President Obama dined this past week with several power players from the technology world. As expected, this private event held at the home of John Doerr, a partner with Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield, & Byers generated significant public relations buzz for the business leaders in attendance.
The embedded video previews the longer Carillo-King interview televised by HBO in late January 2011. I enjoyed this interview because it provides relevant lessons on:
Personal Reinvention Via Social Media Technologies
The Significance of Trust and Reputation (Professional & Online)
The Power of a Relentless Work Ethic
Lesson 1: Reinvent and Adapt to Change
A Traditional Print Journalist Who "Gets" Online Media. King started Monday Morning QB (MMQB) with SI.com 13 years ago. He told Carillo he's better as a new media journalist because he understands:
1. Real-Time Marketing & PR: The importance of immediacy because speed wins
2. Content Quality: Volume is great but it's worthless without quality
3. Content Volume: The Internet rewards high volume (but always remember #2)
He Understands Social Media's Hub-Outpost Model. King's Monday Morning QB functions as his online home base while Twitter and Facebook serve as outposts. Both Twitter and Facebook point his readers back to Monday Morning QB. Here are links to his social media channels
If You Want People to Trust You, Directly Engage Them. King inspires a loyal, tribal-like audience.As I write this post, here are the latest online stats on Peter King and Monday Morning QB (and counting):
503,193 Twitter Followers
5,902 Facebook Fans
3 million weekly page views (according to the Real Sports longer interview)
Look how he answers selected readers' email questions with their names. The selected readers seeing their names and questions published in King's column must feel great!
In the embedded video, King shows Carillo how he alerts his 500K+ Twitter Followers via TweetDeck when the latest edition of his column goes live. It's Social Media Engagement and Content Promotion Strategy 101!
Relationships Founded on Trust and Respect. Former Super Bowl-winning NFL coach and NFL executive, Bill Parcells, described to Mary Carillo why NFL coaches, players, and executives want to work and engage with King. They Trust Him.
In the longer interview, Parcells explained how he respected and admired King's work ethic and integrity. He witnessed how King would do anything to get a story but not at the expense of compromising himself personally.
King has invested 26+ years in building his professional network and reputation. That vast network and stellar reputation provides access to A-List NFL coaches, executives, owners, and players. This makes King's Twitter Feed the place for breaking, real-time news events in NFL Football.
Lesson 3: Unrelenting Commitment
Be Relentless. Peter King covered the NFL for New York Newsday from 1985 to 1989. To succeed, he had to build professional trust with Bill Parcells (then the New York Giants head coach). This was no easy task considering Parcell's sometimes antagonistic relationship with the New York sportswriters.
But, King persevered and won Parcells over. How? Parcells told King he'd be willing to help him if he'd come to the Giants practice facility before 6:30 AM. After that time, Parcell's focused solely on Sunday preparation.
King's solution? Arrive at the Giants facility before Parcells. Parcells remarked how King would greet him at 6 AM (sometimes earlier) at the facility gates. King consistently demonstrated this work ethic and desire to Parcells.
And, he eventually won and earned Parcells' respect and trust. That's why Parcells nicknamed King, "Relentless."
Be Commited. The embedded video doesn't give full justice to King's required weekly, workman-like commitment in publishing MMQB during the NFL season:
1. Completes Sunday evening work on NBC Football Night in America around 10:30 PM
2. Works on MMQB's initial drafts from 11 PM to 5:30 AM
3. Boards the 6 AM Amtrak train to Boston
4. Refines / Posts final draft before 8 AM SI.com deadline
Wow! And, that doesn't include all his other professional and personal responsibilities …
Conclusion
Inspiring Success Stories Like Peter King Don't Happen Overnight. Members of this community know Successful Social Media Marketing Is Neither Free Nor Easy. There's nothing free in social media. There's nothing free about achieving success.
Peter King achieved his stature over the course of a 26-year career. He's invested significant time in:
Adapting to change (i.e., building new skills to compete in online media)
Building professional and online trust (i.e. integrity and authenticity)
King continues developing new technology skills married with hard-won journalistic instincts. Every MMQB post represents how he sees and seizes online media opportunity.
He epitomizes earning audience attention in a digital age. He masters blogging, tweeting, and facebooking as both journalistic mediums and competitive differentiators.
What are you doing to competively differentiate yourself or your organization? How are you earning audience attention?
May 17, 2011 Update: This list of articles / references grows every day as I monitor news sources. The number of curated articles is now up to 26.
Instead of continuously updating the title and picture to reflect the number of resources, I'll focus on updating the hyperlinks. Enjoy!
Original Post Begins Here: My last two posts provided perspectives on why Facebook poses a threat to Google. If you want to understand why Google views Facebook as a competitive threat, this centralized research should makes things easier. Happy Reading!
In light of the recent power shuffle at Google, I think this Saturday Night Live (SNL) clip featuring Mark Zuckerberg is important. Just hang with me for a few moments.
This SNL Appearance Represents an Important and Implicit, Market Signal. Zuckerberg and Facebook are accelerating the public relations momentum leading to the upcoming Facebook IPO. The subtle, market signal Zuckerberg and Facebook are sending:
Mark Zuckerberg Will be a More Visible and More Marketing/Public Relations Savvy CEO than Larry Page.
Here's my short list supporting my market signal hypothesis:
Give Zuckerberg credit for putting himself out in a high-profile situation like SNL. And remember, Jesse Eisenberg's portrayal of Zuckerberg in The Social Network is brutal.
Is Zuckerberg noticeably stilted and uncomfortable in the SNL cold open? Yes. Did he know this appearance on a such a high profile stage leaves him vulnerable to significant public scrutiny and criticism? Yes.
But, he had the guts and courage to do it anyway. And, with more practice and exposure to similar situations, Zuckerberg will get better. As a mid-twenties leader and visionary, he'll get more opportunities.
Zuckerberg carefully selected this particular media appearance (just as Steve Jobs carefully selected his appearances before/after his publicly disclosed illness). Here's Steve Jobs' now mythical 2005 Stanford Commencement Address. Don't tell me Mr. Jobs didn't carefully select this venue / moment at this particular stage in his life:
3. A pre-IPO, Facebook supplants Google as the cutting edge Silicon Valley place-to-be. Silicon Valley's brightest engineering talent wants a shot at wealth and riches too. They can achieve that by joining Facebook. The opportunity to achieve that once-in-a-lifetime dream shot is gone at Google.
Facebook continues stepping up its efforts to attract/recruit the brightest in Silicon Valley talent – at Google's expense. Here are two articles from The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times:
The Google-Facebook rivalry will intensify. This rivalry will touch every aspect of our online, media lives (desktop, mobile, publishing, entertainment, etc.).
Who will emerge as the winner.
Who will emerge as the next Apple.
Who will emerge as the next Steve Jobs (Zuckerberg or Page).
Who do you think it will be?
And, somewhere deep down inside, Steve Jobs must be smiling …
Here's the eMarketer graphic showing a demographic breakdown of the Harris Interactive data:
The survey results show 76% of Gen X'ers (34-45 year olds) are either "very confident" or "somewhat confident" their privacy settings in social networks are functioning properly. I'm part of Generation X so this result interests me. Also, I actively participate in social networks. I agree with the Harris Poll based on my participation in The Big 3 U.S. Social Networks (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn).
Will Something Bad Result From Tweeting, Blogging, or Sharing?
Not So Much. The survey represents 2,331 participants. Based on the research, only 7% of respondents had gotten in trouble at school or work or lost a job opportunity because of social network activity.
But, Always Think Twice. Use common sense as your guide. Similar to when email entered our 1990s professional lives, think twice before selecting "send, publish, or share" when posting something on your social network or blog.
On the Worldwide Web, You Are What You Publish
It's a Cold, Hard Fact. That headline is one of my favorite David Meerman Scott quotes. It also explains why 90% of my social media / social networking participation represents a professional purpose:
Networking with other like-minded professionals (i.e., LinkedIn, Twitter)
Providing links to useful articles / research / blogs about social media, technology or the pharmaceutical / biotech industry (i.e., Twitter, this blog)
Commenting on industry blogs or social media thought leaders' blogs to expand my professional connections and build my online reputation
The other 10% of my social network participation represents a personal purpose (i.e., Facebook). I made the choice to restrict my connections on Facebook to personal friendships only. In Facebook, I connect and share with only a select, few individuals from my professional life. I have a trusted friend who works in the Human Resources function, and this is how she manages her Facebook account.
Here's a direct quote from Mitch's post: "While you retain the rights to the text, images, audio and video that you post online, always consider that the content is now public and shareable forever."
Forever. That's a long time.
Conclusion
There is a Personal Cost Associated with Online Participation. When I made the choice to start actively participating in social media / social networking, I understood this cost. Always be mindful, someone is reading and reacting to your online activity (either positively or negatively). Always be aware of what you tweet, what you post, and who you connect to.
But, The Benefits Outweigh the Costs. Online participation provides access to professional and personal development opportunities traditionally reserved for select individuals:
* Publishing a blog provides an opportunity to demonstrate and build your reputation and thought leadership on a global scale
* Tweeting and connecting provides an opportunity to professionally network on a global scale
* Commenting on industry and thought leaders' blogs provides an opportunityto demonstrate your knowledge and augment another person's research, thoughts, and opinions on a global scale
Sounds Globally Opportunistic, Doesn't It? It is! And, I wish I'd started sooner. And, I'm running as fast as I can to make up for lost time.
Part 7 of The Business Value Behind Social Media focuses on future opportunities in social media marketing and public relations (e.g., what's the next big thing). Chris Brogan, Charlene Li, David Meerman Scott, and Martin Giles (moderator) discuss future trends such as:
* Opporutunity #1: Responding to Customers and Influencing Business in Real-Time
* Opportunity #2: Giving and Gaining Our Permissions to Use Social Data
* Opportunity #3: Exploring Email Marketing and Online Communities
* Conclusion: The Implications of Gaining Permissions to Our Social Data is Why Google Fears Facebook
The panel's discussion takes place from 58:24 to 1:01:45 of the embedded video:
Opportunity #1: Responding to Customers and Influencing Business in Real-Time
The Real-Time Transformation of Traditional Marketing and PR (58:24 – 59:07). Real-time applications in marketing and PR fascinate David. He notes how social media is transforming the traditional, long-term planning / campaign process by contracting time. Long term campaigns are not going away. However, the future opportunity will be in engaging customers instantly.
Opportunity #2: Giving and Gaining Our Permissions to Use Social Data
Privacy Is Not the Main Issue Because Our Social Norms on Privacy Continue Changing (59:09 – 1:00:09). Our social media activities generate significant amounts of data. What advertisers and marketers can potentially do with this data is what fascinates Charlene. Gaining consumer permissions for what our data will be used for is the hidden opportunitity.
Charlene's Caller ID Analogy and Its Application to Our Social Data. When phone companies first introduced Caller ID, consumers complained the service invaded personal privacy. Now, consumers will only answer the phone if they know who's making the call. Charlene emphasizes our norms for what is private and how our data will be used changes daily. A prime example: Facebook frequently changing its privacy policies.
What Will Be The Accepted Norms for Granting Permissions. The opportunity is working out the accepted norms for granting permissions to our privacy data in social media (analogous to what credit card companies do with our purchasing data). If marketers and advertisers gain our permissions to use our social data, consumers will demand a transparent understanding of how this data will be used.
Opportunity #3: Exploring Email Marketing and Online Communities
Two Technologies Which Can Offer Much More (1:00:11 – 1:00:21). Chris is working on applications of email marketing with online communities. These are two, early 1990's online technologies that haven't gained a lot of traction. Therefore, he thinks these technologies have a significant upside.
Conclusion — Gaining Consumer Permissions to Social Data is Why Google Fears Facebook
Mark Zuckerberg's Power to Grant Advertisers The Permissions to Facebook's Social Data Scares Google. In my opinion, this is why advertisers are clamoring to gain permissions for Facebook's social data. I also contend this underlying phenomenon is what's driving Facebook's current $50+ billion valuation.
Why Advertisers Covet Facebook's Social Data. The data or "friend updates" we disclose in Facebook is information we opt-in to share with Select Consumers: Our Friends and Family. Our relationships and influence with these select consumers may be the more efficient and effective way for advertisers to influence consumer behaviors.
Therefore, Facebook's social data is extremely attractive to advertisers. And, this social data may be more valuable to advertisers than the search behavior data that's the foundation of the Google AdWords Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Model.
Google AdWords drives roughly 90%+ of Google's revenues. As a result, Facebook legitimately threatens Google's core business.
Here are resources I've researched and studied to support and understand why Google fears Facebook:
Facebook is Gaining Traction as the Doorway to Consumer Intent (not a Google Search). Facebook Connect allows consumers to login to almost any social networking related application. For the past decade, a consumer's stated online intent almost exclusively began with a search engine (e.g., a Google Search).
In my opinion, Facebook's strategic approach is the same but noticeably different: "To organize our personalinformation and make it selectively accessible and useful." At least for now …
The past 48 hours describing the power shake-up at Google provides the read-between-the-lines-evidence why gaining consumer permissions to social data impacts Google:
The future of consumer permissions will be a driving force in online marketing's near and distant future. Larry Page's (Google's new CEO) ability to contend with this driving force and the accompanying Facebook competitive challenge is the type of adversity Ken Auletta said that Google's founders had yet to confront.
I first learned about the incredible Ted Williams story on January 5th from this Mitch Joel post titled: The New Journalism. Doral Chenoweth III shot the viral video that has and continues to positively transform Mr. William's life. I've read news stories that this video has received views ranging from 4 million to as high as 11 million.
This is Real-Time Social Media and PR Brilliance at Work! Why? Kraft did everything right in acting on this real-time news opportunity:
They reacted quickly
They went with the story, recognized he PR opportunity, and published their response without getting bogged down in a lengthy, corporate approval process
They published their response in the same social media medium in which the real-time event occurred – YouTube.
In fact, the embedded video is the behind-the-scenes production for one of four (4) videos Kraft created with Mr. Williams. These videos are scheduled to air at different times during the year (including the 2011 Super Bowl).
Integration with Kraft's Existing Social Media Channels Promoting Mac & Cheese.Here's a link to the Kraft Mac & Cheese Facebook Fan Page. Notice the thank you replies by Mr. Williams on this Fan Page on Sunday, January 9th. When I typed my well wishes to Mr. Williams, this Fan Page listed 366,000+ Fans. I'm sure that number continues to increase.
Conclusion
Everybody Wins. That's what makes this such a compelling public relations and social media story:
* Kraft executes a major PR coup that may be the marketing-feel-good-story of 2011.
Part 4 discusses how companies late to social media marketing can get started. Key starting points suggested by the panel include:
* The Importance of Linking Social Media Strategy to Corporate Strategy
* Before You Create Content, Listen and Participate
* Figure Out Where Relevant Customer Conversations are Taking Place
* Define the Business Goals or Results to Achieve with Social Media
This post focuses on the panel's key take-aways and discussion from 29:00 – 36:56 of the embedded video.
Link the Social Media Strategy to the Overall Corporate Strategy
Apply and Coordinate Individual Social Media Channels to Strategic Execution (32:57 – 33:18). Charlene explains that corporate strategy isn't just about what the company does operationally. It's about how the company coordinates the overall strategy with all the different functional strategies.
Link the Social media Strategy to the Overall Corporate Strategy (33:19 – 33:49). Having a Facebook strategy or social media channel strategy in itself is missing the point. The key is having a corporate strategy that the organization applies Facebook participation or social media channel tactics to.
Before You Create Content, Listen and Participate
We Can Learn a Lot by Listening (33:51 – 34:12). David Meerman Scott mentions two (2) things companies can do as they begin their social media participation:
* Watch what's already going on online and and understand who's doing what
* Learn who's talking about your brand, your company, your products, and your industry
Take Baby Steps and Use Other People's Real Estate (34:13 – 34:18). Deploy your social media initiatives gradually. There's nothing wrong with commenting on people's blogs and participating in forums first before creating your own channel-specific content.
A Common Mistake – Undefined Purpose (34:19 – 34:39). A common mistake David observes among companies – jumping into social media and establishing a Twitter account, or a YouTube Channel, or a couple of blogs without defining each social media channel's purpose. This just ends up being an uncoordinated mess. That's why it's important to take your time to understand what your customers are doing online before undertaking larger the online initiatives (i.e., writing and managing a blog).
Where Are Your Customer Conversations Taking Place
Go Where Your Customers Are (28:23 – 29:29). Understanding where your customers converse in social media channels is key. Why? Charlene says this knowledge can help define a specific channel's overall purpose.
As an example, many B2B companies say they don't use Facebook in social media strategy because Facebook is a B2C medium. But, what if the company decided to use Facebook specifically for hiring.
Determine the Social Media Echo Chambers by Country (29:30 – 30:42). The panel notes that each geographic region has its own predominant social media channels:
United States: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube
Japan: Mixi.jp
Netherlands: Hyves.nl
David references the phenomenon that when it comes to a specific social media platform there's usually one dominant player. Therefore, invest your time building a presence on the dominant platforms:
Video = YouTube
Microblogging = Twitter
Social Networking (especially B2C) = Facebook
Define the Business Goal(s) You Want to Achieve With Social Media
Start with Specific Goals Targeted to Your Current Customers / Fans (34:54 – 35:20). Chris suggests defining goals focusing on either customer retention or new customer acquisition. As an example, Chris noted how the choice and purpose of using Facebook as a social media channel completely depends on the stated goal. If your objective is customer retention of current customers, maybe your purpose on this channel is massaging people. That tone of interaction is far different than the mood you'd be setting if the objective was new customer retention.
This is why it's so important to understand where your existing customers or new customers are conversing online. It makes no sense to invest time and resources in building a new channel / community if the target audience is already talking to each other in an established place.
Particpate in the Online Conversation Because the Phone's Ringing (35:20 – 35:39). The analogy Chris makes with social media is to think of each individual channel or community as a "ringing telephone." If you're still sitting on the sidelines by not participating in social media, you're essentially leaving the phone unanswered (and your its your existing customers or new potential customers who are on the other end of the phone line).
Sustainable, Long Term Success Requires a B-H-A-G
B-H-A-G Means Big, Hairy, Audacious, Goal (35:40 – 36:49). Charlene says this is the long term planning or vision part of your social media strategy. Without an understanding of the vision, your team may be setting up its social media initiatives incorrectly.
* Think thoughtfully about what this all could really be?
* What / How could social media transform my organization?
* What will our customer relationships look like?
* What's the overall impact on our business?
In other words, your company's individual B-H-A-G could be what inspires or provides the strategic foundation for the desired outcome.
If Corporate Fear Sets In, Always Envision What Could Happen If You Succeed.Charlene points to how the Best Buy TwelpForce initiative is transformational game changer. Many organizations would say an initiative like that is incredibly scary. BUT, the outcome is delivering an outstanding customer service experience that other retail competitors are not providing. This success did not occur overnight. It took Best Buy four (4) years to get where they are now.
The potential business outcome could be a powerful and inspirational rallying point which aligns all team members around what you want to achieve with social media.
Conclusion
Goal-setting and objectives are a common emphasized theme throughout The Business Value Behind Social Media series. Defining the business outcomes and results your company wants to achieve with social media should be determined and then prioritized.
Once you know what you want to achieve as a business outcome, it becomes clearer how to:
* Link the social media strategy to the overall corporate strategy
* Understand what you should be listening for in online customer conversations
* And once you know what to listen for in customer conversations, it can help you figure out where the online conversations are taking place.
For example, if you're a B2C company, you're probably being talked about in Facebook. If you're a B2b company, there's an increased likelihood conversations are taking place in LinkedIn Forums or LinkedIn Discussion Groups.
You may experience and achieve online visibility initially by just "jumping into social media. "But, if you want to be a relevant, long-term, online player, you better start figuring out your company's B-H-A-G to inspire the troops.
Thank you for reading, and I hope you will stop by next Saturday for Part 5: How to Measure Social Media's Impact on Your Business.
Part 3 covers the panel's discussion on Walmart's initial social media strategy mistakes.
I've supplemented the panel's discussion with examples described in pages 229 to 230 of Open Leadership, Charlene Li's latest book. In these examples, Charlene writes how Walmart learned and recovered from these initial mistakes by continuing to experiment with different social media initiatives and refocus on its core audience.
The panel's discussion on Walmart's takes place from 19:00 to 20:50 of the embedded video.
Wal-Mart's Initial Struggles in Social Media
Many Retailers Made the Same Mistakes in Social Media (19:00 – 20:02). Chris makes the point how many retailers (not just Walmart) and manufacturers made the mistake of initially viewing social media as just another "push channel" or "another way to push stuff down a different pipe."
Walmart's Initially Looked Like It May Never Understand Social Media (20:03 – 20:50). Charlene noted several missteps by the retailer that seemed to proceed one disaster after another. I've added additional details from Open Leadership to provide additional context:
* 2006 – The Hub Social Network Lasts Only Ten (10) Weeks. The Hub was Walmart's attempt to compete with then-leader MySpace. Actors and models populated content and pushed visitors to buy Walmart's products.
* September 2006 – Media Coverage Reveals a Fake Blog. A blog portraying a couple's cross-country travels in an RV and staying in Walmart parking lots was revealed as a Walmart supported venture. Broken customer trust followed due to the significant negative news coverage this story received.
* Fall 2007 – A Facebook Group Misaligned with the Intended Target Audience. A Facebook group focused on back-to-school shopping for college audiences was well-executed, but the group focused on fashion. The problem is the intended target audience associated Walmart with low price — a complete disconnect. Further compounding problems were Facebook members who started protesting Walmart's labor practices via comments and turned this site against the company.
Walmart Learned From Each Social Media Failure
A Return to the Corporate Mission: Helping Families Save Money.In pages 229 to to 230 of Open Leadership, Charlene explains how Walmart's determination and persistence sustained the company through some early struggles. Eventually, the company achieved online victories by focusing on social media initiatives focused on helping families save money.
* CheckOutBlog.com. A site which shares the perspective of Walmart's employee buyers' and how they go about selecting merchandise for their stores.
* Bazaarvoice. A service that provides user ratings and reviews on Walmart's sites.
* Elevenmoms.com Blog. A collection of mommy bloggers who share tips on how to save money.
The Resolve to Succeed and Courage to Experiment. Despite all the previous setbacks and struggles, Walmart was determined "to figure social media out," and it tested different ideas along the way.
The Results – A Legion of Facebook Fans and Customer Engagement on Twitter. These additional anecdotes from Open Leadership are inspiring. Walmart achieved these online results because it didn't give up:
* Facebook Membership of 500,000+
* Dozens of Employees Engaging on Twitter with Customers
Conclusion
The Walmart example shows how maintaining your resolve to succeed in social media marketing is a big part of the game. Even though it failed on a very public stage, Walmart kept at it and learned from these initial mistakes. Now, they're succeeding in directly communicating with their core audience through selected social media channels.
This case study highlights the importance of "failing well." If you're going to particpate in online conversations (like writing a blog), you're going to fail and commit mistakes. I know I have. Hopefully, I will continue learning from those mistakes (just like Walmart).
Most importantly, participation in social media channels means there's always a chance, you'll fail publicly (in a small or large scale depending on your online visibility).
But, if you're persistent and resilient, you will:
(1) Prevail in the long run and
(2) Learn a ton about what works or doesn't work for you as an online publisher
That opportunity to continuously learn and experiment is what I love about participating in social media.
Since next Saturday is Christmas Day, the plan is to publish the next installment of this series on Sunday, December 26th. I hope you'll tune in to The Business Value Behind Social Media Part 4 – How to Get Started in Social Media.
The panel discusses the characteristics of model organizations currently succeeding in social media implementation and management. Common success factors describing these companies included:
* Social Media Guidelines and Employee Rules of Engagement
* Process Discipline
* Open Leadership (the rules for playing in the social media sandbox as explained by Charlene Li)
* Goals (e.g., defining the business outcome the individual organization wants to achieve with social media)
The summary of key takeaways pertains to 3:33 to 15:38 of the embedded video.
Companies Succeeding in Social Media Established Employee Guidelines and Processes for Customer Engagement
The US Air Force and Guidelines (3:33 – 5:08). All 30,000 members are allowed to participate in social media. The establishment of guidelines and a structure for interaction were key success factors. David references a favorite quote from from a high ranking officer about giving Air Force Team Members the opportunity to engage in social media: "If we trust them with a $300 million airplane, why can't we trust them on Facebook?
CitiBank and Defining a Process First (5:11 – 6:45). Charlene describes how the key learning from here is the importance of establishing and putting a process in place first. This process should define the employee interaction with customers via social media. Defining the process provides senior management (especially the legal department) with a level of reassurance. Establishing this process is especially important if the company is engaging in social media for the first time.
Dell Corporation's Uses Twitter as a $6 Million Revenue Generator (6:46 – 7:30). Chris liked how Dell started using the Web initially as a means of deploying customer service. This initiative eventually morphed into IdeaStorm which is their collaboration forum to share ideas on new products and services that customers would like Dell to develop. He also noted how Dell generated $6 million in revenues for bargain hardware via Twitter.
The Confidence to Let Employees Engage Customers
Open Leadership – The Sandbox Covenant (7:57 – 8:45). Charlene says "open leadership" is your company's definition of how "open you will be." It's important for companies to define what are the filters for communication because no company can be completely open – that's unrealistic. But, the companies using social media effectively have defined their social media strategy and set up the rules of customer engagement within that strategy. If you don't provide the discipline and structure, you're leaving open the possibility of anything happening online.
The Use of 1st-Person Singular in Online Communications (8:48 – 9:37). Something David has seen work effectively is implementing a guideline asking employees to express their views in the manner of "I believe" or "I think" to show the employee isn't speaking directly on behalf of the company. The fear of companies is they now have 1000 company spokespeople. Far from it. What they now have is 1000 employees directly communicating with customers.
Preventing Chaos – Deploy Social Media Gradually and Define Goals
Starbucks and Its Gradual Release of Social Media (10:02 – 10:57). Charlene says Starbucks is one of her favorite examples because its small team successfully and gradually deployed the company's social media strategy. According to her book, Open Leadership, the Starbucks' social media team consists of six (6) people: two (2) community managers who directly interact with people and four (4) programmers and support people.
The book also describes how Starbucks chose a more centralized approach at the corporate level for selected channels (i.e., Facebook, Twitter). According to Alexandra Wheeler, Starbucks' Director of Digital Strategy, the goal is to eventually give their thousands of baristas freedom to operate in social media "but not until the right structures and training are in place to ensure a consistent customer experience."
IBM and Goal Definition (10:58 – 11:54). Chris spoke about how IBM started out as "1000 flowers blooming," but it eventually found a way to purposefully harness their social media activity. They did it by asking what's the goal:
* Enhance customer service? * Generate more revenue? * Be more promotional? * Build more awareness to our sales funnel via lead generation? * Is our purpose related to B2C or B2B?
The Zappos Model Isn't Right for Everyone
Determine the Appropriate Level of Openness for Your Individual Company (12:18 – 12:58). Chris points out that the Zappos Way isn't for everybody because that model exposes an organization to be in "situations filled with opinions." And for a lot of companies, these are situation they don't feel comfortable operating in.
Ask Who and How Should Employees be Engaging (13:00 – 13:56). David says companies engaging in social media shouldn't assume that every employee wants to participate. Employees shouldn't feel forced or obligated to communicate this way. In his opinion, he talked about how there's probably a specific personality profile for people who enjoy engaging in social media. Therefore, if you have these folks in your organization, encourage them to be part of the online conversation.
How Best Buy's Twelpforce Personally Engaged Charlene Li (13:57 – 15:11).Twelpforce enables around 2,400 Best Buy employees to share their electronics expertise directly with customers. These employees use Twitter to converse directly with customers by answering questions usually asked everyday on the store floor.
Charlene personally tried out this service to better understand what's the best phone with parental controls that she could purchase for her 11-year old son. A Twelpforce team member replied back with an Android phone recommendation and asked her to stop by the store that Saturday so they could evaluate phones together. Essentially, someone on the store floor reached out to her and said: "I'd like to build a customer relationship with you." This type of innovative initiative gives Best Buy a competitive advantage especially over Wal-Mart, Target, or any of the phone carriers.
Conclusion
The biggest fear of large organizations when it comes to social media is their loss of control. Their customers now have low-cost tools (e.g. social media channels) that can influence the outcome and perception of the most elaborate and sophisticated advertising campaign.
However, the organizations described by Charlene, Chris, and David are prime examples of companies who have successfully implemented guidelines, procedures, processes, and goals so their employees can directly engage these customers. And, it's that customer engagement that enables their employees to positively influence customers who not only purchase their company's products and services but are also Blogging, Tweeting, Liking, Sharing, and Digging about these offerings as well.
Please stay tuned for next Saturday's Edition of The Business Behind Social Media, Part 3: Lessons From Wal-Mart and The Importance of Failing Well.
