Social Media - Servant of Chaos

I am the Weakest Link

Australian Blogs, Memes, Smart Bloggers, Social Media

Sparkling Water
Originally uploaded by Othon Leon

We all agree. Well mostly. At least in the places where I roam online. Occasionally there are some disagreements — sometimes gentle argument, but all-in-all there is little dissent. Mack Collier has been pondering the nature of this general affability in the marketing end of the blogosphere, contrasting the inclusive debates engendered by the crowd at The Daily Fix with the scrummage that occurs over at Robert Scoble’s house of rambunctious squattors.

A la Scoble, Mack succeeds in generating quite an interesting discussion (well worth checking out) — and one of the questions he asks is, how does Scoble do it? Fundamentally, I think that Scoble challenges our curiosity. He asks the questions of himself that we find we are answering. He mocks and goads his readers. He dares them and sometimes berates them. MarketingProfs is a whole different kettle of fish.

But the debate is not really about different communities and their style, it is a question of lifeblood. I don’t know about you, but at certain points in time I like to venture far and wide across the blogosphere. I like to run across those weak links. I like to mine the unexpected. It is one of the reasons that I like memes … to me they serve a special purpose in the blogosphere — they introduce new blood into the thinking systems of our social networks. These new sites, in fact, help to keep us all healthy.

This randomness is what appealed to me about the Entrecard widget that you can see at the top of my blog. I don’t have it there for advertising … I have it there for connection. For chance. And while I know that Marcus doesn’t agree, I must admit to finding it slightly useful — and have happened upon a couple of sites that I like.

MarketingFM covers a lot of topics that are obviously of interest to me.

Overall, though, I find my uncontrolled meanderings through Entrecard to be an eye-opener. This is social media in the raw. It is local and it is expansive. It is poetic and well designed. It is real people telling their own stories, making some money and finding new friends, communities and even enemies. It is the space where we live.

It all serves to remind us that our blog is just another drop in an ocean of influence.

Measuring Audience 2.0

Branding, Digital Strategy, FutureVisions, Measurement, Social Media

Eyeballing
Originally uploaded by fotologic

So I am sitting there in a meeting in a far-off Asian country. Seated all around me are marketing managers and directors from my client’s company. My colleagues and I are slightly jet lagged but hyped — the countdown to our presentation is only minutes away. We just have to wait through one more presentation on "digital strategy" from another agency. The irony is not lost on us … we are, after all, about to present a solution to the challenge of digital strategy — and we feel like we have nailed it.

Then it starts. Well, I thought — "I don’t know a lot about digitial". Hmmm. "But what I do know, is you can’t measure it". What? I stifle the intake of my breath. This is not the time. This is not the place.

To my surprise I look around the room and observe a sea of nodding heads. Not a dissenting voice. Not one.

As I mentioned in this post on measurement some time ago, the idea of tracking hits and even page views seemed quaint and outdated. But what if there really was an AUTOMATED way of measuring what your audience … or what your PARTICIPANTS were interested in? What if you could use this to refine your site/project/marketing efforts — on the fly?

Josh Catone has an interesting article on the new Alenty site engagement measurement tool. Sure it seems to be focused on banners, but I have a feeling that it would be much more beneficially deployed under the hood of your community system. Imagine if Microsoft turned this on for Facebook? How about a widget for Typepad that allows bloggers to tap into the data about their blogs? Or imagine what this would mean for game developers?

In the future, this sort of technology will be mandatory for all branded content. Not only that, when combined with upstream and downstream analytics, the potential for us all to understand what works, what doesn’t and the IMPACTS of our cohesive branding, design and experience efforts will transform the business of branding. And yes, it really is all about the audience. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Get Your Head Out of the Clouds!

Innovation, Smart Bloggers, Social Media, Web 2.0

Day 86 – Head in the Clouds
Originally uploaded by margolove

Greg Verdino’s challenging post Beyond Knowledge has generated some great discussion on the nature of knowledge and the impact of the Internet/Web 2.0 on how we all tap into this massive "crowdsourced brain". I have been fascinated by the concept of knowledge management for years and actually ran a KM group for IBM years ago — and what I learned then (and what Greg clearly identifies upfront) is that knowledge is not the domain of technology (yet) but of people.

You see, there are lots of really smart people out there in the world. They can be working in your business, they might be sitting in the cube next to you, or they could be on the other side of the planet. But how do you know what they know? How can they manifest this in a way that allows their expertise to shine out and reach the person who needs it? For this to happen you need a couple of things — you need:

A platform for communication
A method of organising the data
A way of connecting it all up

In the web 2.0 world, we have platforms coming out our ears — we have blogs, wikis, video sharing sites, podcasts etc. We also have tagging and bookmarking to categorise and share our interests. And we have search engines and rating systems etc to connect it all up. But all this lives in the cloud and is the domain of cloud computing.

It is using all these elements that you, dear reader, are able to find my often misguided marketing meanderings. It is what allows the thoughts and ideas of one individual to reach out beyond the circles of life limited by time and geography. But why does this breakthrough? As Greg points out, I think it has to do with seeing the value in a shift from knowledge to conversation (or as Greg says, "connection").

When I worked at IBM we held seminars and meetings. Lots of them. We showcased ideas and project work. We wrote about them on the intranet. We championed the individuals whose efforts and breakthroughs made innovation possible. And we talked. And the thing that worked most effectively was the lunchtime meetings … having one person tell the story of how they solved a problem. It was like a lightening rod … conversation erupted, ideas leaped across the room. It was great.

So we decided to go bigger. While the virtual meetings were well subscribed, there was a demand for face-to-face storytelling. Everyone loved the ideas but also wanted to see the face behind the innovation — and our first series of seminars filled lecture halls to overflowing.

We were building a forum for ideas. But there was a business purpose here … I was also looking at commercial viability. I needed to be able to see a future opportunity — a patent perhaps or the licensing of code. But I also needed to see something else — a personal champion. As Greg points out, with knowledge freely available it becomes a commodity. A great idea can string separate knowledge chunks together — but it takes a resilient person and a network of supporters to push through the barriers of innovation apathy to turn an idea into something tangible. It’s no longer a case of "what you know" nor of "who you know" but of:

"who knows you + knows what you know".

And this is where Web 2.0 comes in. It is now far easier to create and enable these conversations via technology (in fact, this post is part of a conversation that is also occuring points out) or the sheer human pull of a good storyteller to make knowledge valuable.

Greg Verdino also promises another couple of posts extending this topic. I am looking forward to more conversation!

The Dream of Influence and the Democracy of Action

Blogging, Digital Strategy, Old Media, Smart Bloggers, Social Media, Strategy

Over the last couple of days there has been a rash of conversation, discussion and analysis around the concept of "influence" — driven by the publication of Duncan Watts and Peter Dodds article on Influentials, Networks, and Public Opinion Formation. David Reich points out that the Fast Company article, Is the Tipping Point Toast, offers a little more context on Duncan Watts and his area of research; and this great post by Noah Brier drills down into the concepts even further.

Basically, Watts and Dodds are challenging the notion that influentials ("a minority of individuals who influence an exceptional number of their peers") are important to the formation of public opinion. This flies in the face of accepted marketing theory and the popularity of The Tipping Point. It also challenges the notion that marketers have of influence — and the way in which this notion of influence makes our lives easier. After all, it helps us target our messaging, our communication and our schmoozing efforts. This is why we dream of influence — it is aspirational. As marketers we like to feel that we have a finger on the pulse of society … but what happens when that pulse flatlines — or simply proves to be a phantom?

Late last year I wrote about the strength of weak ties. This fascinates me. The findings of Mark Granovetter’s research into social networks demonstrated that it is the WEAK ties that lead to action. If this is the case, then influence may only play an important role in the very early stages of branding efforts — to facilitate AWARENESS. But as consumers begin to engage with the brand messaging and various forms of communication, it appears that the power of the social network lies not in the level of influence of any select group but in the susceptibility of the audience to contagion.

Why is this relevant? Because on some level, our role as marketers, strategists or activists is not simply to raise awareness. Our job is to change the way that people think, or act — we want to prompt a change in perception or in behaviour. As marketers then, perhaps our best efforts — and probably our strongest DIGITAL STRATEGY lies in activating the weak links and leaving influence to the mass/traditional media (or to those bloggers who have mass audiences).

It is the democracy of action that drives much of my interest in social media … take a look at what is hot on YouTube or on Technorati. Think about BSP and the way in which a number of people "suddenly" begin writing on a similar topic. It is not the "influentials" who are going to instigate a new trend … they are merely documenting its early rise out of a network of weak links. So while my heart tells me that influencers are important, my head is telling me to go for the gold — and that seems to be quite a turnaround. Now … if only I could model it!

Brands — Are Bloggers in Your Sights?

Blogging, Branding, Corporate Social Responsibility, Digital Strategy, Old Media, Smart Bloggers, Social Media

From the outside, the "blogosphere" is a weird, anarchic and slightly self-obsessed world. With over 70 million blogs and countless thousands starting up each day, it is little wonder that most brand managers, marketing directors and CEOs have no idea where to start.

But have you thought about it? Who are these people who write blogs? And how would you respond if a "blogger" contacted you? Do you have a strategy? A policy? Any idea?

Here is how one leading brand responded to an inquiry about their latest ad campaign:

“Unfortunately we are unable to respond to your inquiry because [we do not] … participate with nontraditional media outlets. This practice is in place to allow us to focus on publications that reach our core guest".

Can you guess which brand this is? Have you heard about it already?

To my surprise, this was the response that was sent by Target to Amy Jussel, Executive Director of Shaping Youth. Amy had written to Target protesting about the depiction on their latest billboard — they are, after all, a family brand and one which should have an affinity with organisations such as Shaping Youth. Indeed, Target’s "values" include the following statement:

From national partnerships to local initiatives to our own programs, Target is committed to making our communities better places to live.

This story has now been picked up by the New York Times … and has spread like wildfire. And while the focus of discussion by NYT has been around whether brands should treat bloggers the same as traditional media outlets, there are other things to consider. Amy is not your average blogger — she runs a professional and high profile not-for-profit organisation. She is a parent and she is a regular patron of Target. Before this episode, there was clear a affinity between Amy, Shaping Youth and the Target brand. But the actions (or non-actions) of one of Target’s employees (or PR team) has had an amplified reaction. What could have been done better. Let’s take a look:

Keep it real: Clearly Target has a digital/social media strategy of some sort. They have done some high profile work with Facebook and have amassed over 20,000 members to their group — so clearly the response was not completely honest.
Quick research: In the time it takes to send a form response to an inquiry, you can easily do a search on the domain, the blog or the profile of the person writing in. In Amy’s case, Shaping Youth clearly appears at the top of a Google search with the following description — "Shaping Youth is a consortium of media and marketing professionals concerned about harmful media messages to children". A moment’s research can help guide your response.
Blog it for free: Time and time again, companies ask whether they should blog or not. Clearly a consumer brand could actively use a blog to engage, converse and discuss a range of topics. A blog would have provided a space for this discussion and would have allowed them to enter this conversation in a more natural and harmonious way.

For brands, the question might be "are bloggers in your sights"? The reverse is certainly true — brands are in the sights of bloggers. And while one blogger acting alone may have limited impact, en-masse, it is a very different ball game. Perhaps Target could benefit from the social media insight and skills of Mack Collier, Drew McLellan or Christina Kerley.

What do you think? Is TargetGate a parallel to Dell Hell?

Winning and Influencing in Social Media

Social Media

‘how to win friends and influence people’
Originally uploaded by bubbo-tubbo

Over the past few months Valeria Maltoni, the Conversation Agent, has been on fire. She has written scores of long form, well thought-out and clearly articulated blog posts that offer genuine analysis and raise challenging questions. Just start here and work your way through the last few weeks to see what I mean.

But this post, on the measurement of influence, in particular, got me thinking … and judging by the number of comments, it seemed to do the same for many others. Valeria weaves together commentary on this Edelman whitepaper via Steve Rubel (which looks at quantifying the impact of social media) and the results of a study that she participated in. It is quite an involved analysis and well worth a read. What seems to be bourne out of the Valeria’s analysis is that "influencers" have a smaller impact on a social network than we might have first thought. This seems to me, to ring true. After all, the very nature of "influence" depends on a level of relationship … and the very fact that a relationship exists within a network will have a bearing on the manner in which the network functions.

On top of this, I was reminded of this post that I wrote a while ago on the strength of weak ties. In fact, Herb Sawyer mentioned the same concept in the comments. This basically bears out the same conclusion, but from a different perspective. It shows that the likelihood of someone taking ACTION (ie becoming a participant in a brand interaction is higher when there is a relatively weak link in the network of connections. This analysis would, in part, explain the huge valuation of Facebook … where many people are connected not through strong communities but loose and tenuous opt-in groupings.

Measurement will continue to be a hot topic until someone is able to crack the nut of influence. Until that time, we will have to rely upon the blunt instruments at our disposal.