chrisbrogan.com - Latest Comments in Aligning Social Media Within Companies

Re: Aligning Social Media Within Companies

Training An Older Dog — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:34:44 -0000

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.

Re: Aligning Social Media Within Companies

Carlos Hernandez — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:27:25 -0000

To educate.

To persuade.

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

Re: Aligning Social Media Within Companies

Maisa — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 18:22:16 -0000

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 =]

Re: Aligning Social Media Within Companies

David Bowen — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 04:18:38 -0000

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.

Re: Aligning Social Media Within Companies

JDeragon — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 12:09:41 -0000

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.

Re: Aligning Social Media Within Companies

Christoph Schmaltz — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 12:40:03 -0000

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.

Re: Aligning Social Media Within Companies

Box Network — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 02:39:04 -0000

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....

Re: Aligning Social Media Within Companies

Jaap Tuinman — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 02:13:06 -0000

"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

Re: Aligning Social Media Within Companies

Chris Hall — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 01:23:09 -0000

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.

Re: Aligning Social Media Within Companies

MLDina — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:55:08 -0000

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!

Re: Aligning Social Media Within Companies

Nicky Jameson — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 20:03:05 -0000

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.

Re: Aligning Social Media Within Companies

coolwebdeveloper — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:06:32 -0000

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...

Re: Aligning Social Media Within Companies

Melanie — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 17:56:25 -0000

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!

Re: Aligning Social Media Within Companies

Travis Baker — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:03:57 -0000

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.

Re: Aligning Social Media Within Companies

Max Goldberg — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 15:59:49 -0000

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.

Re: Aligning Social Media Within Companies

Caleb Gardner — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 15:55:22 -0000

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.

Re: Aligning Social Media Within Companies

Steve Hendricks — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:50:51 -0000

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.

Re: Aligning Social Media Within Companies

Rick Liebling — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:26:06 -0000

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.

Re: Aligning Social Media Within Companies

Doug Firebaugh — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:08:01 -0000

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--

Re: Aligning Social Media Within Companies

Chris Nahil — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 12:52:23 -0000

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.

Re: Aligning Social Media Within Companies

Zach Heller — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 12:21:51 -0000

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/....

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.

Re: Aligning Social Media Within Companies

jon burg — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 12:21:39 -0000

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.

Re: Aligning Social Media Within Companies

Kirsten Barker — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:53:54 -0000

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...

Re: Aligning Social Media Within Companies

Michael Durwin — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:33:03 -0000

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?

Re: Aligning Social Media Within Companies

Mark Harai — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:29:34 -0000

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.