Thursday, March 18, 2010

The Role of Leadership in Social Media

We often hear of social media being equated with tools and platforms. But it's really much more than that.

If you're adopting these technologies and behaviors at your company, it's not about the shiny new toys. It's fundamentally about culture change. And that type of transformational change - which may include updating business practices - must come from the top. But more than a top-down dictum, it's got to be part of leadership.

I've previously discussed leadership here - in particular the leadership from Ford's CEO Alan Mulally, who really gets social media. He promotes a culture of transparency and openness that is completely aligned with the way we're trying to engage with consumers online and think about how we do business. Consistency of purpose and of message is key.

The Washington Post's "On Leadership" feature recently did a two-part interview with Alan that captures some of the thinking behind what makes this major culture change at Ford such a success. I thought it was valuable to share these videos with you, since there are broader business lessons here that any marketing, communications or social media professional should understand.

Alan Mulally on catching mistakes

Transcript available here.

Alan Mulally on the "liberating clarity" of his mission

Transcript available here.

This kind of thinking and laser-like focus on our plan is one of the things that continues to set Ford apart. In social media as well as in the industry.

Related:
Paul Gillin's New Media Demands New Leadership
Charlene Li's Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead

Larger Flickr image of ONE Ford available here.

Labels: CEO, Ford, social media, strategy, Video

Posted by Scott Monty at 1:21 PM

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Wednesday, February 24, 2010

When Crisis Attacks

It seems that crisis management has been a hot topic in the news lately. Sports celebrities and major automotive companies are suffering from major hits to their reputation every day in the news. And earlier today, a popular theme park made headlines: SeaWorld experienced a terrible accident when one of its killer whales from the Shamu show attacked and killed one of their most experienced trainers.

Full disclosure: I just visited the park last week and saw the show while I was on vacation, so I felt a personal twinge on hearing the news. In addition, in a when I was with a previous employer, I had an opportunity to go behind the scenes at SeaWorld and to hear about the inner operations of the park. I can understand the devastation that must be rippling across the park staff, as both the trainers and the animals are an integral part of a very unique family there. My thoughts and prayers go out to all involved.

The team at SeaWorld and its associated parks have a solid presence online; a huge portion of their ticket sales are from the web. But outside of a blogger outing through IZEAFest, I hadn't really heard much of their social media efforts. So today, when I saw "SeaWorld" and "Shamu" trending on Twitter, I knew there was probably some unfortunate news behind it.

I'd like to take a look at some of the good things that SeaWorld did in response and some areas that need attention.

The Need for Speed

When a brand is affected by a breaking crisis, the first thing I do is check Twitter. Not just for mentions of the issue, but to see how the company is responding or if it even has an account. And in this case, SeaWorld was covered, as they have an account: @SeaWorld_Parks. As of 11:30 p.m. on February 24, there are 814 followers.

You'll note that one of the most recent updates on their account is a clear statement and link to what they had to say about the crisis:

Within a few hours, the park had updated the blog with an entry "A Message from Jim Atchison, President and Chief Executive Officer, SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment" that acknowledged the tragedy and put a human feel to the statement:

February 24, 2010
It is with great sadness that I report that one of our most experienced animal trainers drowned in an incident with one of our killer whales this afternoon, February 24, 2010 at our SeaWorld Orlando park.
We have initiated an investigation to determine, to the extent possible, what occurred. There are no other details to share at this point, but we will make our findings known in due course.
I must emphasize that this is an extraordinarily difficult time for the SeaWorld parks, and our team members.
Nothing is more important than the safety of our employees, guests and the animals entrusted to our care. All of our standard operating procedures will come under review as part of the investigation.
We extend our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of the trainer and will do everything possible to assist them in this difficult time.
We appreciate everyone’s understanding and will share more information as it becomes known and available.

Any time a crisis hits, it's a good idea for a company to have a hub where information can be posted quickly to address misinformation, provide clarity, and exhibit some semblance of control over the situation. In today's world, there's no time for weeks or even days of war gaming and message creation. Companies need to be prepared to act within a matter of hours, if not more quickly.

Fortunately, SeaWorld maintains a blog at SeaWorldParksBlog.com and has been actively blogging since September of 2009. So they've already established themselves in this space, rather than waiting for a crisis to hit to create a blog. By updating that blog with timely & relevant information, they were able to reassure the public, which is especially important at a time rumors and conflicting reports are floating around. And with an associated Twitter account, they can continue to share information.

In addition, SeaWorld has used its Facebook page to post the message from Mr. Atchison as well as to announce the incident:

But there's a little more going on here that deserves some consideration.

Not So Fast

While it's great that SeaWorld has a Twitter account and Facebook page (as well as a YouTube & Flickr account), there are a few things that are worth addressing. The first is that it's probably a good idea to get more interactive with the Twitter account (although I'll admit it may be too early yet, as information and relevant facts are still coming in). But clearly, with SeaWorld being a trending topic, there's a reason to at least acknowledge some of the concerns.

Next is the inevitability of animal rights activists who will come of of the woodwork to criticize SeaWorld for keeping animals in captivity. Based on my experience behind the scenes at the park, I know SeaWorld is very sensitive to such criticism and I can say that they're absolutely committed to caring for these animals and treating them humanely. Nothing could be more important to the staff there. However, when online activists really want to make a firestorm out of something, they certainly can. And the park staff should be prepared for that. As we can see, they already had to take action on Facebook:

Also, it's important to note that there's a second Twitter account associated with SeaWorld - in fact, it's actively promoted by the park on their home page: the @Shamu account. This was formerly the @RealShamu account, but they must have acquired the @Shamu name since the account was created. Here's a shot of their Twitter page:

It's not your typical account, as Shamu seems to have a bit of an attitude. One of his tweets from nearly a year ago reads:

Now, I get that they're trying to take on the persona of the whale, but seeing that you're dealing with an animal that is in close proximity to humans on a regular basis, I would think the team might want to take a little bit of the "killer" out of the killer whale.

Similarly, notice this back and forth between @Shamu and a follower, as recently as 5 days ago:

With over 9,800 followers on the @Shamu account - more than 10 times the amount on @SeaWorld_Parks, one would think that this would be the place for updates to be taking place. However, SeaWorld has kind of painted themselves into a corner here. Because they've used a persona and because the physical manifestation of that persona (the actual whale) was involved in the incident, one of the most popular social media channels of the park is unable to be activated.

At the very least, if I were managing the account, I would consider going back and remove any references to violence in the stream, out of respect for the victim. While that may violate the tenet of keeping conversations whole on the social web, it does show a sensitivity to this very regrettable circumstance.

In short, it's important to have a crisis preparedness plan and a rapid response strategy in place, using the tools that effectively allow a company to get messages in place and respond where the conversations are happening. And as channels are being created, it's important to understand the implications of potential negative stories and how those channels might be affected. In a crisis, a popular channel that needs to be silenced is of no use to anyone.

UPDATE: Please be sure to check the comments below. They include a great back-and-forth discussion between readers, as well as a post from someone at SeaWorld's digital marketing staff that includes information on how they're handling things.

Labels: corporate blogging, crisis, enterprise, facebook, strategy, Twitter

Posted by Scott Monty at 11:49 PM

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Saturday, January 02, 2010

Social Media Predictions for 2010

I'm sure you've seen your fair share of social media predictions for 2010 by now. And while my posting is a little late, I hope I'm note treading too fine a line by waiting until 2010 hits before I make my predictions.

Before I get into what I think will be worth watching this year, let's see how well I fared with the results from the predictions I made for 2009. Those included:

Twitter will continue to achieve legitimacy. Check. There's no question that Twitter became mainstream in 2009. I won't rehash all of the examples, but suffice it to say that when your local news outlets are suggesting you follow them on Twitter, it's mainstream.
Online video will come into its own. Check. YouTube has started to show some signs of revenue generation, and Hulu was advertised during the Super Bowl. Video became more and more important in 2009.
Customers insist on custoMEr service. Check. More interaction on Facebook pages, Twitter, Get Satisfaction and similar sites has customers looking for solutions wherever they can find it, not just via 800 numbers.

Okay, so where does that leave us for 2010? What new trends or changes from last year can we expect?

There's Power in (Smaller) Numbers

Although this new technology has allowed us to connect more quickly and more transparently across the globe, the collective cacophony is simply too much. It's impossible to actively see what all of your followers are saying on Twitter after you've topped 300 or so.

In 2010, I believe we'll begin to see a contraction of networked relationships. We saw a forced version of this last year with Burger King's Whopper Sacrifice, but the proliferation of "friends" on various platforms will have people rethinking the true reason they're involved in these places to begin with. So as users reassess who and why they're connecting, what will hold the most interest for them?

People still trust people like themselves; but the ones they know best are the ones they're most likely to trust. Therefore, it will be the people in their close networks - particularly from a geographic perspective - that will remain the closest. Brands will also realize that they can't be all things to all people, and will focus on those influencers who are the best fit for them.

Note I didn't say "those influencers with the most followers or the highest readership." Long ago, I noted the difference between the theories of Malcolm Gladwell and Duncan Watts, the latter of whom notes that it's the network, not the individual influencer, that makes a difference in how ideas are spread. Expect to see a focus on fewer and stronger relationships in our own networks and in influencer/media relations.

All Social Media is Local
This next trend is one that is relative to the above. The former Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill once famously said "All politics is local," meaning that ultimately, people care most about what's going on in communities around them. Social media is no different.

When you follow the recent rise of location-based services like Foursquare or Tripit, it's clear that people want to connect with others by location, as well as share experiences and seek recommendations by those who are well informed. And whether that means connecting in the communities in which they live or those to which they travel, people will begin to use more of these kinds of services. As an adjunct to location-based social networks, expect location-based search to blossom as well.

Related: see Matt Singley's post on Why Foursquare is the next Social Network.

Silent E
If you're of a certain generation in America, you may recall The Adventures of Letterman, a varsity-sweater wearing superhero who rescued victims of alphabet assault-and-battery by the Spellbinder. As Letterman appeared, the voice-over noted that he was "Stronger that a silent E..."

In this case, the E is for email. Yes, email, that seemingly forgotten poor stepchild of social media, that gateway to the online space, that workhorse of digital media. Email is alive and well and living in everyone's inbox. According to ShareThis, 46% of people share content by email - larger than any other social platform. And StrongMail's Social Influence Benchmark Report shows nearly 37% share by email, with 21% sharing by embedded badges.

When you add to this the fact that many in the mainstream still don't know what an RSS feed is or how to use an RSS reader (or that they simply don't use one), it's clear that email subscriptions still rule the roost. Not to mention that email is ubiquitous. It's just generally accepted that everyone has an email address. Despite the hype of social media and social networks as the latest way to connect, every single platform has a common denominator: you need an email address to register.

Expect to see a renewed effort on email marketing, with a nod toward integrating with social media applications and campaigns. With a good content strategy, email is simply the vehicle best suited to share the content.

Related: Users Still Sharing by E-Mail (eMarketer)

Other Trends
While I won't go into as much detail in these, keep your eyes on the mobile space, on fuller integration of PR and marketing, and more focus on quality content in 2010. Overall, the space will begin to show some signs of maturation, and will begin a future trend of being integrated as a part of day-to-day business in many organizations.

Oh, last year I also predicted that social media gurus would continue to self-promote. I see no need to change that this year. ;-)

How about you - any predictions or trends that you'd care to share? Drop a comment in below.

You might want to check out these related posts as well:
Brian Solis says that Mobile is the Next Frontier for Brand Engagement.
Pete Cashmore predicts 10 Web trends to watch in 2010.

eMarketer Weighs in on 2010 Trends and compiles a 2010 Roundup of Predictions
Chris Brogan looks notes that 2010 Will See Consolidations and Fold-ups
Forrester predicts 2010: The Year Marketing Dies
Read Write Web tell us about 10 Ways Social Media Will Change in 2010
MediaPost says that 2010 Is the Year Social Media Gets Serious

Photo credit: Stefan

Labels: social media, strategy, trends

Posted by Scott Monty at 5:35 PM

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Thursday, October 29, 2009

What's a Brand to Do?

Say you work for a brand. Customers have more access to you than ever - and you've got a wealth of choices as far as channels go: traditional marketing, online & interactive, gaming, mobile, social media, etc.

But for your customers that are interested in interacting online, what do you think they want from you? And what should you do when you connect with them? Look no further! eMarketer Daily has very helpfully published a piece on Lightspeed Research's "Global Web Index."

Actions Brands Can Take that Are Most Relevant to US Internet Users, August-September 2009 (scale of 1-5*)

What do customer want from the brands they love? Information, mostly (well, after a good discount, anyway). Ultimately, they want value. They're not there to be "friends," or to get your time-wasting app - they want something that's relevant to them that helps push the relationship forward.

Something to think about when thinking about your online strategy.

Chart courtesy of eMarketer.

Posted via web from The Full Monty

Labels: brand, customer relations, social media, strategy

Posted by Scott Monty at 12:03 PM

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Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Fear and Loathing in Social Media

You would think at this point that we'd be up to curiosity or even playful experimentation.

But it seems that, according to the e-tailing group and PowerReviews' survey earlier this month that brands are still hesitant to entirely give over to the power of social media for fear of (what else?) loss of control of their brand and concerns about their competence. A secondary fear is that consumers might find social sites more engaging than the brands' sites, and therefore stop visiting the brands'

sites.

I may be oversimplifying this a bit, but if I were at a brand that was concerned customers might leave my site for a better site I might, oh, I don't know...maybe BUILD A MORE ENGAGING SITE?!?!?!

That's only a start. Another course is to engage with consumers where they want to be reached. When the surveyed companies state that their goals of using social media are: to increase engagement, build brand loyalty, and spur word of mouth. If that's the case, you don't get there by (a) ignoring where the rest of the world is going; or (b) burying your head in the sand in terms of these sites.

The good news is that half of the suggested activities/sites mentioned in the survey (Facebook page, Twitter, customer reviews, blogs and viral [sic] videos) are already accepted or used by more than half of the respondents. That's a great start, but there's more potential.

Before I make a recommendation, I'd like to review a crude approximation that I've been working on - it's how some brands and agencies approach social media with trepidation. Because it's not unlike how humans deal with grief, I've developed a similar model for marketers:

The 5 Stages of Social Media Grief

(With apologies to Elisabeth Kübler-Ross.)

Denial - first stage of social media grief in which the marketer refuses to acknowledge the existence of social media. This was the case early on in the industry's development. Luckily, I don't think there are many companies left that think like this.
Common phrases: "It's just a kid's thing," or "It's just a fad."
Common behaviors: avoiding the Internet, putting hands over ears and singing "I can't heeeeeaaaarr yoooouuuuu. La la laaaaa."

Anger - In the second stage, jealousy and rage are misplaced and rage ensues.
Common phrases: "This is stupid," "I've got better things to do with my time."
Common behaviors: full-fledged slave to work email; increase in print or television media buy to show effectiveness and superiority.

Bargaining -Anger gives way to hope that incremental adoption of social media will be enough to make a difference.
Common phrases: "If we have a Facebook page, we should be covered," "Let's just create a blog," or "Let the agency figure it out."
Common behaviors: the use of social media only in time-limited campaigns; half-hearted efforts on a limited number of social sites.

Depression -The fourth stage manifests itself in an understanding that the inevitable cannot be delayed and the marketer becomes doleful.
Common phrases: "Twitter/Google/Facebook is taking over the world," or "We're overwhelmed with choices."
Common behaviors: moping; pacing; complaining to friends on Facebook.

Acceptance -With the final stage, the marketer finally realizes that social media is here to stay and begins to determine ways to integrate activities and craft strategies that are truly integrated.
Common phrases: "Let's craft a comprehensive social media strategy," or "Let's spend some time listening to what consumers are saying about us."
Common behaviors: integration of marketing and communications functions, determination of measurement goals, online and offline alignment from the beginning of projects.

As we know in dealing with emotional grief, you can't skip steps - you have to go through them. Some folks may be stubborn and may take a while, while others may be ahead of the curve and breeze through them quickly. [Aside: in 2004, when I heard Elisabeth Kubler-Ross died, my grieving went as follows: "No that can't be true. Curse you, Lord, no just God would take her from us. I wish she was back. Geez, life stinks. Oh, well, that's the circle of life."].

Now, in order to address those fears and to get on with the acceptance, why not start by aligning your social media activities with your business plan and your overall marketing and communications objectives? A second step would be to listen, listen and listen - get a sense as to what's being said about your brand and how people engage on these social platforms.

And then if you'd like to make a more engaging site for customers, consider integrating or aggregating content from third party social sites or services right there on your own web page. Give people a chance to find contextually relevant material from other sources on your site. We've done it on the Fiesta Movement site and we continue to do it in a variety of ways on The Ford Story.

The thinking there is that people will go out and search for other peoples' opinions on your products anyway. Why not give them something contextually relevant while they're on your site and provide value? It's an acknowledgment - dare I say acceptance? - that the world around us is changing.

Photo credit: tavopp on Flickr

Chart credit: eMarketer

Labels: enterprise, social media, strategy

Posted by Scott Monty at 2:14 AM

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Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Are We There Yet?

Not quite, it would seem.

While we in business are seeing some advances from companies that are learning how to become more transparent, it's clear that the scientific community is stuck in the relative Dark Ages. Case in point: check out this guide on How To Publish a Scientific Comment in 1 2 3 Easy Steps (embedded below).

It would be funny if it weren't tragic.

I suppose it's a chance for those of us who understand and operate in the realm of online communications and social media to be thankful that we embrace instantaneous commenting and direct access to authors. That we co-create instead of hoard. That we can request assistance and get dozens of replies from people willing to collaborate for the sake of solving a problem or helping a colleague. That's precisely how open source software has allowed us to advance farther faster. iPhone app, anyone?

What if the scientific community were more collaborative (and I'm speaking about the publications here, not institutions themselves)? Or at the very least, collegial? What if journals and scientific publications held their authors to such high standards that they required more open disclosure of data, processes, and errors? Wouldn't that be something that we could all benefit from? The process below stands to illustrate the old thinking of self-promotion, fiefdoms, and jealously guarded secrets.

There must be a better way.

How to Publish a Scientific Comment in 1 2 3 Easy Steps

Posted via web from The Full Monty

Photo credit: Wolfgang Staudt

Labels: communities, ethics, iPhone, strategy

Posted by Scott Monty at 1:49 PM

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Monday, June 29, 2009

Are Your Priorities Screwed Up?

The recent news of Michael Jackson's death has a lot of people rattled. When an icon of that stature passes, it's natural for a whole generation of people to reflect on nostalgic times, pine for what could have been, and think about lessons for our own lives.

In this case, I couldn't help but be struck by a similarity between Michael Jackson's status and that of some so-called social media "rock stars."

I've always been a little hesitant to anyone self assigning expert or "rock star" status. To me, experts are deemed so by others, after an individual has put in plenty of hard work and dedication. And the whole "rock star" thing boggles my mind. There seems to be a cult of weblebrities - people who are Internet famous - where social media types celebrate each other with more and more fervor. My question is: why?

The reason I tied it in with Michael Jackson is because I read a recent column written by the Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, who was MJ's spiritual advisor for a time. He makes a very profound yet simple observation about what fueled Jackson's passion for fame:

"He needed the throngs, he thrived on the adulation of the crowds...In many ways his tragedy was to mistake attention for love...Money [or fame] is not a currency by which we can purchase self-esteem and being recognized on the streets will never replace being loved unconditionally by family and true friends."

The strange thing is, I see a lot of this behavior in some social media types. And it's kind of sad, really. It's like they're busily trying to replace something that's missing in real life. To understand the absurdity of it, I'll give you an example of an exchange I witnessed:

Person 1: "You've never heard of [insert name of social media "rock star" of your choice here]??" (I'm leaving the name out to protect the innocent)

Person 2: "When my mother has heard of him, then you know he's famous."

But let's not kid ourselves. Using social media as part of your marketing mix is far more than recruiting some uber-connected individual who can bring attention to your brand. It starts with crafting a strategy and understanding what your business objectives are. And it means never, ever taking your eye off the customer and doing what matters - providing value to them. After all, isn't that what you're in business for?

A poignant reminder from Seth Godin (as interviewed by Debbie Weil) on that very topic here:

(Facebook readers, click through for the video)

Photo source: ovaratli (Flickr)

Labels: customer relations, social media, social media takeaways, strategy, trends

Posted by Scott Monty at 9:35 AM

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Thursday, March 05, 2009

Advertising to Gen Y on Social Networks

The other day, I remarked that Ford is "not interested in advertising on social networks. We're interested in getting in there and interacting with people." Here's why:

The Good News

The Bad News

So once again we hear that advertising on social networks is not effective when you're trying to reach Millennials. This is according to the Participatory Marketing Network, Pace University's Lubin School of Business' Interactive and Direct Marketing Lab, and IDC (Source: MarketingCharts.com).

Not a big surprise.

The Important Stuff

Here's where it gets interesting. Wanna know what Millennials do care about on social networks? (Of course you do - that's why you're here.)

Getting news or product updates (67%)
Having access to promotions (64%)
Viewing or downloading music or videos (41%)
Submitting opinions (36%)
Connecting with other consumers (33%)

There's an opportunity here for you, marketers. If you want to make a splash on a social network where your customers are, make it worth their while. Give people updates about your products - perhaps information that they can't get elsewhere, or make it the first place you place the updates. Give them an offer that can only be gotten from the social network.

In other words, provide value and be contextually relevant to why they're there in the first place. Don't interrupt them with your ads and expect results.

Labels: Advertising, social media, social networks, strategy, study

Posted by Scott Monty at 6:03 PM

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Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Social Media for the Entrepreneur

I recently received an email from someone asking me, " I'm starting a company and I'm interested in how I can use social media to get people to my site and my blog."

It's a fair question, and one that is probably on many people's minds. I'm not an entrepreneur, nor do I know if I could ever be one. (That's probably why I'm at a corporate job). A few people - much more qualified than I to speak on this subject - have addressed this issue. You might take a look at what they had to say:

Social Media Starter Moves for the Entrepreneur [chrisbrogan.com]
Execute on Being You [garyvaynerchuk.com]
Social Media and the Tech Entrepreneur [alanwolk.com]
If I Started Today [chrisbrogan.com again - boy, this guy's good!]

I'm not sure what I can add, but here's my email response. Rather than being list of tools, resources or prescribed tactics, I took more of a behavioral approach.

First off, I wouldn't be concerned about getting people to your site/blog. Social media isn't about getting traffic, it's about building relationships.

What are you doing out there? What social networks are you involved in? What blogs do you read? Interact with people, leave comments, be helpful by providing tips or links. Overall, spend 2-3X more reading & commenting on other people's stuff than you do writing your own. Over time, this will get people naturally interested in what you have to say.

Social media is a karmic business, and you have to give in order to receive. Share you knowledge and information freely. Create an ebook with valuable tips and give it away on your blog or site. Go out of your way to connect people and to show you're willing to give something before you get something.

I'm sure there are many more suggestions that you have, as a smart social media practitioner, student or professional. What are they?

Photo credit: forimpact

Labels: rules, social media, strategy

Posted by Scott Monty at 7:18 PM

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Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Why Video Will Be So Important in 2009

One of the principles that Web 2.0 affords us all is that, thanks to the ease of self-publishing, we can create content in pretty much any form we want. And if you don't know exactly how your customers like to consume information, I'd argue that you should make every version available.

This became pretty clear to me today, when we made an announcement at Ford that we're launching a new feature in the Lincoln MKS called Active Park Assist - which means you can parallel park hands-free. Sounds cool.

We launched a traditional press release along with a social media press release. There were mainstream online articles about it which got some pickup, including Engadget, the Wall Street Journal, and Yahoo. And the reaction was mostly people passing along the headlines on Twitter.

But it wasn't until we launched the video that we had that "a-ha" moment. People saw the technology in action and immediately understood what the text-based pieces and the image above were trying to convey.

In this case, we had a story that was more easily understood by observing how technology worked firsthand. When you couple an image-intensive story with an audience's need for quick information, video is a great solution.

So when it's time to make your own announcement, launch a campaign, or build awareness, you should ask yourself: what's the most effective way of telling your story?

Photo credit: Ford Motor Company

Labels: Ford, strategy, Video

Posted by Scott Monty at 6:05 PM

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Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Taking the "Me" Out of Social Media

If you've spent any time reading marketing & social media blogs, you may have noticed a common trait that each of the authors share: we love to talk about ourselves. I don't know if it's because I read a lot of material in this space, or if it's just because I'm too close to these people, but it's gotten to the point where it's bordering on egotism, hubris and narcissism.

It's an ugly accusation, but not one that I make lightly. But I'm tired of seeing social media bloggers focusing inward. Whether it's a laundry list of the latest appearances, self-referential links to previous entries in the blog, or thought leadership that feeds an overinflated ego, their sites become a great monument to...themselves.

I'm not going to name names (because I don't want to embarrass anyone, and partially because I'm probably just as guilty as the next guy), but I do want to raise an important point about social media - a point we try to make clear to companies all the time. No one cares how many followers we have on Twitter, they're not interested in our blog statistics, and they probably don't like gratiuitous name-dropping.

News flash: social media is less about you than it is about the other guy.

Listen up
The first rule that social media consultants/experts/gurus/whatever-you-want-to-call-them will tell companies is that they need to listen. "Understand the communities you wish to be a part of," we tell them, "and then you'll be able to participate with credibility." Old school marketers wonder about their message, and how it'll be conveyed, essentially asking, "What about me?"

Perhaps some will even spout that you can't spell social media without "me." Maybe so. But then again, you can't spell customer without "u."

Karma works
Recently, David Armano (a fellow blogger whom I've admired since the early days of my own blog) wrote about karmic marketing. The essence was that if you truly want peoples' attention, you need to give before you get.

Building a relationship with your customers really isn't that much different than having a relationship with another person in real life - the best ones are based on each party giving to the other. When you feel like you're not getting something in return from your partner, you're more likely to withdraw; but when you sense that your partner is giving freely of themselves, you'll reciprocate.

I'm reminded of a cranky old couple from my childhood days. My grandparents always had a variety of friends at their house, whether it was for coffee, chats in the shaded driveway in the summer, or at parties. There was this one couple that never seemed to be happy, and I'll never forget what the wife said: "We have the perfect give-and-take relationship. I give, and he takes."

Learn from the best
I've already mentioned Dave's article. But there are many more people who go out of their way to be generous with praise for others, keeping the main focus off of themselves. These are people who share links in their blogs or are active on Twitter, suggesting great sources of information that we can all learn from, and they do it in such a way that you can tell it's part of their DNA. Here are some examples:

Aaron Strout (@astrout on Twitter) recently announced that he was leaving Mzinga - and this is a guy who was so prominent and active in the social networking space that he was Mzinga - and he made a great list of suggestions, including one where he made it a point to encourage people to spend time on other blogs and to get beyond themselves.

C.C. Chapman has a larger than life personality; he's impossible not to like. I think one of the biggest reasons is because of his natural curiosity and his gregariousness. Together, they result in someone who is always learning and always sharing, and as a result, is always admired.

Chris Brogan's star has risen fast, and it's for a number of reasons: (1) he churns out content at an amazing rate; (2) he's everywhere, attending more conferences than you knew any single person could attend; (3) he is extremely generous with his time, his advice, his praise, and his discoveries. When you add to that a self-effacing and affable personality, what's not to like?

Becky McCray may live in a small town in the Oklahoma panhandle and write about small business, but her ideas are as big as her heart. She instituted a regular feature on her blog that proves it. Each Friday, she creates a post called the Brag Basket where she encourages anyone to share something they're proud of, whether it's their own accomplishment or something that a friend did.

Mack Collier is a blogging consultant who knows his stuff. And in addition to reviewing corporate blogs, he performs a service by listing the Top 25 Marketing & Social Media blogs, and he calls out some of the people he sees as up & comers.

As I said, these are just a few examples off the top of my head. But it's clear that each of of them, by ensuring that they heap praise on others in addition to sharing their own knowledge, are providing more value in the long run. I hope I can reach their level of selflessness as I continue to develop this blog.

I've been long overdue in this matter, but in some future posts, I'll be sharing some interviews of some of my Twitter community that showcase them. There are some really cool & interesting people out there that I think you should know. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, do you know any bloggers who go out of their way to praise and highlight the work of others? Drop a note here an let us all know.

Photo credits: Harpersbizarre and David Armano.

Labels: life, social media, strategy, trends

Posted by Scott Monty at 8:05 PM

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Monday, October 06, 2008

Global Social Media News

Part of my responsibility at Ford is to set strategy for the company globally on social media activities. So when DM News called to ask for an interview, I talked about what some of the challenges are at a multinational corporation.

Recently, I discovered that my interview was front page news over at DMNews.com. Called "Social Media Goes Global," I was quoted, along with Shiv Singh, VP of media and global strategies at Avenue A/Razorfish and Bob Pearson, VP of communities and conversations at Dell. Here are some excerpts from the piece:

Ford is not the only company that realizes the marketing opportunities of social media — from social networks and blogs to videos and photo-sharing — as it expands to every region of the world. However, US brands looking to leverage social networks internationally know that while their messages need to stay consistent regardless of the region, the language, cultural reference points, platform and tactics all need to be tailored for each market.

“There are different social media sites used in Brazil than in India or in the UK,” [Monty] says. “So we need to be sensitive what the most popular social media sites in these regions are [as well as] the region-specific differences in the ways people consume content and interact with each other online.”

“We're interested in the global aspect of social media, but we also realized it has applications across the company,” Monty says. “Whether it is customer service, IT, HR, or product development, there are a number of uses for social media. And when you add to that all of our constituents — customers, employees, shareholders, dealers, retirees — it becomes a very complex assignment.”

You may recall an earlier post titled Social What? which had a handy graphic delineating the top social networks in many countries. It's worth checking out as a handy guide.

Any global advice or experience you'd care to share?

Labels: Ford, news, social media, strategy

Posted by Scott Monty at 8:45 AM

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Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Pretended, Recommended, Offended, Suspended, Contended, Amended

Well, this is splendid.

I recently wrote about the Mad Men craze that had taken over Twitter. Characters from the hit television program sprang to life on the chattiest of social networks - including Don Draper, Peggy Olson, Roger Sterling, Bert Cooper, Paul Kinsey, Pete Campbell, Bud Melman, Bobbie Barrett, Sal Romano and Joan Holloway.

But as of about 2:00 p.m. EDT this afternoon, the jig was up. Evidently, AMC marketers discovered that their show had been brandjacked, and they quickly put an end to the fun, citing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMAC).

Given a recent high-profile Twitterjacking of a brand, it's not surprising that Twitter and AMC would have this reaction. But AMC should have been prepared for the backlash that the account suspension created. These are characters that inspired a cult following on Twitter - in some cases, garnering nearly 1,000 followers in nearly a week of twittering; and they're featured in one of the most critically acclaimed television shows of all time.

But this is where it gets interesting. By about 6:45 p.m. EDT, AMC's agency, Deep Focus, convinced them that they should be playing along, and the accounts were reinstated. Evidently, the advice that the hip agency gave their client was that it's "better to embrace the community than negate their efforts."

I suppose it raises a valid concern. In this day and age when we're seeing more opportunities for brand ambassadorship, both sponsored and consumer-generated, when should it be embraced and when should it be shunned? If fans are being faithful to the brand and encouraging interest in the brand, clearly the brand is benefitting from the increased attention and interplay.

But it's got to be incredibly unnerving for brand managers and marketing managers watch this happen. At any point, a fan with less than enough restraint might do something "off-brand" and jeopardize how people think of the company or its products. And then there's a problem.

Which is why savvy marketers should be on the cutting edge of social media. If AMC had the foresight with which I had credited them, they would have been the ones who established these accounts. But the fact that their fans did so on their behalf shows how dedicated the fans are. To quash the effort just as it was getting off the ground was foolhardy.

What do you think? Did AMC make a big mistake (or two)? When should a brand be concerned with brandjacking and when should it embrace passionate fans? Is there necessarily a fine line, or is it a gray area?

Labels: Mad Men, strategy, Twitter

Posted by Scott Monty at 10:34 PM

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Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Why I Won't Make A Viral Video for You

This is something of a public service announcement. I can't tell you how many times I've heard clients/companies say "we'd like you to make a viral video for us." As Greg Verdino would say, "I think I just threw up in my mouth a little."

People, people. It just doesn't work that way. You can't will something to be viral, any more than you can tell an author to go write a bestseller, a director to direct a blockbuster, or an 8 year-old to be a major-league ballplayer.

Virality (if there is such a term) lies in results. It means that if you've created something worthy of passing along and comment, it will be more likely to reach epic heights on YouTube or whatever other way you're choosing to measure it.

For companies looking to create the next viral video sensation, David Meerman Scott recommends creating 10-20 videos in the hopes that maybe one of them will work. If you look at the how many videos actually reach viral status, he's probably right - if not even a little conservative.

I hate to tell you, but you're probably not going to have a viral sensation on your hands. The best you can do is to create content that matters to your customers and prospects and give them the ability to share that content around.

Oh, and the image above? It's taken from the January 1973 issue of National Lampoon magazine. The original caption was "If You Don't Buy This Magazine, We'll Kill This Dog."

Related posts:
"A Mind-Blowing New Advertising Model"
If You're Going to Do Viral, Do It Right
Research + Entertainment = Wildly Successful Campaign
Psst! Want the Secret to Viral Marketing?

Update (7/16 at 2:45 p.m.):
This video was released by the guys at JibJab just 6 hours ago, and currently has bout 2,200 views on YouTube. I think it has qualities that will make it go viral - it's universally funny, it's topical, and you can pass it along. Let's track the numbers and see how they do over the course of the next week.

Update (7/23 at 5:10 p.m.):
It's now a week since the release of the video, and I'll let you be the judge of the results. It stands at over 517,000 views. That's already more than their video from the 2004 election, This Land.

Labels: Advertising, client, Marketing, strategy, Video, Viral

Posted by Scott Monty at 5:37 AM

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Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Corporate Blogging - How the Pros Do It

Has this ever happened to you? When you're at a conference that offers many tracks, all of the really interesting sessions are at the same time. It happened a number of times to me during SXSW. Only I typically missed all of them, due to making personal connections and discussing topics of mutual interest with colleagues in the hallway.

The good news is that on my final day, I didn't have to make that decision. The first session of the morning was one that I was really looking forward to. Called "The Future of Corporate Blogging," it was a panel discussion between Lionel Menchaca, Mario Sundar and Kami Huyse, moderated by Mack Collier.

There's no question that this was a worthwhile session - with two living case studies of corporate blogs that really work, rich examples of how to do things well, and some of the very individuals who made it happen. Add in a consultant's view of measurement and tools, and an insightful moderator who operates in this field, and you've got a great mix. So, on with the summary!

An introduction from the experts
Lionel is the Chief Blogger at Dell's blog Direct2Dell and Mario is the Community Evangelist at LinkedIn - and these are two great examples of corporate blogs. Both were founded in response to a particular problem that needed to be solved; the prevailing thinking was not "we need a blog." Note that. The blogs were part of an overall communications strategy; blogging itself is not a strategy.

Kami is the principal at My PR Pro and is widely respected in the field of communications measurement. She rightly observed that if you want to figure out where to connect with your customers, you need to know something about them: namely how they communicate. How and where are they most likely engage with you? Do they use Facebook? Are they on Twitter? Do they read blogs? You should also find out what they need. When you meet needs in the place they're most likely to be, you'll find a wealth of engagement. Then you can decide what to measure.

A quick word about measurement
It seems like the holy grail of social media marketing is around measurement & metrics. I think it keeps coming up because there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Invariably, at the beginning of every campaign or project, you should be asking yourself "What would we consider a success?"

The panelists offered the following suggestions as a rough set of guidelines of measuring your blog or establishing a set of social media metrics for your efforts:

Use tools to benchmark yourself against the competition; track the number of blog posts of your company on a week-over-week basis
Track the tonality - positive/negative posts or comments over time; track against major announcements or events
Engagement - the word that is almost as over-hyped as 'conversation,' engagement can mean whatever you define it to mean: analytics, number of subscriptions to your blog, number of comments per post
If one of your purposes for blogging is to drive sales (personally, I don't recommend this as the primary purpose behind blogging) you can do conversion tracking or even use good old fashioned surveys

Kami actually put together a number of links on her del.icio.us page for reference:
http://del.icio.us/kamichat/sxsw2008

You've got a blog. So what?
Mack raised an excellent point: customers probably don't care that you have a blog. How do you make it relevant?

Dell makes it relevant by adhering to a social media framework:
Listening, analyzing, taking action. The first thing Dell realized is that there were lots of conversations going on about Dell on the Web. In fact, when the corporate blog started, about 50% of the comments that came in were negative. But, thanks to their openness and action, now 80% of the comments are positive.

Lionel noted that taking action is the most important step, and Dell has addressed this in a couple of ways. First, they've empowered every employee to apologize. Think about it. A huge corporate behemoth has stepped away from its usual scripted customer "service" language and allowed the company to become human for it a bit. That's a huge step right there.

Next, Dell established a way for customers to share product development ideas through IdeaStorm. A core team looks at new ideas that come in, assesses them, and then figures out a way to incorporate those into the business. Dell has received about 9,000 ideas from the community, with over 600,000 comments. An example of one idea is getting Dell to integrate Linux. To show you how effective it was, Dell put out a survey and in 8.5 days received 100,000 responses from customers. Now customers are aware that they can influence product development at Dell and it's resulted in the development of a community of loyalists.

LinkedIn wanted to help users better understand the site and the technology.
Mario noted that the company's vision was to establish conversations - a "playground of ideas" - on the site. The best way to teach customers how to use the site was to show them how to use the site, through demos. The next best way is to provide them with excellent customer support.

Overall, the panelists agreed that relevance lies in how easy you make it for your customers to interact with you. A surefire way is to create multiple touchpoints that meet the goal of reducing the amount of time between the identification of a problem and a solution. Sometimes you can find answers in unexpected areas. Despite our focus on the new shiny "2.0" things, forums are still a great place to mine for information, feedback and problems.

And in order for social media strategies to take root, the panelists noted, a company's culture needs to change. It's a step-wise process that can take years with layers of tools, technologies, and management that get more complex the longer you're in the game.

But not all is lost, even if you're in the most change-resistant environment. You don't need a fully-formed answer before you respond to concerns you identify by listening. Just be human and reach out - think of it as a conversation, where you add incremental value along the way and learn more about the person, the problem and the processes along the way.

And if there are any doubtful managers or executives in your company, sometimes seeing these conversations helps to dispel the myths/fears around negative comments. It's essential to demonstrate this on an ongoing basis, especially in a large organization, in order to show how direct communication with customers really matters.

New tools
Each of the panelists was asked about which new tools they'd recommend trying out.
Mario recommended trying Twitter as a customer service tool, for monitoring and response. He also had this cool idea: try setting up a livestream (video) as a response to users. He suggested that you use whatever tools you can find that allow you to answer problems or questions in the shortest amount of time.

Kami observed that blogs can be a platform for all of these tools. In some ways, she said that a blog could almost become a home page for the customer, where they're offered a more rich experience. The only caution she noted was that we should be aware that expectations are changing: as you give more, customers will expect more.

And Lionel reminded us that internal collaboration should not be ignored in this process. Piecing all of these activities together within the enterprise is essential, in order to capture all of the value. The best advice for this was "Get it off of email." If you establish a wiki, you'll be able to share more information with everyone within the organization.

Questions
The panel had time for a few questions from the audience.
1. How do you keep your personal brand separate from your corporate brand?
Mario referenced Hugh McLeod's post about the porous membrane - step out of the way and let users speak directly with product development, to keep each separate. That way, you can maintain your own brand and let the people at your company do what they do best.

2. How do you help employees understand the value of & support a corporate blog?
Dell established an internal blog (behind a firewall) at the same time they established Direct2Dell, with the same structure & setup, in order to capture value internally. LinkedIn encourages employees to read and contribute to the corporate blog.

3. What's behind the fear of blogging in the corporate world?
On the surface, there's the fear of getting flamed by negative comments and not knowing what to do. But you know what? It's happening anyway. It's better to capture these conversations and show how you can interact with your customers.

An example is when Dell launched its blog on July 5, 2006. About a week later, Lionel wrote a post about the now famous flaming laptop. He said that within minutes, got calls and visits to his cubicle with questions like, "What the hell are you doing?" He rightly observed that people were talking about it and it was all over the Internet already; he was acknowledging it and joining the conversation. It led to 1.3 million battery recalls, but more importantly, it also led to a documented process for interacting with customers.

As I noted at the beginning of the post, this was a great session and I'm really glad I had a chance to attend. If the conference organizers recorded it, I'll be sure to share that here.

Labels: corporate blogging, customer relations, measurement, social media, strategy, SXSW

Posted by Scott Monty at 8:59 AM

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Sunday, March 09, 2008

Creating Social Strategies

I'm sitting in on Charlene Li's session on Creating Social Strategies at SXSW. Here's a brief overview of her very thoughtful and comprehensive presentation.

Straight off, Charlene defined "groundswell" - the social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations.

According to Charlene (and from my own experiences), most companies are aware of this, but don't truly understand - they just don't get it. So how to go about getting a social strategy planned, created and adopted within an organization?

A word about radicals/revolutionaries
Are you going to be a radical like Thomas Paine? He sparked the American revolution, then continued to foment revolution in France. He became so radical that no one respected him any more.

Or a revolutionary like Thomas Jefferson? A more respected leader, even though he was a staunch defender of Thomas Paine - he worked with others, put plans into place and brought ideas to life.

POST - the process to create a social strategy

People - assess your customers' social activities
Objectives - decide what you want to accomplish
Strategy - plan for how relationships with customers will evolve
Technology - decide which tools/technologies to use

People
The ladder of participation (see below) is made up of creators (18% adults/39% youths), critics (25%/43%), collectors (12%/14%), joiners (25%/58%), spectators (48%/66%), inactives (44%/26%)

Age is a major driver of adoption. For a more detailed breakout of these numbers and fuller descriptions of each category, see Charlene's original post.

Objectives
Traditional roles are changing under the groundswell, from more unidirectional to bidirectional. Some examples:
Research --> listening
Marketing --> Talking
Sales --> Energizing
Support --> Supporting
Development --> Embracing

How are revolutionaries doing it?

BlendTec - used YouTube videos for the now famous Will It Blend series. George Wright, BlendTec's VP of Marketing spent $50 to get this started.
Dan Black, director of recruiting for Ernst & Young used Facebook to connect with students. But he did so in a different way. Lots of questions were asked on E&Y's wall, and he wrote back in a very personal tone. Realized that this was one of the few channels to have a direct conversation with students.
Gary Koelling & Steve Bendt at Best Buy decided to start BlueShirtNation for Best Buy employees. It turned out to be a great support system for employees.
Josh Bancroft at Intel - created an internal wiki for employees: Intelpedia. He got it done quickly and without the usual corporate red tape. Demonstrated that people were already using it/contributing to it by the time management got back to him to discuss the idea.

How to get it done
Lionel Menchaca at Dell.com was a product tech guy, had been there for 17 years - he was knowledgeable and he was a connector. He realized that customer service + product development + blog = getting Dell out of hell. He got direct support from Michael Dell to keep going, personally address concerns & negative comments. Very quickly, the culture within Dell changed:

In the course of 2 months, they took customer suggestions and launched a new product.
DellShares - the Investor Relations team of Dell is now blogging.

Find & support your revolutionaries

Find the people who are most passionate about developing relationships
Educate your executives - teach them about the benefits, and actually get them involved in them
Put someone in charge - someone who has authority
Define the processes & policies - yes, the legal department may need to be involved, but it's best to outline it up front
Make it safe to fail

Final thoughts:

Make it stick with frameworks
Start small, think big
Make social strategy the responsibility of every employee
Be patient - cultural change takes time

Update: If you'd like to see Charlene's slides, they're available on SlideShare.

Labels: Charlene Li, social media, strategy, SXSW

Posted by Scott Monty at 12:32 PM

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Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Generation Y and Your Business

Call them "Gen Y," "Millennials," "Echo Boomers," or whatever you want - just be sure you call them, because they've got something to say.

I was listening to episode 79 of HBR Ideacast, Managing Generation Y, in which Tammy Erickson, who writes the Across the Ages column for the Harvard Business Review, was interviewed. As I was listening, I realized that in addition to the baby boomers, this is a generation that is potentially going to change the way you're doing business - or at least thinking about doing business. There are implications to marketing, internal communications, social media, and organizational behavior here.

In the podcast, they referred to the "self-assured, overly emotive, text messaging" generation who are "happy to tackle the big jobs, and they'll do it with confidence." This should be welcome news to any manager's ears, but I think this should be tempered with an acute awareness of the idiosyncratic traits that this generation brings with them. Let's look at them one by one:

Impatience/Immediacy
I've often said that this is the generation that wants to be an intern on Monday and the CEO by Friday. I admire that kind of drive, but I also wrinkle my nose at the hubris that accompanies it; there seems to be a lack of willingness to put in the time and gain the experience necessary for such a role.

According to the Erickson, this is deeper than just youthful impatience; she says they're likely be impatient for their entire lives. She posits that during their formative years, Gen Y has been bombarded with inexplicable, sudden and tragic events such as 9/11, Columbine and Virginia Tech - and that they've decided that they need to live life now.

I think it goes a little deeper than that (perhaps she was limited in time on the show). Look at the way the cable news networks have evolved over the last 10-15 years. Whether it's padding their daytime programming with Iraq war I or II, the O.J. Simpson chase & trial, or the latest celebrity overdose, all of the news outlets are catering to a need (?) for more information, now. When you take this institutionalized view of news, information and service, it's not too much of a stretch to think that Gen Y is going to expect fast results in the workplace.

But at the same time, I think we need to keep in mind that this desire for results and action may come at a price: the inability to think strategically. Granted, there are very few (if any) strategic planners who are 20-somethings. But if they have this nurtured aversion to longer-term thinking, there may be trouble ahead.

Lesson: harness the impatience and drive and turn it into an opportunity to let loose their unbridled energy on training in strategic marketing.

Let Me Tell You What I Think
By and large, this generation has grown up in a peer to peer world, where they're used to openly sharing ideas and not being shy about saying what they think. Odds are that in the workplace, if they have an idea that will benefit you, they'll share it - with managers, directors, and even CEOs.

Lesson: tap into this reservoir of creativity and fresh perspective and get their input on as many facets of your business as possible.

Technology
This is the generation that€ was raised on text messaging. They look up on email as an outmoded style of communication. To them text messaging is personal, immediate, and it gets results. They can't understand why it takes us
16 emails deep in a chain to come up with a time to schedule a
conference call. To them, it's a no-brainer: text, boom, done.

In addition, TiVo, Facebook and other technologies lead them to doing things on their own time. We've been used to structure & scheduling, while they do things when time allows them to do so. Asynchronous behavior may become more prevalent.

Lesson: be open to trying out IM or presence applications in
our day-to-day lives, with internal communications, and possibly with
marketing.

Parents' Roles
Gen Y likes their parents; not surprising when these "helicopter parents" are involved in many aspects of their children's lives. While this can be incredibly annoying (and these kinds of parents should ease off, lest they tarnish their kids' reputations in the workforce), it does have one positive side effect: Gen Y has great working relationships with Boomers in the workplace.

Lesson: use this natural attraction to create strong mentoring programs between Boomers & Gen Y-ers, to share knowledge.

There is no doubt that this generation will have a huge impact on the world. They're certainly ready for us. But are we ready for them?

What do you think? How have you experienced Gen Y in the workplace, either as a Boomer, a Gen X-er, or a Gen Y-er yourself? And what do you think the answers are?

Labels: Generation Y, Marketing, strategy, trends

Posted by Scott Monty at 12:28 AM

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Monday, February 04, 2008

3 Steps to Getting Your Blog Posts Noticed

I've got a social media lesson for getting your blog posts noticed: it comes down to timing & technique.

Last Friday, the early-morning news broke about Microsoft's offer to buy Yahoo. You know the story by now. But I first caught wind of it on Twitter, then quickly found the news on the Wall Street Journal Online.

I was lucky enough to be up and working at the time - about 6:30 or so - and I quickly threw together a post that combined visual humor with a little analysis. With Google's ability to quickly index blog posts, I found that my post consistently ranked in the top 5 search results for "Microhoo" on Friday.

And today, I was rewarded with an interview request from a writer at TechNewsWorld. He said that he noticed my blog post and wanted to get some additional views on the Microsoft-Yahoo deal. He used my quotes in the article Blogosphere Crackles with Talk of Microsoft and Yahoo.

Here are the three components that I believe led to my post getting noticed:

Timing is everything - be quick to pick up on major developments.
Put your unique spin on it - in my case, it was to use humor, information, and opinion together, to appeal to and provide value to as many readers as might notice the post.
Be considerate of your rushed readers - write catchy headlines that bring them in and when they're here, be concise as you make your points.

Labels: blogging, Microsoft, social media, strategy, Yahoo

Posted by Scott Monty at 11:42 PM

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Friday, January 25, 2008

Keep the Tip(ping Point)

It's funny. Just yesterday, I got notified by two separate people - one of whom is my colleague Greg Verdino - about an article that criticizes the theory behind Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point. One directed me to the Wall Street Journal's The Informed Reader post called "The Cast Against Marketing to 'Influencers'" while the other referred to the recent Fast Company article Is The Tipping Point Toast?

Gladwell's theory (echoed by Ed Kelly and Jon Berry in The Influentials) held that trends are influenced by a select few; word of mouth marketing efforts typically focus on those. But the articles mention that social networks are too complex to function like that, and that the influencer theory is kaput.

The reason it caught my attention is because both articles cite the research of Columbia University research scientist Duncan Watts. This is the same research I actually wrote about 8 months ago, in post called The Accidental Influentials. The concept was that ideas or trends can spread like a forest fire, and that it doesn't matter who applies the match - it's the conditions of the forest that make a difference.

There are two points I'll raise in connection with this.

In Social Media, Timing Is Everything
The first thing that struck me is that I hit upon this back in May of 2007. But the mainstream media is only getting to it now. Why? The topic is clearly in a field I'm interested in, so that might be one factor as to why I covered it early. The other is that I had initially heard about the study on a podcast. Given that new media is still struggling for recognition as a legitimate and viable channel, I'm not surprised it didn't make headlines then.

Watts is Wrong
As someone who works in the field of conversational/word-of-mouth/social media marketing, it should come as no surprise that I think Watts isn't quite correct when he claims that influentials aren't necessarily influential. I think that his research was flawed in that it only focused on email and a virtual setting, whereas now we have a variety of communications methodologies that account for the rapid spread of ideas: IM, video chat, and social networks of all kinds, to name a few. I won't go so far as to say he's 100% wrong - but then again, I don't think that Gladwell was 100% right either.

At crayon, we consult and advise on a variety of conversational marketing strategies that incorporate an element of influencer outreach (or "blogger outreach," as many call it). With the proper amount of time and attention dedicated to research, and using tools like Technorati and Alexa, it's fairly easy to determine who the major influencers are in any given segment. Where it gets difficult is figuring out how to interact with them. You need to know how each one communicates, in which social networks they participate, and on and on.

My Alternate Theory - The Boy Scout Analogy
I propose that a hybrid theory - Watts' and Gladwell's theories combined - makes more sense. We can agree that there will always be influencers, whether you call them A-listers, celebrities, or whatever. People will always look to these leaders and high profile individuals for cues.

At the same time, I think Watts is onto something when he uses the forest fire analogy. Yes, the conditions have to be right for an idea to spread. But he claims "any old match will do" to get it started. I don't think so. Someone might have wet matches or might not know how to strike one properly. It's the combination of finding the right conditions (social networks, communities, etc.) and applying the match (friends, members, followers, commenters, in those socnets & communities).

Once you've got the proper combination of communities and influencers and you understand the intricacies and nuances of how they work together, then you'll have the recipe for success.

As part of their training, the Boy Scouts have to learn how to make fires how to adhere to fire safety. Their official motto is "be prepared." I think the same should be said for marketers consider conversational marketing.

Labels: conversation, crayon, social media, strategy, study, trends, WOM

Posted by Scott Monty at 8:32 AM

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Thursday, January 17, 2008

Planning vs. Tools

One of the most challenging things about social media, Web 2.0, or whatever you want to call this digital revolution in which we live, is keeping track of all of the tools, tips, and resources at our disposal.

The list grows daily, and with it, so do the predictions that many of these sites won't make it much past 2008. So that brings to mind a key question:

How much of your social media strategy is actually dependent upon these tools?

Put another way, Jeremiah Owyang warns, stop fondling the hammer and focus on the house. I couldn't agree more.

All too often, I've seen clients - at least those that are savvy enough to already be following the social media space - become fixated on a tool or a tactic. They come to us ready to execute a project centered around one particular site or tool. As Todd Defren so succinctly puts it, Beware the GMOOT ("Get me one of those!" - coined by Scott Donaton).

What's important is to step back and have them clarify (for themselves just as much as for us) what it is they're trying to accomplish. Once we understand the goal, we can draft the proper strategy. Then and only then is it reasonable to look for tools.

Now don't get me wrong - there are times when it's perfectly okay to come up with a new & innovative way to use a tool you're already using. But I'd argue that at that point, you've already outlined your goals and developed a strong stategy (You do have a strategy, don't you??).

But without the proper framing in place - the strategy & goals - you're going to have a house that simply won't stand; or at least one that won't fit together properly. What's more, if all of your solutions are tailored around technology and tools and not around a good solid plan, what's left for you if these providers suddenly shutter their doors in 2008?

Labels: social media, strategy

Posted by Scott Monty at 3:16 PM

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