Tools are Just That

I’ve been very lucky in my current job on this issue.

My boss is an IE user, had never used Twitter, RSS, or read blogs. But he recognized that I could help him understand and embrace these things, and he’s done exactly that.

Now he’s on Twitter (he gets updates to his phone), he’s exploring blogs and RSS, he’s a user of Pandora, and he’s still learning.

He’s someone who understands that if he doesn’t get it, it will cost him sooner or later. So he’s decided to do better than trying to just get it–he’s decided to try to enjoy it.

Oh, and that’s IE 6.0 that he’s using. We’ve still got a few items to address… ; )

Great inspiration for managing up. Until they understand it better than we do…. You have to have the passion and knowledge first to ignite this type of response – because it is passion, too.

It’s even worse when you are in an agency setting and you’re trying to bring your business model into the next phase and the clients are the ones who are challenged to understand and question new tools. We serve a very niche space and are pretty good at what we do but our clients are very traditional. Getting them to think in terms of social media, an offering we want to continue to expand upon, takes time. This year, we’ve been incredibly passionate about propagating the value, and included it as a foundational aspect of all our PR programs. The younger clients see the value, those who have not grown up with it take more time thus, more case studies, more proof, more reasoning…and for some it’s simply a leap of their faith in you.

So true – content is still king. It’s the content in the tools that is the gold; the tools are simply enablers.

We market messaging and social media tools for internal enterprise use. I make a point of asking clients to consider what content they provide now to staff and why it’s not working as they’d like. If no one’s reading emails or going to the intranet, our tools will help, BUT they need to sanity check their content and make sure it’s actually relevant to people receiving it.

The same is true of YouTube, blogs, wikis, forums.. The topics and content need to be compelling in some way for it to produce any results or improvements to employee engagement.

People are scared of what they aren’t familiar with. It seems that a lot of traditional clients aren’t familiar with social media so they choose not to engage something that seems foreign and unfamiliar.

This points to needing to work on the story. If presented in a way that it touches the person you’re trying to convince, they’re more likely to jump down the rabbit hole after you, no?

Learn your audience. Learn about what matters to the audience and then tell them a story that shows how social media/internet marketing/web 2.0 can make that happen in this new way.

I get the point… you have to filter the content and choose custom-made examples to show to certain people in order to convince them…

But I don’t agree with this segmentation of what people see, expect or recognize in Youtube. Youtube is not just about having the chance to witness great speakers – in fact, a video with a dog and a duck can portray a certain reality with more accuracy than any other, more professional content. Because user-generated spoofs or pranks or showing your own, intimate details to everyone is a valid way of broadcasting yourself, as is also an excellent way to understand those people. In fact, “personal content” represents most of the produced content in the platform…

I would rather convince them by explaining what is the tool about, how you could use it and showing different examples of how it’s being used – whichever they might be…

Cheers,

Pedro

I have to admit that the naysayer video made my stomach lurch. OW!

I have to agree with Pedro–that YouTube is so much more than what it immediately might seem to be and that context can make a world of difference. For example, I’m thinking of the Lip Dub Flagpole Sitta that Connected Ventures did, (http://www.vimeo.com/173714). Suddenly they were on the map for me and in one fell swoop they entertained, gave you an idea of their culture, how well they worked together and collaborated and at the same time you experienced some of the power of Vimeo, one of their products.

Demonstrating the possibilities and the differences is key, as you suggest. One of my coworkers thinks that the only successful business videos are the ones that show humor (skit or spoof sort of thing…like the Mac/PC ads), whereas he probably has never seen some of the other types of applications such as that Google keynote or perhaps a successful interactive executive interview. He just hasn’t had the chance to see and believe. That’s what is so great about video though!

Lack of understanding of social tools can also lead to slapping yourself up there just to be in the game. A Ford dealer in my area started a Facebook group page, and everyone who joined the group started getting ‘big sale! $500 off today!’ messages. Daily.

Media of any sort is all, and always, about telling a story – who you are, why you matter, what value you bring to the table. Anything less is noise. Cute animal behavior doesn’t necessarily influence human behavior, particularly if there’s money involved…

Casey

Sun Microsystem’s use of the discussion format outdoors was cool on YouTube. I think there are a host of innovators in this space on Vimeo, both in terms of what companies are doing AND in terms of finding people to do the video work.

For instance “Fifty People, One Question” from New Orleans was very, very cool by Benjamin Reece. There is just an amazing community on both Vimeo and Viddler of amazingly talented filmmakers and creatives that are just waiting to be tapped.

Hey Chris – great post! I thought I’d share some interesting datapoints…the company I work for, FaceTime, just released the results of our annual survey on the use of collaborative Internet applications, and YouTube in particular has really gained in business use over last year, 34% of end users said they use it for work purposes.

The survey results reveal a couple of things – the line between personal time and business hours is blurring, most of us are available around the clock and so the tools we use, and when, reflect that. Second, these tools are gaining traction in business and continue to do so. The more we communicate and demonstrate their value, the more quickly they’ll be embraced. You can get more details here: http://www.facetime.com/survey08/socialnetworking/

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