Series: Social Media «

Who Is Hacking Your Culture?

by Jay Deragon on 07/05/2010

This entry is part 43 of 43 in the series Social Media

The social technology landscape is evolving at an ever-increasing rate, with security, compliance, and the expanding utility of mobile devices all being in the forefront in 2010. With the exploding technology advances comes new challenges for organizations.

Social technology creates changes in process, technology and people. Constraint to successful change are usually not with the technology and methodology. Rather, the direct cause for “failure” is the human and organizational response to change. People don’t resist change they resist being changed.

Historically the change management strategies adopted by many businesses are focused almost entirely on development of new documentation of procedures and training of personnel on the new changes. The irony of historical approaches to change has been top down while the driving forces of change are bottom up. Again, people don’t resist change they resist being changed.

The knowledge of what needs to change and how to make the change is no longer contained by the few rather it rest with the many.

The Crowd is The Change Agent

Change Agents, the people who are passionate about change and have the influence to insure that changes are acted on not just talked about . Who are these people? You’d be surprised to find out that they are everywhere in and outside the organization. There is a pent up demand for change in society and people want things to change from business as usual to unusual. The change agents are self organized “nodes” inside and outside the traditional organizational structure.

For organizations with strong cultures, any change that runs counter to that culture will have additional barriers to success. Unless the culture can change it will be a barrier to any change required or requested by and for the people.

The critical lesson, however, is that change is not an “add-on” or separate activity from the rest of operational activities. Change is the new imperative for all cultures, inside and outside your organization.

In case you didn’t realize your culture is being hacked while you read this post. Watch the video below and consider tapping into hackers.

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BP, Media & The Rippling Effects

by Jay Deragon on 06/14/2010

This entry is part 42 of 43 in the series Social Media

The rippling effect of media can create unintended consequences. Now with social media those consequences can be accelerated and most people engaging do not think about the related implications.

The ripple effect is a term used to describe a situation where communications are dropped into the social sphere and a momentum builds outwards exponentially.

In sociology, it can be observed how social interactions can affect situations not directly related to the first interaction.

BP’s Disaster and the Media Frenzy

You’d have to live in a cave to not be aware of how the “media” is piling on the BP disaster with blame being pointed everywhere. While there is no doubt the BP’s leadership was and is a sleep at the wheel, both before and after the spill, pointing fingers and spinning the media does not solve the problem, it makes it worse. Add the impact of “social media” to the spinning, disgust, anger and outrage over BP’s actions, or lack thereof, and you have a Tsunami of negative sentiment towards BP. This sentiment is destroying more value than the cost of the destruction caused by the oil spill.

Spinning Out of Control?

The ripple effects of nonstop negative sentiment towards BP are now reaching a wave. On YouTube making fun of BP’s handling of the disaster has roughly 1,000,000 views and growing. The @BPGlobalPR twitter account (not an official BP account) has over 150,000 followers and growing with nonstop satire making fun of BP. Everyday the main street media publishes stories and broadcast propagating negative sentiments towards BP. The President of the United States says he has his “foot on their neck and intends on kicking their ass”. So what does all this media create? Consider the rippling effects:

BP’s stock price has dropped over 50% since the disaster. This drop and future cost, if not bankruptcy, will ripple through the global economy hurting over 18 million personal and institutional retirement accounts representing hundreds of billions of economic loss.
The compensation to victims will reach billions of dollars and the supply chain of those affected grows daily. The supply of money for compensation is being choked by bureaucratic delays and politics as usual. Media everywhere highlights these delays.
The clean up cost will reach billions of dollars and go on for years.
The US Government has stopped all new off shore drilling causing more economic loss to other companies and the employees that work for them ($Billions).
Foreign ships with innovative tools for cleaning up the spill are blocked from entering the gulf due to government policies dating back to the 1930′s.
The cost of oil will likely go up causing consumer prices at the pump to go up affecting everyone….trillions over time.

Are They Getting What They Deserve? Then So Will We!

No one would deny BP’s total mismanagement of related risk of drilling in the gulf and the mismanagement of this disaster. No one would also deny our own governments mismanagement of the same issues. So blaming everyone and anyone isn’t creating remedy to the problem rather it is only making it worse due to the rippling effects of all related media.

We can prosecute BP CEO Tony Hayward and the entire company. In the end we are prosecuting innocent victims whose life and livelihood are tied to BP and this disaster. The innocent people are all of us so lets focus on solutions and not the consistent problems created by BP and our government.

The first solution would be a demand from we the people ordering BP and our government to simply get out-of-the-way and let the people solve the problems. What would be the next solution? Actions and innovation from the crowd without bureaucratic delay. The inertia and bureaucratic delays to solutions being suggested by the crowd is the current barrier to action and solutions.

Appropriate actions and innovation would turn the rippling effect of media into propagation of the “people’s” solution. Otherwise the current rippling effect will become a wave of destruction bigger than the current disaster.

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Is Your Social Light On?

by Jay Deragon on 05/31/2010

This entry is part 41 of 43 in the series Social Media

Usually when lights are turned on we can see better. Ever tried finding something in the dark? The purpose of light is to help see or show that which we cannot see in the dark.

All things social can shed light as well as lead people into darkness. The light of discovering truths, innovation, relevant relations and opportunities to serve others is like a warm ray of sunshine in the spring. On the other side is the sense of darkness brought on by discovering people and institutions attempting to manipulate people for selfish gains. The world of social illustrates both light and darkness indicated by peoples intent and relevant behavior on-line and off. Light and darkness are both transparent to the human soul but sometimes our souls are confused by our own selfish aims.

The Light of Personal Excellence

EM writes: Where does excellence start if not within us? My central tenet is to focus on what I can do but not as an example to serve for others but to pursue excellence because it is the road less traveled. I care about this world so whatever a particular nation has lost another has gained, and my spirit is to see where people have got it right, where things are working. I don’t want to master failure but learn from my own failure. This means that by observing what others do wrong does not serve me particularly well, for how much “warning” do I need to understand what a warning is

Instead I look for the good in myself and because I have in charge of myself, just as Victor Frankl saw what the search for meaning was, I can take responsibility for the one person I can change in this world, namely myself. In this age of increasing self-service, one would like to think that others would do likewise but I would have an agenda or be selfish if I thought that my work was changing others. Unless someone really wants to change and that change is something they will take responsibility for, how others conduct their life is their personal business.

We are are an attention seeking celebrity filled nation and that kind of following does not serve me at all. There is a greatness in fame when what we are famous for is our integrity and sense of honor but above all our ability to learn from our own mistakes.

It is my life, it is the only one I will ever have and I thank G-d that I have access to resources that make me a better person for it. This is the only truth that really matters, that I know myself and I serve others more wisely because I have done my work and recognized truths that are only mine to recognize.

If I understand this much then the Sermon on the Mount takes on even greater significance and I read it as a Truth and not as preaching to the masses or the world. My truth begins with knowing my humility and this humility is still a work-in-progress.

The Social Light Is A Strong Force of Change

All things social are creating significant forces of change. Businesses and people are learning hard lessons from using social in selfish ways. The opposite is also true. Many are learning to use social to see, hear and reflect on things they and their organizations must change to better serve others.

Understanding what must change within us enables us to better serve others seeking change from within. Change comes from gaining new knowledge about ourselves and the world we live in. All things social enable us to find knowledge necessary to change. That is if we are seeking the light and not being confused by the darkness. Is your light on?

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Ripple Effects of Social Acumen

by Jay Deragon on 01/28/2010

This entry is part 1 of 43 in the series Social Media

Being and using social has a ripple effect. The ripple effect in sociology can be observed how social interactions can affect situations not directly related to the initial interaction. Social technology fuels activities where information can be disseminated and passed from community to community to broaden it’s impact. The source of information being propagated is people, individuals and organizations using people to propagate information.

Quality of Information Reflects Acumen

An important element of individual and organizational ability to build productive market relations is the possession of social acumen that supports effective communication and relationships. Acumen implies a keen understanding of a subject matter or knowledge set required to accomplish a goal. The new dynamics of the social web is accelerating organizational and individual needs to gain social acumen. Social acumen reflects a keen understanding of the dynamics caused by interactive communications and relational connectivity fueled by social technologies and the subsequent impact on business as unusual.

Effective communication skills and productive relationships go hand in hand to producing positive results. The skills required for organizations and individuals to understand the significance of making connections through effective communications are uncommon vs. common in the marketplace .This is transparent when you consider the use of Twitter with 80% of the information propagated is neither effective nor relational. This is also transparent in how brands use social media and media in general. A rejection rate of “social ads” on Facebook being 96%+ suggest how ineffective and non relational these communications are in today’s “connected marketplace”.

Organizational and Community Acumen

Organizations need to understand that the very nature of social technology supports a collaborative culture, facilitated by effective communication dynamics, and builds upon a shared and open vision of “collaborating and learning together”. Ensuring functional relationships is critical for any business or individual to interact effectively with any marketplace. The social web is redefining the elements of what is and isn’t a functional relationship.

What Are Functional Relationships?

Functional relationships are formed by communicating a shared vision and values. From common vision and values communications flow productively towards a common defined as well as undefined goal. Just observe how communications on Twitter flow and migrate to others who have common visions and value that relate to any specific topic being shared. These common communications create a sense of shared vision and values which form a sense of shared ownership of the possible outcomes. This dynamic strengthens relationships and contributes to a sharing culture that is productive and is self lead.

It is the new paradigm of “virtual organizations” forming on the web without organization that is usual to traditional business mindsets. The organization of relationships created from communications that reflect shared values and vision becomes the new organization without authority in the traditional sense.

The Ripple Effects of Social Acumen

The self organized organizations naturally communicate values and vision that are transparent, authentic, and consistent with decisions to participate and the subsequent related actions. Have you seen how quickly people get organized around a cause, a message or issue of importance to the “crowd”? Why does this happen? It is because of shared values and visions that are the glue that pulls “crowds together” into organized efforts that are influencing markets, governments and our global society.

It will become more and more important that traditional organizations are able to communicate the value base from which they operate and “connect” with the value base of others who share a common vision. The “ripple effect” of creating social acumen will attract the relevant “crowds” and by contributing positively to their vision and values you will create a “connection” to your business. Unless you have a social acumen you will not be able to connect with the crowds.

Related Blogs

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Who Gives Us The Web?

by Jay Deragon on 12/27/2009

This entry is part 13 of 43 in the series Social Media

Given the rise of social media and user generated content it seems to be influencing brands and agencies to focus the message on us, the user.

Siddarth Raman writes :Yahoo’s changed a lot over the years, from it’s dynamic homepage, which they are now actively marketing to handing over their search to Bing. I still remember Yahoo as that e-mail service which I use occasionally. Yahoo, however is popular in the USA. And Yahoo is all set to change their image globally. We recently wrote about their $100 million campaign to focus on the whole It’s Y!ou theme.

It kicked off the USA on September 28th to a mixed response from different groups of people. In India — today was D-Day, the launch of their campaign. Those who’ve been following the Champions League would notice the promotion give to cricket.yahoo.com.

Ogilvy & Mather is the creative agency for Yahoo! India — the same agency that spawned the ZooZoo ads. In an interview, Nitin Mathur, Director — Marketing, Yahoo! India, explained, “We see this as a mid- to long-term transformation of our brand, which will have marketing programmes running over the next 12-18 months. This brand campaign is actually is a follow up on a lot of new product innovations, which we have launched over the last few months. Our strategy is to build products that are not only ‘open’, ‘social’ and ‘relevant’ to consumers, but also available across devices. The brand campaign is all about how we give you the best of Web and make your Internet more personal to you. It is all about you, the consumer.”

Who Gives Us The Web?

Notice the statement above which says “Our strategy is to build products that are not only ‘open’, ‘social’ and ‘relevant’ to consumers, but also available across devices. The brand campaign is all about how we give you the best of Web and make your Internet more personal to you. It is all about you, the consumer.” I wonder whether Yahoo, or anyone, gives us the best of the web or is it us who creates the best of the web?

Technology providers create utility aimed at enabling users to “create” something with the utility. Technology is exploding from everywhere. From the Giants like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo to the thousands of independent developers who add utility to the likes of Facebook, Twitter and this world of developers is where most of the innovation spawns.

So first comes the technology which enables users, you and me, to create something with the technology. Everything technology provides enables us to create conversational content in many forms. To express ideas, collaborate with hundreds or thousands and move our media anywhere and everywhere.

What the big players want us to do is use their technology to create our content so they can use our content to create their revenue. The revenue they create is primarily from advertising dollars. In case you haven’t noticed those dollars are shrinking fast because we the people are rejecting the ads and accepting conversations instead.

There is a new order of business coming as it relates to monetizing the web. The new order is driven by the creation of value, currency and income from what we do with what we learn from the conversations. How fast is the new order of business emerging? Watch the video below.

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What Does 1,000 Post Get You?

by Jay Deragon on 11/27/2009

This entry is part 2 of 43 in the series Social Media

This is post number 1,000 for this blog. That equals over 500,000 words discussing many topics but all central to the disruptive nature of social technology.

Writing 1,000 articles is like launching 1,000 hot air balloons. Some get attention and some don’t. Some come across as “hot air” while others create value in the content and context of the opinions expressed. Some are crafted well while others are filled with grammar and spelling errors that the “crowd” is keen to point out (and I am improving on this). Some soar across the landscape while others fall to the ground gaining little distance. Overall launching 1,000 post over a three-year period has taught me a lot and provided me with more than expected.

What Have I Learned?

I probably could write another 1,000 post reflecting on what I have learned but instead I’ll give a summary of the most valuable lessons learned.

I am not a professional journalist and my readers don’t care
Social distribution of content is an extremely powerful force that reaches more people than we know and creates an affinity to thoughts, ideas and valuable conversations.
The exchange and referrals from readers is the most important and valuable learning process and the experience accelerates more learning. Learning begets innovative thoughts on the fringe of new discoveries which attracts more readers.
Creating and distributing content is like laying pavement for a road that takes you into the future. You may not know exacting what the future looks like but the conversations will guide you there and the future becomes clearer as does its directional forces.
People are thoughtful, kind and appreciative of conversations they can identify with and the “virtual relationships” become as strong as traditional relations. It is this strength that creates and motivates a never-ending desire to learn about yourself and the quality of the world we create online and off-line.
Conversations create opportunities. Opportunities to apply your skill set to creating value that justifies an economic exchange. Your content establishes the quality of your thinking which reflects your true skill set that others may want to use. We live in a knowledge driven digital economy. Both the knowledge of and effective use of digital wares is what fuels this economy.
Sharing what you learn is a very rewarding experience that helps you learn more.

The Right Kind Of Exposure Fuels Opportunity

Creating the right kind of content exposes you to the world of consumption. If your content is distributed to the right audience and consumed by the right people then opportunity will be attracted to or created for you. Lets look at the exposure created by this blog:

First the numbers. 1,000 post created over 180,000 visitors, over 7,000 comments, over 6,000 retweets, rankings in the top 50,000 sites in the USA and top 100,000 in the world. Traffic created from relative and relevant content creates exposure which begets opportunities.

Besides the numbers there are qualitative gains including: noted as featured blogger in Business Weeks Business Exchange, chosen as Blogger of the month by Social Media Today, ranking in Advertising Age Power 150 and top 100 blogs in The Daily Reviewer, added as a contributing columnist in Personal Branding Magazine, asked to serve on Business Weeks Market Advisory Board, featured blogger at New Media Hires, Content Management Connections and AlwaysOn. Ask to speak at dozens of media events and corporate conferences, produced dozens of videos with Social Media Connections, published two books and five white papers and each has been downloaded over 5,000 times. All of this came as a result of this blog.

So What Is My ROI?

Ah, the ever pervasive question about ROI that seems top of mind for everyone. Let me try and put this into perspective to my experience with this blog.

First of all the above quantitative and qualitative results came from the content and context to specific audiences interested in my perspectives. The content and context created a “pull” which resulted in an ever-growing audience. Subsequently came the qualitative results which produced the exposure this blog received as a result of many distribution points. Thus it started with distributed content which fueled exposure and pulled an audience to the blog and the authors. The process never ends and if it does so will any chance you have for a transaction.

My investment was time, a little technology cost and a lot of thinking about content and context. My return on investment was, is and will continue to be more than I expect because I am developing relations with excellent people and organizations and some of them actually pay me to help them learn what I have learned and apply it to their own business. You ask how much? That’s for me to know and you to learn and create on your own. The rewards have been both qualitative and quantitative. With the greatest reward being valuable relationship that help me continue to learn.

It doesn’t matter whether you offer the market products or services getting results is dependent upon the content, context, the process and the relationships you build.

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Is Social Media Shifting?

by Jay Deragon on 11/18/2009

This entry is part 40 of 43 in the series Social Media

I started examining the phenomena of social technology in 2006 and have watched it shift through different phases. Each phase has brought new meaning and as more and more people engage the dynamics have changed. With rapid adoption and interest people and businesses are learning what,where,when, why and how different markets segments are finding utility and value in its use.

From the early days of chat rooms, Prodigy, “You Got Mail”, Compuserve, Netscape, Instant Messaging, Napster then networks like MySpace, Facebook, Linkedin to blogs and micro-blogs like Twitter and the explosion of mobile technology we the people have just begun to experience the power of being unleashed to connect and communicate like never before. The pull of millions and the early success stories has entire markets trying to figure out how to harness this thing which today is called social media.

What “Shifts” Have Occurred

Shifts represent a systemic change that impacts the behavior of people, industry, institutions, governments and society. A change in behavior creates a demand for change in people, processes, commerce and interactions with markets aiming to serve the demand for change. When the behavior of a market changes everything tied to the market must change or be left behind clinging to the old ways. When the behavior of a market changes suppliers to the market have to adjust to the changes. When change becomes dynamic and frequent markets react rather than think about the implications of the changes and what is likely to happen next. Strategically speaking dynamic and frequent market changes create chaos for the uninformed.

Thinking Ahead Of Change

Before you can apply critical thinking about what will likely change in the future you must put past changes into perspective. In an effort to put past changes into perspective we will provide the following ten summaries:

Market consumption has shifted away from mass media to conversational media
Commerce is moving towards conversational currency and away from traditional market currency
Meaningless and irrelevant chatter is shifting to meaningful and valuable conversations that create the most value
Cultural changes are fueling market changes. The culture of control has shifted to individual control by preference and privileges to communicate
Economics are being disrupted and redefined by the influence of digital economies. Digital economies are fueled by innovation created by the exchange of ideas and collaboration of the many rather than the few.
Business as usual is rapidly being replaced by the unusual. The unusual is driven by participation, freedom of choice and peer influence rather than control and command structures that steal joy of work and experiential learning.
Advertising and marketing methods of the past are no longer relevant. Signs (mass media) are being replaced by conversational influence. Convertising will replace advertising. Trying to converge the old with the new is a waste of time, money and reputation.
Knowledge is in demand. Information overload is clutter. Value creation enabled by knowledge shared is the currency that attracts markets to engage. Pushing your information that is not in context with your markets interest is considered anti-social.
Smart vs. dumb technology is the route to efficiency and effectiveness. Knowing the difference and how to use relevant technology separates the leaders from the followers.
Having and being able to quickly change strategic directions in alignment with the market changes requires a change in strategic thinking. Strategy provides the direction for everything. Not knowing how to think about strategy differently and subsequently being able to execute efficiently means you cannot provide effective organizational direction. Without clear directions in alignment with the market you end up going in the wrong direction.

Each of the ten points above summarizes current shifts that fuel more change. Change in now a constant that is being fueled by the market of conversations. Not grasping these changes and learning to get ahead of them means you cannot find the right directions to get you ahead of the market. Make sense?

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What Will Happen To Business Week?

by Jay Deragon on 11/16/2009

This entry is part 39 of 43 in the series Social Media

McGraw-Hill recently decided to sell Business Week. The buyer is Bloomberg LP but the future of Business Week is in limbo as are the jobs of all that work there. The price has not been disclosed but the value of Business Weeks assets are more than the purchase price. Does Bloomberg LP view the value appropriately?

First Lets Look at Business Week’s History

Business Week is a global source of essential business insight that inspires leaders to turn ideas into action. Through content, context, and collaboration, Business Week moderates global conversations and moves business professionals forward. Founded in 1929 and published by the McGraw-Hill Companies, BusinessWeek magazine is the market leader, with more than 4.7 million readers each week in 140 countries.

BusinessWeek.com (BW.com) was launched on America Online in December 1994, and on the World Wide Web in August 1996. BW.com’s B-Schools Channel won a prestigious National Magazine Award in both 2007 and 2008, for personal service online. BW.com produces much original journalism, with new stories posted multiple times a day, as well as a dozen regular podcasts, 28 staff-written blogs, multimedia slide shows, video reports, and interactive features. BW.com also uses aggregation and Web 2.0 social media to engage its audience in a deep and meaningful way.

Business Exchange. In 2008, BusinessWeek launched the Business Exchange, an innovative online offering that aims to better serve the evolving information needs of business professionals. Delivering to a high-income and highly educated audience, BusinessWeek.com is the preeminent provider of decision-making global business news, information, and services. The site attracts 9.2 million monthly users.

The Attraction

Traffic represents attraction of a market which creates engagement of people and things, a transaction.

Google’s whole economic value is fueled by the hits economy, traffic. While most of the major media has “gone social“ Business Week has went the extra mile with Business Exchange and its strategic alliance with LinkedIn.

As we can see by the above chart Facebook’s traffic pattern demonstrates the highest rate of change compared to Business Week, Wall Street Journal, Twitter and Business Exchange. Facebook’s market cap is now over $10 Billion, Twitters is over $1 Billion as is LinkedIn. However, the value of traffic alone doesn’t show the economic value of quality traffic. What will the Price be for Business Week?

It will be interesting to see how Bloomberg LP values Business Week. It will be even more interesting to see what they do with it. Could Business Week become the “LinkedIn” of business content by vertical market? Should Bloomberg LP also buy LinkedIn and merge them with Business Week to create LinkedIn Business? Business drives commerce. Commerce is what fuels an economy. Business Week’s traffic is centric to business markets learning what is influencing markets and what innovation is on the horizon.

The qualitative value of Business Weeks traffic represents the economic power that fuels our economy. You can’t say the same for Facebook or Twitter.

Comparing Old Media vs. New Media

Lets look at Business Weeks initiative called Business Exchange, a portal of blogs added to a taxonomy of business subjects. Now look at the charts illustrating the growth of Business Exchange. Do you see the obvious? Statistically speaking the growth rate of change for the Business Exchange represents significant value the quality of the traffic creates. Rate of change is the factor of conversational currency. A bank makes money based in the rate of change in interest using other peoples money. Conversational currency drives a rate of change in interest.

Quality traffic precedes relationships and business transactions follow relationships. Business Exchange has grown exponentially because of the quality of media created by business people discussing business issues and not by useless chatter. The journalist from Business Week and elsewhere are learning from the Business Exchange model. Learning is an attraction that pulls markets. Business markets are where transaction happen. Useless chatter doesn’t create economic transactions.

John Byrne’s, Editor in Chief of Business Week, and his team engineered Business Exchange as well as a strategic relationship with Linkedin. The value of Business Week comes from the quality of thinking provided by leadership, management and the staff that supports the enterprise. The quality of Business Week’s content, both on-line and off-line is what provides markets with insights and knowledge.

The debate over the future of publishing and how to create revenue, besides advertising, continues. Since content is an influence over markets maybe a new model will emerge which monetizes information, influence, ideas, talent and conversations. The actions taken by an audience as a result of content that is in context to their wants and needs creates value for a marketplace of consumption. The value of content consumption has yet been quantified, qualified or monetized.

The future of Business Week will defined by the people who lead and manage the “social capital” created by what Business Week has done in the past. Innovation that creates a new economic model for content consumption will likely come from the markets that consume it and the people who manage it. Business Week has the right market, the quality traffic and the right people who can lead it to the next generation. Lets hope that Bloomberg LP sees and understands that it’s the people who create the value. Time will tell.

What’s your opinion?

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What Is Off Line Social Media?

by Jay Deragon on 11/15/2009

This entry is part 38 of 43 in the series Social Media

There is a lot of buzz about online social media and organizations are jumping in to ride the wave hoping to get something, anything and everything. However few people think in terms of social media off line and subsequently do not comprehend what it really is.

I was on a call with a client representative who was trying to sell a prospect on social media. The prospect was talking about using social media to market their business. The representative said “social media is easy and doesn’t cost much and began to leave the wrong impression with the prospect”. After the call I suggested that the client representative not try and sell something that they have no reference to nor enough understanding to effectively inform prospects as to what social media is and isn’t. The client representative responded with “I know what social media is. It is peer to peer endorsements on line used to sell products and services. You try and make it too complicated and your discussion of it is too academic for most people to understand. I can sell social media because I distill it down to a non-academic and understandable level.

Arrogance And Ignorance Are Not “Social”

The client representative with whom I was dealing with has 25 years experience in marketing and has worked for many of the Fortune 500 firms. He believes he understands all things marketing. A likely profile of many marketers trying to use social media to sell something. The illustrated conversation above was off line and the content and context of the conversation illustrated how people who think they know something try and make something understandable without really knowing. Subsequently when trying to sell something you don’t understand you end up misleading others who don’t understand.

The essence of any good conversation, off line or online, is relevant and relative to listening, learning and applying value for the benefit of those engaged. Selling is a relational process and should be aimed at understanding a prospects need before you try and sell them something that doesn’t fulfill the need. Marketing, on the other hand, is a process of leveraging mass media to attract an audience of prospective buyers. Marketing and selling a two distinctively different processes. One focuses on building a relationship based on value while the other focuses on delivering a message to a large audience.

Social Media Is Both Online And Off Line

Social media is both online and off line when you think in terms of building relationships and not in terms of marketing your message. Marketing is a one way messaging channel and social media is a two way communications channel online and off line. The objective of communications is to exchange “conversational value” which both parties, or many, benefit from. Our communications offline can reflect value or not. The same applies to online with the only difference is in reach and impact of communicating.

The current market of “online social media” is rejecting advertising and marketing messages of the past. If 98% of off line ads don’t get any response then why do we think using the same method online will work? If your off line communications doesn’t create value from knowledge then you are not likely going to create valuable relationships that last. If you mislead people about how to use social media by copying what others are saying or doing with it then they and you will become part of the crowd that is being rejected.

Social media is communications. It happens off line and online and the value you create is directly related to what, where, when,how, who and why you communicate. Results come from doing things right and for the right reason. What used to be limited to off line has now converged with online. Don’t believe it? The world does and is trying use it for different purposes. The purpose of communicating has always been and always will be relational, good, bad and indifferent.

Trying to apply old knowledge to knowledge you don’t have can be dangerous.

I hope this was understandable and wasn’t too academic.

What say you?

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Is Your Organization Ready?

by Jay Deragon on 11/12/2009

This entry is part 37 of 43 in the series Social Media

Organizations are jumping into social media without being ready for what might happen. You ask what might happen? A lot of things could happen and many you are not ready to handle.

In order to get ready before you leap you really need to assess whether your organization would be consider “social”. The people who could answer that question best are your employees then your customers. However if you’ve never really asked those people whether you are good at building and keeping relations then you might consider assessing that before you jump into social media.

To assess whether the organization is ready means to check three things that will give you keen insights into whether or not you are ready. These three things include:

People: How do they really feel about their relationship with the organization. People being suppliers, employees, customers and prospects. You might be surprised at what they might say and that is if you are ready to listen.
Process: Your organization has many processes that either enable or constraint people from communicating. How well are those processes performing? How would you know? Your organization also has processes, spoken and unspoken, which say trust, collaboration and the tone of your communications. Do you know what these processes are? What do the processes say to the issues of trust, collaboration and relations?
Culture: The BIG UMBRELLA of stuff that reflects the organizations trust, relations and mind-set that speaks the sentiment of managements view of its people, internal and external.
Tools: Does your organization have the right tools to efficiently and effectively communicate? Does your organization provide people with tools to improve processes, relations and make changes that enhance the culture and its market sentiment? How would you know? Do you know? Not knowing is a clear indicator of not being ready.

Besides understanding the issues of people, process, culture and tools the overriding issue is one of methods. By what methods do you manage, communicate, measure and make needed adjustments? Methods reflect managements knowledge and if you are using the wrong methods well you’ll get the wrong results. The method of management has evolved and is constantly changing with the aim of improvement. When markets shift methods have to change because the old method simply cannot respond or satisfy the market demands.

New Methods Require New Knowledge

You cannot adjust to revolutionary change by applying old thinking. Social technology is changing everything because everything is fueled by communications. Social media is communications but a new method that requires new knowledge if you want to tap into the power of effective and efficient communications. Who and what is communicating to you and about you. Everything and everyone.

This new method is more powerful than any other communications medium in the history of mankind. Why? Because it has reach and influence beyond traditional media and is grounded in trust, relations and honesty. It appeals to the very fabric of human nature and avoids anti-social behavior. Anti-social behavior is when your organization constrains people with bad processes, a closed and controlled culture, a lack of tools to do things right and management methods that lack knowledge and common sense.

You may discount all this and ignore its importance to your performance meaning your bottom line. Then again if you don’t understand these simply things then you are likely to discount them as irrelevant and unimportant to getting you the results you so desperately want. By the way, how are your results? If you want them to improve then you’ll have to change the methods otherwise nothing will improve. Get it?

Listen and Learn: New Media, New Metrics

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