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Social media

New Voices of Experience: A New Comm Forum Alumni Panel

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Last year after New Comm Forum, it was crystal clear that the most popular sessions were the ones that featured case studies and people’s personal experiences. Of course, a certain amount of teaching-type panels and workshops are necessary at any conference, social media or otherwise, but once we get past the 101 level, we really want to know, what have other people done? What works? What doesn’t?

And it’s even better to hear from the people themselves, not just about them and their projects.

A common criticism of conferences is that it’s always the same speakers,  the same material. I don’t think that’s true of New Comm Forum by any stretch, however, we do have a certain number of repeat players every year because one of the first speaker pools the Society for New Communications Research draws from is its Fellows. Most of whom are great speakers who deliver new content every year.

But…. thinking about both of these dynamics — case studies and new voices — I suggested to executive director Jen McClure that we do an alumni panel at the 08 conference. Recruit speakers who had attended a previous Society event but had never spoken at one, and who had a project from the past 18 months that they would be willing to share.

New Voices of Experience, the panel that resulted from our discussions last spring, will be the Wednesday April 23rd luncheon session at New Comm Forum 08. I’ll be speaking with Doug Bardwell (Forest City Enterprises), Wendy Harman (Red Cross), Bob Siller (Altera) and Chris Turner (Christian Lifeway Resources) about what they learned and how they applied their new knowledge once they were back in the office.

I spoke with the panelists in a conference call last week and am excited about their stories.  Whether you work for a non-profit, B2B or B2C organization, there’s something for everyone. We’ll be talking about everything from social media in internal communications and lead generation to what’s involved when you are trying to introduce social media into an established culture. There will be plenty of time for questions from the floor, and we are  looking forward to an interesting conversation.

As a speaker, I have a very limited number of deeply discounted registrations. Three. If you are interested, email me. First come, first served.

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Shifting gears completely, I’ve decided to move one of the topics I occasionally talk about here to my personal/photo blog Snapshot Chronicles. Specifically, my obsession with certain science fiction television programs — currently Battlestar Galactica, Torchwood and Stargate Atlantis. I’ll still talk about sci fi here when there is a marketing, communications or social media angle. But I’m feeling the need to rant (and rave) more about the programs themselves, and that’s really content that belongs on my personal blog, not my marketing blog. So, never fear, if you are interested in my thoughts on sci fi marketing, you’ll still find them here. If you want to know why I think the PTB made a dreadful mistake in dumping Torri Higginson from Stargate or my speculation on who the final Cylon is, you’ll find that over on Snapshot Chronicles.

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Bloggers & Customer Service: Do blog complaints make a difference?

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"Conventional" social media wisdom would have it that companies need to pay attention to the blogosphere, or risk their brands. For proof, out trots the example of Jeff Jarvis and Dell Hell. Jarvis’ complaints about Dell customer service percolated up to mainstream media and are oft-cited as the impetus behind Dell’s *big* move into social media about a year ago.

Now, you may sense a certain cynical undertone in the above paragraph, and you would be right. While I absolutely believe that companies should be listening to what bloggers — their customers — say, I am regularly provided with proof that either companies aren’t listening or they are, and have no bloody idea what to say, or how to say it, when faced with blogosphere complaints, or compliments, about products and services.

My most recent proof:

Ike Pigott has been tracking the response, or lack thereof, to a post on his blog complimenting Blockbuster on its customer service. He also divined that Canon saw, but did not respond to positive comments about its products.

While I haven’t made quite such a science of it, I have written about customer service on this blog on more than one occasion. Most recently about AAA’s piss-poor performance with my flat tire before Christmas. Any word from AAA? Nope. And I’ve also mentioned my general, and unexepected,  pleasure with Verizon’s support of its cellular customers. On every occasion that I’ve had to call, I’ve been treated well. Most recently by a lovely young lady named Amy who offered a credit on something that had gone wrong before I asked. Any response from Verizon? Nope.

Not to mention my friend Mary Schmidt, whose interactions with American Airlines prove without a shadow of a doubt that the airline just doesn’t get it.

This is by far a scientific survey, which is why I am so pleased that the Society for New Communications Research is working with corporate partner Nuance to understand the extent to which bloggers think their opinions are, or are not, impacting companies. Please take the survey and let us know whether you think Corporate America is listening. SNCR is offering a special discounted registration to New Comm Forum in April for those that complete the survey. Direct link to survey here.

And that, my friends, is well worth it. There’s a great roster of speakers and opportunities to network with other communicators at New Comm Forum. I’m moderating the luncheon keynote on the first day, a panel of conference alumni coming back to tell how they applied what they learned at the conference at their organizations. More on that next week.

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Client News: Maxwell Street Documentary is doing a T-shirt giveaway at the blog Notes of the Urban Blues. It is a very cool shirt. Just tell us about your favorite Blues artist and you can be entered to win.

And please check out the new podcast Business Forward, strategic advice for small and medium businesses, that I am producing for client GuideMark.

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Sundance will be “Electrified”

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I mentioned in last week’s post about Torchwood that I would miss the first episode because I would be at the Sundance Film Festival, and promised more information this week.

I’m going out to the Festival to support a new client, Maxwell Street Documentary, at the premiere of the film, Electrified- The Story of the Maxwell Street Urban Blues.

The film will be launched at a party at Harry O’s in  Park City next Friday January 25th. In addition to the screening of the film, there will be a live performance by acclaimed blues guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd and blues legend Hubert Sumlin. Actor Chevy Chase will be master of ceremonies. Fender has also donated a limited edition “Electrified” guitar that film executive producer Les Walgreen will present  to online auction house Charity Buzz for an auction  to benefit The Center for Environmental Education Online.

I’m doing media/blogger outreach and developing a blog for the film. If you are going to be at Sundance on the 25th and would like to come to the screening, email or Twitter me.

Electrified tells the definitive history of the Chicago blues. Narrated by actor Joe Mantegna, the film chronicles how the urban neighborhood of Maxwell Street created a unique environment of commerce and cooperation that led first to the hard-driving sound of the urban blues, and ultimately to rock and roll. Interviews with many of the legendary bluesmen who “studied at Chicago’s Maxwell Street school of music,” including Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Charlie Musselwhite, Jimmie Lee Robinson and the “father of rock and roll” Bo Diddley, complement the film’s historical narrative and create an exceptional history of this important era in American music.

A companion film, Cheat You Fair: The Story of Maxwell Street, documents the last days of the historic Maxwell Street market. It premiered to critical acclaim at the Chicago International Documentary Film Festival in April 2007, and is scheduled to be shown at the Amnesty International venue at Sundance January 18-20 and the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago on February 2.

Both Electrified and Cheat You Fair were written, directed and produced by longtime Chicago resident  and Emmy nominated producer Phil Ranstrom who began the projects in 1994 shortly before the Maxwell Street market was demolished.

We’ve put some short clips from both films up on YouTube. They are all great, but here are my two favorites:

"We come up the hard way…" Uncle Johnny Williams on how the blues were born

Eddie "Jewtown" Burkes performing "Step It Up And Go"

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Media Bullseye Link Bait

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Chip Griffin published some lovely link bait on Media Bullseye today, and since I think contrarians who have the guts to publish under their real names should be rewarded, I’m biting 🙂

Chip’s thesis is that there are a number of social media "rules" that just don’t make sense. For the most part, I agree.

As I’ve written here many times, to argue that there is only one right way to do something is silly. So while I personally prefer blogs that allow comments and publish RSS feeds, I understand why companies and individuals might choose another path (#1 & 2). Likewise, I’m not terribly fond of anonymous blogs, but realize that there are some situations where anonymity is necessary.

Press releases… Amen, Chip, amen. As I’ve said before, and will again, it isn’t the press release form on its own that engenders the negativity (die press release die.) It is bad, irrelevant pitching. That said, there is a lot of goodness in making the news release more social media friendly and the folks at SHIFT among others deserve kudos for pushing the envelope ( #3 & 4).

Messages. Conversation. Audience. And so on. Chip makes some very good points, and I urge you to read his post with an open mind.

The one point upon which I really disagree is ghostwriting. I do not believe in ghostwriting for blogs.  Sure we know that CEOs and celebrities don’t write their speeches. Talk show hosts don’t write all their own bits. And if you didn’t know this before the WGA strike, I hope you know it now.

If your CEO doesn’t want to blog, fine. There are other ways to bring his or her thoughts to the customers. And other ways for the company to engage. All of which are reasonable approaches.

Hiring someone to ghostwrite a CEO blog is not.

Other than that? Rules are made to be broken. Isn’t that what this social media stuff is all about anyway?

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The Four Ps of Social Media Engagement

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Over the last few weeks, I’ve done a number of new business calls (cross your fingers for me please). Naturally, social media comes up in pretty much every conversation, usually as a response to a request to explain blogging 🙂 so I recently came up with a very simple way to explain the phases of social media engagement. I tried it on a call last night, and it really resonated with the folks I was speaking with, so I thought I’d share it with you. 

Let’s call it the Four Ps of Social Media Engagement, with a nod to the good ole Four Ps of Marketing: Product, Price, Place and Promotion.

First, PREPARE. Before you do anything, you have to listen to your customers, find out what they care about, what they may already be saying about your company, competitors and industry issues. How? Monitor blogs.Listen to podcasts. Join the relevant social networks and groups.

Next, PARTICIPATE. Leave comments on blogs.Share personal experiences. Start twittering. Get to know the people in the community, and give them a chance to know you — as individuals and as representatives of your firms.

Then and only then, should you PUBLISH (a blog, podcast etc.) or PITCH (a program, a product). And of course, all the usual rules still apply here: relevant, authentic, appropriate, honest, respect, etc. etc.

You can start participating simultaneously with publishing a blog or doing blogger outreach, but it’s always better if the first few times people "meet" you, you don’t have an immediate objective. Give first, ask much much much later.

Also, notice that in both Ps, promotion is last, preparation first. And now think about social media programs that have failed. Usually because the promotion preceded the other phases, isn’t it?

I recalled that somewhere, somewhen, I had seen others use the Four Ps metaphor, so to give credit where credit is due, I did an all-tweet to make sure I didn’t unintentionally plagiarize someone. Steve Rubel, Rick Short, and Toby Bloomberg have all used it to discuss the content of a blog, not the phases of engagement. Nathan Gilliat’s Four Ps is somewhat similar to mine and is most likely the one I remembered. His post also links to some other alphabet soup posts for those who like that sort of thing. In that vein, I must give a nod to PR blogger David Wescott’s Three Rs for Blogger Relations and my own Five Cs of Viral Marketing. If you’ve done something similar, please add it in the comments, email or tweet me and I’ll add it to the list.

One company that is doing an excellent job of listening and responding to its small business customers lately is Intuit. I helped out at its Just Start promotion in South Station last month (on a purely volunteer basis), and just wanted to remind my readers that entries for the company’s Just Start contest end this Friday December 15th. If you have a new business idea, it’s worth taking the few minutes to enter the contest for a chance at the $50K prize.

Finally, don’t miss Dilbert has The Knack. Especially if you are an engineer or married to one.

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