Aligning Social Media Within Companies

I only started reading your blog under 2 weeks ago, Chris, and I gotta say it is very thought provoking. Can't say I have come across many blogs that I find that is such valuable reading.

To educate.

To persuade.

To provide just enough information so an individual can make an informed decision regardless of role.

Hey Chris!

To me, the truth is that all the tools mentioned above are useful if used in the right way. I honestly believe that a company that acknowledge the Social Media power and importance will lead the market in its niche.
The tricky thing is not which tool relates to which sector (Marketing, PR, etc), but how it relates to the person behind it! When a Company chooses to be everywhere I can only hope that behind each strategy that is a motivated and passionate person. I hope they don't come to a Marketing guy's desk and tell him to write the Company blog posts. I hope they don't ask the PR person to start a Podcast and "you better make it work". I hope that there is a group of people behind all this that, in a meeting room give all these ideas cause they're comfortable to get involved with it and then, the only result, will be success.

May =]

Specifically relating to Twitter, this week I've witnessed a backlash against a colleague using his personal Twitter account for non-work related posts during work hours. This only became an issue after the person involved was offered a new job, accusations of "personal brand-building" abound.

Do you think that in a medium as immediate and free-form as Twitter, corporate, "on message" only accounts will struggle to grow a useful network of followers?

I argue that a company is only as good as the people working there, if a member of staff appears to be particularly outstanding then isn't it better to try and keep them than to try and keep them hidden under the corporate face of the company?

All lovely, but why restrict yourself to social media? If you replace your first question, 'Is blogging marketing or PR?' with the 'Is the web marketing or PR?', you are hitting on a much bigger issue: who should run the whole online thing within a company. I know it's not fashionable to talk about websites any more, but their importance (absolute if not relative) must be boosted by social media. Why separate 'social media' from 'traditional' online activities? It seems a bit artificial to me.

Much of this dialog was centric to using social media as a tool for PR and Marketing. While there are obvious uses and applied methods to using social media for marketing and PR there is a much bigger purpose to the use of social technology (I am beginning to dislike the term social media) in terms of helping companies optimize performance.

I think the title of this post should be "Aligning your company using social technology" which opens a whole new set of variables and related issues to consider. Issues such as the difference between internal and external communications. Optimization of relations with suppliers, employees, markets and ultimately customers. Improving related processes such as: research, development, HR, sales and marketing, yes PR, accounting, service etc etc.

As we are witnessing across corporate America many organizations are failing (circuit city as an example) due to the economic shifts but also due to poor management processes, relations and systems of measurement to indicate changes in market behavior. No marketing, PR or social media campaign can save a company whose management system is defunct to begin with. Management systems are run by people, accelerated by communications and perform based on the flow and accuracy of information. Social technology provides the means and the methods to capture the flow more effectively than ever before. But a company has to have the right culture, the right relations and the right tools to optimize performance even in bad times.

Chris, your post and the subsequent comments spawned a host of thoughts for me to write about relative to "Aligning your company using social technology" Thanks.

Will advise when I have said post ready and appreicate anyones feedback on the subject matter.

I completely agree with Nicky saying that we should look at specific use cases rather than at the technology. It's not difficult to understand what Twitter, Wordpress, delicious, YouTube and the likes are. But is much more difficult to understand how these tools can be used in a business context.

People exploring the field of social software should ask themselves:
1) What are we trying to achieve?
2) Who is our target audience?

Based on that you can then start thinking about solutions. Should you really be on Facebook if your target audience is unlikely to be hanging out there? Should you create your own social network or maybe use a third party, like NING?

We recently did a project with an organization called 'The Frontline Club'. Members are high-profile journalists from around the world reporting from war-torn countries like Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan and others. They have about 1,500 members and a physical club location in London. Most of them did not know each other, because there was no easy way to meet other than in London. They had set up a delicious, twitter, blog, flickr, youtube, ustream, NING account and others. All of these channels have their merit if used correctly. But in this case, the social media efforts were disconnected and not appropriately executed. What the Frontline Club was really looking for was an intimate social network for their journalists, where they can share important information, stay up to date with what other members were doing, what they were reading and where and when they where traveling. At the end of the day we set up a members-only network based on Movable Type to share the latest club information, gossip, have competitions, share tips&tricks. To stay in touch with each other we set up a Twitter account that broadcasts members' tweets into the network. Also, to share travel itineraries we set up a Dopplr group. Now it's very easy to see who is where and when and if for example members coincide somewhere in Kandahar they can potentially meet. Since the group also wanted to share what members were reading, we set up an account on Magnolia, because Twitter does not cater for private groups. All these decisions were made based on a thorough analysis of what was really needed and how that could be achieved using existing, cheap tools and services rather than building from scratch.

Chris, maybe your next blog posts starts out with a set of use cases, e.g. CSR activities for a large energy provider. You define a couple of more parameters, state the objectives, problems currently faced etc. Then, people can chip in with ideas how this could potentially be addressed using social tools. This would make more sense to me.

Chris - love the comments-as-post, so thanks for inviting us in. I guess your point is that this stuff is just one big tool set.... And I agree. Clients are making a mistake when the first question is 'how can we do a Facebook thingy?'. The proper question out to be, what's the 'marketing objective?' (or whatever), and then look to ways to apply all this new-fangled stuff. Frankly, we often find that not doing Social Media is a better solution than doing it. That's not to say that we don't believe in Social, it's just that we believe in practical and getting the best ROI....

"Is blogging marketing or PR? Technically, it’s neither. It’s a tool."

Yes, and building on the above contributions I’d echo that the same applies not only to blogging, but to Twitter, Facebook... the whole ball o'social wax and string. Approach any of the channels in a disingenuous or broadcast-only fashion, it doesn't matter which department owns it, the effort will (at best) come up short. The content is what drives success in any of'em.

Determine you have the right content (and intent), first, point it at the right channel, second.

I've read a number of marketing/PR driven “blogs” over the years that are none-too subtly focused on describing product feature bullet points - those end up being less successful than more transparent efforts where real people get to document their real passions, tribulations, and triumphs. In turn, the latter are rarely fully ghost-written directly by 'marketing' or 'PR', but are written more directly by the people in question.

The trick is that those people who have the best stories to tell (and that by extension would generate the most interesting conversations) also have other responsibilities in a company, often involved in shipping the actual product (for example). Can't necessarily 'guarantee' ongoing participation in blogs or any other two-way channel by a software engineer if a product milestone is due in the software world - and that's where I think marketing resources that are legitimately plugged into the conversation can continue to provide a through line.

Having "non marketing people" create content doesn't put marketing people out of a job, it just changes what the job is: marketing is becoming about fostering, connecting, and enabling conversations that are happening, not just about scripting new ones.

Facebook: I say 'oui,' but not as something to generically check off of a marketer's 'to do' list. Instead of building another glorified billboard "group" page, why not invest in a genuinely decent game or social app that actually contributes to the ecosystem? I can’t take credit for the idea – Parking Wars was probably the first to hit that nail on the head – but surprisingly few have followed (or built upon) that effort, at least from what I’ve seen.

Additionally, I'm seeing the company I work at actively use Facebook (and a similar group on LinkedIn) to pull together alumni, current employees, and job seekers, which I think is a great idea. If a business has a healthy/positive culture, this becomes a way to leverage that social capital in recruiting, even from people who may have moved on.

Twitter: I really like "one strategy per account" for 'official' twitter feeds; these are likely surrounded (and amplified) by larger conversations spilling out of personal accounts along the way.

"Marketing messages strewn all about the social web" is a (purposefully?) ugly thought indeed, but if smart marketers are actively participating in (and fostering) conversations their consumers are already having, everybody wins, right?

@crackedactor

I think that feeds and feed aggregation is the big deal within companies. I led a conversation about feeds, readers, and sharing in Humana's Innovation Center this afternoon and could see the light bulbs going off. I'm excited to see where it goes.

I also just wrote about how can help prevent forest fires.

All valid arguments- I think it's important to get involved in social media, but it has to be genuine. Social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, and video are all great ways to interact with your audience whether it's for PR, HR, or both. Just always be genuine!

OK here is my riff ;) I am always uncomfortable when starting with the tools. The tools are a means to an end... which is probably why Social Media hasn't managed to embed itself anywhere into most companies. I am not sure those are the right questions.

Rather than "Where should Twitter go?" shouldn't the question be how/why is Twitter part of the solution? The tools support the tactics... where is the strategy? What is the company vision, how do the tools support the company mission? How will Social Media support business objectives? Where is the business case? What problem will each of these tools solve? Can one tool solve better than another given the company?

Tell a CEO how Twitter will help their sales people be more productive or how blogging might enhance product development and we might be getting somewhere.
Much still seems focused on "get into Social Media and build community... because you have to/because it's cool/because ABC is doing it!" This leads to the knee jerk reaction of " great - let's use it for PR! Let's tell people all about who we are and be seen to be "doing social media" Who's department is that? Oh right, marketing. No, PR. No... Communications."

By the way Intuit, the top company for accounting software used to have a blog. Users used to give product feedback (and plenty of it) to Intuit. The blog is now defunct... but Intuit does now have a very useful community forum where experts answer questions from users and users help each other. I found it far more useful than the blog. And left to me, with the impact Twitter could have on Customer service (not that companies seem to care much about that) Twitter would be a CS tool. And if the CEO didn't lead.. forget it.

I'm an advocate for companies using social media.
I just think that asking which department the a tool should go sounds much like the current conversations going in corporations today when they re-org...and which result in dsysfuntional silos disconnected from the top - and customers. If practitioners can help companies take a strategic view of all they could do and how they can solve pressing problems with Social Media (like keep customers happy), it would become clear which tool is suitable and where it should reside and how it should influence and engage the whole company.
OK, riff over! Nice thought provoking post and equally thought provoking comments.

I agree, I think it will be a while when corporate houses start using these tools. And it will be for the benefit of everyone, I have a similar post here.
http://coolwebdeveloper.com/2009/01/why-social-...

We have used Facebook to promote summer jobs, but it is along the same lines as you mentioned, Chris. We're not sure if it's working. But it did get us some good PR for being innovative!

Great post, I am currently muddling through these same questions at my day job as Marketing and B/D and as I do Marketing/PR/MR for some of my families various and sundry small businesses.
Twitter is a great tool, but I like many people seemed to get sucked into "broadcast" mode vs a conversation. I also like how it has a "block-party feel" feel vs FB's 'invited guest" feel.
None of this brave new world is cut and dry at my company and I think it will take a while to be. Right now it is more of a "Well let's see what happens..." feel.

Social networking should be the resposibility of all departments, BUT, this only works when everyone at the company knows the company's core story. With that knowledge interaction can support the brand, which builds the company.

Great post, Chris. I especially enjoyed the part about blogging being technically PR or marketing. I find it funny when we want to box a tool into a category such as this. Can we not just say blogging (and other tools listed) is a way to create value for your brand? Why do we have to label it as one thing or another?

Answer: because we were taught to do it. Modernity thrived on labeling and reductionism. Well, most people don't function that way anymore.

I am part of a Knowledge Management team for AT&T and have spent the past year creating a community among our sales team that has 2 main goals.
1. Move tribal knowledge to institutional knowledge
2. Develop a Subject Matter Expert program
We have taken the blogging and social networking aspects of multiple sites to bring together a disparate community and assist Sales people to FIND answers while at the same time providing an opportunity for those SMEs passionate about a topic to get on their pedestal and share with the rest of the team.
Over the past year we have brought along a select few Marketing folks to assist us in dissemination information, but mainly in order to gain answers to questions. Being in a large company it is very difficult to know who to go to for answers...this provides help. We continually think about that Newbie, in their first day and weeks, how can we ramp them, get them up to speed.

I guess what I'm saying is that I feel most of the comments are focused on how do we communicate TO an audience, not how can we assist our audience in communicating about our product which in my case is their job and/or passions.

Great questions that force companies to take a good hard look in the mirror, or across the table. It's not good enough to say, "let the intern handle the web stuff" anymore. Social media needs to be embraced and at least understood from top to bottom.

Until that happens, social media, which is by nature bottom up rather than the traditional top down, will not thrive in a company.

Rocking Hot post Chris- and one word---YES --would be the answers. Social Media is changing the face of corporate America- as they go into it many time kicking and screaming and flailing against a digital strategy. Great insight- and thanks for the wisdom--

PR? Marketing? How about service and support? Ownership (and more importantly, execution) depends on the strategy and objective. I think it's possible to make the case that PR can assist in conversion, as well as acquisition (though it's a tough case to make to certain audiences). PR loves to glom onto anything that represents the public face of a company (guilty!) but here it's advisable to hold a loose leash at best -- create the business case, the program framework, help select the best contributors form all over an organization. And then serve as the catalyst and eyes-and-ears for the social media effort, but try to stay out of the way.

Chris,

Interesting that you posted this on the same day that I posted on the need for companies to hire a social media manager to streamline and take control of all their social media efforts. Read mine here:http://zachheller.com/2009/01/15/hire-a-social-media-manager-and-start-talking/.

I love this post. I think it is so important for a company to be aware of social media and understand its many uses. There are definitely ways to use social media in any company, of any size. The trick is, narrowing down the right areas and uses. That can take some time, and mistakes will be made.

In order to operate successfully in a social media realm, I do believe it is important to lay out specific goals as they relate to the various networks. Many companies that I have worked with do just that and they end up better of because of it.

Thanks.

Great topic. Blogging, twitter, Facebook... these are all social communications paltforms. People are talking. To segment conversations into a single agency or discipline is to cripple the capabilities of a conversation.

Conversations create relationships. Relationships can create advocacy. Advocacy spans all disciplines: PR, Marketing, Innovation, Branding, Creative, Interactive, DR etc. Some capabilities or agencies may be better suited to one tactic. But without a guiding vision looking past the action and into the big picture, you will end up with many many people running in many many directions.

Great post...

So the whole video-thing is what I am struggling with in my startup. We have a collection of 12,000+ video clips of entrepreneurs and business experts talking about their journeys...and the information is priceless. We clip the content up into 2-minute segments on specific topic and keyword it so it all can be searched and aggregated. It is a fantastic resource....IF you have the TIME to mine it (which is mentioned above in a response by Marc Carbone)

So where I struggle is that I see the value (obviously - since it is my company) - but I wonder if I've just been drinking too much of my own Kool-Aid.

Is there really an application for video as a way of capturing the journeys, culture, failures, success, in general - the "soft side" of the company. I would argue yes - especially as capture becomes easier and bandwidth is no longer an issue.

But how do you make that "sale" to a company? And how do you make it sticky with employees?

And while I'm pondering...there is obviously a huge value for one company to learn from their competitor's stories... The innovation that could be spawned from that is mind-blowing... But I don't see executive management ever letting this stuff get shared outside the walls of the company. (until a disgruntled employee leaves with the digital files in hand...)

Thanks for bringing up the topic, Chris. If anyone has any pearls of wisdom for me, I could use some...

I think something very important has been touched no here that I've been giving thought to as well. Chris is talking about what aspects of social media are the responsibility of marketing, PR or human resources. At least as far as PR and marketing are concerned, perhaps it's time to ditch both of those terms? I recently discussed a new client of mine with a potential partner who is a PR professional. We disagreed as to whose responsibilities were whose. For many years I've developed strategies or implemented designs for corporate and consumer marketing. In some instances I found that the PR or internal marketing folks felt I was stepping on their toes. If all of these things are ways to communicate with customers, partners, vendors, investors, and consumers, then why aren't we just calling it Communications?

All social media tools provide platforms for people to connect with people - engage in
conversation and develop relationships. People don't want offers pushed at them, they seek out what they want through people they have relationships with. They are attracted to the opinions of people they like and trust. Social media is people and personalities. If people like you, they will be attracted to your business, opinions, recommendations et al. If they don't, they won't.

People have been put in a box i.e. owner, boss, manager, employee, janitor, PR person, customer service tech, consumer etc. and basically play a roll in the big picture within that box. In social media, everybody has a voice, none being above another... one voice may have more influence than another, but that is only determined by the value and good will an individual has developed in a community.

The paradigm is changing; big business and big money basically programed and controlled the masses. Now, the power and influence is shifting to the masses.
Whether PR, marketing, sales or customer service; there will be major adjustments necessary to these activities in the new relationship economy.

Interesting debate!
I work at a company where my directors have never heard of social media, twitter and probably not even facebook. My attempts to explain these things have been met with the attitude of "This is not how we do things around here!". Maybe they have a point as most of our environment/customers is not on Twitter either. I guess you gotta take the conversation to where its at.

However, in theory, even though I support company blogs, then I am starting to really appreciate the zero-footprint meeting place of Twitter and Facebook Groups. I find that these places promote communities much better than company blogs/sites. Maybe people are more at ease at Facebook/Twitter etc. because they already hang out these places, where as they do not already hang out at company blogs.

I think many companies still don't recognize the significance of these social networking communities. My office has blocked MySpace, Facebook, and even YouTube. We're a TV media department and we can't browse YouTube for good creative ideas! I work around some of this with an iPhone because I'm tenacious like that. Do I conduct some personal conversations with these networking tools? Sure, but I can do that with my office e-mail too. Have I been able to get appointments with clients, or conduct any business with MySpace or Facebook? Absolutely! I'm about to the point where I should get rid of the desk phone and go completely electronic with most of my correspondence (I'll keep my cell). When I leave voicemails for people, they don't call back, but e-mail them and they often shoot back a reply immediately. Kill the fax machine too. Many of my contracts are confirmed within e-mail, or by scanning docs in pdf.

Chris, thoughtful and timely post as usual. Two reading recommendations if you're not already way ahead of me: @ellmcgirt's recent piece on Cisco for @fastcompany, and "The Future of Work," from HBP (2004). Social media is just part of a whole revolution taking place because of the falling cost of communication, which I know you understand.
To your post directly, I am working to spur adoption of these tools in a Government 2.0 context and the best advice I've got is that you have to listen, listen, listen before offering a solution. Is Web 2.0 the right approach? In actuality, there probably is no "right" approach, there is a range of desired outcomes w/a range of implementation options and possible real outcomes.
Indeed, thinking, listening and assigning must come first.

Hi Chris! I enjoyed reading this post and just in time for our brainstorming. A lot of people are saying that we should be early adopters and to use social media to change how we work and do business. As tech guys, there's no problem for us to adopt to new trends. It's already in our blood to explore new things and see the opportunities it can bring. The question that's been bugging our brain is how are we going to answer the question "What is it for me.." to people doing business who we're going to challenge to use social media. Another thing, is there a way to measure ROI if a business uses social media for PR or marketing? I've been going back and forth with other blogs and do my own research but until now, I haven't seen a concrete way to answer these question. Maybe one from the audience can help?

Thanks Chris and you Rock!

Rob

Great questions! I think everyone is seeking greater clarity but we are still in the early stages of social media. From a b-to-b perspective, my opinion is that they are additional tools and only as good as the skill set and patience of the user.

I agree with Ryan above that there is huge opportunity both internally and externally for these tools to strengthen the conversation and brand--but it must be from an authentic voice. We have all seen some early missuses of BLOGS that can negatively impact brand with customers.

Really great conversation here Chris!

bdr

Coming in a little late to this conversation but great topic Chris...and you hit the nail on the head, they are communication tools, so they can be used pretty much anywhere we need to communicate. And most people in the organization need to communicate.

Here is my perspective:

- Each of us has a community that we are trying to communicate with (implicitly or explicitly). If we are good at our jobs, we are trying to have some kind of impact...that needs to be communicated in order to have that impact.
- Each of us communicates best in different ways. Social media tools expand the options...and I would argue that they extend the ability to communicate well to more people (people who struggle to write have been at a disadvantage with documentation, email, etc).

As a more concrete example I was working on getting my entire product team thinking about blogging, vlogging, podcasting, etc. as a way to document new functionality...instead of the traditional product documentation that very few people read. The audience was both internal and external. We also used a wiki for all of our product requirements and design specifications so anyone could drop in and make changes, add questions, etc. - it was great to always have the single source of truth.

Similarly - years ago now - we created an internal multi-author marketing blog (internal facing) to post competitive info, market info, customer comments, our thoughts, etc. - it was a great content management application for little bits of info that we found here and there but cumulatively represented what we new about the market.

So I fully agree with your point - It *can* be used by everyone for many, many different work tasks - all depends on the people and goals involved whether you choose to make use of the tools or not.

I think the applications of each of these services will vary a lot depending on the product / service and size of the company, but just a few thoughts:

Blogging - A great tool for building community and providing service. Especially if its authentic. Specifically, if it can be used as a way for users to interact directly with a CEO or higher up. If I had a negative experience with a product, how cool would it be if my concerns were heard directly by a VP or CEO and they reached out via the blog to fix the problem or at least let me know that they heard me? Its a very valuable tool that only costs you your time.

Twitter - Will probably become the best resource to get ideas out to your "Tribe" (Seth Godin's beating the idea of leading tribes like a drum and I agree). Its rapid fire, real time, and easy.
Additionally, the internal applications can rock as well, in terms of inter-department communication and team building. Plus it has the 'it factor' at the moment.

The really cool thing for people working in social media consulting or agencies is that you now have a HUGE opportunity to not only help clients use these tools to communicate with their customers, but an even BIGGER opportunity to help them use and leverage these tools to better communicate within their organization and build a cohesive brand internally and externally.

Again, great post Chris.

-RM
@ryancmiller

The important thing to remember is that not every social media strategy works for every agency or for every client. Whether a marketing tool or a PR tool, the purpose needs to be evaluated. Everyone doesn't need a Twitter account. In many instances it would simply be a waste of a lot of people's time. So before any decision is made, a plan must be in place. Why is this needed? Who are we trying to reach? Who will run it?

"The question might come down to whether or not you’re going to use the blog as a conversion point or just a conversation station." Love this. I'm managing our blog and have been thinking about its purpose, the point and how to make it more interactive, more reachable. Great post.

I'm beginning to think the divisions of "marketing" and "PR" and "customer service" could be more an more arbitrary divisions that mean less and less. Marketing, Sales and PR are company-centric divisions of labor--designed that way because in the 20th century you needed people with very different skill sets for each group. Now we are turning that around to a customer-centric view, where your check-out clerk could be your sales department, the 1-800-call center could be PR, the salesperson is the customer service rep, etc. You have to start the (anthropological + data-driven) research assuming everyone does everything--hard for a corporate culture to enbrace today. And what kind of agency helps inspire, direct and manage that process? It's got me wondering and reading....

This is so timely. We're about to pull back the curtain on our social media program as part of our overall digital marketing strategy. So it's got the marketing component for the advertising side of the house and the PR component for the other side of the house. We're talking Facebook fan page, new blog, we have a Twitter account. And we're redoing our Web site so all are integrated.

I think this ties back to the age old dilemma of 'what is marketing?'. I'm tired of people making jokes at marketing's expense, especially since its a profession thats changed so much (or should have) in today's tech savvy environment. And its a career that I couldn't ask more of. I love it.

I love the idea of communication as marketing. That marketing isnt push, push, push anymore. That the integration of several facets of tech driven communication can spur real life outcomes and events and vice versa. Thats how marketing should be: integrated into daily life. Not manufactured and glossy.

My question is: how much does a strong brand presence play into this? If you're brand is weak in a saturated environment, then which comes first: your brand strategy, or your social strategy? I fear most begin with the latter and fail due to the former.

Thoughts?

I'm not an expert, just an enthusiast, but I will say that we're only at the beginning. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter are all becoming highly necessary whether companies like it or not, but we're really only at the beginning of the social media revolution. My own greatest advice to companies is to be a somewhat early adopter - somewhere in the middle, where we use the tools that are on the verge of becoming mainstream, such as Twitter, but don't try to do it all and join every relevant network.

WE'RE USING SOCIAL MEDIA IN A NUMBER OF WAYS:

I'll just mention VIDEO.

Our Techs/Field Reps/Site Project Managers - -
Take video to customer engagements and video the good, funny, bad service calls, installs, meetings, explanations, and a great new tool, we use the videos to show that we did the work, then upload it to the customer's project in our database for future reference.

Trainers - -
We video situations with customers and make them stories instead of boring training videos

Me as CEO - -
I video meetings with clients while gathering high level ideas and brainstorming sessions, edit and then share with my project managers and developers during our new client project meetings

How do we do this - everyone gets a $200 video camera, we have little training sessions on lighting, sound, focus... We have little inter-office competitions on who's the best movie maker... We also stress about keeping videos very brief

Bringing it all together - since we are a software company and have all this integrated into our enterprise database, it all is linked and synced with a touch of a button.

Drawbacks - 80% of videos are never watched. Something could be used against us. Time

Good News - the ones that are watched add so much value to our organization on a number of levels.

Tools, strategies, departmental ownership, and approaches are all important variables, and the answers will not only vary by situation, but evolve rapidly in most cases when there is adoption. Underneath it all, however, is the 300-lb gorilla question - are corporations ready to decentralize communications and trust/empower people to create and converse?

I find the whole business of social media very interesting and intriguing and I follow blogs about media, marketing/advertising and so on, but I'm quite new to it. My number one skill is probably writing.

In my professional life I'm a communicator at a trade and employer association (The Swedish Graphic Companies' Federation for Swedish companies within the graphic and packaging industry as well as other sectors associated with the graphic industry) and I'm asking myself if I could use social media in my work. Today we use the traditional ways of communicating through the Internet (website and emails), and I have yet to come up with an answer to my own question. The companies that are members of the federation are spread over the whole of Sweden and quite a large part of them are small and the managers spend more time "on the floor" than online and they are quite traditional. They want information about the branch, what happens within the federation, meetings and education.
But then my job is also to market and strengthen the printed media as a part of the media mix. That leaves me a bit torn, is it possible to market printed media through the web...? It feels a bit like a paradox, but then again I do think it's possible I'm just not sure how.

Maybe this is not the right forum for these thoughts and questions but thanx for reading this anyway! And if you have any reflections on this matter please share them!

Excellent discussion starter Chris and fantastic comments from everyone else.

I'm a fairly new adopter of Twitter (running two work related accounts with separate strategies for a month and a half) but we had a Facebook page from day one. The Facebook page has never been strongly promoted but it has always provided something of a backchannel for customer communications.

I think I'd agree with Marion that Twitter is, or maybe will become, more of a connectors’ channel and am I'm totally with Daniel that strategy comes before tools. My strategies so far on Twitter are pushing news (nothing fancy just automated press releases via Twitterfeed, which I still haven't got quite right) and following customers to see if I gain any insight. Will these strategies, I think tactics is a better word, change? Probably. How - I don't know yet but my guess is that they'll evolve as I learn more about the tools.

However, one thing I'm not sure about yet is the idea of running different strategies from different accounts. It could be that I've just implemented badly, or it needs time to bed down, but at the moment I'm getting followers on one account e.g. journalists following the account from which I'm following customers from rather than the newsfeed - what's more as yet they haven't taken my hints to change.

facebook: oui?non? although the phenomenom is good for networking, my own little experience using it don't let me think about a business case for it whether it is for groups (where usually few exchanges happened once you've joined it), or for pages (so long as the company has other online presences). I'd see services like LinkedIn (where I see it as having "qualified" professional connections that will be better valued by HR people than a "friend" on facebook) more useful for HR.

twitter:my view is that it's still a huge collective real-time intelligence that I won't put first neither in marketing nor in PR but in R&D. Can be a product/promotion announcement too - for example: two days 50% discount offer for a vacation in Madagascar (the country)

blog: as mentioned by others in the comments, I personnally think that although it will be easy to setup a company blog, as long as the company is not there to talk about them but to get feed-back from their readers on their offerings, there's a value in it. Having Gina Bianchini on ning.com update ning's blog make the users of ning's product feel more closer to ning (me being a user) and gives the feeling that the user/client have a voice in what the company does... guess this is PR?

Hey Chris, I think that the tools matter, of course and how each person uses each of them matters, but in reality they all do one thing very well: they allow reach that is unprecedented. It is that reach that matters more.

Today, by using these tools, a person like me, someone who isn't really a TV personality, and doesn't really have a production budget, can produce a daily talk show with my simple point and shoot camera. Furthermore, a person like you, someone who really doesn't have much connection to my life (or my hobby, or my job, or my business, or whatever is the focus of my media), can instantly and consistently build that connection (if you want to). You can subscribe to my YouTube channel, you can run that sweet little production right into your 60 inch flat screen and I can be in your living room, talking to you, interactively.

So what about companies? I think social media fits into companies in a couple of ways:

First, it is a branding factor of the employee that can affect branding of the company. In addition to skills, talent, and experience, you also are hiring or purchasing their community and their media, collectively forming their brand. As a factor of the employee, if someone hires Chris Brogan, they also have some claim to the community of cohorts that you bring along for the ride.

Second, as a company tool, I think that this will prove immensely useful in finding talent for ad-hoc projects in the future and connecting that talent to form a team without requiring geographical togetherness and without involving long-term employment arrangements. Instead of considering this as a push tool for marketing, I think social media will eventually (6 months? 6 years? Who knows?) be regarded as a basic enabling technology, hopefully as commonly used as the telephone is today. My own small company will likely use this type of technique for ferreting out creative talent around the world as we grow in the future.

Depends. There are departments within every company that don't need to use social media and don't need to be connected any more than they already are (think outside techs for like Comcast or Qwest). They are way too busy and they already have very effective methods of internal communication for ticket updates, job updates, etc. But that doesn't mean that departments like dispatch can't be connected to Twitter. I think it would be great if when I'm expecting a tech the details could be DM'd to me. ETA, delays, repair updates, etc via a DM (which goes to my mobile phone) is infinitely valuable.

There is room for social media innovation within almost any company and defintely a need for a web strategy for every company hoping to continue to do business from this point on into the forseeable future.

To the upcoming generation of corporate executives the use of these tools will be "no-brainers" Future HR directors have already started to accumulate inappropriate Facebook entries and eventually they will ensure that company strategy aligns with their cultural view. Unfortunately, this cultural view differs from previous generations in respect of the ownership of intellectual property. Today's students have a more "relaxed' approach to sharing music and sub-contracting school work. This is perceived as a big problem for the present generation of corporate managers.

Nice to read this after two discussions today at work on crafting a video blogging strategy for our direct response marketing web team. At Humana, we have found it to be an adventure moving into the social web as a corporate presence. And, working at a large corporation, it's interesting to see who takes ownership of brand, consumer loyalty, lead generation, and overall engagement with people. These departments have traditionally been segmented in their responsibilities. Big companies will understandably have to share that ownership across departments and find a way to work together, but they each bring a unique and well defined role to the table that shouldn't be disregarded.

As for specific tools, we have some pretty smart guys who are leading the effort in grouping the company internally around a Sharepoint site, exchanging ideas about personal blogging and integrity, healthcare advocacy and PR messaging. We're finding Yammer to be a great introduction for employees to get comfortable microblogging, again internally. Getting that strategy in place is the first step, but I think the second step is aligning your employees to that vision and energizing them about the process. Forrester already established that 2/3 of employees are already using these tools, so empowering them to represent your company can result in the best kind of brand evangelists. Intel and other corporations demonstrated the grassroots success of starting inward with communication and working outward.

As for a good example of a moderation policy checklist, I found the Blog Council's toolkit to be a great foundational document: http://blogcouncil.org/disclosure/

As always, great questions, Chris. I imagine most organizations will be asking and searching for how to align blogging, podcasting, Twitter and Facebook at the beginning of 2009. I know that I have many friends, colleagues and family members looking for the right blend and balance of social media tools or platforms in their lives now.

When your story came to rest upon the roles that social media should or should not play within companies, I immediately thought of Andrew McAfee's talk this on Tuesday at the Berkman Center, where he presented a rich synopsis of his upcoming book on the ways 'enterprise 2.0' is being integrated into large companies. (Dave Weinberger liveblogged it; webcast here)

Instead of Twitter, the vector is various flavors of enterprise microblogging. Or enterprise microsharing, as Laura Fitton more eloquently terms it.

Instead of Facebook, companies like Socialtext, Clearspace, Mzinga, Telligent and Newsgator or pitching richer intranets populated by collaborative software. (We all see what Google is doing in the cloud with Google Apps.) YouTube or Flickr clones are being used to share information, even at previously silo'ed organizations like the Department of Central Intelligence.

I gathered from Professor McAfee's presentation that once organizations find ways to use social media tools inside, substantial value is available for corporate cultures that can accept the transparency and disruption 'enterprise 2.0' platforms create. Incorporating the public intranet inside of the company poses harder challenges, especially where intellectual property and compliance concerns exist.

My opinion (and it is that -- after all, I'm no social media expert -- That's your job) is much the same in at least one respect.

I also say 'Twitter everywhere, and one strategy per account.' Use Twitter for project narration. Or for status updates that can be shared everywhere immediately. Isn't that what Jack was thinking when he sketched Twitter? Say what you're doing. Share information. Ask questions. Over time, others will be able to search successfully for roles and projects.

Blogging can be used for more complex project and work narration. After all, not every task fits in 140 characters. Your posts don't, for instance. People can comment and make useful posts better. You know, like here. If blogging is too hard, use video then and make it easy to upload and share. Conversation, either way, is the key. I'm not sure about corporate blogging. You have to be quite good at blogging for them to work. I've read that most corporate blogs aren’t succeeding. I'm not sure how to fix that. Telling CEOs or managers to 'just go do more' of it isn't the right answer.

I think you're dead on to bring up the issue of human resources and Facebook. They're looking there before you get hired. Is it unreasonable to expect that they'll be watching while you're there? To what degree? Will employees always be able to protect their profiles from managers or direct reports? The potential for organizations to form lasting relationships with employees through alumni networks is there but privacy concerns are substantial. If a company is looking for its customers, it can form a group or create a page. I'm unsure whether I want to be friends with a business, though. But that could just be me.

I know I'm having great discussion with colleagues about how we're aligning social media with the workplace. I know I'll be better equipped to ask better questions about what happens next because you did here. Thanks for that.

Essentially, I agree with all the comments above highlighting the importance of retaining a clear strategy. It is important to ensure that you have some degree of direction when engaging in social media related activities; whether this be to encourage discussion or to simply encouraging conversation with your customers. I feel that it is very important that the opinions of the community are closely considered when devising such a strategy. It is completely inappropriate for an organisation to develop an engagement plan which will be rejected by the community and result in damage to the brand equity.

With regards to the marketing or PR question, my answer would be both; to a point. The social media is a conversation, and as such I think it is inappropriate to restrict its scope to a single team or function. Different situations will invariably require a different response. As the purpose thereof is essentially to encourage conversation, it is important that a number of different perspectives are sought. Although my opinion on this matter has developed somewhat over the recent months, the importance of perspectives is undeniable. The difficulty is finding someone who is able to appropriately orchestrate these various functions successfully, producing a solid social media engagement as a result.

TLR

The good news is that there will be plenty of time for larger organisation to figure out strategy for these different areas, as their adoption will be typically languid. With the exception of a few tech. companies many of them are still figuring out how IM will be useful to them, or whether they should allow it at all.

Past experiences with the corporate intranet explosion, and subsequent questions about it's true value, in the nineties, will lead many in large corporates to merely touch on the surface of these new PR and Marketing opportunities. In some of the externally facing business functions, they may follow the latest trends, where it drives short to medium terns sales, but most will fail to truely embrace the transformational change that is possible by integrating these technologies in day to day business.

In meetings with my clients & colleagues, I talk about thinking about our campaigns as ongoing conversations rather than flighted calls to action. I'm with you that all of these tools are needed or useful at times and I love my bloggers who have done wonders for my natural search results.

But Chris here's what I think you missed. There's a lot of pressure on brand managers and media professionals to be current and shift towards being a digital brand. Saying no to Google is sort of like saying no to the most popular girl in school and the brand manager who's 'the innovator' typically is not the one frantically updating their resume. .
But you know what also works driving B2B traffic? Text in newsletters to business associations. Clear, plain, easy to understand the value proposition text. It's great to see our posts on OPENForum.com got a few hundred mentions on Twitter. It's also great to see a few thousand CPA's download your case study on Cash Flow Management from a text link. If those numbers came from Twitter that report would be posted on someone's fridge.

So yeah, let's celebrate the great things social media can do... as part of our broader marketing effort that still rewards your champions & proven performers.

Alright, you got me. I'm going to riff on community, value and opportunity. I will qualify this by saying that 'most people' using these tools are spending too much time analyzing the tools and not building community, adding true value, and reaping opportunity. (Go ahead send the lynch mob!!)

As a professional in the social media space I have found that adding value comes in many ways. Chris, you have spent years blogging, adding value and building a massive community. Most of us..the majority, will never see a 17,000 plus subscriber base to our blog. Does that mean we haven't added enough value or that we cannot eat the fruits of consistent opportunity? No.

Build your community, be pure in your intentions, approach without agenda, add huge amounts of value, and I tell you that if your community is 5 people deep you WILL reap opportunity. There are people, companies and organizations without a clue for this space. Take them on a tour, hold heir hand for a while, show them the value add, and even in these toughest of times, and maybe even because these toughest of times, they will show you opportunity.

It's so much fun to build your twitter list, add facebook friends, obsess over twitter rankings and pretend your an expert! But how many people have you made a true connection with. Be brutally honest with yourself!

Tomorrow - Search twitter or facebook for that person who is struggling, or for a person you would like to meet. Ask to call them on the phone or ping them directly on skype. Plant the seed of value by offering your knowledge and I dare you to tell me that the instant you hang up that phone or press stop on skype that you haven't reaped rewards of opportunity and personal fulfillment.

@KeithBurtis

Chris,

This post, and the recent one on blogger engagements and sponsored posts, etc, is super-timely.

Come Monday my job description is going to include social media / networking, though we are still in such infancy level that we don't know what to call it or the job scope. It's basically going to include:
- managing the agencies who will manage the local top bloggers, to get them to write about us, possible future activities, etc;
- (strategic) input on where we are planning to go with these tools as you put it;
- tying in our blog, intranet, website, and the bloggers; at least a consolidated position to watch over these wholistically.

The main aim from exploring this new channel or medium, especially for a company over 50 years old, is that our "low cost" competitor's tactics and messages are starting to hit below the (our) belt. We are also going to change from being conservative to being a little more outspoken than before.

This Saturday night, plans are already in place to buy our local top 25 bloggers dinner. To me and some of my personal peers, this is akin to "buying votes", which made me frown almost by reflex when I first heard about it. I am invited to it too, given my impending involvement and JD change. It will at least give me something to tweet about!

The questions from this and your previous / recent post are very much on the top of my mind right now; especially the one on whether we are even approaching the blogger-engagement idea correctly. The various catoegories you listed in that previous post keep popping up in my head everytime I think about this appointment.

I have a personal father-related blog too; started only a year and a half ago. To be honest I had started it because of wanting to see how I could turn my passion as a father into some money generating venture. Okay, I was somewhat naive, new to blogging, and didn't have a clue on how to approach it. But like the popularly used advise / encouragement, I jsut went ahead with setting it up and seeing how it goes.

It has become something of an ongoing journal, documenting thoughts and experiences of being a father, and making quite good friends from it! The income from the various ads are only making me less than 50USD per month now, mainly because I haven't had the personal time to tweak the site other than regular postings to keep it fresh, and also because I know these friends are quite keen readers already. I do like documenting this personal journal anyways.

I only started reading your blog under 2 weeks ago, Chris, and I gotta say it is very thought provoking. Can't say I have come across many blogs that I find that is such valuable reading.

John
twitter.com/5646569

Chris,

Great idea for a post-- I'll try and keep my answers as short and succinct as possible. A little background, I formerly worked for Yahoo!, where I was a Community Manager for Messenger and profiles and also managed the offline events for Groups. Our Community Management team utilized all of these tools in various formats, so here's my 2 cents based off of my experience at Yahoo!, and working with other clients/companies.

Blogging: As you mentioned, can be used as both, but it's much more effective if it's collaborative and productive. I don't care who owns it-- could be marketing, could be PR, could be product, but the message needs to be the same: it needs to provide value. It's important to have two types of blogs within a company: one for news, and one that's a resource. This helps your users/customers "cut through the crap" and get right to what you're looking for. Sure, you can cross pollenate and post news on your resource blog, but it shouldn't be the other way around.

Twitter: For Messenger, we were using it to communicate outages and reach out to users regarding comments, concerns, and feature requests. You make a fantastic point: it doesn't matter how you decide to use Twitter, just as long as you go into it with a strategy. Messenger's was one of product resolution and awareness, with little to no peripheral "noise." Just be consistent, clear, and be sure that whatever you tweet, is good for your brand.

Facebook: I haven't met an HR person who hasn't tried to MySpace me or Facebook me. Facebook definitely has a place in corporate culture, whether we want it to or not, and it's up to us as users to determine our relationship with the product. From a company perspective, fan pages promote your product, but do little more than that. Sure it's great to see that 500 people are now a fan of XYZ and to watch that number grow, but unless you plan on actively engaging that community or group on Facebook, it's a bad idea. Don't plaster your branded image/name someplace you won't regularly check, maintain, or pamper. Facebook pages often are the most neglected.

Video and Podcasting: Yes, yes, yes. Video is a fantastic way to connect with your audience. Members from our Groups team recorded a few podcasts/interviews with members of the product team to let users know what's going on. Podcasts and videos have great CTR's and are also a great way to engage your community. One drawback is if you have an international audience, you might want to consider how a podcast or video presents itself to a viewer/visitor that might not speak English. Most webpages can be translated fairly easily, but that's not the case with a video or podcast, and you instantly alienate any International visitor that might have been interested in hearing what you had to say. Grabbing a Flip Video camera and showing users a tour of your office is also a great way to engage a community. While I was working with Nike, our client at Nike was able to use the camera on his MacBook and recorded part of the Nike HQ up in Oregon to post to the Community. The kids LOVED it, and it was a great way for users to truly see something that they can't get anywhere else.

All in all, the most important part of any of this is that you have a clear and consistent voice and strategy. Make sure that whatever you do (whether its grabbing a camera and videoing your UED guys designing the latest widget, or Twittering to your heart's content) make sure it has a point.

Can't wait to hear/see/read what everyone else has to say. :)

-Melissa

Blogging I think can be a joint effort. Marketing and PR can tidy up a blog written by anyone in the company. Whoever can talk with confidence and authority on the product - may be the developer, may be the techie, may be the customer service rep. Tidying up is ok. Rewriting-altering the personality of the blogger isn't.

Twitter yes. I think large organisations will be slow to allow it because they'll view it as time consuming and distracting. But it's real time research and networking and invaluable for getting news out.

Facebook I'm not sure about. But it's great for alumni and recruiting.

I think in large organisations podcasts delivered via an internal online community or intranet, can do wonders in breaking down silos and making head office seem a little more human. And the less slick the better. A CEO seldom seen in person, delivering a wooden quarterly, scripted, over polished interview produced by a video production company, versus a hand held cam informal interview conducted by an employee with the CEO in a setting he/she feels comfortable - without the lights and crew? which is going to make him/her easier to relate to?

Is blogging marketing or PR? Well, is a hammer for construction or for removing nails? (Yep, both.) I think some blogs help expand thought leadership (PR) while others help get conversations going that inform product/service direction (marketing).

As for Twitter, I think it's a connectors' channel -- a way to tune into real-time info that may interest you at any given point in time (if you're following the right people, that is). I think 2009 will see a flight to quality vs. just having the "most' followers. Personally, I want to converse with smart, interesting people...not just every drunk at the bar. (Been there, done that. Too many times, in fact.)

For me, Facebook is where I connect with people I already know...college friends, colleagues, folks who moved away from the Bay area. Sterling does have a corporate Facebook page, but I'm not sure what business value it brings (at least at this point).

Re: video and podcasting, I think we'll see lots of new and interesting applications throughout the corporation. Capturing and sharing great info will be key to thriving in a difficult economy (We all agree it's difficult out there right now, yes?)

As for creating more channels that require more listening -- personally, I think listening is a great thing...we just need tools to help us monitor all that's being said so we can be smarter tomorrow than we were today.

That's my .02 anyway. G'night. :)

If you're a good conversationalist, please follow me on twitter: mocster

I see where you coming from. A blog doesn't have to be a one way channel. In fact the most effective bloggers such as yourself tweak the posts to encourage comments which changes the focus of a blog from a broadcast platform to one that incites activity and discussion.

I am currently experimenting with using a blog as a medium for a company to connect closer to their customers and leverage the activity of the other mediums such as Facebook, discussions, customer's blogs and user generated content as a community engagement tool. Instead of a channel from a company to speak down to their audience I would like to see it develop as channel to show the voices of the community. A micro social network of some sort but just implemented using different mediums.

I really think you have to start at the top with your objectives and work your way down into strategy and implementation. Opposed to being attracted by a new medium such as twitter then finding a way to capitalize or market via a new channel.

That is backwards thinking.

Social media still needs to be based on solid strategy not the technology

Well done, sir. And to answer every one of your questions above, "Yes."

:-)

Lots of different thoughts actually but I will just post a few. My overall opinion of businesses using social media tools is for primarily a PR perspective. Trying to create a un-formidable image with your consumers/clients/investors etc. Trying to be totally transparent and connected with them. As if you are all sitting underneath an oak tree hanging out and just chillin together.

However, I am a firm believer that businesses can also use Twitter for example to create a buzz about a new product or keep consumers up to date on the health of you company in a more personal way.

Obviously not all businesses will even want to think about social media, but I believe for those who do will be well received by this and the upcoming generation.

Transparency is king.

Good questions, Chris. At the web company I work with during the day, we definitely use Twitter primarily as a marketing tool -- updating followers with latest products released, etc.

Facebook, however, we have a hard time with. We have a fan page, and people are fans, but is that useful to us? I don't know.

Thinking time.
@iElliott

Damn it man, you are so, so timely! I'm using a blog, twitter and facebook to generate PR activity for a MARKETING conference... talk about blurring our above and below the line responsibilities even more!

To be honest, bringing the two functions closer together can't be a bad thing - particularly if us PR people can snaffle up some of that marketing budget in the process. If we're helping to sell / raise awareness / put bums on seats, then why shouldn't we?

Companies should have a well defined social media policy or guideline. For example, here's IBM's Social Computing Guidelines. It should define how employees contribute to social media sites and what they can and cannot say. Anyone know any other good examples?