Originally posted on Logic + Emotion.

Several weeks ago I delivered a 16 minute TEDx talk titled “reinventing social media.” Typically I like to frame topics outside of the social media bubble, but in this instance the topic itself and the purpose of the talk was designed to get us all thinking about things a bit differently. You see, businesses, brands and organizations are truly struggling with the disruptive nature of social technologies. In fact, the term “social technologies” is part of the problem—we are all fixated on the technologies and meanwhile the real action lies in harnessing the change brought about by human behavior enabled by technology. I used the simple story of how a colleague shared a book with me. The book itself (media) is not social—the interactions, communications, stories and conversations that involve the book are.

But to say “it’s about people” is too simplistic. Toward the end of the talk, I made my case that in a couple of years it would be unlikely that I would even be talking about “social media.” This thesis based on the belief that “social” translates into the conversion of an organization which requires shifts in culture, technology, process and ultimately behavior. If an organization does not empower its people to behave in a productive and beneficial social manner than can we actually use the word “social” to describe it? If the organization has not begun integrating these changes across several functional groups as opposed to leveraging just one (such as marketing) then is it really taking advantage of some of the changes I discuss in my talk?

I believe that the answer is no. It means that one part of the business is behaving a certain way while the others behave differently. This would be like your head looking at the person’s face who you are having a conversation with while your body is walking away from them in mid conversation. So in order for “social media” to become reinvented, to go with the theme of the TEDx discussion, it has to change (or we need to). And change as we all know always begins with people—so our focus needs to turn here. Hope you like the talk and as always feel free to share your own thoughts.

Originally posted on Harvard Business Review.

Okay, maybe that’s going too far. I don’t really recommend firing your marketing manager. I do however believe that most companies will eventually need to hire or contract with a community manager, if they haven’t already. A recent BusinessWeek article called “Twitter Twitter Little Star,” describes social media as a booming industry which has caught the attention of corporations everywhere, and suggests the role of a “social media director” and what that person should do. I’d like to dig a bit deeper into why this core function is necessary to create what’s becoming known as social engagement. I’ll call the role the community manager.

A community manager actively monitors, participates in and engages others within online communities. These communities can be on Twitter, Facebook, message boards, intranets, wherever groups of people come together to converse and interact with each other. A traditional marketing manager is likely to have little experience with this function. Historically, community management developed outside marketing, in areas such as community organizing (politics) or in niche verticals such as the video game or software industry, which are no strangers to digital outposts such as message boards.

A community manager acts as an ambassador for your organization, whether that person is an employee or contracted to manage your social web presence. A good community manager gives a human form to the faceless corporation. On Facebook Whole Foods, for example, community managers have created a forum that impels customers to respond to its posts. They also often informally engage their customers in the process.

A community manager must be a good or great communicator. He or she of course needs to be social, and understand the social mores of the communities served, and have a strongly developed sense of ethics. He or she should know, for example, when deleting a member’s comment is wrong or justified and be prepared to explain why. Enthusiasm is also required. Finally, a good community manager will be well connected, forming relationships with the right people in your communities, the individuals and groups you want on your side.

No doubt companies are flocking toward non traditional job descriptions like community manager. If I were building my my all-star business team, I’d think about how community management works and why I might need a few good ones on my roster.

Originally posted on Logic + Emotion.

While the current trend in all things social is demonstrating ROI (did Old Spice Increase sales etc?) There remains a lack of emphasis on actually executing well in social spaces with the assumption that this is simply where customers, consumers, employees etc. will go to seek information and interact. That’s why I think Altimeter’s recent report listing out 8 success criteria specific to marketing initiatives on Facebook is a breath of fresh air. I was fortunate to help inform the report as an ambassador for Edelman Digital, and was happy to see best practices featured from brands we work with such as AXE (client). That aside, the report is worth reviewing and digesting as it goes through the 8 criteria in depth backing it up with examples:

With the above criteria in place, Altimeter has drafted a simple framework for brands and organizations to keep in mind as they build out their digital embassies in the Facebook ecosystem. Using this criteria, Altimeter then selected a few brands to evaluate calling out specific best practices and areas for opportunity. Here’s how the brands fared when compared with each other:

At minimum the report offers a few choice insights and examples of brands to look at and learn from while you are developing your strategies and tactics for this space. Specifics such as being inconsistent or not addressing angry comments serve as early indicators to learn from as companies develop their rules of engagement for Facebook and other digital embassies. While other studies focus on devising formulas that assign dollar values to Facebook connections, reports such as this offer a few high level guidelines for how to best navigate through social systems such as Facebook. Have a read and chime in. What are your best practices?

If you don’t know who Brian Solis is, perhaps you should take a closer look. Brian is one of the veterans of the communications space who has pushed the PR industry into new territory as an early adopter who fully embraced Web 2.0 and the changes it has brought. You may have seen Brian’s thinking in a slideshow near you—his Conversation Prism is ubiquitous social media frameworks. He’s also written a new book simply titled “Engage” which lays out in depth how organizations can better engage with multiple stakeholders in an era where participation rules and one way communication proves less effective. We recently had a moment to catch up with Brian in a casual setting where we discussed a variety of topics from metrics, to Old Spice to managing change brought upon by social technologies.

Enjoy.

Image credit: Brian Solis

My colleague Steve Rubel and I wear many hats at Edelman. One of those hats is keeping an eye on the trends unfolding in real time and deriving meaning from them as they pertain to organizations and brands. Attached to this post is a slideshow where we identify what these trends are and at a high level how your organization needs to plan accordingly for them. They are:

1. Marketing in the age of streams

Your customers, consumers and employees are no longer only visiting static Web pages but participating in conversations which increasingly occur off domain in “streams” flowing from Facebook, Twitter and even apps. In order to catch them, you must be highly relevant in their streams.

2. The Googleization of media

Quality Content and potent social connections in addition to traditional keywords are influencing how visible you are to the search engines. Everyone is media.

3. The data decade

Data is increasingly becoming available to anyone and everyone. From it we can derive insights into behaviors. We must become “data junkies” to fully harness this trend.

4. Business becomes social

Moving from designated spokesperson to employee engagement at scale—business itself is beginning to look more social as organizations start to engage all stakeholders in open and mutually beneficial ways.

5. Location, location, location

Where you are is becoming the new what are you doing as multiple platforms begin to adopt the new geolocation status update generating new kinds of data.

6. Private becomes public

Despite privacy concerns, applications and behaviors which support social sharing are still going strong as what is considered private becomes re-defined as we continue engaging in networks.

We believe these trends are not future gazing but what’s happening at this very moment and that they will cause organizations to adapt to change, adopt new practices and innovate accordingly. For more industry insights, ideas and perspectives you can visit our newly created “branded channel” on Slideshare.

Originally posted on Jive Talks. This is part one of the guest posting series between David Armano (Edelman Digital) and Gia Lyons (Jive Software).

Two industry articles recently surfaced which caught my attention. The first on Media Post indicated that more than half of the companies polled for the article go at social media initiatives without a strategy. The second, from eMarketer included some statistics behind common social initiatives but indicated that there was a gap between tactical implementation such as reserving URLs and properties which most organizations were already doing, to planning for relevant protocols which many had not. Both pieces left me wondering—are organizations really preparing themselves for a day where engaging in public will become more mainstream, ubiquitous and even expected? In other words, will the organization truly be “social” when they need it most? To help answer this question, I’m going to list a few core “plays” that your organization should be incorporating into their gameplan if they truly want to move toward making their business more “social”.

Play 1: Active Listening & Analysis

It’s often repeated, but common sense dictates that this is where you begin. Your organization should be aware of what’s being said about it and where it’s being said. There are a variety of social media monitoring tools which make listening possible ranging from the free to the more expensive. Other articles exist to point you to those tools—this one is designed to stress that it needs to be in your gameplan and more importantly integrated into your business model. For example, The Gatorade brand took listening and analysis so seriously that they actually had a physical “social media command center” built into their Chicago headquarters. But whether your listening is digital, physical or a combination of the two, what’s most important are the insights you derive from doing it. (Pepsi is an Edelman client)

Play 2: Influencer Mapping & Network Dynamics

Call them influencers, mavens or connectors—these individuals exist in both an organization’s internal and external networks which are relevant to your organization and it’s your job to find out who they are and what motivates them. But it’s not just the influencers that matter, it’s the overall way the networked ecosystem works and how it responds to things such as perceived threats or hot conversational topics. Before your organization enters any social ecosystem, it should have spent some time studying the network dynamics around it. Services such as Networked Insights, Skyttle, and others like them exist to provide select intelligence which can arm an organization with the knowledge it needs before ever stepping foot into a community.

Play 3: Technology Assessment, Integration & Adoption

Technology is key in developing a social readiness gameplan because it’s what accelerates anything from collaboration to communication. Internally, the right technology may not be in place in order for your organization to move as quickly, intelligently or as socially as you would like. This is where solutions such as Jive and others come into play. Externally, the plumbing is complex but also open in many cases (API’s). In both cases there needs to be an assessment of what can or can’t be done. How it integrates with what’s already in place and who is likely to use it. For external integration examples, think Facebook connect—for internal, think of your legacy intranet and what might replace it. In both cases, perform audits to determine what technology will best serve your purpose, goals and business culture.

Play 4: Organizational Planning (People & Process)

Technology alone never solved anything—it is the human capitol part of the equation that completes the picture. Change requires existing processes to be re-designed. Rules of engagement should be put in place that act as guidelines for how to engage for the mutual gain of the organization and it’s stakeholders. Training should be implemented. Policies need updating and every business unit within the organization that plays a role in the gameplan should know the rules even when they change.

Play 5: Strategy

No game plan is a plan without a strategy in place which outlines what needs to be done before you actually do it. What’s most important is that you think before you act. What’s the competition doing? Who is succeeding? Who is failing? What does success and failure actually look like for your initiative—and HOW will both be measured? These questions should and can be answered before any substantial initiative begins and that in a nutshell is what strategy is.

Play 6: Pilots, Programs & Transformation

If strategy is the plan inside the gameplan, then consider pilots (small, bite sized initiatives) the scrimmage. Pilot initiatives allow you to test theories on the field taking calculated risks. They should be small by design. Successful pilot initiatives often inform and sometimes evolve into more ambitious undertakings. A pilot could be platform specific, such as testing a collaboration tool with a department vs. the entire organization. Or externally, establishing an embassy on Slideshare vs. ramping up dramatically on Facebook. Pilot projects when done with success and shared around the broader organization can occasionally lead to a larger business transformation.

Play 7: Measurement, Metrics & Success

Every organization will determine and measure success differently. For some it may be sales. For others it’s adoption of a platform. For some it’s measuring the levels of participation or specific actions such as a sign up, donation, or even saying a positive word in a public space (sentiment). Whether it’s increasing visibility, driving sales, or generating a cost savings, your game plan should include what you intend to measure and how you will measure it.

Consider the above a high level checklist for your organization in the quest to evolve it into a more connected brand and ultimately a social business. Perhaps you are doing many of the things listed in here. Perhaps you are just starting. What’s most important is that you have a game plan in place which is strategic enough to get you started and adaptable enough to change as fast as conditions in the game do—because change as we all know, happens.

Image credit: avinashkunnath

Originally posted on Harvard Business Blog.

Privacy. It’s the key word in most Facebook-related headlines these days. But it’s not the key idea. I believe that what’s really being tested here is not the limits of privacy but the notion of agility — the ability of an organization to implement rapid iterations in their products and services for better and/or worse.

Since it’s inception, Facebook has been a poster child of agility, demonstrating practices often associated with the agile software design movement. Agile software isn’t new, but the idea of a business as hugely influential as Facebook applying agile principles to its platform (and maybe to its business model) is new.

Facebook’s pattern has become nearly cyclical. This recent privacy kerfuffle is in some ways just a repeat of Facebook Beacon which was introduced then quickly killed due to privacy concerns. Nevertheless, the platform grows. Facebook has produced a highly addictive and constantly evolving social platform that keeps users coming back for more despite regular complaints about not just privacy, but the user experience itself. If Facebook were a city, it might be my hometown of Chicago, where they say “if you don’t like the weather, wait 5 minutes.” If you don’t like the latest Facebook feature, wait 5 minutes, or days or weeks but not much more than that, for some type of significant tweak or new feature rollout.

The product itself (the platform) evolves nearly in real time. It changes so fast it feels as if everything is “beta.” One day you’ll log-in and notice a different layout, a new button, a new feature or some entirely new integration. The next day the company changes the entire social ecosystem by opening up its social graph to third parties.

The company’s becoming an agility case study worth watching. As Facebook tends to push aggressively, then scale back based on user feedback the larger question is do we as human beings want this type of non-stop cyclical change? The answer usually lies in the experience itself. How many versions of software and hardware has Apple pushed out? Why is a BlackBerry product (disclaimer, Edelman client) endearingly referred to as a CrackBerry?

If Facebook can keep the experience addictive, we as users are likely to happily follow their rapid iteration. Facebook’s agility is directly tied to our addiction. Where platforms such as MySpace evolved more slowly, Facebook evolves in real time and we’ve rewarded them for this by signing up by the millions. Is working this way sustainable in the long term? We’re about to find out.

Originally posted on Logic + Emotion.

Way back in 2005, I came across a blog. Not just any blog—it was called “The Social Customer Manifesto”. I found it to be so interesting and compelling, that it was one of the first blogs I left a comment on (I had mostly been a passive observer prior to this). Five years later and I feel like I’ve come full circle as the author of that blog (who I’ve come to know), Chris Carfi has joined Edelman—the company I work for. In his honor, I thought I’d write a short post, flipping his model of a manifesto from the customer, to the business. Enjoy and welcome Chris!

• We will no longer view you as “consumers”. Instead, you are co-creators, participants, and advocates.
• We will actively listen, and participate authentically because we know you demand nothing less.
• We will meet you on your terms, not ours.
• We will provide value, not noise.
• We will evolve our workforce to meet the changing demands of a networked economy.
• We will focus on your needs vs. our messages.
• We will build relationships that connect us in ways where we all benefit.
• We will act ethically and transparently, because it’s no longer a choice.
• We will respond to changes quickly—we will adapt.
• We will move forward with you, not without you, because you are our future.

Welcome aboard Chris! Let the Karaoke begin. :-)

When we talk about trends in the Digital space it’s easy, even convenient, to start assigning responsibility for that movement to whoever happens to be leading the charge that minute. What’s worth noting is that a trend never really belongs to a platform, it belongs to the people wielding it. With that in mind, I present five macro trends to watch. In these cases, it’s now brands driving much of the innovation rather than resting until a platform mutates itself.

Geolocation Is Bigger Than Foursquare

While Foursquare recently announced an excess of 40 million check-ins and 15,000 new users per day, what’s really worth noting is that location-based initiatives transcend the platform itself. Large brands such as Pepsi (client) have begun experimenting with geolocation initiatives such as Pepsi Loot. This program is designed to encourage consumers to check-in at locations that serve Pepsi beverages in order to earn points, which can be redeemed for items such as downloadable music from Universal Music Group. In addition, McDonalds has announced a partnership with Facebook, which is working on integrating its own geolocation capabilities into the platform. As location-based programs increase in popularity, “where are you?” is becoming the new “what are you doing?”

Real Time Is Bigger Than Twitter

From Facebook’s news feed (which updates as you view it) to real-time analytics tools (imagine if Twitter and Google Analytics had a baby), the Web is increasingly becoming real-time. The implications of this for brands are the opportunities to not only monitor what your customers are saying about you in real time but, in the case of real-time analytics, to be able to see what they are doing on your own domain digital properties. Responding to information and trends in real-time can prevent a negative Groundswell against your brand and even yield insights about your consumers.

Social CRM Is The New Marketing

Social CRM or “Customer Relationship Management“ is a social-media version of “Customer Relationship Management.”

From Altimeter Group:

Social CRM represents a continuing journey by organizations to deliver the right customer experience at the right time. It’s not just about technologies. It’s NOT just about business processes. It’s fundamentally how to and where to reengage with customers in both social channels and the traditional world.

Early examples include @comcastcares on Twitter and Best Buy’s Twelpforce, which harnesses hundreds of “Blue Shirts” who provide customer service via Twitter. Best Buy also does this through Facebook. While in its infancy, Social CRM and the need to integrate legacy processes with social systems is an important trend to monitor and act upon.

Shopping Is Better With Friends

With Facebook’s recent release of its open graph, nearly any activity can involve your friends. Sale.com is one of the first sites to integrate the “like” feature from Facebook, drawing friends toward favorite deals and e-commerce outposts as endorsements fill their personal dashboards. Online shopping is sure to become a more social experience.

Social Media Infrastructure, Scale & Integration

How to organize around social media is becoming one of the industry’s biggest challenges. The issue is part technology (social content management systems), part process (how to respond to a crisis) and part people (training and compliance). Social CMS platforms such as Awareness and SocialTALK offer early solutions to the problem of managing a brand’s content across several social networks. Edelman offers a “belt system” training program for large organizations, focused on ensuring compliance around basic skills. Google recently announced it is hiring a “head of social.” The broader trend is that large organizations are looking to formalize their efforts around social media.

If you find value in this Website, you can thank leadership over social technology. When I first joined Edelman several months ago, then president of Digital, Rick Murray and I briefly discussed his vision for this site. “Open, informative, useful, best in class”. These were the words used to describe what we wanted to do here. There were competing visions for what the experience should be here well before my time—but Rick’s vision is what prevailed. Of course it needed to be executed—and this required a team, and the right technology. But it also required a cultural shift to occur. We had to know that we would be supported in our endeavor to become regular content creators and conversation catalysts and that our behavior would be rewarded and not punished.

It’s an unfortunate reality in our current state of affairs that we often chase after the latest technology, buzzword or use “ROI” as a defensive shield to protect corporate status instead of justifying business value. The simple truth is that leaders and leadership is more important than ever, because social technologies are so potentially disruptive and powerful. But it takes vision to see where you are going. It also takes a healthy amount of risk from the people up at the top. Charlene Li’s new book Open Leadership provides insights into the relationship between social technology and leadership and offers examples that are worth digesting.

Let this short post also serve as a reminder that if your organization is really interested in tapping the power of “social”, you are going to need some real leaders to pave the way and provide the support for the people who will inevitably become the change agents you desperately need to move forward. No amount of social media will provide this, and historically there has never been a substitute for leadership. Are you trying to “move the needle” on your initiatives with limited success? Chances are, you need help from a true leader. If you know of one, send them this post as a reminder that their time is indeed now.