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You are so right when you say that building lasting and profitable relationships through social media takes time. But it is time that’s well worth it. I own a website developing business, and one of the services I offer is an internet marketer who is now focusing heavily on social media. I tell my clients not to expect quick results. I liken it to seeing a therapist; you have to put the time and work into it and even then you can’t guarantee results. But what I do promise them is more exposure for their company/business. And exposure on the internet can garner you brand recognition on a world wide level.

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Thanks for the opportunity Albert! I hope the info is useful to your listeners.

The cool threaded Twitter tool I mentioned (but couldn’t remember the name of) was http://tweetree.com/

I would emphasize that TopRank does not promote link purchases for boosting SEO. Even though Google should be able to police it’s own policies on link buying, we believe creative and smart content promotion via online PR efforts can deliver zero risk, high impact, lower cost and longer term benefits than buying links directly. Just wanted to offer that clarification.

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Looking forward to it Al. It will be a real honor to be on the show and even more so to hang out on your 50th birthday. Happy Holidays!

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A tricky subject Albert. I’ve seen quite a few people get the social media bug and ditch their companies at the first opportunity. I’m actually one of them. That’s a danger.

Now I look at my old company and wonder why they weren’t on top of things enough to realize what they missed. It’s not like I was hiding my passion. I used it to be a better employee, up until the day I left. Why didn’t they find a place for me?

You hit the nail on the head. A social media person interfacing with the community is a very, very powerful figure. The only way they can be effective is if they are invested with the power to make changes and be heard. That’s a lot of trust in a single person who may or may not be right about what amounts to a small but vocal percentage of your customers.

Done right, social media acts as a trojan horse, supercharging a company’s employees and building conversations with the customer base. Done wrong, you’re building up the personal brand of a mercenary and paying them to get famous, only to have the walk and have other people wonder why you let them leave.

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I’ve been thinking a lot about where you draw the line between transparency and, as you say, “opening the kimono.” And I think it is possible to be real, authentic and engaging without exposing everything. Good sports analogy.

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Look at Scoble, his work at Microsoft helped the company. Yet, his brand continues to grow because he continues to be active in the community.

Advice to any company, realize your ex-employees are not competitors but potential collaborators, who better to be a customer evangelist.

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I completely agree

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No doubt there will always be a place for MBAs in the large corporates. But in the cut-and-thrust of entrepeneurial start-ups and enterprises, in general, then surely you want people who have learned on the job, sleeves-rolled up, over those with a more classroom-focused training.

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Cool! And I think the long johns would make an excellent gift…

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Great stuff. And this paragraph is just killer:

It’s a person that has been around long enough to know the difference between excellent work from above average, wounded enough to know the obstacles of change, passionate enough to traverse them, frustrated enough by the hypocrisy of the status quo, smart enough to diplomatically unveil it, seasoned enough to appreciate how the world is very different today than 20 years ago, empathic enough to realize that change is difficult, convinced that many institutions are outdated, daring enough to try something unconventional, talented enough to add exceptional value to an already exceptional organization, humble enough to return the value back to the community.

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Great post! McConnell is a brilliant marketer, but obviously hasn’t moved to be a brilliant e-marketer quite yet.

Thanks for the post!!

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Albert, this was a really useful interview and discussion. I will definitely buy the book. I was listening mainly with my condo association board president hat on, thinking of the opportunities for gaining the trust and involvement of homeowners through more transparency, especially in matters of the budget and major expenditures. The Board in the past operated on the philosophy that it held all the power and responsibility, and that homeowners who bothered to attend the Board meetings were merely “audience.” That led to a coup attempt by a group of dissidents, and much needless conflict. My main tactic as the new president has been to invite homeowners into an ongoing conversation. I posted my cell phone number in the elevator and have engaged in fascinating email dialogs with individual owners. This is very doable with just 224 units in the building, but still requires a commitment to respond quickly and fully to all messages.

Thanks for a great episode; I’m glad to see your podcasts arriving more frequently than they did a while back.

Len

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Hi Albert:

You nailed it with this post. Social Media is a misnomer for what we (people) do on the web.

There is all this plumbing out there (internet + devices + apps) that let us do all the things we want to do across the boundaries of time and space. We can editorialize (blog), converse (forums), chat (twitter), get info (google), etc.

But we do all of this for ourselves. We don’t do it for or even really about brands. Brands need to figure out how to add value to the whole ecosystem - rather than trying to sell us stuff.

TO’B

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I admire McConnell. For companies that don’t know how to participate in social media without “hijacking the conversation, thoughts and feelings and monetizing them,” the right thing to do is to stay out.

These companies’ stomping in would destroy the most valuable aspects of friendship and culture that have developed in social media spaces. So, if they don’t know how to do it the way you advocate, it’s best for everyone that they stay out. As a social media user, I would really appreciate that

(nice seeing you at SNCR in Boston!)

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Cool opinion tool!

I wrote a blog yesterday about Motrin, because I’m not offended.: http://liz7.wordpress.com/2008/11/18/motrin-this-mommy-is-not-mad-at-you/

I think it’s pretty goofy of mommy bloggers to get all upset about this. Mom’s should have better things to worry about.

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Albert- The Quick Comments widget is clearly visible on this post. Thanks for testing it, especially on this timely hot topic. I hope people will spread the word and try it out.

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Domo origato, Albert!

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Nice post man i just signed up to flickr to!

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Hi Albert,

I just discovered your podcast and am really enjoying them! The format and content are great.

Considering my admiration, I hate to write on a slightly negative note. I’ve been reading Paul Gillin’s “Secrets of Social Media Marketing” and it is just one of probably many books that discusses Coke’s terrible reaction to the Eepy Bird guys.

“At Coca-Cola headquarters in Atlanta though, the mood wasn’t so exuberant. Coke lawyers fretted about liability problems from amateur chemists trying to duplicate the experiment. When the Journal called for comment, a spokeswoman said the ‘craziness with Mentos…doesn’t fit with the brand personality’ of Coke. ‘We would hope people want to drink [Diet Coke] more than try experiments with it,’ she said.”

Gillin goes on to acknowledge that Coke’s marketers did end up contacting the guys in support but it took several months!

Now, I totally understand Coke’s reticence, but to hear Mike talk as he did on your podcast struck me as, at best, insincere. It sounded as though they’d been on board from the start and really promoted it. I believe at one point he clarifies that Coke did not, in fact, compel the Eepy Bird guys to do this in the first place! That sounds like an arrogant re-writing of history to me.

I think you did a great job speaking with him and I understand if you didn’t want to get into the weeds. But I did want to leave a comment about it too. For Mike, a guy who claimed to understand social media, yet still threw in Coke’s tagline in seemingly every other sentence…something sounded off to me.

Again, that’s just my opinion; I may be wrong about the whole thing. But this comment aside, again, I am really enjoying the podcasts. Keep up the good work!

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I think the evidence suggests that the new social media will be something different than a series of new spammable channels. After all, it’s easy enough to tune the spammers out — disinvite them, ignore them, not follow them. We will only pay attention to those we want to so one has to offer something that’s worthy of our attention.

I also think GC’s comments about generational differences are interesting. I’m just wondering if there’s a downside to a generation (or cohort) that spends so much time tuned into the voice of the crowd. I suspect that’s just the nature of the emerging “civic” generation, but every generation has its limitations. Is there a danger in becoming excessively other directed? Will we lose our ability to think original thoughts and be skeptical toward poor ones? Something to think about anyway.

Britton Manasco
Illuminating the Future

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Great topic - these are big questions. I have two thoughts on your idea about “the transformation that social media can bring”. On the one hand, we have a new communications medium, the social web, with new capabilities and characteristics that (like any other new technology) can impact society. The unique characteristics of the social web has caused a shift in the control of messages from institutions to communities, for example. On the other hand, we have human behavior or human nature is not as easily changed. What I find interesting about social media is that there is both a technological change and a cultural change taking place at the same time. Transparency and authenticity are values that are on the increase. Is social media responsible for this (is there a causal link)? Or is this a wider cultural shift already underway and we are simply seeing it reflected in social media which is acting as an enabler? Either way, social media is transformational.

I do think, however, that transparency will increasingly be practiced by businesses while keeping in mind the “detractors waiting in the wings” as you say. Yes, the actions of detractors can create, to some extend, that “kind of environment defeats the purpose of transparency”, but leading corporations in the space are proving that the benefits outweigh the risks, particularly when it comes to engaging with customers online.

I think any company who treats the “social stuff” as just another channel (like Direct mail or email marketing) will find that they will encounter the same levels of ineffectiveness, or maybe worse, because this channel does talk back. For companies who are genuinely engaging online, it is working (for them and their customers).

Marcel

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I think the point is, whether marketing departments do this themselves or outsource it to someone who has the skill set to tell stories exceptionally well, marketers and communicators need to start to make this approach part of their work.

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Interesting. I’m not sure whether it makes sense for marketing departments to turn themselves into newsrooms, however. It comes down to whether they can build the skill sets to make this a core competency. In many cases, it may make sense to outsource these (or many of these) activities to a specialist who can develop the content and/or manage these proliferating media. What do you think?

Britton Manasco
Illuminating the Future

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Don and Lucretia, thanks for the comments.

Don - blogging about blogging, no echo. Ageed that for me it’s about getting passionate people that are free to write what they believe. I think the key for blogging is candor, and a company that is willing to listen. Once that is achieved, people still need to make a living. Some how we got to a point where money = dishonesty. So if I’m telling you about a product I like it is more honest than if I worked for that company. What about a person that works for a non-profit community outreach group? They get paid as an employee, does that make them less honest, trustworthy?

Lucretia - Amen to marketing changing to accommodate the uniqueness of social media and a changing public. For me the beauty of social media as a movement is creating an environment for learning about other anything, other political perspectives, other human experiences, other subjects. This is done in a way, where there is less desire to sell something, and more a desire to share something. That may be subtle, perhaps lost on some, but for me it is a huge difference in the way we communicate as individuals and as organizations, be they government, private sector, or non-profits .

All the best to you both

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thanks for the comment and you are right about user content that is not monitored, transparency does not give the right to yell fire in a theater or litter a site with rumor. This is insightful and what makes you Loveable Rogue

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