This past Saturday, I came across a great article in the NY Times entitled “A Friends Tweet could be an Ad” by Brad Stone. The article details how Fortune 500 companies are paying tweeters (people who tweet) for advertising. Here’s a quick rundown on how it works…

A prominent Tweeter – sends a tweet out: Hey, last week I went to Starbucks, you need to try their New Via (followed by a link to Via). For more info read the whole story in the Times.

I wasn’t surprised to see this story, I’ve known for a while about marketing firms like Ad.ly that charges companies like NBC and Starbucks for promotional tweets. What really got me thinking about this over the weekend was that fact that this sort of destroys the whole concept of Earned Media – and social media.

When I say concept – I’m referring to the value system that social media represents. Most everyone knows that Twitter bots exist. They (RT) retweet information and market things for companies, but this type of marketing is different because a firm like Ad.ly is finding Advocates to deliver these promotional tweets. In the social media business we define an Advocate as a person that ‘believes in your business, your product or your service. For social media experts – Advocates are easy to find but tough to convert – David Armano does a nice job of defining things.

So why do you need a strategy for Advocates when you can just throw some money at them and change them into Advertisers?

Hmmm

Good question, and it was something I thought about a lot this weekend.

Does it makes sense for companies to buy Advocates within a social media ecosystem? My answer lies on the fence.

Right now – I say NO. I believe over a period of time these Advocates will be discovered by the audience that they are advertising to. People can smell bullshit.

I’m also extremely surprised that these Advocates even agree to do this. If you have built up a following of 2,000+ people on Twitter, why risk your reputation to tweet product, services or a brand? The questions that this type of advertising raises go deeper than just one blog post. I invite many of the top social media experts that I engage with to add their thoughts on this.

Another thought – are the companies that are buying this service doing this because they don’t have a sound social media strategy? Or – is this happening because social media channels like Twitter haven’t provided advertisers with a clear solution for advertising? Look at how the #hashtag and the embed new article were incorporated on Twitter – this was out of necessity for users – is this advertising just another evolution of Twitter?

There’s a lot to think about with this and I look for some feedback.

Interesting read this week- Harvard Business Publishing’s Six Social Media Trends for 2010. You might want to check out the story and reflect on how to these trends may affect you or your business.

 http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/cs/2009/11/six_social_media_trends.html?cm_re=homepage-061609-_-body-middle-tert-_-voices

Here is my take on David Armano’s proposed trends:

1) Social Media begins to look less social- David Armano, the author of the article, describes that social media channels are offering more exclusive ways to use those mediums- such as Twitter lists and the Facebook hide feature. This may just be the evolution that some have been waiting for. One downfall I have heard personally from people I know, and have read a lot about, is how public some of the Social Media channels seem to be—such as how Twitter publishes all your posts for everyone to see- unless of course you opt out of this option- and request only your followers to see your posts- which has been said to defeat the purpose of this specific Social Media channel. My thoughts- features are going to continually be added so that each Social medial channel can keep up with one another. As with evolution, only the strongest (or in this case most popular) will survive… it’ll be interesting what the next couple years bring for Social Media.

2) Corporations look to scale- I am impressed by Best Buy’s use of Social Media for customer support (disclaimer to all- I’m originally from Minnesota, so I might be a little biased). They have turned an up and coming communication channel and turned it into a support system for their brand, for their products. It’s a great idea and use of Social Media. For all PR junkies out there- a great person to follow on Twitter is @KellyGroehler- she is a Senior Manager for Corporate Public Relations for Best Buy and has proven herself to be Social Media saavy- check her out!

3) Social business becomes serious play- the Social Media channels are expanding. Now you can find a channel for almost every interest across the board, but the big guns are still at the top- Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc. Some of these networks offer a competitive environment (who has the most friends, the most posts), whereas others are more layed back. But this is true across the board- be an active participant in the conversation! I am too often guilty of checking my Facebook page to see others posts, but I am not as good as posting myself. I vow to change that, and become a more active consumer of Social Media- to be a part of the conversation

 4) Your company will have a social media policy (and it might actually be enforced)- I think this point is especially interesting. My company is behind the curve in Social Media implementation- we are still figuring out the strategy and ROI of joining the space. But many companies in town, and across the country, have full blown Social Media strategies, and are implementing it successfully (or not so successfully). Now companies are faced with a difficult decision- of enforcing a Social Media policy. This is an important factor for companies to incorporate into their Social Media strategies—because its not just what other people are saying about your brand/product, your employees may be on multiple Social Media channels as individuals, and what these posts can link back to your company. Sharlyn Lauby did a great post about Social Media policy back in April on Mashable: http://mashable.com/2009/04/27/social-media-policy/. By the way- if you want to read some great posts, and learn more about Social Medica in general- Mashable is a great place to start. They can be found on the web at http://mashable.com, on Twitter @mashable, and on Facebook (search for Mashable).

5) Mobile becomes a Social Media lifeline- has your organization banned Social Media channels from your web browsing. I know quite a few that have, and let’s face it, it’s understandable with the amount of time people have been known to spend on Social Media! But Social Media channels are smart, and they are making it easier for people to constantly view and update their status- from their cell phones. I know personally I have a Facebook and Twitter app for my iPhone. Cigarette breaks have now turned into Social Media breaks… at least its healthier!

6) Sharing no longer means e-mail- remember email blasts of the past. Now the latest thing is to post an article, video, etc on your Social Media pages. I am guilty as charged—after I read this very Harvard Business Publication article, I posted it on Twitter (come to think of it, I found the article on Twitter!). Now instead of sending everyone a great article through e-mail, we know that its just as easy and quick to send it through Social Media. And news organizations and the like are catching on- they now are making it excessively easy by putting direct links to the Social Media channels on their sites- so sharing their article is just a click of a button- genius!

So what’s the takeaway? Social Media is here to stay, at least for a little while. If you’re not already jumping on board (although if you’re reading a blog, you are), you should. For your personal use, jump in and test out the water, no harm no foul. Just make sure to join the conversation once in a while, and get used to addictive nature social Media has become. If you are looking to try Social Media for your business, it is important to develop a strategy before you jump in. As with all Marketing or Public Relations activities you do, there is a plan and strategy behind them. Be sure to include this in that plan- plan first, implement second.

That being said- be an active participant!

Cheers,

JN

I had a ton of random thoughts this morning – and yesterday’s post seemed to be along those lines. Wanted to shoot some props out to David Armano about his post on Advocates. I talk about the importance of advocates almost in every meeting I have with clients. Advocates give social media projects the extended reach that they most certainly need. I love it when a term reaches mainstream – and advocates is one of those terms.

There’s still a lot of work that needs to be done in convincing companies about the importance of social media – some companies do “get it” but others view channels like Twitter as just a fad. The best course of action a company can take is to consider a Social Media Scan (basically, an audit of social media trends and objectives in their specific industry) or a Social Media Game Plan Session (where a specific goals is brainstormed for social media relevance). Both of these are valuable starting points and my company as well as other social media firms offer these services.

Below is a one page presentation on us (SPECK Media) and the keys to starting the conversation…

As a dedicated reader of Logic+Emotion, I could not resist placing this perspective of building out experiences in the most general forms.  David Armano, shows at a 10,000 foot view of how someone might consider going about defining experiences and building them out within their marketing organizations and the campaigns that they create.  Take a peek below:

The Experience Map

I really like what David has done here to communicate the essentials to creating experiences.  You can view this and many more of David’s pieces here at Logic+Emotion.  One thing I would like to see in an evolved version of this is how customer expectations drives this map.  In a map I created a while back called “Customer Experience and Expectation Model, customer expectations drive the actual creation of better customer experiences long term.

In terms of Customer Engagement, experience creation actually falls under an umbrella called Experience Engagement which focuses on building out the true connections to people on multiple levels.  Experience Engagement can be leveraged across multiple types of Customer Engagement methods.  As its own bucket, experience engagement is one of the more nebulous aspects within today’s evolved version of marketing, Customer Engagement.  More to come on this topic area in the near future, stay tuned!

What’s the difference between snake oil and snake venom?

Let’s recap the week.

Leigh Durst goes off on people stealing her hard earned, labor intensive work

Peter Kim laments the plague of plagiarism

David Armano discusses how to spot social media snake oil

Olivier Blanchard has called foul on bogus social media experts

Valeria Maltoni interviews Jonathan Bailey, the topic? Plagiarism Today

I wrote about Social Media might be free, but I’m not…

Are you sensing a trend here? I am. That, my friend is what you call venom.  Oddly enough, none of the above posts were precipitated by the other. They all came out on their own, out of anger and frustration. And if I had taken more time, I probably would have found more posts.  Even more telling, is what you see in the comments. A lot of comments. More anger, more frustration.

I’m not sure I have a sure fire solution for any of these posts but I have a feeling that the days of wine and roses may be slowly coming to an end in some respects. If not an end, it certainly won’t be flowing like the wine at a Roman Bacchanalia. Content will be locked down more. Ideas and thoughts may not be so readily provided or shared as they once were.

Fortunately though, I have a feeling that Snake oil vendors will have a harder time of proving themselves. On the other hand, as I have experienced somewhat, we will have a harder time of climbing out of the hole that the purveyors of snake oil have dug for us with once burned clients.

I do have a feeling though, that this only the beginning, and that a larger backlash may be at hand. What to do about it is the question. A governing body? A policing body? I’m not sure. The floor is yours…

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Take two, on social business design.

In my last post I spent a lot of time defining social business and even calling out David Armano and Dachis Group for their use of the definition. In the past few days I’ve noticed that the volume has been turned up on not only the term social business design but the process. I applaud many of the bloggers out there that have voiced thoughts, feelings and insight into this term and the definition behind it. Only with proper discussion can we really turn the volume up on social business design and social media.

As the week has gone on two things struck me.

1 – Just how real time this conversation has been. I’ve always believed in the power of social networks and the power of the conversation. Since the term social business design was coined a cluster of activity involving blogs, tweets, comments and stories has risen to the surface (on the internet, that’s not easy). For that I have to give tons of credit to social media and to David. What he is trying to do is hard. Carving out an entirely new service offering for Fortune 500 companies comes at a price (critique, analysis, and sometimes plagiarism).

2 – I gave a ton more thought to how hard it is for organizations to change. In Larry Irons blog Skilfull Minds he makes mention to:

Leaders of large corporations are typically unable to answer the key strategic questions posed by David Armano of the Dachis Group in a recent important post, Re-designing Your Business Culture. Among other questions, David asked:

Do we want real connections established between employees, customers, partners?
How can we reward those in our ecosystem who actively contribute?
Do we actually want to engage those who want to engage us? Can we?

I agree it’s hard to answer these questions when most of the leaders don’t even know “the social ecosystem” that exists within their organization. It reminds me of the first B2B eCommerce website strategies and sitting in long meetings with companies about new ways to do business online.

An even greater question is – do business leaders understand the conversation that is taking place about their organization (internally or externally)? Back to David’s ecosystem. I found one of the best comments on all of this listening advice was from Leigh Duncan-Durst of Live Path and her comment…

Once we realize, through listening and wearing the employee and customer’s shoes, where the real pain points, problems and opportunities lie — we must use everything we’ve got — including technology to engage EVERYONE to create meaningful change. In my opinion, it is only this type of change that will drive a shift from stuffy, silo-driven, unempowered cultures to cultures marked by open dialog, holistic ownership and frontline empowerment.

Culture before technology… and technology that supports the new culture.

So what does all this mean? Where do we stand? Are we closer to convincing organizations about the power of social media? Are all the conferences and seminars working? To some extent I would say yes, organizations are getting it. There are leaders like Best Buy, Dell, Texas Instruments, and Starbucks that have totally immersed themselves in social media as a cultural shift. But others organizations are still learning, investigating and trying the social media tools without a manual. Yikes?

I offer an in between solution. Yes, I understand that social media is a cultural shift in organizations – but what about those organizations that aren’t ready to truly embrace this shift or more importantly don’t have the money, manpower or support to do this. How do they begin?

I believe that there’s a process /  a model for these organizations.

The Social Media Design Process is a collection of related, structured activities that produce a specific goal. At SPECK Media we use this process for achieving measurable results for clients. If you want to take a look at the terms and definitions for the model go here. More on the process for another time.

What I want to articulate is that many organizations that are ready to investigate social media are trying to achieve a specific goal in the “here and now”. Taking baby steps toward this goal and to social media is usually the answer for these organizations.

These baby steps give an organization a greater chance to answer some of David’s questions and open the organization to social media / social business design and the future.

Reading Peter Kim’s post from yesterday, “The Plague of Plagiarism” was both enlightening and somewhat disheartening. As well, David Armano’s post How to Spot Social Media Snake Oil, had something to say about the same issue too, though just a tad bit more extreme in his  professional prism of trust.

But then I saw this, the 8 irresistable principles of fun and things were put back in perspective.  However there was one line from it that caught my eye and it was by Judy Garland-she was Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, and it was this:

“Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.”

Boy, does that resonate.

FOUND AT http://businessmirror.com.ph/home/perspective/15598-four-challenges-social-media-pose-for-business.html

Written by David Armano Sunday, 06 September 2009 19:53

A recent survey conducted by Proofpoint, a firm specializing in data loss prevention, found that 8 percent of companies had terminated employees due to social media usage (common causes included sharing sensitive information). And while the statistic seems significant, it underscores only one of the many challenges organizations face as social media begin to transform how companies do business. Here are some challenges that every organization should be planning for right now:

1. Integration. For companies that truly participate in social media (as opposed to leveraging them as a new form of marketing), sites like Facebook can impact every aspect of their business. But where do social media actually live within an organization? Should organizations hire a “chief social officer” much like they would a chief technology officer? All companies will eventually grapple with integrating social media into their entire ecosystem by adopting either centralized, distributed or hybrid approaches.

2. Governance. Many organizations understand that anything can and will be said about them on the Internet. And this includes content produced not only from the general public, but also from internal constituents such as employees. Organizations will not only need to begin actively listening so that they are in the know, but they will need rules of engagement for how they deal with multiple types of scenarios from responding to a compliment to dealing with a detractor to following up with an employee who just posted something inappropriate or sensitive.

3. Culture. All organizations fall somewhere on a spectrum between being completely “open” or completely “closed,” meaning that they are either transparent in how they operate and collaborative or they tend to hoard knowledge internally. Consider, for example, that Apple, which can be notoriously secretive, is benefiting by leveraging a strategy that opened up their iPhone application ecosystem. Sure Apple has a great deal of control over it, but for the first time in history, they have legions of people developing applications that run on their hardware. Organizations have the potential to benefit from embracing customers and employees in new ways, but they will have to manage these initiatives intelligently and purposefully.

4. Human Resources. Companies hoping to transform themselves into social businesses will have to upgrade their HR protocols, as well as their legal infrastructure. This process is likely to be never-ending as new technologies continually hit the scene. Before there was Twitter, companies scrambled to publish blogging guidelines for employees; now the wrong tweet or Facebook post can get you fired.

David Armano is part of the founding team at Dachis Corporation, an Austin-based start-up delivering social business design services.

Read more at http://businessmirror.com.ph/home/perspective/15598-four-challenges-social-media-pose-for-business.html

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There’s a lot of buzz about social media and how it can be embedded into the heart of businesses at the moment. I love the idea, it resonates really strongly with the idea of being truly customer centric which is something I strongly believe will help you grow your business and increase customer satisfaction and retention. Being social means being open, listening, responding, having conversations with your customers all things which any customer focused business needs to do. It’s how you fix the pain points, grow up as a business and learn to take criticism and proactively respond and make amends when you have screwed up royally. Social media is a great vehicle for these conversations.

This great presentation from David Armano of Dachis Group hints at how businesses can embrace being social and some of the benefits. The slides that resonate most strongly with me are 44 and 45 where David says it’s time to grow up and realise that being social should just become the way we do business (at least if we want our brands to succeed). The change David mentions in his blog post here is the same as the transformation that’s required to become a customer focused organisation, it needs to come from the top and be embraced throughout the business, there’s no half measures if you really want to reap the full benefits. Consumers have grown up and want more from brands these days, they expect them to listen and respond. It’s time for brands to grow up and realise they need to support this consumer desire for a conversation or risk alienating their audience and pushing them to competitors who will.

Found via Paul Papadimitiou.

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I just read a great post from David Armano called “Social Media’s Top 10 Dirty Little Secrets,” pointing out some of the things many of us are thinking but not saying. I, for one, am getting tired of the social media fishbowl where “experts” share their opinions on the necessity of cutting edge tools and techniques that those of us in the real world are nowhere near ready to adopt. I alluded to that in my “Stop telling me what to do” post.

And yes, I’m ready for a lull in new technologies. I’m already behind on figuring out Friendfeed and now I feel like I need to get on top of Posterous. In reality probably the best thing I could be doing is reading more blogs and writing more in this one. I tell people all the time that “blog posts don’t have to be white papers” and offer tips for writing more frequently, yet I’ll go a week or two (or more) without posting.

I guess you can’t call that my dirty little secret, since it’s right out here on the Internet for people to see.

What’s yours?

Originally published on Conversations & Connections, my SAS social media blog

את דיוויד ארמאנו (David Armano) אני מכיר בזכות הבלוג המצויין שלו Logic + Emotion העוסק, בין היתר, בנושאי שיווק בכלל ובעניני נאמנות לקוחות בפרט.

בהרצאה המאלפת אותה תמצאו מעלה, מציג ארמאנו ניתוח קצר ומבריק של סוגיית המיתוג האישי (Personal Branding), תוך התייחסות להבדלים המהותיים בין מיתוג בציבור הרחב (המושג על-פי-רוב באמצעות המדיה ההמונית) לבין מיתוג בנישות (Niche Branding), הרלוונטי עבור אלה מאיתנו הרוצים למתג את עצמם בשוק ספציפי – תחום בו עומדים לרשותנו שפע כלים חדשים: בלוגים, מיקרו-בלוגים כמו טוויטר, רשתות חברתיות ומקצועיות, וכדומה.

לאחר סקירה קצרה ומרתקת של התחום, המשולבת בדוגמאות מצוינות (החל מאופרה ווינפרי, דרך סת’ גודין ועד דמויות אחרות המוכרות במעגלים מקצועיים או טכנולוגיים), מציג ארמאנו, כמיטב המסורת האמריקאית של “המתכון להצלחה”, את 5 הכללים להצלחה במיתוג אישי- The 5 BE’s:

Be Ubiquitous
ליצור נוכחות מתמדת ורציפה, בכל מקום ובכל זמן.

Be Social
לנהל באופן פעיל את הנוכחות ברשת (ר’ הפוסט היומי של סת’ גודין).

Be Interesting
לכתוב.. לצלם… לשתף… אבל הכי חשוב: להיות מענין.

Be Remarkable
ליצור חותם אישי, ייחודי ובולט, כמו “הפרה הסגולה” של סת’ גודין…

Be Yourself
להיות אותנטי, במובן של “אישי ואמיתי”. כאן, אם תרצו, מזהיר אותנו ארמאנו משימוש “בשכירי מקלדת” לניהול נוכחותנו ברשת (נושא ששווה דיון נפרד).

ארמאנו יודע לא רק לדבר על… אלא גם to Walk the Talk ולספק את הסחורה הלכה למעשה, כך שאת המצגת המצוינת שלו תוכלו למצוא ולהוריד כאן.

המלצה חמה: פנו לעצמכם 20 דקות, תהנו, תלמדו ותרויחו.

Brands = Interaction + Feeling

David Armano 가 Youtube 를 통해 어떻게 Brand U.O 을 만들어갈 것인가..소개한 내용이다. 5가지 요소를 통해 좀 더 영향력 있는 Brand를 만들어갈 수 있다고 한다.

Be Ubiquitous

Be Social

Be Interesting

Be Remarkable

Be Yourself

David Armano has a deck out right now titled social business by design in slide #6 he states that facilitation leads to engagement, and engagement leads to participation. I’m down with that.

But…

According to Wikipedia,The term facilitation is broadly used to describe any activity which makes tasks for others easy but what if we substitute the word facilitation for fascination?

According to Merriam Webster, Fascination is the state of feeling an intense interest in something

So what if…

Fascination leads to engagement

and engagement leads to interaction?

and  interaction led to demand?

Would that work?

David Armano, Brand U.0, Critical Mass

Olivier Blanchard, marchettaro di ultima generazione, ci spiega in modo divertente ed estremamente efficace come calcolare il ROI di un SMSP (social media strategy plan).

Cosa troverete nella presentazione:

La definizione di R.O.I., la giustificazione commerciale dell’utilizzo dei social media nelle strategie di marketing, l’attuale equazione di R.O.I. ,  un metodo che vi guiderà passo dopo passo a calcolare il R.O.I di un social media strategy plan e ancora mondo reale e consulenza senza senso il tutto in un “formato” slideshow decisamente originale.

Cosa NON troverete nella presentazione:

Nulla di quanto già proposto da quelli che si autoproclamano “social media guru” che difficilmente sanno di cosa si sta parlando veramente; una presentazione che muoverà quasi certamente le corde del vostro capo (o del vostro cliente) quando gli proporrete il vostro SMSP.

Enjoy! Bzzzzz [simple english required]

via David

Berfikir secara sistematis itu memang perlu, oleh karena itu peran otak kiri sangat penting. Tapi bagaimana dengan berfikir secara kreatif, tidak rumit, tapi powerfull?

Ya, orang-orang kreatif dan efektif dalam membuat konsep tidak hanya memerlukan otak kirinya, tapi otak kananlah yang ikut serta memecahkan masalah yang rumit menjadi simple dengan hasil yang efektif.

David Armano

Beberapa bulan ini saya sangat kagum akan seorang David Armano. David merupakan salah satu orang yang berpengaruh di bidang Social Media terutama web 2.0. Ia adalah seorang visual communication strategist yang mencampurkan strategi dengan design. Blog personal miliknya, Logic + Emotion, sangat inspiratif. Dia memberikan knowledge bagaimana kita untuk berpikir secara visual (thinking visually). Tujuan dari thinking visually ini adalah untuk memberikan penjelasan mengenai strategi yang kita buat agar mudah dipahami (to inform), juga untuk mempengaruhi (to influence) dan untuk memberikan inspirasi (to inspire).

Berikut adalah penjelasan mengenai Thinking Visually yang diambil dari SlideShare miliknya:

Memang sejak kuliah saya sudah terbiasa dalam menjelaskan sesuatu maupun menghafal dengan menggunakan teknik mindmapping. Tapi apa yang saya dapat dari seorang David adalah something brand new. And it really helps me to create a good concept!

Untuk yang terbiasa dengan menggunakan tulisan cobalah kali ini dengan menggunakan metode Visual Thinkingnya David Armano. Dengan begitu kreatifitas Anda-anda semua akan meningkat. Metode ini juga akan membantu si penerima informasi supaya lebih paham. Cuma sayang sekali knowledge seperti ini, berdasarkan survey tanya-tanya ke mahasiswa/i Indonesia, masih sangat minim.. Bahkan kata mereka “Hahh apa tuh? Males ah, mikir-mikir kaya gituh”

“Justru ini ngebantu loe loe semua yang pada males nulis oncommm!” cetus saya. Metode ini juga sangat penting bagi para manager, conceptor, seorang strategist, bahkan CEO dalam membuat strategi. Alangkah membosankannya penjelasan yang biasa dengan menggunakan Power Point yang jumlah slidesnya Naudzubillah dan isinya text semua. Ngantuk!.

Tapi dengan metode ini, cukup dengan satu slide juga cukup. Yak, sesuai dengan objectivenya:
- to inform
- to influence
- to inspire

Insya Alloh jadi kreatip (pake P) dah!!

Beth Harte, community manager for MarketingProfs and integrated marketing communications crackerjack, invited me to write this post with her after a fantastic discussion on the MarketingProfs’ LinkedIn group page blossomed into something we both felt should be taken to our blogs. Since I consider Beth nothing short of a mentor, I happily accepted her offer. Thank you, Beth, for collaborating with me and letting me stretch my analogical skills to add another facet to the social media conversation! You, lovely readers, can find the same post and great conversation on Beth’s blog, The Harte of Marketing.

Back in June David Armano of Dachis Corporation had an interesting post on debunking social media myths featured on the Conversation Starters blog of the Harvard Business Review. David discussed how organizations continue to believe that involvement in the social media sphere is cheap, fast, and easy. David offered readers three factors to consider when diving into social media: Seeding, Feeding, and Weeding.

In essence, he states that seeding is bringing onboard multiple people (yup, PEOPLE) to create a thriving social media “ecosystem;” feeding is providing a constant flow of updated content to your internal team and customers relative to specific company goals and initiatives; and weeding is pruning out any material that could hinder internal or external growth, or even creating a separate environment for specific programs.

After continued discussion about this article over at the Marketing Profs LinkedIn Group, Beth Harte and I decided an expansion upon David’s initial post. David’s three social gardening must-haves are a great start, but there is more care for any garden—or social media program—to flourish.

The big takeaway for us came in the form of a great quote toward the end of the piece:

“…Not taking into account the manpower that’s involved in these as you develop your social business design strategy can lead to a lack of adoption or participation—essential elements to any social initiative.”

And it’s this quote that inspired additional gardening strategies:

Testing

As any gardener will tell you, you need to test the soil before you seed. It’s really important to test the pH to make sure that it’s at the right level to guarantee a healthy and fruitful garden. If your soil pH is off-balance you’ll have to add lime, minerals, compost or other goodies to make sure the soil is properly balanced (acidity and alkalinity) for seeding.

It’s the same thing with social media. It’s referred to as “listening” though. Before seeding it’s imperative for organizations to know what the pH level of their soil is. The testing phase is not something that organizations should rush through and it could take months to understand the condition of your soil. Are your customers and constituents complaining, are they neutral or are they evangelists? Your test results will help you to learn what additives might be necessary to prep for seeding.

Watering

Although David touched on this in his Feeding tip (we could liken ‘feeding’ to fertilizing), internal education needs its own gardening care tip. Providing updated best practices and regular training and education to your internal team is as important (if not more) as making sure to feed new, meaningful information to your outside constituency.

As hard as it is to believe, social media is an ever-changing beast (note sarcasm), and has to be dealt with as such. The parameters of a social media program and overarching business development philosophy are (or should be) in constant motion, and if you’re not relaying changes to your team on a constant basis, the messages between you, your internal people, and the outside world can become mixed. And nothing says, “We do not have our sh*t together,” like fractured messaging.

Aside from those regular updates, your internal team should become more integrated over time, through education about the ties between all departments. Client services and support reps should be able to answer basic questions for other departments. At the least, each team member should become acquainted enough with all departments to act as a bridge for individual customers to connect with appropriate business lines.

Automating

Before we get too crazy with the gardening and short-cuts to make it easier, let’s stop and take a look at David’s mention of automating certain processes. While it’s true that a few aspects of a social media program— i.e., actual dissemination of information— lend themselves to automation, we think a reasonable rule of thumb is that if a process holds any potential to develop a relationship with your customers, do NOT automate it. Why? Well, the problem with automation is its lack of personal touch.

If a response to an inquiry is automated, it tends to halt conversation—there’s no invitation to continue discussing the question or problem, no opportunity to build up a relationship by remedying the problem or enlightening the customer to certain products or services that could be of great use to them, no chance to turn that relationship into loyalty. Customers want to feel personally attended to, and shelling out a pre-determined response deletes “We care about YOU” from your message. That personal connection is what this is all about, so if you remove it you’re kind of missing the point of the whole game.

Harvesting

A social media program is a long-term investment. It is a communications philosophy that should weave its way into your everyday business methods, but it is executed through smaller initiatives with set goals. Goals that must be reviewed and amended depending on what your customers want and need.

Of course, some goals will have little to do directly with your customers, but many of them, including new product offerings, Website updates, and even corporate responsibility, should be affected by what your customers have said and continue to say about your brand, products, and outreach. Online conversations and comments are a wealth of market research waiting to be analyzed, and filtering through those responses is essential to tweaking goals and initiatives in ways that allow your business to grow and help your customers the most.

Rotating

Have you heard of crop rotation? It’s a trick gardeners and farmers use to conserve soil (i.e. nutrient depletion) by changing the crops grown on a given parcel of land from year to year. Crop rotation also has the added benefits of reduce disease and pest problems.

Employees active in social media daily to support their brands and customers know that burn out can occur over time. It’s important for organizations to realize that while on-going monitoring and potentially reaction is necessary, it’s important to make sure that employees have some down time. Consider rotating schedules and interactions.

As David pointed out, with weeding (prune and weed out material that can inhibit its growth), organizations should also recognize that customers and constituents might also tire of interacting with same people over-and-over and they might desire the need to interact with other departments/people inside your organization.

So, why bring the conversation here? Why make it so long? Because recognizing that social media programs are an investment is where it all begins, and making sure organizations understand that fact and what’s involved in creating a comprehensive program aimed for success takes many words and even more conversations.

Have we covered our bases? What other actions do you think fit into the garden metaphor? Would you change any of ours or David’s suggestions?

I will be on vacation on the shores of Potato Lake—and not blogging—for the week of July 27-31. Before I leave, here are a few items that I’ve been meaning to follow up on in the last month:

More on Hospital Gowns
It seems like every time I blog or speak about design and healthcare I get more responses and comments than on any other topic. My post about Cleveland Clinic a few weeks back (Redesigning the Patient Experience, June 24) generated a flurry of activity, including a call from my good friend Joan Barlow, Design Manager at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, who alerted me that RWJF has been involved in a hospital gown design project as well. The project is featured in this recent article from the Wall Street Journal. RWJF, a philanthropic institution dedicated to health and healthcare—which also happens to have an impressively forward-thinking approach to design—funded the project through the College of Textiles at North Carolina State University.

Taking a New Look at Health
Joan Barlow also tipped me off on this amazing visualization of health trends and statistical data created by, of all sources, General Electric. Using the Health Visualizer you can determine whether you or your loved ones might be at risk of disease. It is also an interactive tool that can be used to show the positive effects of a healthy lifestyle. It’s impressive from an information design and user experience perspective; the data, which in its raw form is dense and intimidating, is refreshingly accessible and engaging. It reminds me of the work Lisa and I have done in collaboration with design agency HartungKemp on the HealthSimple brand.

Yes, Your Social Media Strategy Needs Design
I’ve been interested recently to see online social media getting more attention from the “traditional” business research and education communities. I blogged about this earlier this week (New Research on Online Social Media, July 22), and shortly after I published that post, Twitter fed me this article from the granddaddy of the business research and education family, Harvard Business School. The article was authored by David Armano of Dachis Corporation, an Austin based start-up delivering social business design services. Armano emphasizes the point I made in my post, that, given the rapid evolution of this category, a sound social media strategy is going to be an absolute must—and design thinking is a key to that process. My favorite line: “The current state of “social media” for many businesses looks more like an episode of MacGyver than Apple’s design process. Duct tape and bubble gum hold together fragile tactics such as Twitter accounts run by the summer college intern (nothing against college interns) or agency-generated Facebook fan pages that have few actual fans.” Click here to follow David Armano on Twitter.

mayor says: get over it, france’s progress shall not be thwarted

After all the hype of archeologists descending on my village to carbon date and measure piles of graves of Merovingian warriors, we were surprised to learn that the mayor would have none of it. The mayor stopped the archeology. He said that dawdling and fawning over the graves would put the town’s natural gas project in jeopardy. He basically said, “is anyone really surprised to discover the graves given the village’s rich ancient history? I’m no expert, but it doesn’t seem like an important discovery in the grand scheme of things. What are we supposed to do, tear down all the houses to excavate?”  He’s got a point.  

So now I visualize pulsing veins of gas, water and electricity coursing through a graveyard… carrying with it the whispers and intentions of the dead the pipes have penetrated. Now each sip and jolt may be media for messages. Care for some Eau d’Esprit anyone? Les poltergeistes sont arrivés.

david armano - visual thinking

ok, non ho tempo di raccontarvi tutte le cose “sociali” che mi sono passate in testa in questi giorni mentre, a capo chino, lavoravo, lavoravo e lavoravo…

[l'unico svago che mi sono concessa è stato lo speech di "codice internet" condotto a 4 mani  da Marco e Alessandro (Montemagno - Gilioli) presso il centro anziani di Monterotondo...si hanno parlato della rete ai "diversamente giovani" ed è stato incredibile... [ Le foto sono su flickr]…]

Ciò premesso, dovendo postare qualcosa perchè altrimenti ’sto blog mi comincia a soffrire di sindrome di abbandono, ho pensato di farmi un giro a casa di Leandro (chissà se lui ha capito che è il mio eroe) e ho trovato dentro l’ultimo post il “must read” che riporto nel titolo.

Il libro è a cura di  Tom Kelley,partner, GM e ispiratore culturale della IDEO.

Secondo Tom nelle imprese (aggiungerei soprattutto nelle imprese italiane) la micidiale figura dell’Avvocato del diavolo è oggi più attiva che mai e chiunque assuma questo ruolo si sente autorizzato a sollevare dubbi e preoccupazioni che finiscono per affossare nuovi progetti e idee originali evitando qualsiasi responsabilità personale.

[che c'è...vi ricorda qualcosa?? heheehheh]

Nel libro si parla del ruolo fondamentale dei team multiculturali e delle figure ibride come “elementi” cardine dello sviluppo di processi di innovazione.

Gli unici in grado di neutralizzare i “cagadùbi” (antico vocabolo meneghino che significa semina dubbi), menagrami, facciaindietro (neologismo che indica le persone aggrappate al passato) aziendali sono proprio i dieci volti dell’innovazione ovvero:

1. L’Antropologo: il personaggio che va sul campo a osservare come i clienti usano i prodotti e reagiscono a essi per trovare nuove possibilità di innovazione
2. Lo Sperimentatore
3. L’Impollinatore trasversale: che combina e confronta spunti, persone e tecnologie per dar vita a nuove idee che possano stimolare la crescita;
4. L’Ostacolista: che si impegna fin da subito a trovare la maniera di superare o aggirare i vincoli e le sfide sempre presenti in qualunque situazione
5. Il Collaboratore
6. Il Regista
7. L’Architetto del benessere
8. Lo Scenografo
9. Il Premuroso
10. Il Narratore

In un paese come il nostro, nichilista, terrorizzato dal cambiamento, in preda alla subcultura dei nani e delle ballerine ci si chiede come mai l’innovazione non trovi spazio: ecco, parafrasando Leandro, ““I dieci volti dell’Innovazione” dovrebbe essere obbligatorio per tutti i managerucoli che vivono dentro ai pachidermi aziendali da cui -volenti o nolenti- dipende la rapidità del paese e la sua capacità di competere a livello Internazionale”

Il libro potete comprarlo anche on line su IBS

bbzzzzz

David Armano asks, with this model of round vs. flat worlds (I prefer to call it tiered vs. flat hierarchy), if it’s who you know or what they know that matters.

Who knows what about you?

I say it’s who knows you, and what they think about you.

Going off on a tangent, I think it’s interesting how we used to speak of discrimination on the basis of looks. In the online marketplace of ideas, do we now judge people by how they write, and is there anything to say we shouldn’t?

Is copyediting the new plastic surgery?

Thanks to the awesome folks at Radian6 for inviting me to tag along Wednesday for their “Rock Stars of Social CRM” event held in Boston, Mass – which coincided perfectly with the #e2conf. Watching how Radian6 now integrates seamlessly with SalesForce.com, effectively merging Social Media monitoring and CRM, was kind of a strategic “wow” moment for a Marketing and Social Media geek like me. (Actually, I think my exact words were “Holy $#%&!!!! You can do that?!?!?”)

Having been on the client side of the Marketing and Business Development world for years, this stuff to me is the Holy Grail of apps.

Literally, people: Mind. Blowing. (Not only the fact that you can plug one of the best CRM platforms on the market and Radian6 into each other now, but also how smoothly and seamlessly it all works for the user/manager. Chris Newton is a genius, pure and simple. I’ve been saying it for months now: 1. If you aren’t already using R6 and 2. if you aren’t driving this thing like Speed Racer behind the wheel of a Mach 5, you are seriously missing the boat when it comes to properly managing your Social Media program(s).  - By the way, I am not being paid to say this. I am not affiliated with Radian6 in any way. Just stating the obvious about the tool’s impressive, ever evolving capabilities and the super smooth U.I., for starters.)

Okay, so anyway, there’s a lot I didn’t film while in Boston (as much as I love to play with cameras, there’s something a little unsettling about shoving a camera in people’s faces every time you have a conversation with them), but what I did film ended up here. So no, you won’t get to see my very first handshake with Chris Brogan, my first hug with Amber Naslund and Anne Handley, my first laugh with David Armano or any of the really fascinating conversations I had with two dozen super interesting tweeps who also happened to be wicked smart. (Yes, I was in Boston. I mentioned that, right?) But you will see me aimlessly walking through airports, talking to my toothpaste, laughing at snoring travelers, getting lost in parking garages and even goofing off with some of my favorite bloggers on the planet. That should be worth something, right? Today’s is not exactly a business video, but hey, behind the scenes stuff can be pretty cool too. (If it doesn’t work or launch properly, go watch it here.)

I need to start going to more of these conferences. The face-to-face interractions are just phenomenal. How often do you get a chance to have breakfast with Comcast’s Frank Eliason, lunch with Chris Newton and Chris Ramsey, coffee with David Armano and drinks with so many others whose ideas, insights, questions and experiences send your brain into a hundred new directions? Seriously priceless.