Several keynotes and presentations at least week’s SNCR NewComm Forum, including more than four case study presenters, highlighted the importance of listening as a fundamental pre-cursor to social media success. Of course, listening makes sense because it allows you to understand your business community’s preferences and needs (image by sel). In many ways, this represents market research.

Many businesses are not used to listening. In a mass communications world, they’ve done most of the talking.

Yet new media presents a different set of rules. In social worlds, two-way communication is inherent allowing stakeholders to have equal footing with businesses and organizations. Failure to listen creates situations where stakeholders either act with anger, or simply turn deaf ears on the company.

Listening is not hard. It simply requires a biological sense of proportions: We all have two ears and one mouth. Something to consider.

Shel Israel took time at SNCR to discuss this important aspect of social media, including Dell’s example. Here is what he had to say:

Photo in movie was taken by Chris Heuer at SxSW

It is tempting to slip into the social media world and become googly-eyed. You know, the rush of excitement to see your name as author of content or your company being discussed online or receiving your first blog comments. In the midst of stressing over a social media event, my friend so wisely reminded me, "It’s not about you." So true. It is about your community. All aspects of your community dictate the ebb and flow of the social media strategy, conversation and technology platform. Keeping an eye on the bigger picture will affirm your relevance in the future.

Last month, I ranted about how Social Media is not a commodity — not an easy bundle of off-the-shelf “solutions.”

Well, our friend David Armano over at Logic+Emotion has the same idea, and provides us with this picture that replaces my thousand words. Enjoy:

Last week I had the great pleasure of serving as a guest lecturer for two University of Maryland Communications classes. The students all brought questions, which we did not get a chance to answer. But in the spirit of continuing the conversation, here are some answers. I did not answer all of them, but may do a second round next week.

Q: How do you know if a blog is credible?

A: All things are subjective, but my preferred way is to delve into the links-to a blog, and see who is linking back and how. A blog that inspires a lot of negative conversations probably should not be considered credible. Another way is to use a formulaic tool like the Ad Age Power 150 or AideRSS to measure a blog’s standing.

A word of caution: Just because a blog does not get links-to does not mean the content lacks weight. The author may not blog often, or does not actively promote or cross-link.

Q: What is the most useful new media tool and what should we know about it?

A: FriendFeed has the hot hand right now. FriendFeed captures a latent demand for providing multiple pieces of content in one place, similar to a reader, but capturing headlines rather than full articles.It really allows individuals and small businesses to aggregate their content in a social way. Consider that integrated into Facebook it provides a viral way to show a diverse contact base several initiatives.

Further, it allows content creators to better serve their constituents in one place. For example, a guy like me blogs here to support a book, my company blog, and my personal blog as well as bookmarks, photos and videos. You can follow me on FriendFeed here.

Keep in mind that bigger businesses are doing this with portals, such as GM’s Next, Cisco’s page or Dell. But none of these entities benefit from the viral commenting and spread that FriendFeed offers.

Q: How do you choose what to blog? Do you accept pitches?

A: I use an editorial mission for my two business blogs. Now Is Gone and The Buzz Bin are meant to serve specific stakeholders, buyers of my book or the communications industry, respectively (including clients, employees, and partners and potential members of any of these stakeholder groups). Creative whim dictates content on my personal Off Hours blog.

I do accept pitches for the Buzz Bin, but very rarely. Usually, the pitches are way off and deal with a company’s specific marketing intent. If I do accept a pitch, I usually make the pitcher by-line the post.

Q: Do you recommend starting your own public relations company after accumulating enough experience? Was it difficult to get started?

A: If you are an entrepreneur, yes. But this is not for the faint of heart. Think five times before doing this. If you are not sure, Escape from Cubicle Nation would be a good resource to peruse.

You have to know how to sell. No matter how smart you are, no business succeeds without sales. You have to be ready for the long haul. You have to be ready for major trials, and be OK with the possibility of failing. I am celebrating my company’s second birthday this week, and looking back it has been absolutely grueling. Hobbies go out the window, relationships dissolve, and marriage can be strained.

If I knew then… I may not have started an agency, instead just focused on being an uber-consultant. Or, I may not have started at all. Now that I am two years in and have a team of five full-time (once we get our next person on…) + consultants, the rewards are starting to appear. I love watching people grow, the new challenges expansion is bringing, and of course, living with almost complete freedom.

Q: How do you make a corporate blog seem authentic without completely giving up control?

A: You can’t. Control is an illusion. For the most part, companies never really had it anyway.

Q: How do you balance the strict guidelines of the AP Stylebook and the informal culture of a blog?

A: Hah! Throw out the AP stylebook, of course! Great writers write to the medium. So a press release or corporate backgrounder is much different than a blog, and should be written in a completely different fashion. Corporate blogging and social media in general are conversational, demanding personality. AP Style takes that edge off. Institutions that enforce AP style on a blog better have fantastic content if they want to engage people.

That being said, editing a post a couple of times for basic grammar and spelling is usually appreciated by readers. Check out Copyblogger, too.

Q: I currently intern for the Washington Capitals and our public relations department openly welcomes bloggers to sit in the press box during the game. What are your feelings? Do you think what bloggers have to say is equally important as what a local newspaper writes?

A: The Washington Post seems to think so. So do I. Why? Because there’s a symbiotic relationship between reporters and bloggers, with many newspapers using blogs — or more importantly story trends across blogs — as a means of story research. To ignore bloggers or prevent them from executing stories like Mark Cuban wants to is foolish. It’s kind of like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Ted Leonsis, owner of the Washington Capitals, is a long-time Internet veteran. He gets it, and is actively trying to get AOL into this next generation of Internet technologies. It doesn’t surprise me that he allows bloggers. Heck, he even accepted my friendship request on Facebook.

Q: What disadvantages do you think our generation has or will struggle with once we get into the work force?

A: Ahh, millenials Most of my workforce is in your generation. Generally speaking, your generation is accustomed to immediacy, co-creating and crowd-sourcing. That means you expect to be a part of the larger picture, you want things now. You are disappointed when you are not included in all aspects of what your curiosity dictates should be an open conversation. This can lead to a sense of entitlement. I think the current economic environment may rectify this.

"Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip." Will Rogers

The words authenticity and transparency are not just buzz words, but key traits of any successful social media strategy. It is important to stress that nothing is off the record. What occurs externally of the Internet will become part of the Internet chatter and vice versa. You nor your company can lead a double life. It is important to take off the masks. A company cannot simply present a stage character via Internet and expect perceptions to change overnight. Each and every action is being documented. In this age, people are using mobile video and text to record and distribute content at an alarming speed. You and your company must truly live your promises in all your actions. Your "parrot" is your associates/customers and the world’s social networks is the audience.

(In an effort to provide a place for the Social Media Curious to dip their first toe, Ike continues a series of articles aimed at those who are looking for very basic context.)

You’re Listening. NOW What?

At the most basic level, your participation in Social Media needs to include monitoring and listening. If you don’t know what’s being said about you, you’ll never have a chance to correct misperceptions or outright lies. Being functionally deaf makes you blind in targeting future efforts.

For those organizations that fail to even listen, the top hesitation is the fear of finding “bad news,” and not knowing how to deal with it. Given the flood of information that you might find about yourself, it’s easier to play the ostrich and pretend it doesn’t exist. While that might make you sleep a little easier, your shareholders and stakeholders might see things differently. So how exactly do you prioritize these potential “reputation threats” as they circulate?

Let’s say, for the sake of argument, you use monitoring tools to find a knock against your company in a blog or public forum. Aside from simple traffic statistics and site popularity, here are a few measures of “viral-ness” you can use to determine which ones are capable of becoming a big problem down the road.

Viral Triggers, A through G

1. Authority/assertion
   The message must give you the feeling that you now know something important that will truly affect future decisions.
2. Brevity
   No one wants to read a manifesto, Dr. Kaczynski. If the negative message is too long, the average reader won’t want to be the one to foist it upon his whole network.
3. Clarity
   A well-crafted message, to go viral, must be unambiguous. There can be no question about where the author stands.
4. Detail
   The position must be rooted in incontrovertible fact. A random message that “Dell sucks” doesn’t carry the weight of “Having used your product for 9 years…”.
5. Emotion
   How well-written is the message? Does it make you feel as though you could be just as passionate for simply passing it along?
6. Focus
   The message must be about one thing, and one thing only. If it makes a reader mentally wander he’ll be less likely to feel compelled to pass it along.
7. Gossip
   One reason people like to pass on juicy little tidbits is the rush of knowing that you knew something before (almost) any of your friends did. This places you in a position of esteem and authority within your circle.

A quick glance can usually knock a couple of these factors out for a particular instance, and you can move on. If you see a message that hits six out of seven flags, you may want to do an internet search for an unusual string within the message, to see if this is already moving and where.

If you see one that hits all seven warning triggers, you probably need to put it in the hands of whomever would handle your reactive messaging. A direct response might be in order, unless it comes off looking like an attack. But you need to be prepared for the likelihood that many people will see this attack on your brand and reputation.

As with all things in Social Media, your mileage will always vary. This tool is not scientific — but will empower you to concentrate your time on the messages that matter. It beats getting caught in the paralysis of analysis, or wasting resources on issues that will never materialize as real reputational threats.

(Ike Pigott regularly writes at Occam’s RazR)

Does your company have core values? A mission statement?If so it likely has a corporate ethos, a statement of ethics and integrity that the company believes in. Hopefully, the statement isn’t  propaganda, instead reflecting the living culture of the entity. If it’s real, your company may already have an advantage.Companies struggle with personality and tone when going out to communicate in social worlds. At the heart of the issue is getting away from propaganda and spin, and embracing the necessary authenticity of social communications. But you don’t have to look far. Consider Nuts About Southwest (recent flack on flight groundings aside). One of the things during our interview for Now Is Gone that became apparent was the blog’s tone exuded the corporate culture.  Not only the fun, but the way the company reacted to comments and other issues.When a company or social media effort exudes an ethos it attracts that same type of person back. In theory, cultures are developed around customer bases or a defining principle that caused the birth of the entity. So by communicating that clearly, a company attracts the type of potential customers and followers it wants. This can swing both ways, too (image by soldiersmediacenter).Consider the recent popularity of 1938 Media’s videos at Shel Israel’s expense (note: Shel is a friend).  This hard hitting “humor” has in many people’s minds crossed the line into personal attacks. At the same time, 1938’s generating business from this. But what kind of business is it?  If it is dollars you want, dollars you get.  But perhaps a deeper evaluation of the larger brand impact is needed. Gossip attracts gossipers… What does attack-style mockery do? Is this really a long-term play for Loren Feldman?It’s important to note that in both of these cases the actual actions determined the entity’s ethos. You can’t just say you have a certain set of values. Actions in social media unintentionally reveal ethos and values.Social media is really no different than real life. It’s just a different scene with a new ambience. But corporate actions demonstrate true values. So when you consider what you want to do in social media, think about who you are first.

Last night, my speech communications students watched the 2006 TED presentation by Sir Ken Robinson, Do Schools Kill Creativity? Robinson’s thesis is kids will take a chance. They are not afraid of being wrong. We educate the creativity out of our young generation; educating from the waist up to their heads and slightly on one side. This suppressive behavior is similar to how many companies treat employees. Their bodies are nothing but transport for their heads from meeting to meeting. Many of us have been educated out of our creative capacities.

For any social media strategy to be be successful, you must find the spark to ignite successful social media strategies. This spark comes from passionate people. Their creativity and openness is not hampered by fear of risk. Too often in the planning stages of a social media strategy, the passion is not considered a priority nor creativity of content necessary. The social media strategy emulates a cut and dry business plan devoid of life. It is important companies establish the rules of the sandbox before executing social media strategies, but we need to embrace diverse, interactive and distinct creativity to flourish in our objectives.

Robinson likens the creative void to the stripping of our minds like the stripping of earth’s precious resources. "If you are not prepared to be wrong, you will never comet up with something original." Are you prepared to be wrong?

“Video is the wave of the future for business! We’ve got to get some viral videos up and running! Customers love video!”

Simmer down. Now that it’s out of your system, lets look at what it takes to incorporate video into your overall communications strategy.

I worked in television for 16 years — a dozen of that on-air as a reporter. Being a “teevee reporter” isn’t rocket science, but it’s not as easy as you might think. However, there are a number of influences out there that might make you think the leap to video is a piece of cake:

• The equipment is cheaper
• The distribution channels are cheaper than free
• The editing can be done on a home PC
• The quality bar has been lowered by streaming video standards

All of that points to a no-brainer, but video can easily blow up in your face if you don’t know what you’re doing. And believe me, you don’t have to know anything about the subject matter to know when someone is making horrible television.

“American kids know television the way French kids know wine.”

- Lorne Michaels, Producer

Any idiot can grab a camera and shoot some video, even attempt to narrate it. The real skill is the weaving of those words and pictures in ways that simultaneously reinforce each other and amplify the communication. You can pack a lot of impact in a little piece of video if you know what you’re doing. It’s a language — one you have to study for a long time before you understand the nuances. Or, you can hire someone to tell your story for you.

Before you get to that point, and succumb to the You-Need-Videos Siren, please run down the following checklist:

1. Do you know precisely what you want to communicate with a video? (If you’re lucky, the viewer leaves remembering one thing. Just one. Try to say too many things and you say nothing at all.)
2. How are you going to use the video? (If you’re only going to the web, a lower-budget format might be acceptable. If you have designs on using it for something else, the quality will bite you.)
3. Who is doing your editing? (Great video and great content can be rendered useless in the hands of a ham-fisted editor.)
4. Is the tone of the video right for your intended message?
5. Will anyone care? (If you don’t know why anyone will care, then you don’t have a message worth delivering.)
6. How does this fit in the overall communications plan? (Will the video enhance other efforts already underway? Or will it overshadow/undermine?)
7. Do you have a sufficient budget to hire the right people, or get the right training?

If there are any red flags, then just say no. Bad video can kill off any good momentum in your other online pursuits.

(Ike Pigott is an Emmy Award-winning writer, who regularly posts at Occam’s RazR)

Rohit Bhargava’s excellent book, “*Personality Not Included,” was just released. At Blogger Social this week, Rohit took some time to do a video interview with me on his new book (photo by the amazing Jason Falls). It has several key themes that are of interest to Now Is Gone readers:

• Personality infused in marketing
• Social media integrated as part of a larger marketing mix
• Challenges businesses face with personality

Here’s what Rohit had to say about it.