NewCommForum: Closing Keynote by Shel Holtz
The idea of this presentation was to sum up the conference. Shel wanted to put the conference in context and answer open questions that attendees might have.
Shel wanted to know how people planned to keep on top of all of the new "channels" -- the ways in which we can communicate with various publics.
A number of people still don't understand RSS, so Shel tried to make it sound simpler. He calls it an "attention tool." He says companies like Microsoft are moving away from the RSS term and he thinks that will help. Microsoft calls them "webfeeds" in IE7.
There was talk of internal communications and the importance of it. (Shel said his heart remains in employee communications.) Pick tools based on what will help employees be engaged.
Channel Growth. Prior to the 1980s the last major channel development had been television, but the media available remained largely unchanged for decades until cable TV came along. Since then, the Internet and all of the channels of communication available through it have substantially changed the environment. Audiences have fragmented and Shel encourages companies to fragment with them. Target the influencers important to your company.
Newspapers Will Survive. Shel disagreed with other speakers at the conference who thought newspapers were heading toward extinction. He believes (as I do, incidentally) that they will evolve. He notes that there are 30,000 public notice laws in the U.S. that are satisfied with press releases largely to local papers (and that cannot be satisfied through blogs or other media). Blogging is global not local, even though some blogs have more of a local focus.
Broad Themes. Blogs/social media must be part of the mix, but not to the exclusion of all else. They are merely a tool.
Company web sites still matter, but in different ways.
2007 is the year of the widget, according to Shel.
Monitoring Social Media. One of the challenges with social media is keeping tabs on it, but it is becoming easier and easier. Tools used for social media need not add to the amount of time being spent working as they likely shift resources from one lesser value activity to a higher value one.
Selling Management. An audience suggested management may resist social media activities. Shel advises you ask your leaders "what keeps you awake at night?" and then figure out how social media can help solve the problem. Make a business case to business people. Corporate culture may still resist, but it can be overcome.
Live Social Media. The social media universe is massive and includes millions of people and millions of pieces of content. You need to live social media to understand and utilize social media. Use them in your day to day life, not just in business.
Be Ready to Give Up Control. Loss of control is a huge issue. But companies don't really have control now anyway, so don't fret about it. The consumer is not in control, contrary to what a number of speakers said. Rather, nobody has control. To say consumers have control suggests that consumers have banded together in some sort of conspiracy or arrangement.
Content Matters. Content is conversation. Adam Curry predicts in 5 years 50 percent of all content on the web will be consumer generated. For people born after 1980, 62% of the information they consume is created by someone they know personally.
The DIY World. Barriers to entry have crumbled. Easy to create podcasts, vidcasts, blogs. If you have a story to tell, you can get it out. As an example, Shel showed the following highly amusing video about problems with Apple Mac computers:
1/10 Rule. He talks about the fact that 10% of people fully engage with content and 1% create content. From the Citizen Marketers book.
Transparency. Gaming social media will get you in hot water. Fake blogs, identities, etc. are a huge mistake.
Engagement. Handling critical comments on company blogs can be a tricky issue. Each company needs to figure out how to handle ... respond individually or respond in a subsequent post. Being part of the conversation is key. The more open, candid and transparent you are, the better the outcome is likely to be. It will take steam away from critics. Moderating comments will take time.
It's About Strategy. Don't blog, podcast, vidcast, or otherwise engage in social media just for the sake of doing so. They are tools. They need to be part of a plan to be effective.
Where do you think you'll be in 5 years? Ironically, Shel closed the session with this question for the audience. I say it is ironic because he said not 48 hours ago that he's not dumb enough to answer questions like that because he can't predict the future.
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