Brian Solis and I will appear today on Mike McGrath’s BlogTalkRadio show at 2 Eastern, 11 Pacific. We’ll be discussing some parts of the book, namely whether or not social media is right for a corporate culture, as well as the seven principles of community building.

Interested parties who want to talk with Brian and I should call in after the show starts at (646) 478-5503. The show will remain on the BlogTalkRadio site as a podcast.

Last week I had the great opportunity to go back to Georgetown University. I am an alumnus of the Communications, Culture and Technology Masters Program (photo credit: Dick Leonhardt in 1963!)

This program is at the crux of communications’ new order. Conceived in 1996, the program recognizes that communications has become multidisciplinary. It involves cultural norms and behavioral patterns, communications media forms, and technology’s certain impact on the way we interact in our communities. Social media certainly fits in!

Students have the ability to choose their own path within a wide variety of CCT and other department courses to forge an understanding this dynamic movement. It was fascinating talking to the students, who are getting into some really bleeding edge studies of Facebook identity, social media network usage, and more. CCT students are the future of communications, and many alumni have moved on to very successful careers.

It brought back fond memories, too. I got to catch up with CCT Program Director Linda Garcia, who has guided the program from its rocky sophomoric efforts to an established powerhouse in the Greater Washington region. Back in 2000, my thesis focused on mobile Internet’s potential to surpass landline usage and built a diffusion model.

GNOVIS Podcast

While there I had the opportunity to do a podcast with GNOVIS Managing Editor Brad Weikel. GNOVIS is the official student journal of CCT, so check it out. Lots of fascinating insights. In the podcast we discussed:

• How the book happened, including it’s name
• Brian Solis, and the nature of PR 2.0
• The goal of moving executives from one-way to two communications
• jetBlue versus Southwest social media
• New media is old fashioned relationships
• PR’s slow adoption of social media
• Bubble: The rise of dot bombs in the current environment
• The culture part of CCT and sociology

Listen or download it here!

Brian Solis and I wrap our first group of podcasts on the seven principles of community engagement uncovered in the book Now Is Gone, number three focuses on Message Control (16 minutes).

In Message Control Brian Solis and I discuss:

• Message control is the antithesis of social media, which enables people to communicate
• The video “The Break-Up” serves as the ideal example of this culture clash

• Companies will lose their customer relationships if they don’t learn how to speak with them
• Marketing departments have a really hard time letting go of message control as an ethos
• Newer cultures have an easier time adopting versus more established companies and marketing departments who “mastermind messages”
• Jennifer McClure’s work with New Communications Review does a great job providing actual data showing the benefits of participating in conversations versus message control
• Doc Searls, “There’s no market for messages” and Phil Gomes extrapolation on no market.

If you prefer to download, visit media.libsyn.com/media/geoliv/control.wav.


Other Now Is Gone seven principles podcasts:

• The first podcast, Audiences versus Communities (12 minutes)
• The second podcast, Participation is Marketing (16 minutes)

We will resume our Now Is Gone podcast series after the Thanksgiving holiday.

Continuing our series of podcasts on the seven principles of community engagement uncovered in the book Now Is Gone (only 8 days until it’s released), number two focuses on Participation is Marketing (16 minutes). This was a pretty strong discussion, and my favorite of our first three podcasts.

In Participation Is Marketing Brian Solis and I discuss:

• Most companies make the mistake of just publishing blog posts or content. Commenting and being out in social networks is an important part of participating.
• This requires a shift from organizational-centric based communications to customer or community-centric communications.
• This does not mean get rid of your marketing department, rather create a new department for social media/community engagement to engage. This integrates with the larger marketing effort.
• Participation approach during diacetyl crisis for popcorn manufacturers (see Conversation Agent Valeria Maltoni’s Restoring the Faith in Popcorn post)
• The nature of traditional marketing naming conventions and tools are not effective. It’s a different person and approach.
• The need for relationship building skills a la Dale Carnegie. It’s the sociology of social media.
• Chris Heuer and his timeless post, “Participation is Marketing“
• Attraction versus Promotion: Participation attracts people, while promotion sells them

If you prefer to download, visit media.libsyn.com/media/geoliv/participation.wav.




Remember, the book will be released on November 12. Pre-ordering is available on Amazon.We will publish our third Now Is Gone podcast next week, and then take a break until after the Thanksgiving holiday. The first podcast focuses on Audiences versus Communities (12 minutes).

Last Saturday morning, Viget Labs CEO Brian Williams, SAIC Chief Security Technology Officer Hart Rossman and I appeared on Business Destiny Radio (WTNT 570 AM). The show was a warm-up for tomorrow’s New, New Internet Conference will be the biggest web 2.0 conference on the Eastern Seaboard this fall. More than 800 attendees are expected.

We discussed Web 2.0, technology change, security issues, marketing impact, and general business adoption. You can listen to the show here. Thanks to Business Destiny Radio’s John Hrastar for having us.

Bact to TNNI: The roster of speakers is impressive.  Yours truly is the lunch keynote for today’s pre-game festivities at the Web 2.0 Accelerator on Wednesday, and part of a red hot marketing panel featuring Rohit Bhargava as moderator and fellow panelists Frank Gruber and Gary Vaynerchuk.  Expect a post-event write-up/vlog entry Friday or Saturday.

Brian Solis and I began a series of podcasts to discuss the seven principles of community engagement uncovered in the book Now Is Gone (only 14 days until it’s released). The first podcast focuses on Audiences versus Communities (approx. 12 minutes in length).

We discuss:

• One-way communications to audiences versus two-way conversational marketing within communities
• The social media release as an example of community marketing
• The need to engage in two-way communications, even when its negative
• Jennifer McClure’s work with New Communications Review, specifically analysis of FedEx’s failure to respond to negative comments
• Jay Rosen’s article highly influential article, “The People Formerly Known as the Audience“

If you prefer to download, visit media.libsyn.com/media/geoliv/audiences.wav. Remember, the book will be released on November 12. Pre-ordering is available on Amazon. We will publish the second Now Is Gone podcast on Participation is Marketing next Monday.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve had the privilege of speaking before many business owners and executives on a local and national basis. Last week was the Consumer Electronics Association’s Industry Forum, where I was joined by Chris Heuer on an esteemed panel (see podcast).

Rather than recapping the same spiel, here are the big takeaways that all businesses interested in social media want to know. This is a result of all five engagements I’ve had in the past three weeks. Without fail businesses want to know these three things:

1. You can achieve ROI on social media marketing campaigns. This range from brand perception changes to hard sales increases. See the case studies tab for examples.
2. Social media marketing requires a significant change in corporate communications. Namely, one-way communications tactics allowed for strategic approaches like controlling the message. Social media is a form of two way communications demand more openness visa vis participation ethos.
3. The good news is that this significant change is not a new thing. It’s a return to Main Street ethics and approaches towards doing business. With an eye towards building relationships, businesses can do well.

Usually after, digesting these three points, most companies are ready to talk about how to get engaged in social media.

On a more campy note, I took some video footage of the hours and moments leading up to the CEA panel. Getting ready for these events can be a kind of a nervous, funny time! Here’s the video short.

Here’s a free podcast of “Now Is Gone” Chapter Six - Think Liquid. This chapter is the conclusion of the book (now you really can skip to the end), and coaches marketers and executives on how to handle the dynamically changing social media world. Read by the author (me), the podcast is approximately nine minutes long.

If you prefer to download, visit media.libsyn.com/media/geoliv/Chapter_Six3.wav. Remember, the book will be released on November 12. Pre-ordering is available on Amazon.

I had the opportunity to be a keynote for the New Media Nouveaux conference on July 13th (Toby Bloomberg was the headliner). At the time, I had just completed the book so it seemed appropriate to chat about it.

I delivered a thumbnail sketch of “Now Is Gone: A New Media Primer for Executives and Entrepreneurs” a few months in advance of the book’s release. This slightly edited speech (26 minutes) provides a sneak preview of Now Is Gone’s general thesis and a rudimentary outline of its content.

P.S. This is a little choppy, as I am still getting used to podcasting. Please excuse any irregularities. If you prefer to download, visit media.libsyn.com/medio/geoliv/NMNkeynote.mp3.