This morning I came across a presentation in my RSS feed that describes the real threat represented by an alarming “social media” technology that threatens the modern corporation. We’re all familiar with the threats that Web 2.0 both inside and outside the corporation represent. I thought I was on top of things, but clearly I didn’t know the HALF of it. Look at this distributing presentation from Norman Lamont of Lloyds Banking Group and you will be as concerned as I am:
Entries tagged as ‘social media’
An Alarming Technology That Threatens Capitalism Itself
31 May 2009 · 2 Comments
Categories: Media · Random · Technology
Tagged: enterprise 2.0, social media
Social Networking More Popular than Porn: What it Means for Competitive Advantage
30 January 2009 · 3 Comments
A CI colleague of mine passed along a story that had been brought to her attention. According to Hitwise, social networking web sites have become more popular than porn sites. I’m sure that there is a lot that can be said about the methodology of this headline-grabbing conclusion. For the moment I want to either assume that the study is true or that it’s close enough to being true to support the suppositions that I am about to make for the consequences to competitive advantage. My colleague asked in her e-mail “What is the significance of this?” and I responded thusly…
The take-away for me is that the connectivity delivered by social networking meets a fundamental human need even more ingrained and needed than sexual gratification (to put it bluntly).
It’s not a fad or flash in the pan. While the cast of players may change (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) the concept of social networking and subsequent threats and opportunities are here to stay. Many business leaders are planning to wait out what they see as a fad, and many corporate leaders are maintaining or instituting misguided policies that are based on the assumption that you can separate human employees from something so fundamentally human.
Policies in information security, public relations, human relations, marketing, sales… the list goes on all have to take this reality into consideration. Old “sledgehammer” strategies are not going to work going forward. The best and the brightest are going to go where they can maintain and grow their self actualization through social tools both inside the company, with partners/customers and their social lives. Many boundaries are going to collapse as a consequence. It’s not going to be all flowers and happiness because everybody involved is going to have to be a lot smarter.
Those managers and employees that can apply a modicum of common sense (I hope that I fit in that category) are going to do better than the “zero tolerance” models that existed in the command-and-control world. Business models that take advantage of social media will do better than those that don’t.
The long and short of the case I am trying to make about social media in general is that it is here to stay. This is not to cast myself as all ra-ra social networking, web 2.0, this-time-the-revolution-will-not-be-televised dilettante. I am, however, a firm believer in the human desire for self-actualization and socialization as a fundamental need and a higher level of desire. While the recession may temper Generation Y’s selectiveness or job hopping looking for that perfect job, these needs are neither temporary nor generational in their nature. Over the long term (Five years? A decade?) the need for employers to utilize technology to accommodate those needs among customers and employees is going to become business as usual. On its way to becoming table stakes some companies will take the smarts needed to satisfy those needs a competitive advantage.
Categories: Media · strategy
Tagged: competitive advantage, social media, social networking, strategy
More Ideas on Giving Away Conference Content
12 August 2008 · Leave a Comment
Jon Lowder of the Competitive Intelligence Marketplace blog had some excellent suggestions on alternative business models for giving away conference content. These are some excellent alternatives to my own suggestions from my previous post on giving away podcasts of conference content:
- Make certain videos free from the get-go. Just one or two to keep the buzz of the conference going.
- Make all videos free to SCIP members behind the SCIP firewall,
similar to what they do with magazine articles. Perhaps there’s a 3-6
month delay in doing this so that there’s still a premium for attending
the conference. It’s always a good idea to have more membership
benefits. - If you’re going to charge for the video then forget what I said about lower quality being better than no video at all.
- Sell sponsorships of each presentation, and by extension the video.
Sadly, Jon was not able to post his suggestions in a comment to my own blog. Previous run-ins with crazy volumes of SPAM led me to be perhaps a little overzealous in limiting readers’ ability to comment. I have made some changes to the blog srttings and hopefully have fixed this as an issue. Just know that any offers for herbal Viagra you see posted in the comments of this blog do not come with my endorsement.
Categories: CI
Tagged: podcast, SCIP09, social media, web 2.0
Give it Away Now
10 August 2008 · Leave a Comment
For one of the side projects I’m working on, I’m trying to sell the notion of giving away what could be considered “premium” content as a mechanism to raise interest and broaden an established brand among interested non-consumers. Specifically I am trying to make the case that giving away some audio recordings of presentations from an annual professional conference will stimulate interest in the following year’s conference.
In reality my concept is more nuanced than simply giving away content. The conference will be held next April, and I am advocating that we make audio recordings of the sessions that will be presented (pending presenter’s agreement, of course). Paying attendees will be given access to the recorded content for no cost following the conference. Those who did not register for the conference will be able to purchase the content as a price well under the cost of conference registration (I’m playing with price points between 1/10 and 1/5 of the cnference registration cost). Three to four months before the next year’s conference (set for April 2010) we would make some (probably not all) of the recorded content available for free.
Today a great example of using free content to broaden the appeal of a brand was brought to my attention: Tom Friedman is giving away audio recordings of the third edition of The World is Flat for free. The audio book is being made available with an audio preview of Friedman’s next book, and is likely part of a strategy to build anticipation and promote sales of the new book.
We’ve seen in the past years that diverse customer segments will pay varying prices for what is ostensibly the same product. Almost every one of us have paid for a bottle of water often enough when tap water is generally conveniently available for free. When the 9/11 Commission Report was published it became one of the best-selling tomes of 2004 despite the fact that the contents were freely available on-line. Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have both demonstrated the benefits of giving away content or letting customers name their own price for music downloads.
With these and other examples in mind I’m not as concerned that freely-available content will cannibalize paying attendees. I’ve been watching presentations from the TED conference for several years, and would still be thrilled to attend the event in person if I got the chance. The real value of most conferences is in the face-to-face exchange of ideas, and you really do need to pony up the bucks to get the full benefit of a conference. Hearing the quality of the material from last year’s conference would, I am convinced, raise the interest of those who might not otherwise attend.
I’m very interested to hear what others think about this. Help me make the case to a skeptical audience. If you’re skeptical, lay it on me so I can refine or revise this concept. If you’re sufficiently convincing you might get me to change my mind. If you agree with the general concept of giving away content to spur interest among non-consumers then give me your take on this to help me make the case.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: podcast, SCIP09, social media, web 2.0
Church of the Customer and Customer Bloggers
1 February 2005 · Leave a Comment
I’m always very pleasantly surprised when Andy McCaskey of Slashdot Review send me a shout out in his Podcast. I’ll be going along in the car or in the gym and hear him mention August Jackson, and I’ll be like “August Jackson!?! His name is like my name is named!!”
But the last time Andy gave me a shout this past Friday he was talking about the posting I had made on Customer Input on Product Design. Andy commented that Church of the Customer was on something of the same theme, so I thought I would go take a look.
The team behind Church of the Customer are focused on leveraging your most loyal customers as evangelists for products. Probably the most well-known example of this are all of the Apple fanatics.
As I was reading through the articles on the site I was reminded of an article I had read in the Harvard Business Review some time back. A quick search on the web reveals that the article was actually from the December 2003 issue and was authored by Fredrick Reicheld. The gist of this article was that the best measure of a company’s true traction with customers was not their general satisfaction levels, but rather a customer’s likelihood to recommend the company’s product or services to a friend. The idea behind this was that companies with high percentages of such numbers had achieved a much greater depth of relationship with their customers, such that customers would actually tie their own reputation with friends and relatives to recommend the company.
I think the Church of the Customer and the related concepts are very interesting, and I remember being blown away by the HBR article when I first read it.
Many thanks to Andy for bringing the Church of the Customer to my attention. It speaks to part of what I think companies need to do with customer bloggers as part of their PR and Competitive Intelligence practices. Another key element of the process is to make sure these customers insights are listened to and considered for future product enhancements or revisions to business practices. Id also suggest that companies need to take into consideration what some of their most vocal critics say. Once you get past the vitriol that may be present theres valuable insight to be had there as well about things companies need to do better.
Categories: CI · Technology
Tagged: blogging, social media
Customer Input on Product Design
28 January 2005 · Leave a Comment
Forbes is running an article on companies seeking customer input in the product design process. The article is a bit too top-down, focus-group oriented in the customer feedback it examines, but it got me thinking. One key element of corporate PR and competitive intelligence needs to be scouring forums, chat rooms, blogs and the like for similar customer feedback. I’m not questioning the value of the exercises described in the Forbes piece. Consumer-oriented companies would do well to take advantage of the unsolicited, undirected feedback that can come from those media which they do not control directly. The free flow of customer insight represents an extremely valuable feedback mechanism. The ability to separate the wheat from the chaff and turn those insights into actionable developments would be a real competitive advantage.
Categories: Consumerism
Tagged: innovation, social media, strategy
The Two Sides of Corporate Blogging
18 November 2004 · Leave a Comment
Over the last couple of days I’ve run across a lot of different pieces on corporate blogging. Not a new topic by any stretch of the imagination, but very interesting stuff. The Future Tense podcast (from American Public) I listened to this morning included some intelligent commentary from Forrester analyst Charlene Li who has her own blog. So I thought it might be worthwhile to capture some of what Ive seen and some of my own thoughts.
There is a presentation put out by Dublin-based Research and Markets entitled “Web Logs: Blog Threat Management “. Wow! What an absolutely alarmist title. Sadly, having worked at a very large company and knowing the mindset that tends to prevail therein, a presentation like this can foster a “batten down the hatches” mindset. Companies with little understanding of how blogs can work for them are likely to put policies in place that block them out. This also creates a policy hot potato about employee blogging about their employer during their free time as well.
Blogs are beyond the skill set of most PR professionals working in corporate environments from what Ive seen. The profession seems to have veered so far in the direction of damage control that the lockdown mentality prevails. Maybe somebody in the field can tell me otherwise, but my own experience indicates a real lack of the grasp of a dialog which a blog enables, and things like Sarbanes-Oxley has everyone on pins and needles.
PR professionals are going to need to learn new ways of doing their jobs. The world is changing, and blogging is a genie that is not going to be put back into the bottle. Customers (and employees) are blogging about your products, so if you really want to do good PR you can’t pretend blogging isn’t there. Companies don’t have the option of doing this badly.
In what looks to be a much more balanced perspective on corporate blogging, Forrester Research have issued their own report on the subject. From the executive summary:
Although Weblogs (blogs) are currently used by only a small number of online consumers, they’ve garnered a great deal of corporate attention because their readers and writers are highly influential. Forrester believes that blogging will grow in importance, and at a minimum, companies should monitor blogs to learn what is being said about their products and services. Companies that plan to create their own public blogs should already feel comfortable having a close, two-way relationship with users. In this document we recommend best practices, including a blogging code of ethics, and metrics that will show the impact of blogs on business goals.
While the summary doesn’t indicate whether or not it covers the topic of employees blogging, I would suspect it at least touches on the issue. I suspect that most employees would welcome either at least an internal blog to express some of their perspectives on company products, services or practices. An external blogging practice and review of how a company is covered on other blogs would provide a very powerful guide to help companies prioritize areas for improvement, while an internal blog can provide the means to make those improvements (also a great source of competitive intelligence). This approach also provides a channel for both customers and employees to be heard, which can go a long way to helping keep the conversation on a positive note. Done right, blogging also provides that additional visibility for shareholders which Sarbanes-Oxley was intended to deliver.
All of this assumes that a company really does want to improve its products and the level of customer service it delivers and cares about both employees and shareholders. A company that doesnt give a damn isnt going to gain anything from any blog no matter how well its done.
Categories: Media
Tagged: social media
Big Media Pushes Back
28 October 2004 · Leave a Comment
The New York Times today ran this piece (registration required) discussing how blogs and other postings on the Internet are undermining professional journalism.
Journalists covering the campaign believe the intent is often to bully them into caving to a particular point of view. They insist the efforts have not swayed them in any significant way, though others worry the criticism could eventually have a chilling effect.
Many of the Internet writers say they have been empowered by the Web to begin serving as a long-needed real-time check on mainstream outlets and reporters who they say wield too much power, sometimes irresponsibly and often with hidden partisan motives.
Considering the instances in the past several years where Internet-only journalists or blogs have exposed failures or oversights in the professional press, I think the Times could have presented the other side of the coin somewhat. Also, with media consolidation continuing apace, blogs and the Internet provide additional sources of information and voices. I really think what’s going on here is more sour grapes from the established media that their collective monopoly on public discourse is being challenged. Sorry to get all Dan Quayle and all, but is this another case of the cultural elite trying to ensure their place at the top of the food chain?
Sure, a lot of the rhetoric on blogs can be harsh and unprofessional. Partially that’s the point. But the great thing about blogs is that you can choose whether or not to look outside your own political corner. As for echo chambers, it’s not like the talking heads of the professional media offer a wide variety of opinions and perspectives anyway. The professional media, in my opinion, falls way short in their informational duty by covering only the conflicts over policy and elections instead of telling voters and citizens what the consequences or implications of one piece of legislation over another. Think back to John Stewart’s rant on “Crossfire.” Like him, I would love to see a real debate, but you’re not going to see that in the professional media.
Far too often we as citizens are completely unclear on the consequences of what our leaders are doing. The web, at least, gives us some alternative venue to discover that for ourselves.
Categories: Media
Tagged: journalism, social media
