Chip Griffin: Pardon the Disruption

Shel Israel and Josh Bernoff are Both Right -- And Wrong

Purist versus corporatist. That's what Shel Israel and Josh Bernoff are arguing about right now. Josh says that neither side will prevail, but rather some hybrid of the two will result.

So it is no sin to conceive, create, and deploy a corporate social application. If you have a clear objective and can measure it, you are even likely to succeed. Just recognize that you must start from authenticity, it's a dialogue, and that the social world cannot be controlled. The companies I work with are starting to do this. It's not impossible -- in fact, it's the beginning of an incredible transformation. And their participation won't kill the groundswell, it will make it richer.

Likely so, though I think he overlooks the most compelling reason which I will discuss below. But my friend Shel disagrees:

If his implication is that corporations can treat social media as another traditional brand extender, as another place to push messages into the foreheads of people who do not want them, I agree that companies are free to try.

But I think it's bad advice. It just will not work. It's not about purism. It's about pragmatism. 

And he's right, too ... except only as it applies to people like us. What all of us who effectively act as social media evangelists must understand is we are not normal. An absurdly small minority of the American public has any desire to join in the "naked conversations" popularized by Shel and Robert Scoble.

That doesn't mean that authenticity and listening aren't important. Clearly they are. But a significant portion of consumers are just fine with marketing. They may say they dislike it, just as they say they hate "negative" political advertising, but the bottom line is that both work. And that isn't going to change anytime soon.

Look beyond your immediate circle and find out how many people you know regularly participate in the "conversation" by posting reviews, commenting on blogs, or creating social media themselves. It just isn't that large a number. What we all create will certainly be read by a number of people, but it is likely that corporate marketing messages will continue to be seen by more people for the foreseeable future.

Think about your own activities. Do you turn to social media before buying cereal or shampoo or clothing? Or are you more likely to respond to advertising and other corporate messaging? Chances are, you respond to marketing yourself on a daily basis, perhaps without even knowing it.

And despite the distaste so many proclaim for TV advertising and the proclamations that the medium is dead thanks to Tivo and other DVR's, the fact is that we all still hear and often discuss advertising marketing messages. They still seep through.

Companies should continue to take social media seriously, however, because those who have chosen to join the conversation are likely to be more vocal and cultivate an important audience for or against a product. But the significance of these conversations are still at their very earliest stages. Despite widespread dissatisfaction with Wal-Mart and its policies online, millions of people still shop there and the company remains successful. Strong disapproval of Target's approach to bloggers brought some calls to boycott the company, but I don't see the lines getting any shorter there. When I used to frequent woodworking message boards, there was great disdain for Home Depot (referred to frequently as the BORG -- big organge retail giant) yet it, too, keeps on selling to the vast majority of consumers.

For smaller brands, the impact can be more immediate. Certainly in my own companies I have seen the value of participating in the social media conversation. And the significance will likely grow over time, even for the larger brands. But ultimately there will still remain a place for more controlled marketing.

The RSS Kool Aid is Great, but Don't Forget Email

Those of us who consume the social media Kool Aid think that RSS is where it's all at.  According to Google: "From your 267 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 11,381 items, starred 60 items, and shared 167 items."  And all of this is possible because of the wonders of RSS.  I am effortlessly able to receive and organize all of this information and digest it in a reasonable time.  It would be much harder to do this by email and impossible to do it by surfing to web sites.

But many of us must remember that we live inside a bubble.  Not one that's going to burst like that Internet economic one did in 2000, but one that sometimes prevents us from understanding the rest of the world.  This is a point I harp on -- partially to keep myself grounded but also because I see far too many people in the Web 2.0 space overlooking the fact that not everyone is like us.

This point was driven home solidly this week when I read the results of Rafat Ali's PaidContent survey of readers.  Below is the breakdown for how people consume the site's information, according to the survey:

E-mail newsletter: 42%
Paidcontent.org website: 34%
RSS Reader: 19%
Mobile Device: 4%

Three-quarters of those who read PaidContent's excellent news and information do so by very traditional means -- email and web site.  Less than 25 percent use more cutting edge tools like RSS or mobile devices.  And this isn't the New York Times we're talking about, but rather one of the leading blogs in the technology and media industry. 

So don't turn a blind eye toward email.  RSS is great, but email remains vital.

Technorati tags: RSS, feeds, email, marketing, subscriptions, blogging, Rafat Ali, PaidContent, survey, research, Google Reader

Drobo Takes Off - Yet Another Example of Buzz at Work

I had never heard any talk of a hard drive storage solution called Drobo until today.  And suddenly it seems to be everywhere.  Sal Cangeloso offers a good rundown of the story. 

I'm in the market for something like this right now since I can't help myself as far as doing podcasts goes.  Plus I'm experimenting with some video and still photography stuff at the moment, mostly to learn, but who knows where it may lead?  All of this takes a ton of disk space.  So the story appealed to me.

But it also shows yet again how quickly stories can take off in the blogosphere and how much we all can act as an echo chamber for each other from time to time.

Technorati tags: Drobo, Sal Cangeloso, buzz marketing

Doing Second Life Right

Mitch Joel offers up a post today on examples of some marketers he thinks are doing Second Life right.  He sees a shift from the "build it and they will come" philosophy to one in which companies seek to engage consumers in the Second Life experience through contests and other activities.

In the past couple of weeks it would seem like Marketers are starting to understand the power of marketing in Second Life and other virtual worlds. My main contention with previous Second Life marketing initiatives was that brands were entering the Metaverse, buying islands and were then “open for business.” It became apparent – quickly – that the Field Of Dreams model of, “build it and they will come” was not the ideal execution. We’ve seen countless islands that are now abandoned and seem more appropriate for a Discovery Channel documentary on lost civilizations then in the still-buzzing hype of Second Life.

Singled out for credit are Coke's Virtual Thirst campaign being run by crayon and an avatar creation contest by fashion company Lacoste.

Mitch concludes:

Both examples seem simple enough… and that’s the point. Second Life is complicated enough, so the big Marketing lesson is to leverage the Second Life community, make it easy to enter and fun to win. It also helps that both of these examples enable non-Second Life residents to take part and get interested. This has remarkable strategic by-products: it may well be that what Lacoste and Coke are doing in Second Life will stimulate people who never would have entered the Metaverse to take a look, and – hopefully – try out virtual worlds.

Second Life marketing is coming of age… and this is just the beginning.

I'm still not convinced about Second Life as a marketing vehicle.  I do participate in the weekly Coffee with Crayon event where about 30 online marketers get together inside Second Life to chat about issues of the day.  And I do feel like I get value out of it.  But it also feels a bit clunky to me and I can already sense the novelty of commenting on the style and appearance of others' avatars is wearing thin.  In many respects, I feel like I've turned the clock back 10 years to when I used to organize online chats. 

Perhaps what concerns me most is that there seems to be relatively little discussion of outcomes.  I believe that Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson did touch briefly on the ROI potential of Virtual Thirst on a recent episode of For Immediate Release, but in general I think companies need to do a better job of thinking through what they want to accomplish by participating in Second Life and then subsequently monitoring and measuring to see if those goals -- whatever they may be -- are being achieved.

Technorati tags: Mitch Joel, Second Life, ROI, crayon, Virtual Thirst, Lacoste, Shel Holtz, Nevill Hobson, For Immediate Release, virtual worlds

You Can't Really Know It If You Don't Do It

Some great advice from Charlie O'Donnell:

I think marketing & PR firms, VC firms, anyone who has any kind of business interest whatsover in social media needs to mandate that the decision makers on your staff, right on up to the top, all "walk the floor".   Maybe Fridays should be "social media days" where the whole office plays in MySpace, Second Life, blogs, plays World of Warcraft, Twitters, etc...   Like Google's 20% time.  Take some Flickr photos, poke some people in Facebook...   

I'm not sure an entire day every week is required -- I think that depends on precisely how social media fits into your company and job.  But I do believe it needs to be a significant investment by everyone involved.  More important, it shouldn't be mandatory.  If employees aren't interested in social media and inclined to use it of their own volition, they may not be the best fit for a social media-focused company or job position.

This is the same reason why most managers and coaches are ex-baseball players.  It's hard to coach a team if you haven't been there yourself.

(via Brian Oberkirch)

Technorati tags: socia media, employees, employee training, Charlie O'Donnell, Brian Oberkirch

A New Kind of Book Promotion

At the behest of Bryan Person, I attended a social media meetup last night in Boston in promotion of the book "The Strategy Paradox" by Michael Raynor of Deloitte Consulting.  Organized by Eli Singer out of Toronto, it offered a whole new way to promote a book.  It wasn't a typical book event where the author stands up and spouts on about (or worse, reads from) the book.  Rather the focus was on social interaction among the attendees and with the author.

Everyone in attendance got a book and was encouraged to talk with each other.  The interaction was partly about the book and partly about meeting new people or reconnecting with old friends.  But for the 30 or so people who came, there's little doubt that everyone had a thought or two about the book itself.

The author, Michael Raynor, did get up to speak about an hour into the event, but it was for only about 5 minutes.  And rather than having everyone subjected to the Q&A (which at most such events often ends up being more about the questions than the answers -- for some reason far too many attendees like to hear themselves talk), the focus was on having people approach the author for more discussion afterward.

Hopefully others will try similar events to promote their books to bloggers and podcasters.  It was a very pleasant environment to learn more about this book. 

My primary suggestion for improvement would be that organizers should do a better job of educating attendees about the book in advance.  I didn't feel I was prepared enough to do an intelligent podcast interview, so I will wait until I have read the book and am able to do a meaningful Q&A by phone instead.

I suggested to the organizers at the end of the event that in the future they consider distributing a short book summary -- something like a Cliff's notes or a Executive Book Summary style report that would help prepare the bloggers and podcasters in attendance.

Overall, though, a very successful event and certainly one that opened my eyes to this book.  I might have read it and reviewed it even without this event, but now I am much more likely to do so.

And as a bonus, I got to meet a lot of interesting people and learned a good deal.

UPDATE: Paul Gillin and Bryan Person have both posted their own views of the event.  Paul says he's going to keep it in mind when he starts promoting his own book shortly.  He also made the interesting point that a significant number of attendees were self-employed.  Bryan will also be covering this in an upcoming episode of his NewCommRoad podcast.

Technorati tags: Strategy Paradox, Michael Raynor, Eli Singer, Bryan Person, BryPer, books, Deloitte, social media, marketing, book promotion

Build It And They Will Come vs. Sell, Sell, Sell

OK, that's not really a fair way to characterize it.  But Ian Muir, one of the developers at CustomScoop, poses an interesting question and starts a thoughtful dialogue:

What’s more important; making money or making good software?

In the comments, I argue that it isn't really an either/or question:

Sales and product are very much interdependent. You simply cannot have one without the other. Even the best salesperson can’t acquire — and as important, keep — clients if a product stinks. And no matter how good a product you create, there are precious few examples where companies have successfully followed the Field of Dreams style “build it and they will come” philosophy.

But there's a lot more to the discussion, so I encourage you to check it out and leave your thoughts over on Ian's blog.  Since I blog about the interesection of marketing/PR and technology/innovation, I find it to be an especially intersting topic, and I think you will too.

Technorati tags: Ian Muir, CustomScoop, sales, product development, marketing, management

Rackspace Goes the Extra Mile -- Actually 2,086 of Them -- For Customer Service

I started using Rackspace back in 2000.  At the time, they were basically a startup managed hosting company.  Today, they are an industry leader.  Over the years, virtually every company I have been involved with as a founder, investor or consultant has used them.

Throughout that time, they have always gone the extra mile for customer service.  But they impressed me -- and I know the tech team at CustomScoop -- when they came for an on-site visit.  That's 2,086 miles from San Antonio, TX to Concord, NH. 

Now, I know that they were in the area for other meetings.  And I realize we're a decent-sized customer, though I doubt anywhere near their largest.  The fact that they sent two people for several hours was a great gesture that I know was appreciated.

One of the members of the CustomScoop tech team, Ian Muir, blogged about the experience and the importance of connecting with customers generally:

Most companies may send an occasional e-mail or make a monthly phone call, but there are a few that really go the extra mile. This meeting is just one example of how Rackspace has exemplified good customer service. We’re always working with the same team and their support is always prompt and helpful. They also take measures like these meetings to stay connected and make sure that our needs are met proactively.

I don't mean for this post to sound like an ad for Rackspace, but if it does, so be it.  They've been great to us over the years, and I wanted to take this opportunity to offer them a tip of my cowboy hat to them.  (The hat, after all, was a gift during a Rackspace customer appreciation event I attended in San Antonio years ago.)

I can only hope that our customers feel as strongly about us as I do about Rackspace.

NON-DISCLOSURE: I don't get compensated by Rackspace in any way.  In fact, my companies pay them a tidy sum of money each month. 

Technorati tags: Rackspace, customer service, Ian Muir, CustomScoop

A $30 Million Problem

I promise to leave the JetBlue thing alone after this.  Probably.  I've already whacked them and praised them.  And now I'm simply sharing what Bulldog Reporter says:

The chief executive of JetBlue Airways said this week that reimbursing passengers stuck on about 1,000 delayed flights and updating its operations to prevent further problems could cost the airline $30 million or more, MSNBC reports.

"It's going to be very expensive," CEO David Neeleman said in an interview on NBC's "Today" show. "I don't have the final number, but it's going to be maybe $20 million or $30 million and maybe a little bit higher."

This clearly demonstrates the importance of solid and timely crisis communications.

Technorati tags: JetBlue, crisis, crisis communications, Bulldog Reporter

JetBlue Turning It Around

What a difference a day makes.  Yesterday, I had JetBlue up against the ropes.  Like a prize fighter, under the leadership of David Neeleman, they are fighting their way back to the center of the ring.

Brad Feld point early in the day to a New York Times article:

In this article, Neeleman shows he is very aware how badly JetBlue has screwed up dealing with this situation.  The article states “Mr. Neeleman said he would enact what he called a customer bill of rights that would financially penalize JetBlue — and reward passengers — for any repeat of the current upheaval. He said he would propose a plan to pay customers, after some amount of time, by the hour for being stranded on a plane.”

In addition to finally speaking up, Neeleman is quoted as saying “I can flap my lips all I want. Talk is cheap. Watch us.”

Shel Holz praises the company for effectively saying "I'm sorry" and notes it is one of the hardest things for companies to say (for legal and other reasons).  More Shel:

A typical corporate response would have said, “JetBlue regretss any inconvenience the storm in New York may have caused passengers.”

What the spokesperson said was that JetBlue apologizes, adding, “What happened last Wednesday was totally unacceptable.”

Totally. How human.

The other Shel, Shel Israel, also weighed in generally favorably.  He says, "JetBlue may not blog, but it is transparent."  He also lauds Neeleman for overcoming likely pressure from the lawyers and speaking clearly.  Note also what he says about blogs:

This is transparency and it is a case study for how a CEO can use it. Using a blog would have been a better communications tool, but I think it's important to remember that like a hammer, a blog is just a tool.

JetBlue has sinned, it has suffered and it has repented.  The guy at the top probably ignored a whole bevy of lawyers telling him not to admit any kind of culpability. He says they'll do better and next time the suffering passengers will be compensated.

The point about a blog being a tool and not an end in itself is one that I like seeing made in the blogosphere.  I sometimes think we bloggers take our medium a little too seriously sometimes and are too quick to dismiss those who don't blog.

In any event, kudos to David Neeleman for providing the necessary leadership to again put JetBlue in a favorable light.  Though I have never been able to fly the airline (my routes tend to take me on USAir most often and Manchester, NH is not served by JetBlue), I am hopeful that their promised passenger bill of rights will eventually spill over to competitors.  As someone who takes nearly 100 flights a year, anything that can improve service and reliability would be welcome.

Technorati tags: Brad Feld, Shel Holz, Shel Israel, JetBlue, David Neeleman