio of individuals where you have all the right people in a virtual room. In these scenarios, a spokesperson or "ambassador" for an organization has the option to communicate first to a self-selected group of people.

The Collaboratory. From Wikipedia: "A collaboratory, as defined by William Wulf in 1989, is a "center without walls, in which the nation's researchers can perform their research without regard to physical location, interacting with colleagues, accessing instrumentation, sharing data and computational resources, [and] accessing information in digital libraries." Facebook Groups is not designed to be a collaboration tool, and functionality such as shared docs has vast room for improvement. That said, don't be surprised if your employees start using it to do work or your customers use it to help and/or potentially harm your organization. For example, this article was originally written on Facebook Docs with the help of several colleagues who edited.

Hyper Targeted Advertising. I created a very small group called "Social Business Architects" which I plan (and hope) to keep very small and exclusive. I've already noticed that Facebook ads are targeting more specifically to this group. Again, this isn't entirely new, however if groups with especially high signal to noise ratios are established and maintained, it presents Facebook with the opportunity to "hyper target" prospects. I would not be surprised to see additional tools introduced which allow advertisers to do this. The concept of getting an ad out to a small, highly engaged and niche group is appealing to marketers who are finding less success with mass, less targeted techniques.

How quickly Facebook refines (which they have a history of doing) and how communities will organize and police themselves will determine how quickly these trends pan out (or don't). Either way, the new Groups presents interesting opportunities which bring the often unpredictable human factor into the core of how we communicate, interact and engage.

A Q&A With BlackBerry's Social CS Team

Originally published at Blogworld 2010

Research In Motion (BlackBerry), is one of the sponsors for BlogWorld 2010 and also an Edelman client (my employer), but what you might not know about them is that they are quite active in the social media space, especially when it comes to providing customer care in addition to tips on how BlackBerry fans can get the most of their devices. With over 154k followers on Twitter, the CS (customer service) group regularly engages customers out in the open in a variety of ways. I was able to catch up Michelle Kostya and Baldev Solanki who are two of the architects’ behind the social customer service efforts at BlackBerry.

DA: Blackberry offers support to customers in a variety of ways including online forums. Why did you extend this in places such as Twitter with @blackberryhelp?

MK: Due to the nature of the business, customers usually dealt with their carriers rather than directly with us. This meant that when we launched the forums we were able to truly connect with our customers in a way that wasn’t possible before. All of a sudden we had the ability to gather valuable feedback and work directly with our customers to solve their issues. By being able to help our customers immediately and by showing them neat tips and tricks we were able delight them! But, we recognized that just as not everyone will call to get help, not everyone will visit a forum to ask for help. It became our goal as the Social Media Support team to be where our customers were. Our Digital Marketing counterparts had set up channels on various social channels and customers were asking support questions – it only made sense that we were there to help!

DA: Doesn’t interacting with customers who may be frustrated with your products open the door to public displays of dissatisfaction? How do you manage the risks?

BS: On the contrary, every dissatisfied customer is an opportunity for us to provide a great support experience. The real risk is not engaging. Our goal is to always be professional and follow through. It is a great feeling to delight a frustrated customer and see them become a raving fan.

DA: You decided to take a somewhat personal approach to providing customer care in a social channel by putting the faces of the team behind the account vs. it being the single brand. Why?

MK: Customers service is about a 1:1 conversation. Even when you are talking about traditional customer service it is one person talking to another on the telephone. We wanted our followers to know that the team on Twitter are real people. So they sign their name on each tweet and have their pics up on the background. And, we are taking it offline too! At Blogworld two members of the team will be “live” at the BlackBerry booth providing on-site help and tips!

DA: In the traditional customer care model, success in channels such as call centers is often measured by volume and time per call. What are some of the ways you measure success?

BS: Sometimes defining success measures feels like a quest for the holy social media grail. We tweet a lot of tips so we use retweets as a measure of how useful the content is. In addition we treat positive tweets and thanks as a measure of customer satisfaction. On our forums, Accepted Solutions from the community is a good measure. Remember that some of the standard call centre metrics still apply. Response time and mean time to resolve are definitely things to track.

DA: @blackberryhelp isn’t the only social embassy you’ve built to help your customers get the most out of BlackBerry products. You also have the BlackBerry Help Blog. In the age of Facebook, Twitter and other “shiny objects”, what does a blog get you?

BS: Blogs are about sharing with authenticity. A good enterprise blog can help you really connect deeply with your customers in a meaningful way because the content is not only relevant but insightful and personal. I think most enterprises miss that point. When you do it right, your customers will walk away not only having learned something new but will also feel much more connected to your brand.

MK: Some of the CS staff already wrote how-to posts for Inside BlackBerry Blog and we discovered that these posts were incredibly popular. Our customers wanted to be better (or, the best!) at using their BlackBerry and these posts gave them the info they needed to do this – in a fun and personal way. As with all of the Inside BlackBerry blogs our intent is to get our readers the inside scoop – just focused on the know-how we have on cool tricks, shortcuts and how-to in more than 140 characters.

DA: What are some of the most common requests you get from BlackBerry users? Do your responses vary?

MK: There isn’t really a “typical” request coming to our @BlackBerryhelp team. They get 800 tweets a day from our 155,000+ followers and they range from technical questions to feature requests and from questions about release dates to conversational tweets asking the team how they are doing. So, yes our responses definitely vary although we do have some typical answers for more common requests. Plus, we have a huge library of helpful tips and tricks that we share throughout the day.

DA: What is the one piece of advice you would give to other major brands looking to help their customers leveraging social media?

BS: Don’t succumb to “Cheshire Cat Syndrome” (remember how confused Alice in Wonderland was in choosing a path?). Be careful of starting down the path of social media customer support if you don’t know where you want to end up. Define objectives first, and then try a pilot to limit the risk. A lesson learned from the trenches – most of the time in Social Media land, when you open a door, it’s really hard to shut.

MK: I would say the biggest piece of advice I have is that you need to recognize that customers don’t care what department you are from when they are talking to you via a social channel. A customer is just as likely to ask a technical support question, as they are to provide you with product feature requests, or post they are looking for a job at the company! No matter who “owns” the channel internally– you need a way to route feedback and respond when necessary to your customers. Participation in social channels means breaking down silos inside your business.

Michelle, Baldev, Thank you both for your time and insights. If you’re reading this and attending BlogWorld (and have a BlackBerry device), feel free to bring it to the BlackBerry booth to receive complimentary tips and general assistance from members of their customer service team.

BlackBerry Help:
Twitter:  @blackberryhelp
Website: http://helpblog.blackberry.com/

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?

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?

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?

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.

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. :-)

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.

What SXSW Taught Me About Social Systems & Business

Originally posted at Harvard Business Review blog

Less than a week has passed since the interactive portion of SXSW, a Mecca for the world's digerati, wrapped up. Some have written scathing reviews vowing never to return and others provided a more balanced look. From a sociological point of view, I'd argue that events like this serve up insights by the pound, if you are willing to look for them. Here are a few things I noticed and how you can apply these insights to the business world.

Give People The Tools To Organize: Reward Participation.
Each year SXSW spotlights a technology. This year it was the local/mobile platform Foursquare. The service let people within the local network sniff out which events and locations were "hot" by who and how many people were checking in. If you managed to find yourself at one of these trending locations you were rewarded with a "swarm" badge, a special limited badge that acts as a memento of the event. Foursquare allowed participants to manage the chaos to some degree and provided incentives to "check in." In the business world, these principals can be transferred to initiatives such as loyalty programs or internal collaboration networks.

Create Scarcity, Curate Lists.
SXSW hosted lots of parties. People complained about the lines and everyone wanted to be on a VIP list (who doesn't?). While exclusivity has a downside (people feel left out), it also reinforces that those who have social connections don't get left out and reap the benefits. This was reinforced even in the small but tech-saturated petri dish in Austin and ensured that the people who are considered "magnets" would attract others to the right venues. Organizations can leverage this dynamic as well and typically do, through "influencer outreach" programs or singling out the accomplished such as Microsoft's (disclaimer, Edelman client) MVP program.

Standout With A Service.
The SXSW convention center reminded me of Times Square. Hundreds of vendors, brands and companies vie for your attention. The toll this takes on the average attendee is visible after a few days as many of us sought refuge in quiet places. The sensory overload was substantial and resulted in everything blurring into each other which made it difficult to stand out. One company managed to stand out in an understated way. Chevrolet sponsored all of the power supply stations providing adapters for every mobile device conceivable and power strips at every turn (disclaimer, Edelman client). Chevy was ubiquitous without being obnoxious. If you really want your business to stand out amongst the noise, do something useful.

Make People Feel Unique.
SXSW is one of the most informal conferences, with the dress code to match. But it doesn't stop there--attendees looking to set themselves apart from the crowd wear unique t-shirts, bring props such as a garden gnome and hand out business cards that double for bottle openers. The venue supports a sociological truth that human beings want to feel they are one-of-a-kind. You only have to walk through the halls of a high school to see this in practice. This insight proves to be especially relevant in marketing. Provide an experience where you can help people get noticed and they will reward you for it.

Crowdsource With Caution.
The panels at SXSW are partially crowdsourced via user votes which also creates an expected sociological pattern. People get out and promote themselves and their ideas bringing even more attention to the event. In the case of SXSW, the number of panels combined with this approach have caused some to feel like quality of content isn't as strong as it could be. When going with the wisdom of crowds, be sure to balance what the people say they want vs. what you know they need. For further direction here, see Apple and Steve Jobs.

SXSW isn't perfect but it's a lot like a successful social platform. It's like a live manifestation of Facebook. With more cowboy hats and, arguably, fewer ads.

Image credit: jdlasica

Social Media Is Dead: Long Live Common Sense

Social Media Is Dead: Long Live Common Sense.

View more presentations from David Armano.

Tomorrow I’ll be speaking at a Chicago AMA (American Marketing Association) event downtown. They say it’s the first event fully dedicated to social media. At first I was tempted to do a “101” talk, not knowing what the level of the audience would be. Then I realized that the audience and myself would be better served if I stuck to my guns and made the message accessible. So that’s what I did. In the end, organizations are going to need to modify process, staffing, training, culture and even leadership if they want to integrate “social” in a meaningful way. And it will integrate—we’ve seen this movie before back in the early .com days.

Hope to see you at the event. Please say hello if you can and use the hashtag #socialAMA. If you don’t know what that is, I won’t be helping you out in this presentation (that's social media 101).

Edelman Digital: When Is Your Website A Community?

 

One of the pet projects I've taken on since joining Edelman has been assuming the responsibilities of the "website", an initiative that as many professional services firms can relate to began to head down the path of the "cobblers children". One of the first things I was empowered to do was to hire a resource, fully dedicated to this property—this was probably one of the more innovative moves on the initiative since the property isn't a content destination nor a product platform. It does however allows us to be content publishers, facilitators and provides us with the flexibility to integrate 3rd party platforms (for example, a Foursquare widget will tell you who has checked into a local office).

   

Having found the perfect community manager (Suzanne Marlatt), who acts as part curator, editor, blogger, and developer, we began to streamline efforts on the property to move it forward along our vision. Suzanne (below) and I both half jokingly describe this vision as a "Mashable for marketing", but that underscores our determination to not only create but maintain a valuable experience to the users who will subscribe and participate here.

 

The site is in its infancy but built on Wordpress, it allows us to throw as much content and interactivity as that platform can withstand. But we all know this is not a technology play—this is a value play. This property needs to provide value to our clients, employees, peers, and potential job seekers. As long as we put these users first, and maintain the resources we've committed to it, I'm confident we could indeed provide the value we aspire to. Wish us luck—communities don't form overnight.

How Social Is Too Social?

More articles on Harvard Business

Imagine walking up to an ATM — you insert your card and begin to check your balance before you put in the amount of cash you want to withdraw from the machine. As you do this, a small crowd of people begins to form around you peering over your shoulder. Some are friends, some family, some are casual acquaintances and some you don't even know. Uncomfortable situation? Absolutely. While ATMs are in public settings, they are meant to be private interactions. If someone — even someone you know began to involve themselves with your financial activity you would get annoyed.

While this scenario is extreme, it seems to suggest that maybe not everything is better with friends, despite the fact this seems to be the approach, so far, of social networking services. Over the past few weeks the technology world made big steps forward in making your world even more "social." Google Buzz was introduced and caused a firestorm of mixed reactions as it automatically connected people to their e-mail contacts publicly, without asking permission. Buzz also socializes other services, such as Reader, so others can follow what what you read. In short, it takes your experience with Google products and turns it into another social ecosystem to manage. Shortly after, Microsoft (disclaimer: an Edelman client) introduced Outlook Social Connector which will connect Outlook with existing platforms such as Linked In.

While both efforts are different in their approach (Google Buzz could be viewed as a competitor to Facebook and Twitter while Outlook Social Connector looks to extend Outlook's capabilities), they signify a larger trend that points toward the "socialization" of our activities. And this is an important trend. Some things are indeed made better when social. For example, one of my favorite networks is Slideshare, which "socializes" presentations and documents. I believe that this service and others like it are chipping away at "information hoarding" and breaking down some of the taboos about intellectual property. It's disruption, but disruption that can be beneficial to both businesses and individuals.

But not everything should be social, as some Google users have found out. Liza Sperling who works for Scout Labs, a social media monitoring company recently tweeted: "Help, suddenly tons of strangers following my GReader! I used to love GReader, until Buzz killed it." She's not alone. Scores of people have expressed frustration with finding and disabling some of the social features, which resulted in an apology from Google over privacy issues.

Let's be clear. This isn't a technological issue. It's an anthropological one. Businesses that are looking to benefit from social technologies are going to need better and more intimate understandings of the people and cultures of those they hope will leverage their services.

The good news is that that while a counter-trend may be brewing that points toward "social overload" — companies that are agile like Google (and Facebook and others) can help us figure our threshold for how much we want to share and who benefits from it. The current hypothesis that everything is better with "friends" is being tested before our eyes. Each market in different parts of the globe may respond to this hypothesis differently. But the truth that's becoming easier to see is that some things aren't meant to be social (think e-mail and one to one messaging). Understanding this thinking will probably make the social web even better. As social technologies progress, valuable and meaningful engagements will become more important than just connecting with friends.

Less Networks. More Meaning.

 

Here's what I observed this past week after scanning the reactions of people in my own networks in relation to Google Buzz. People in my own ecosystem seem utterly exhausted by the plethora of networks they manage and the number of people within those networks. E-mail, Facebook, Twitter, Yammer, Instant Messenger... just how many platforms can we participate in?

Google's strategy is likely meant to solve this problem. To become the one "ecosystem" to rule them all. But the Web doesn't work this way. It's unlikely that people will abandon existing platforms or networks unless they become so polluted that we have no choice. Sure we may have wandered away from e-mail, but how many of us have actually abandoned it? Very few I suspect. E-mail like Twitter or Facebook will remain relevant as long as our friends and co-workers keep using it. When they stop, it might go away—but how likely is it that scenario?

In my trends for 2010 article at Harvard Business, I wrote the following:

1. Social media begins to look less social
With groups, lists and niche networks becoming more popular, networks could begin to feel more "exclusive." Not everyone can fit on someone's newly created Twitter list and as networks begin to fill with noise, it's likely that user behavior such as "hiding" the hyperactive updaters that appear in your Facebook news feed may become more common. Perhaps it's not actually less social, but it might seem that way as we all come to terms with getting value out of our networks — while filtering out the clutter.

I believe that we are already beginning to see this trend accelerate as the onslaught of new networks for us to explore and manage continues to assault us even as we struggle to find the signal within the noise of our existing networks. The average and even not so average person is simply finding it to be too much. So what's next?

Less Networks. More Meaning.
In a recent panel discussion for brand managers, I talked about Facbook's "hide" feature and how we will begin to see more of this type of functionality emerge in response to the need for people to extract value from their ecosystems. While I believe that new platforms, service and networks will emerge that promise this—I think the reality is that people will not abandon existing platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. especially if those platforms continue to add noise reducing functionality. We are limited beings with busy lives and creating new networks every few months is simply not sustainable behavior.

I believe that technology titans and upstarts have a huge opportunity in front of them IF they pay attention to this trend. Optimize your existing platform to filter out clutter while decreasing the learning curve as opposed to increasing it. Twitter's List feature is a nice little tool which empowers people to trim down followings to topics and manageable numbers. 3rd party extensions such as Listorious make lists even more effective. The opportunity in front of us may not be connecting just because you can—it will be making those connections more meaningful.

We Are The Media. Do We Trust Media?

 
First, an informal disclaimer. While I work for the firm (Edelman) that conducted the 2010 Trust Barometer, the following opinions expressed are personal and I was not involved with the research or creation of the report. That said, I wanted to express a few non data based thoughts around the the specific finding that there is less trust in a "person like yourself".

Now, let's get into why this is worth discussing. Based on comments and conversation which I've seen in industry publications and elsewhere there seems to be a concern that this finding flies in the face of social conventional wisdom. Previous studies such as the one below conducted by Forrester tell us that we trust a friend or acquaintance who has used a product more than anyone else:

 
Below that is the review of a known expert which is less trusted. Note that these two charts are NOT apples to apples, (while the Forrester is more specific to consumers it does provide an interesting contrast). However, I have a few random but related thoughts that I'm going to put out there. If you want something more analytical you can find it elsewhere. Keep in mind that I approach things intuitively at times.
 

Everything Is Media. Do We Trust The Media?
At a recent client presentation, colleague Steve Rubel said something which I found to be very insightful. Essentially, we are all media. We act like the media, espousing opinions—reporting from the field (Iran etc.) and in turn media has begun to act like us (blogging, tweeting and becoming more opinionated vs. hard news oriented. The barometer had this to say about trust in the media:

"The only institution to lose trust around the globe is media. Over the last three years, trust in media has fallen from 48 to 45 percent among older informed publics. With the dispersion of traditional media’s authority and the rise of opinion journalism, trust in the institution as a whole has waned."

So with "peers" acting more like media and media acting more like peers, I'd put forth the observation that it's logical for people to take a step back and ask the question "who can I trust"? The blurring of lines here is likely causing some confusion. Also the speed at which media spreads. We've seen several examples of social media being "first on the scene" but also inaccurate. On the flipside as mainstream media becomes more opinionated, they may be perceived as less of an authority.  Some pretty interesting dynamics here—but I think it's fundamentally true that we are all media now. So who do you trust when trust in media has fallen?

Media Is Increasingly Paid
As the above chart also indicates, trust in corporate or product advertising is relatively low. Now, an inconvenient truth in world of social media is that many social initiatives are actually paid. And it's not only in cash (though increasingly it is) it's also in free products etc. A recent conversation with a peer in another firm was especially insightful as someone performing outreach to bloggers was telling me that the bloggers were making more than she did just by being full time bloggers. Is this social media?

Well, it's leveraging social technologies, but I believe that it's closer to paid media side (see the above diagram) and in a fragile economy jaded yet intelligent consumers might just be coming around to this. Increasingly with new FTC ethics that force bloggers to be transparent about payment we are seeing the evidence of a paid system. Services such as IZEA are brazen about the fact that your platform in social media can and should be monetized. I say it's all fair game, but ask the following question:

Has the monetization of your blog etc. eroded trust with the people you serve? It's possible.

The Noise Is Deafening
Social media has given everyone a voice, and related to the points above the noise from advertisers, media and now our friends who act like media and use social platforms to advance their own agenda (if you use Facebook you know EXACTLY what I am talking about), it's conceivable that the average person is overwhelmed, possibly annoyed and frustrated at the bombardment they now receive from advertisers and friends alike. So where does one turn? The report suggests experts and academics and I see this as totally plausible. When there is so much noise, we seek a dense type of signal that is apart from the frey. It's quite possible that social media may be a victim of it's own success in this area. HOWEVER, it's worth noting that in the first graphic, "a person like yourself" still ranks high despite the dip in trust over the past year. It's possible that the amount of noise generated by peers in networks combined with some of these other factors may have caused the dip—though the movement is still very much in play.

Who Do We Consider Peers?
Lastly, and this is more of a question—who are our peers? Edelman colleague Christina Smedly said the following on Advertising Age:

"There are ... consumers who still only trust the people they see every day or their 120 friends on Facebook," Ms. Smedley said. "But there are those that trust all 380 of their friends on Facebook. And there's opportunity for brands with both groups. If marketers can find those action consumers, they can build campaigns that work through their parameters and get some very good results."

To my previous point about the amount of noise, I think there is a much validity to what Christina says here and I would add a further insight. Who are our friends that we have chosen not to hide in Facebook—who are the people whose phonecalls we take and whose e-mails we read right away? It's an important question. If there is a company that has totally nailed the algorithm in this, I'd invest in it because I think there is a future in understanding in depth how people separate signal from noise and who truly influences their behavior from consideration to point of action.

In short, these are a few factors that I believe make it understandable that trust is more delicate than ever even with our "peers" or perhaps our various sources of "media". Personally I see trust being connected to value. If you provide value to me consistently, I am more likely to believe you are looking out for me. If I feel like you are looking out for me, I am more likely to trust you. If I trust you—you are more likely to succeed in your business.

These are my personal thoughts. I hope you find them valuable and would like to hear yours.

Six Ways to Find Social Media Talent

More articles on Harvard Business

As organizations move their social media strategies from theory to practice, they discover a difficult truth they must confront: Finding the "perfect" social media talent is practically impossible.

To start, the field is flooded with thousands of self proclaimed "experts" who have reinvented themselves to take advantage what looks like a growing business opportunity. Maybe they do know social media, but many don't. They need to be vetted.

More broadly, most candidates for social media positions fall at the ends of a spectrum. On one end is the person who really gets it and has deep expertise in social media, but lacks the potential to plug into your business culture. On the other end, there is the candidate with plenty of practical professional experience who will fit in easily with your culture, but who maybe doesn't have deep social media experience.

Ideally you'd find the candidate in the middle of that spectrum, but that's proving to be a remarkably rare individual. Trust me, I'm in the middle of a job search for this person and it's a time-consuming, intensive effort.

But in the process of hiring, I've learned some ways to help move the hiring process forward to attract some of the best and brightest emerging talent at all levels. Here are six emerging practices for hiring social media talent.

Empower anyone to recruit. Candidates deeply immersed in social media usually participate across multiple networks--likely the same ones that your employees use both professionally and personally. Empower employees to use their networks to uncover people who may be looking for an opportunity.

Leverage your beacons. Professional activities tied to social media are still relatively new and everyone is learning. That said, if your organization has individuals who are well known in the space, be sure to leverage their social and professional equity in the recruiting process. For example, if one of your employees earns a following in the social space, reward them by supporting their initiatives. Harness their passion for the benefit of your business. A shining light will attract others to it.

Go where they go. The professional world has been slow to embrace social media events such as "tweetups" (meetings organized by participants on Twitter) or conferences like South By Southwest, a kind of spring break for technophiles. But the reality is that these events attract social media enthusiasts--many of whom may become tomorrows corporate superstars.

Show off your case studies. Candidates in this field are typically familiar with the more publicized social media case studies (Ford, Zappos, Comcast, to name a few) and are hungry for more. If your organization has had success on either an internal or external initiative, don't be shy about touting it. But be sure it's something worth talking about. Also, be honest and forthcoming--share failures as well. If you aren't failing, you aren't doing.

Upgrade recruitment tactics and technology. Contract with recruiters who are extremely proficient in engaging with prospects across multiple networks. They must also be conversant with typical social media job descriptions. Make sure your technology infrastructure is upgraded to help recruit socially. For example, simply tracking the links to your job descriptions with a service called bit.ly will show you not only how many times your ad was clicked on, but how the link was socialized and shared across a variety of networks. This data can provide valuable insights into the recruiting process.

Groom internal candidates. Don't forget you probably already employ good candidates for a social media job. They likely already have the cultural qualifications but perhaps lack knowledge or skills in social media such as being comfortable engaging with individuals in public. It's the responsibility of management to ensure that internal prospects can be trained and groomed for opportunities. This means potentially setting time aside for those who have the knowledge internally or bringing in expertise externally for assistance.

These are a few recommendations to consider as you look for quality people to make a social media strategy a reality at your company. If you have had success in recruiting and or training in this space, I'd love to hear what worked for you.