White Collar Middle Management Ranks Will Continue Disappearing At An Accelerated Rate. Geoff’s detailed, fact-based research is sobering. Continuous advances in software design, machine learning, and artificial intelligence results in the need for fewer, white collar workers.
Remember, white collar workforces? MBA-types, MD-types, JD-types, aka the left-brain masters of the universe?
Cognitive, analytical work is on an accelerated chopping block. Increasing automation and computing power means replacing humans isn’t isolated to blue collar Americans.
A Phenomenon Extending Beyond Decades-Old Outsourcing. Why? Because machines do old-school, cognitive, and analytical work better than humans. That prowess IS EXACTLY what machines do better.
On February 23rd, I attended a great social media networking event hosted by Ben Smith and Social: IRL. The Taste, Tweet, Meet With Boulevard Brewing Company event was exceptional.
But, it wasn't for the usual reasons that I found this event so enjoyable (i.e., the personal camaraderie of social networking connections in Kansas City, the privilege of personally meeting these wonderful people sometimes for the first time, etc.).
Discuss how she's continuously informing Boulevard's customers / fans about this ongoing process
She openly fielded numerous questions. Plus, she patiently spoke with individual attendees about specific questions after concluding her presentation. I was one of those folks (more on that later).
Julie openly sharing this presentation and Boulevard's ongoing efforts in addressing the Chocolate Ale product recall demonstrates:
Leadership Lesson #2: When You Say You're Sorry, Mean It
Don't Cram Rehearsed Corporate Management-Speak / Public Relations-Speak Down Our Throats. Julie's presentation included the following YouTube video with John McDonald, Founder and President of Boulevard Brewing Company, and Steven Pauwels, Boulevard's Head Brewmaster:
Why This Apology Is Genuine. Why It Is Human. I asked Julie whose idea was it to produce and publish this video on the Internet. She said it was hers. And, she convinced Boulevard's top two leaders of immediately and publicly addressing this communications crisis.
"Speak From Your Hearts." The reason why this video resonates with me and Boulevard's many fans is because it's genuine. Julie told me McDonald and Pauwels did this video without a script.
Her only instruction: "I need you guys to speak from your hearts."
If Boulevard's fans and consumers don't consider this video a genuine and heartfelt apology (and it comes from the firm's highest leadership), I don't know what is.
Every Fortune 500 CEO in America could learn from McDonald's and Pauwels' plain-spoken example to inform its consumers of bad news (and the subsequent actions to make things right).
Weldon talked about Johnson & Johnson's apology and how it was working to regain consumer trust in May 2011 during an interview with Geoff Colvin, Senior Editor-at-Large of Fortune Magazine. Unfortunately, repeated and multiple product recalls over a two-year period upended Mr. Weldon's otherwise outstanding career (he was regarded as one of the most respected leaders in the pharmaceutical industry before these product recalls):
Closing Thoughts
Pride In Your Organization. Pride in Your Products. Pride in Your Community. Boulevard Brewing Company is a Kansas City Community Crown Jewel. And, I'm proud to not only be a HUGE FAN of their beers but I'm also a HUGE FAN of Julie Weeks and Boulevard's leadership because of their actions.
(Around time stamp :25 of the YouTube Chocolate Ale Announcement from John McDonald) "We're a proud brewery and we want to do the right thing …"
A Vital Kansas City Civic Principle. Boulevard Brewing Company embodies a vital Kansas City civic principle: Kansas City is a proud community built and driven by the resourceful and creative entrepreneurial spirit of people like the John McDonalds, the Henry Blochs, the Ewing Kauffmans, and the J.C. Halls:
And, that entrepreneurial spirit continues to thrive because of the leadership of people like John McDonald, Steven Pauwels, and Julie Weeks.
Hang In There Julie! As I conclude this post, I know Julie Weeks is working today, tomorrow, and how ever long it will take to address the Chocolate Ale situation. She takes TREMENDOUS PRIDE as Boulevard's online ambassador.
Julie, if you see / read / monitor anything remotely negative about Boulevard Brewing Company, please remember these four (4) things:
Your social media friends and colleagues are rooting for you
You're doing a fantastic job as Boulevard's Online Ambassador!
Members of the Social Media ReInvention Blog Community understand I'm an enthusiastic student and fan of David Meerman Scott. In numerous posts, I've referenced David and his latest book, Real Time Marketing & PR.
1. The New Competitive Advantage is Speed & Agility
Leverage and Respond to Real-Time News Events. Companies and individuals who leverage current news events to instantaneously communicate with customers (as these events unfold) hold a distinct competitive advantage over larger, bigger budget rivals. These larger rivals value size and scale (not speed). And, that distinction provides significant opportunity for competitive differentiation.
Real-Time Responsiveness Differentiates Important Service Capabilities. Applications of real-time competitive differentiation include:
Using direct and swift communications in customer service
Preparing for and moving quickly in crisis communications (aka disaster recovery situations)
Developing and testing new products / service offerings
Creating an organizational culture valuing speed and open communications
The Link to Important Business Objectives. All of the aforementioned capabilities achieve one or several of the following business objectives:
Acquiring new customers (e.g., enabiling additional lead generation)
Strengthening existing customer relationships
2. A Mindset of Real-Time Competitiveness
The Real-Time Mindset Means Thinking Differently. Here's my graphical interpretation of David's description of the real-time mindset (page 34):
Blink and You've Lost the Advantage. Gaining (or losing) the competitive advantage depends on WHENyou react/respond to breaking news events. Pages 29 thru 31 explain why ultra-fast, first movers win in real-time deployment:
The Real-Time Marketing & PR Power Law
The Real-Time Law of Law of Normal Distribution
3. Select Your Real-Time Platforms Carefully
Real-Time Differentiation and Capability Isn't Always Obvious – Just Ask Twitter Co-Founder Evan Williams. I conducted a back-of-the-envelope analysis of the real-time tools most often cited in Real-Time Marketing & PR. Hands-down, the real-time winner is Twitter.
"We didn't know what we were at first. I think it's pretty clear now that Twitter is a real-time information network (e.g., any previous confusion about Twitter being a social network or Facebook is now over)."
Throughout his book, David provides several examples describing how Twitter, TweetDeck and HootSuite are used for important real-time functions:
Monitoring conversations
Responding directly to current customers or new, potential customers
Directing Twitter audience members to long form channels (i.e., the company blog or YouTube) for more details
The New Media Life Cycle Helps in Evaluating the Right Real-Time Platforms (and Avoiding the Wrong Ones). Pages 131 to 135 highlight input and data from Andrew Davis, Chief Strategy Officer at Tippingpoint Labs. Davis explains the New Media Life Cycle as the adoption of any platform (blogging, microblogging, photo sharing, or live video streaming) or content distribution channel (YouTube.com, Slideshare.com, Flickr.com, or Twitter.com).
The New Media Life Cycle openly tracks and analyzes an online platform's current life cycle phase in seven (7) distinct phases:
Experiment
Adopt
Gestate
Escalate
Monetize
Consolidate
Maintain
Early Adopters / First Movers Win. Early adopters understand The New Media Life Cycle, and exploit it to their competitive advantage. They know participating early in an emerging social network matters. Page 134 expains the secret to becoming well known on a social media network is to participate in one that's growing quickly, but is still in the early stage. A perfect example is the fast-growing Empire Avenue – The Social Media Exchange.
Remember Second Life? They're not a Real-Time Player (but Twitter is). Tippingpoint Labs and Google Insights provide data driven examples showing why Second Life is already past its prime (page 134). But, Twitter continues growing and is an outstanding real-time platform (page 135).
4. Managing Crisis Communications Means Real-Time Speed
The Money Insights of Real-Time Marketing & PR. The insights shared on crisis communications and disaster recovery are worth the purchase price alone. Why? The situations described in the book can happen to all of us. No one is immune in a digital age.
In my opinion, these sections require careful study:
Chapter 7: Crisis Communications and the Media (pages 71-81)
Chapter 8: What are People Saying About You This Instant? (pages 92-94)
Build Your Media and Journalist Contacts NOW. David explains how too few organizations (particularly the larger ones) fail to build media and journalist relationships before they need them (i.e., contacts with analysts, editors, and reporters).
Credibility and Trust with Media Contacts Requires Time. A communications crisis requires speed and focus (so you have little to no time). In addition, you compound risk by introducing yourself to your media contacts for the first time.
Five Ways to Build Media and Journalist Relationships. Build your media and journalist relationships before you need them. David provides the following suggestions:
Follow the Publications and Its Journalists
Comment on Their Stories and Blog Posts
Introduce Yourself Via Email
Follow Journalists on Twitter and Engage Them in Conversation
Earn Their Respect by Providing Valuable Content and Information (e.g. No Spam)
When Disaster Strikes, Refer to the Real-Time Communications Checklist. David provides a 9-Point Crisis Communications Checklist. All of his suggestions should be implemented before the crisis hits:
Assigning a crisis communications team
Gathering and storing key contact information inside and outside your organization
Delegating who's the organization's lead communicator
Responding through multiple real-time, online channels (i.e., company blog, Twitter, Facebook, etc.)
IMPORTANT: Respond in the same online medium spawning the crisis. If the event happened in YouTube, respond with your own YouTube video.
5. Real-Time Organizations Have Communication Guidelines
Developing Real-Time Communications Guidelines and Roles in Your Organization. Pages 171 -172 provide an 8-Step Checklist for creating and implementing guidelines. In addition on pages 175 – 176, David introduces his take on a new senior executive position: Chief Real Time Communications Officer. On page 176, he explains the job description in a 14-point bulleted list.
IBM, The U.S. Air Force, and Telstra Succeed as Real-Time Communicators. Pages 161 – 173 describe how each organization uses real-time communications, empowers their employees, and publicly shares their guidelines. IBM's guidelines are shared on pages 162 – 170.
Here are hyperlinks and titles of the communications guidelines for these organizations:
Fortune 500 Executives Please Read This Book. Real-Time Marketing & PR is essential and required reading for C-Level executives, communications, marketing, and public relations professionals. As stated earlier, the disaster recovery and crisis communications advice shared makes it a worthwhile investment (especially if you hold that responsibility for a Fortune 500 organization).
Leaders of Small or Medium-Sized Can Outflank the Fortune 500. David describes how small and medium-sized businesses are practicing real-time communications and ringing their respective cash registers. Their commitment to real-time marketing and PR is how they're outflanking their larger Fortune 500 competitors.
Have You Read This Important Book? If you haven't, you're at a key disadvantage relative to competitors. If you have, I'd love to read your comments. Please let me know what you learned (especially the points I failed to capture in this review — there are so many)!
Part 6 of The Business Value Behind Social Media focuses on the use of social media in disaster recovery and crisis communications. Chris Brogan, Charlene Li, David Meerman Scott, and Martin Giles (moderator) discuss how organizations should:
* Respond quickly and use the same online channel in which the event occurs
* Learn from the Motrin Moms and how Johnson & Johnson responded
* Learn from Chris Brogan's personal experience with negative backlash
* Understand United Airlines' poor response to the United Breaks Guitars YouTube Video
The panel's discussion on this topic takes place from 51:04 to 55:32 of the embedded video. Where appropriate, I've also supplemented this post with entries from Open Leadership by Charlene Li and Real Time Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott.
Respond Quickly in the Same Medium Where the Crisis Takes Place
Online Crisis Management Requires Speed (51:25 – 51:47). David emphasizes responding as quickly as possible is crucial. Running your responses through various departments (aka Legal, HR, CFO, etc.) slows things down. The longer you take to respond, the more your organization looks guilty or non-human. Non-responsiveness is quickly interpreted as the typical, corporate "no comment" response.
Respond in the Same Social Media Channel (51:48 – 52:35). If the event occurs in YouTube, publish a YouTube video response to your detractor(s). Issuing a press release as the response is a mistake. If someone writes a blog post criticizing your organization, go directly to that blog and post a comment. Don't make the mistake of conducting a radio interview to tell your side of the story. The response medium counts just as much as your response time.
Chapter 8: What are People Saying About You This Instant
Chapter 9: Tap the Crowd for Quick Action
Learn from the Motrin Moms and How Johnson & Johnson Reponded
Upsetting a Vocal Population Segment (52:36 – 53:12). Chris explains that whether or not the circumstances were right/wrong is not the point. Johnson & Johnson took action because the advertisement garnered a lot of negative attention within the "mommy blogger" community.
Background on Motrin Moms Situation (from pages 231 to 233 of Open Leadership by Charlene Li). In the fall of 2008 McNeil Consumer Healthcare posted a commercial on its motrin.com web site. Charlene points out the advertisement appeared on the site for six weeks with hardly a comment. However, one consumer took offence.
And, that's when all hell broke loose …
How Johnson & Johnson Responded. On pages 232 and 233 of Open Leadership, Charlene writes how Johnson & Johnson admitted its mistake and immediately took the advertisement from its website. It also responded in two social media channels during the event:
Channel #1: The JNJ Corporate Blog.Key marketing executives posted apologies and updates on The JNJBTW blog. Here are links to these posts:
Channel #2: Twitter.One of the marketing VPs reached out to key mommy bloggers on Twitter.
"Real-Time Means Moving in Matters of Minutes Rather Than Hours." This is a paraphrased quote from Marc Monseau, Director of Social Media for Johnson & Johnsonon page 233 of Open Leadership. It underscores the importance of response time and online monitoring. The following quote from Monseau also on page 233 of Open Leadership speaks volumes:
"There are more and more businesses taking a hard look at what they need to structure, to create a program, and at least beginning to listen to the conversation. The Motrin Moms situation really reinforced the importance of starting to really listen and to observe more carefully."
Learn From Chris Brogan's Personal Experience
Background on the Online Situation (53:14 – 53:43).On pages 230 to 232 of his book Trust Agents, Chris describes a social media campaign he participated in with Kmart. This campaign helped Kmart achieve some of its best results in years. However, Chris received significant criticism from the blogger community.
The Source of Criticism: A Sponsored Post Chris Wrote on Kmart's Behalf. On page 231, Julien Smith (Trust Agents co-author), writes: "All sponsored posts had always been disclosed before, but the dollar amounts involved had never been public. In readers' eyes, this somehow crossed the line between social and marketing norms." On page 232, Julien points out the key learning: "In this case, we discovered that there are agreements, often implicit, between people and that these social contracts need to be clear and understood at all times."
Understand United Airlines' Poor Response to "United Breaks Guitars"
In case you haven't seen the United Breaks Guitars Video, here it is:
A Non-Response Makes Your Organization Look Less than Human (53:44 – 54:17). David points out how a lack of responsiveness is perceived as the typical, corporate response of "No Comment." Approximately 10 million views (and counting) of this video occurred. What's worse is United's lack of responsiveness only reinforced the negative portrayal of treating its passengers and their belongings poorly.
United Had No Previous History of Posting Videos on YouTube (54:18 – 55:10). According to Charlene, this is the reason why United decided not to post its own video response. No previous relationship existed on this social media channel so United felt like "it couldn't just show up." However, David disagrees. In his opinion, United should have at least responsed by a blog post or some other social media channel.
Conclusion
When a negative, online event involves your organization, remember three (3) things:
Respond quickly
Publish the response in the SAME online medium where the event took place
At a minimum, execute #1 in at least one relevant social media channel
Is it fair, what happened to United Airlines? Not entirely. But, they executed none of the above. Fair or unfair, the court of public opinion has little sympathy for large corporations when they fail to respond:
COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION Lack of Response + Viral, Social Media Evidence = Guilty
Still, the negative PR impact of this event is inescapable. I can think of approximately 10 million reasons / YouTube views why.
What Do You Think? Thank you for reading this far (if you didn't fall asleep). Please tell me what you think. I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
Humans Are Underrated: What High Achievers Know That Brilliant Machines Never Will by Geoff Colvin is an inspiring book about how and what we can individually do to prepare ourselves and our children for the 21st century workplace revolution happening before our eyes.