One Flew Over the Cubicle's Nest

Charlene Li & the Groundswell--Ready for A Revolution?

Is social media about to revolutionize the way corporations communicate? Are they finally "getting it"? Should PR, marketing and advertising folks pack it up and start looking for new jobs? Not exactly, but the tidal wave is coming and everyone better get prepared, according to Charlene Li, the Forrester analyst turned book author who spoke last night in Palo Alto. She spoke at the monthly Third Thursday event, sponsored by the Society of New Communication Research and hosted by Voce Communications.

Her book is appropriately named Groundswell, which she describes as a "social trend" that is bubbling up across corporate America, changing the way they communicate with employees, shareholders, the media and everyone else. In a soft sort of  way, she challenged everyone to get on top of this, and like the original American Revolution, she said we need more revolutionaries like Thomas Jefferson to bring this to fruition. 

I don't completely buy into the idea that this is going to happen as fast as proponents like  Ms. Li believe, and despite all the noise, I have a hard time comparing Mark Zuckerberg, the 22 year-old Facebook CEO, or anyone else, to our founding fathers in this deal. I've seen successful case studies, and been involved in a couple myself. But I've also seen many cases where it's not panning out as expected (with corporate blogs for instance), and communications managers are scrambling to salvage it. Much needs to be done to move this movement forward inside our companies. It may be happening but it's in fits and starts.

Still, I do believe this is the right direction and I came away impressed with Li's work in this area and enthusiasm. Any movement needs a few strong evangelists, and she's definately out there. I wanted to buy a book, but by then they'd all be snapped up by the 30 or so audience members (I ordered it on Amazon).

As I'm listening to her, it's clear that she's describing a new way of thinking.

Killing off the Social Media Specialist

Will social media specialists go the way of the blacksmith? Yes, if you believe Steve Rubel, the well known Edeleman blogger. He believes the social media manager will be extinct in a few years. Where will they go? Absorbed into the corporate marketing and PR machines, says Steve.

Steve is one of my favorite bloggers and always seems to be on top of the latest trends.  But this is one I'm hoping he misses.

Steve's argument is that PR professionals at most companies will soon be well equipped to manage social media activities as well as a lone-wolf specialist. These skills aren’t rocket science and can be easily picked up by a savvy inhouse communications manager. Most companies don't have the "luxury" of these specialists when instead they can sweep it up into existing PR or marketing organizations. 

I think this would be a huge mistake.

Social media requires different skills and mindset than PR--in fact, it's the antithesis of PR. Ever hear of a PR manager who really believes in letting go of the messaging or allowing employees free reign to engage in wide-open conversations?  PR is about message control and spin. Don’t try to disguise it as anything else. Public relations and “transparency” are like oil and water.

There’s no reason we can’t continue to have separate positions for social media marketing managers or strategists, and that public relations organizations can't be involved of course. As social media strategist and Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang points out, we already have specialized marketing managers in large corporations sorted by industries, mediums, and channels (ex: web marketing, search marketing, event marketing).

Here's what really bothers me.

Can ANY Online Community Last?

Steve Rubel raises a good question, as to whether online communities can ever "stick" for any length of time. Most don't last for long. He goes down a long laundry list--The Well, Tripod,  GeoCities, Friendster and so on. Remember CompuServe? All had communities at one time. All came and went. Now it's even more competitive and complex, and the stakes are higher. What does this mean for the likes of a FaceBook or MySpace, let alone a smaller fry like Yelp?

He points out that only a handful of sites endure over a dozen years. Those sites all have "moats" that protect them, he says. "These barriers to entry include peer-to-peer commerce (in the case of Edelman client eBay), robust user reviews (Amazon.com) and deep entrenchment in vertical markets (BlackPlanet.com)."

Besides the moats, I'd also say at least in the case of Amazon, they know how to really serve their customer, uh I mean community visitor. Their user review system is the best. The sales process is automated and smooth, and of course, they use all of their intelligence to tailor choices to each   "If you like XYZ book, you might consider ...."

So it may be mixing apples and oranges, but Amazon does have a community of sorts, mixed with a powerful e-commerce machine--and it works. By comparison, so far,  as Facebook tries to overlay a new marketing system on top of its former community site (while sucking in millions of oldsters like me), it's messy at best. Complaints about violation of privacy run rampant.

My guess is that community sites come and go because that is the nature of communities,which are fleeting and fluid, not much different than past times, when neighbors would convene at the local coffee shop to trade gossip (and still do). Some of those last for years, but in other cases they break up after a few weeks or months.   Facebook's  juggling act is to try to keep people connected and coming back, while they try a slew of marketing schemes to milk everything they can out of this model. They are trying to defy gravity, in a sense, and break from the past. They'll probably pull it off, but don't bet the farm on it lasting forever. The ghosts of The Well and all of the others say otherwise.   

Google Health, Facebook and Privacy--Who Needs it?

The spread of social networks is now showing its dark side: the loss of privacy. There was an uproar a while back when Facebook subscribers found out that their online shopping sprees were being automatically reported back into their FB profiles for all their friends to see. You can imagine the surprise when they  open up their FB profiles. "Hey, look what Seth bought at Victoria's Secret this week!" So FB did a quick reverse and added some new controls but the cat was out of the bag. Now everywhere we turn, we see our privacy being invaded.

It happened to me twice the last week, first on Yelp when I wrote a short restaurant review and--presto--it showed up on my FB profile. No one asked, I was never given the chance to opt out or opt in. But there it was, my review of an Italian restaurant (which I skewered). It happened again a few days ago when I rented a couple of new movies on Blockbuster Online. AT least this time, they gave me the chance to opt out (a little box pops up on the screen), but I need to test their system. I'm wondering now, if I don't check the "No", if it automatically uploads to my FB profile. It's not that my negative review of a restaurant or the fact I rented the movie Gone Baby Gone is anything to hide. It's just creepy when you can't protect your privacy.

Of course, we could all just opt out of social networks and go hide, but why should we have to trade off personal privacy to use these powerful tools?  I've thought for months that, with the valuations of FB reaching astronomical levels, this could be just another bubble waiting to burst. A rebellion against the privacy invaders may tip it over the top.

Or not.

People seem willing to make the trade, for now. Howl a little, then go back to Twittering. Meanwhile, the companies are looking at every angle to transform social networks into new marketing channels, tapping your personal information to either spread their brands or drive their sales machines.

Will they kill the golden goose? Probably not, but too much of Big Brother will certainly do some damage--we just don't know how.

Now with Google announcing they'll be putting your health records online with lGoogle Health I'm wondering what I'll be seeing show up next time I go to the doctor: "Mark's knee surgery was a success and he's now home recovering. Give him a "hug" or send him a virtual floral arrangement (for $1).

Web 2.0 Workshop

Attended a pretty good mini-workshop last night, hosted by the Silicon Valley American Marketing Association. Instructor Karen O'Brien of Crimson Consulting took us through a whirlwind 2 hour session on everything from blogs to wikkis to podcasts--the world of Web 2.0. While most of the material was familiar, some good points were made. Among them were some of the classic mistakes of companies:
* Trying to make blogs or videos too slick (see Scoble example below).  Breezy and casual wins out every time.
* Not understanding good interface design (check out the interface design of YouTube for a site that does pull people in).
* Not having clear objectives.
* Not analyzing your audience.
* Not measuring correctly (most fall back on traditional measurement systems like page views).

One tip: start small, making one initiative a success and then expand.

Social Media Club Meeting--Let the Revolution Begin

Exciting meeting/workshop last night put on by the Social Media Club, located at SAP’s campus in Palo Alto. It was an interesting mix of 40 to 50 marketers, PR professionals, web consultants and others I couldn’t categorize. A very rich mix of voices and perspectives.

The conference featured interesting presentations by Robert Scoble (ex Microsoft blogger, now at PodTech) and Lisa Stone, co-founder of BlogHer.org, and finished up with Giovanni Rodriguez’s Q&A with Geoff Kerr, who manages global communications for SAP labs and is launching a new set of social media channels for the German-based company (with major operations and labs based in Palo Alto).

Robert talked about covering a Cisco press conference focused on its new high-end videoconferencing equipment, which included high definition eye popping 60 inch screens. He actually went into the press conference with a handful of other mostly trade journalists, and videotaped the demo-then posted the entire (30 min) video online  Within minutes people were posting comments. As a former journalist I was amazed thinking about how people like Scoble can now cover the news and compete directly with the Big Boys—in some cases, beating them at their own game.

 But I thought the most interesting aspect was the round table discussions, which provided a gold mine of perspectives and examples.