The subtitle for Now Is Gone is “A Primer on New Media for Executives and Entrepreneurs” and I think that very accurately sums up this book’s focus and target audience. In short, anyone who wants to leverage new media in their business is going to find value in this book. It’s a nice, short read and yet the authors manage to cover all the critical components of new media.
In addition, local blogger and friend Shashi Bellamkonda got a new job. Now he will be engaged in social media full-time at Network Solutions. Way to go, Shashi! In his announcement, he mentioned how Now Is Gone impacted his movement towards social media:
… “Now is Gone,” which did exactly what the cover says, it’s a “primer for Social Media.” I’ve met with him several times and he was a great guy to bounce ideas off. His book was a great resource and I remember his words, “First determine if your community is Social media Savvy and engage in the media they use” (I may be paraphrasing).
A great way to end the year. Best wishes to everyone, and have a merry and safe New Year!
Global neighborhoods continue to evolve. Social media grows in every country, but in unique ways as each culture and political system allows. A trip trip to Egypt revealed a vibrant and unique social media scene dominated by Facebook.
Internet access in developing countries like Egypt usually occurs on mobile phones, the primary access point for most users. Simple text-based platforms like m.facebook.com make social media easy and natural. New mobile phones sold today in Egypt offer the social network as a menu option, a great means of driving data traffic for local carriers.
Some of the friends I made in Egypt thought millions of local citizens were on the network. Indeed, within the Egypt network there are more than 300,000 members alone (Total population is close to 80 million people). And not everyone joins they’re local geographic network. There are country and culture specific applications, like Quran Verses.
Other forms of social media like blogging are gaining popularity in Egypt, too. Arabic blogs take precedence, but there are some English blogs as well.
Unfortunately, the Egyptian government, led by President Mubarek, monitors posts. Sources said that bloggers who criticize the government have been visited in the middle of the night, and sometimes disappear. This continues the Mubarek regime’s censure policy. So Egyptian blogging has its dangers, too.
My new friends also indicated that almost all age groups are enjoying Facebook. But my visits to three Internet cafes revealed a primary user audience in its 20s and 30s. One cafe seemed to be filled with hard core gamers and video users. Pretty cool.
We’re taking a social media break this week. In the interim, enjoy the most read posts on Now Is Gone. And also a parting gift: a very memorable performance of Rawhide. Have a great holiday, folks!
But what does PR need to be in terms of an interconnected world?
Livingston says, “Public relations needs to become a mechanism for organizations to build goodwill between themselves and their communities. Unfortunately, this means that it must realize its roots because this is the classic textbook definition of PR.
“PR has moved from community relationships to spinning truth, dictating messages, yielding media and blogger impressions, and trying to command brand perception. This inherently mass communications approach does not work in a two-way conversational media form. Audiences, viewers and readers talk back now. And they call out companies, governments and other organizations on their perceived propaganda and stretched truths.”
And lo is the company who aims to just spit out marketing drivel, or inauthentic messaging. According to Livingston, social media communities — that is, people — want more than just bunk; they want truth, transparency and authenticity in their conversations.
“In a digital era when identity can be compromised so easily, it’s even more important to focus on building honest conversations to foster relationships. Trust is hard to come by and easily lost in social media communities.”
Len Edgerly chronicled a good bit of our conversation at Social Media Breakfast IV on his Video Pod Chronicles blog. Check out his post, “Death of the Audience.”
Several folks have asked me which books I would suggest reading in addition to Now Is Gone (Shameless promo moment: Have you bought your copy yet?) to quickly grasp of the new social media environment. There is an appendix in the back of the book listing more than 20 books, but here are the five books (all books are hyperlinked) I recommend to quickly understand the new two-way conversational media. Two of the books are not in the original appendix.
The first book is the quintessential book on collaboration using social media technologies. Wikinomics gets into the economic underpinnings of enterprise activities using social media. This book demonstrates the power of web 2.0 and how it’s defeated traditional web 1.0 properties to become the predominant form of online media. More importantly it builds a case for business sense.
Robert Scoble and Shel Israel’s quintessential classic Naked Conversations really makes the case for corporate blogging. A few years later it still makes a great case for engaging with your community. Just consider the larger social media mix in addition to blogging. I highly recommend this book as it is full of great examples, ranging from Microsoft’s Channel 9 to the Horsefeathers restaurant blog.
Risk Issues and Crisis Management from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations has nothing to do with social media. Yet it has everything to do with communicating when your organization is under fire. Companies can find great insights on how to speak directly to stakeholders through social media with this book. It recommends prompt, timely communication, how to offer factual authentic information and demonstrate transparency into critiqued affairs, and just downright common sense. It’s too bad more companies don’t use these principles in their everyday communications.
Odd Bedfellows
You can’t market in social media environments without reading the Cluetrain Manifesto. It’s the dream of the new conversation, the heart and soul of every blogger and socially engaged individual. It understands the spirit of new media environments, and makes some pointed comments about marketing to people instead of the masses. Yet at the same time, Cluetrain is flawed in that it represents an ideal, a beautiful one, but one that may not be obtained. Of particular relevance to marketers are the passages by Christopher Locke and Doc Searls.
This next one pained me. I really didn’t want to recommend it as Keen’s reactionary prose often reads like neo-conservative rants from Pat Buchanan. At times his hypocritical depiction of web 2.0 users as monkeys reminded me of Joseph Goebbels.
Yet this book does finally cede that web 2.0 will not go away, and that a balance will need to be struck with traditional media. That’s why I recommended Keen’s book. Because old media is not going to go away, and eventually the social media trend will level off, creating a need to integrate outreach across both forms. Somewhere between Cluetrain and Keen lies the end result. Readers who find Keen’s kvetching to be tiresome should just skip to the final chapter on solutions. I wish I had.
Also, I realize that some folks see my views of social media to be utopian, and may view recommending Cult as a big departure. Not so. See past my past posts on the topic:
New Media Here to Stay details a balance between new and old, “The major brands still and will have authority, but at the same time, they are challenged to become more relevant.”
Everyone’s talking about monetizing Facebook and social media. Yet it’s already being done. From Viget Labs: Squidoo 300,000 pages of user-generated content, with 1,000 more being added every day. In last week’s SquidUpdate, Seth noted that Squidoo gets nearly 6 million unique visitors per month, and roughly 12 million unique visits. Raising money for charity was one of original goals of the site, and they’ve done that to the tune of more than $100,000.
“And here’s a neat tidbit: We’re profitable. We haven’t raised any VC money, and now we shouldn’t ever have to.”
From fellow Communications, Culture and Technology alum Rafael Lemaitrecomes this case study from White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy (yes, the government). Rafael says their public education blog has received an average over 300,000 hits and over 100,000 page views per month. As a result, the government is rapidly expanding its social media efforts including this foray into YouTube.
Both case studies will be added to the case studies tab. As will B.L.’s list of case studies (yes, I am overdue on these).
MEMO: to all corporate executives and entrepreneurs who are trying to learn about all this Social Media stuff, and are confused by the divisive sniping.
RE: Calling off the Conversation
While we’re at it, let’s call off the use of every other analogy that results in misinterpretation. For now, ignore everything you’ve read about “conversation,” “audience,” “community,” “stakeholders,” “message,” and “control.” Time to get back to basics, and let’s start by defining terms.
Universe - all potential receivers of a message
Audience - subset of Universe with all potential receivers tuned to a particular channel
Community - subset of Universe of potential receivers who interact with each other based on interest
Stakeholders - subset of Universe who have a reason to care about the content of your message, whether they do or not
Message - the one thing you want stakeholders and future stakeholders to know or remember
Conversation - a transaction of information where parties participate as both senders and receivers
Some may quibble with the above definitions, but that’s how we’ll use them for the context of this memo.
THE OLD FORMULA SHOWS ITS AGE
If you’re a corporation that’s been around for any length of time, then you had certain strategies for reaching your stakeholders. Maximum range for minimum cost. You had a few outlets that would blanket the Universe, but had to go through gatekeepers to target an Audience (beg the journalists, or pay off the advertising venues.)
In a sense, the word “audience” tends to mislead some who only think in terms of the performer on stage doing all the talking, with the “audience” paying rapt attention with their silent butts in the seats. Truth is, Audience members can be part of Communities, Stakeholders, and take part in Conversations (even during the performance, like the Groundlings at the Globe).
Even the so-called silent majority in the Audience provides feedback: they applaud, they respond, they buy season tickets, they tell friends or write reviews.
One thing that does hold in the analogy is that you don’t get very far listening to an audience - they’re just the group tuned to the channel or in the room. You want to engage stakeholders, and if you’ve chosen your venue well, you’ll have more of them than not in the Audience.
Communities have existed and always will exist outside of your need to provide Messages. Communities can be a great guide for finding Stakeholders, and provide a rich environment for engagement. Provided, of course, you are not there to exploit.
CALLING OFF THE CONVERSATION
The great thing about identifying the right Communities of Stakeholders is you’re now in the best possible place to deliver a message. And you’re in a great place to listen. Get feedback. Improve.
Just don’t get hung up on the Conversation. Because it’s out of your control. You can’t *make* anyone else listen. It’s the wrong paradigm, if that’s all that is being preached.
If your Stakeholders are so scattered throughout the Universe, the you might be happy using traditional channels to reach them. For you, the “conversation” can be in the select focus groups and research you’ve always used.
Just be aware that your competitors just might be gleaning some key advantages:
Embedding in a Community of Stakeholders (the cyan and white areas on the graph) is like real-time focus groups on the cheap
Conversations have always happened independent of you. You can eavesdrop on what others are saying about you.
Unlike conversations, “Conversations” ARE NOW EXTENDED. They don’t exist in a tiny slice of space-time. They grow, can be revisited, and can sit in the search-engine archives forever.
You can now identify the key influencers. One substantial gripe about your product might earn four comments in a blogpost or forum. Three weeks later, it’s found by someone who shines a light on that gripe, and it’s amplified. If you know who the new influencers are, you can at least attempt to change the color of that spotlight.
People dig authenticity. The vast majority of potential Conversations will never happen, because Stakeholders may see that others have already expressed what they wanted to say. The measure of Conversation isn’t the number of people who “talk back”, but the number of people who now know you are listening.
THE FINAL WORD
There are some who discount the notion of Conversation, noting the real business of corporate communications is to have the Final Word. They are absolutely right.
But in real life, you don’t get the Final Word unless it is granted to you by the other party in the conversation.
So, I’m officially calling off the “conversation” as the be-all end-all unit of exchange. You don’t need to have a “conversation” to succeed in business. You do need to earn the credibility required to be granted the Final Word regarding your product, performance, or service. Because people are talking, whether you’re listening or not.
Once again, my completely shameless monthly exercise in subjective measures of greatness…the Most Influential Blogger post. Winners get complimentary Blogs of Fire T-Shirts. This time, because it’s December we get to crown my personal, most influential blogger for 2007.
But first, December’s most influential bloggers. This list changes quite a bit from month-to-month, and ranking by cumulative score allows for a better picture of my most influential bloggers. Interesting to note that no PR bloggers made this month’s ranking. An unintentional, but interesting oversight. Year-to-date rankings — and the blogger of the year — are below.
December’s Top Five are…..
1)Chris Brogan’s 100 posts on social media marketing (or not) have been outstanding thus far. Further, they demonstrate Chris’s continued commitment to serving his community. Anyone interested in social media can stand to learn a ton from Chris.
4)Toby Bloomberg has done a pretty nice job of late, and as always serves as a great blogger role model. It’s always good to have someone experienced, savvy and brilliant in your network. And to admire great blogging, too!
For the Blogger of the Year ranking: Five points for first place down to one for fifth place, and cumulating the score. Our cumulative weighted 2007 ranking makes VALERIA MALTONI my most influential blogger of the year (image credit: CC Chapman)!
Way to go, Valeria!!! Thanks for the great posts. What does this mean? Nothing, other than I highly, highly recommend Valeria’s blog, and next time we do a blogger meet-up, I’m buying!
On Monday morning (weather permitting) I will lead a discussion at the Social Media Breakfast in Boston on audiences, stakeholders or community members. Thank you, Bryan Person and the Horn Group, for having me as your guest.
One of the suggestions in Now Is Gone is to consider approaching social media tool-sets with a community mindsetinstead of an audience mindset (see Audiences versus Communities podcast). Audiences assumes a mass communication tool where people are primarily receiving a one-way broadcasted outreach. Communities assume interaction is always a possibility, that two way communication can occur in a variety of ways at any time, and that there’s a deeper relationship between parties.
Applying Marshall McLuhan’s theories (you know, the medium is the message), audience approaches are for cold media forms, while community outreach is for hot media forms that are now two-way in nature. The community-based outreach intends to engage people in conversation rather than talking at them.
This is a dramatic shift for marketing minds, and quite frankly because it’s a new approach and attitude towards outreach, many struggle to make the leap. So it’ll be an interesting chat given the many experienced social media minds in attendance.
I’d like to add stakeholders to the discussion, because I feel this contemporary marketing term can also be applied to social media. Stakeholders assumes that the parties you are reaching out towards have a vested interest in the organization, and its outcome. In my mind, stakeholders equates to multiple audiences with different needs, and empowers those audiences to act or express dissatisfaction. I’ve included Webster’s New World College Dictionary definitions for all three terms below as an addendum.
Picture This
To prep us, here are some thoughts. Do you see your social media consumers as an audience (image credit MSC)?
And why do you see social media consumers in one group over another?
Addendum: Definitions
Audience: A group of persons assembled to hear or see a speaker, play, concert, etc.
Stakeholder: A person or group that has an investment, share, or interest in something, as a business or industry (from Dictionary.com. The only definition in Websters was, “one who holds money bet by others and pays it out to the winner”).
Community: A group of people living together as a smaller social unit within a larger one, and having interests, work, etc. in common.
Once again, my completely shameless monthly exercise in subjective measures of greatness…the Most Influential Blogger post. Winners get complimentary 
