MAD Perspectives Blog

I've been thinking about what it means to be authentic.  This is perhaps one of the most overused words of the past few years, particularly as it relates to our use of social media.  Forbes has written about it, raising valid points about whether companies and individuals are truly authentic, or just using social media as another outlet for building their brand. Entrepreneur.com recently wrote about finding your voice (as did we last year!) and aligning with your brand.  And, Social Media Today has curated at least 750 articles that reference the term authentic.

So, I started looking around for a baseline, against which to measure true authenticity. It turns out I didn't need to look too far. The best example of unlimited exuberance, clear intentions, consistent messaging and bountiful joy is my dog. Yes, you read that right, my dog Whisky (and perhaps your dog too!) expresses his brand (a true mutt) in every action he takes. He loves his soft squeaky toys and throws them in front of me to entice me to play with him. Doesn't this sound a bit like tweeting (or is that squeaking)?  As we walk through our neighborhood, at the dog park or at the beach, he eagerly approaches other dogs and humans - confident in the connection he will make. Sounds a bit like LinkedIn to me (and yes he does remember them the next time he sees them, it just takes a quick sniff).

Whisky does have a Facebook page, but he doesn't update it very often. He doesn't want to post his status unless something meaningful has happened. If he were active on Pinterest, he would pin items related to dog toys, treats and rescue shelters. These are the products of high interest to him and are consistent with his brand. He is happiest when playing with a soft, squeaky toy or snuggling with his family. As a rescue dog himself, he wants all homeless dogs to find families to love them.

Does your social strategy provide your audience with the content and interactivity that they crave and demand? Do your posts reinforce your brand, yet provide a fresh voice? Social interaction is conversational and should not sound like a lecture. It should not simply be a rehash of existing marketing materials, but provide a new perspective. The unbridled enthusiasm of dogs gives us a view of activity to which individuals cannot help but respond. This should be the goal of any social strategy - engagement. If your content is authentic, your audience will engage and help you meet your goals whether they are related to awareness, lead generation, influence, product feedback, event attendance or more.

What's your perspective?

I’m wondering about the impact of identity when it comes to corporations.  Earlier this year, we discussed corporate identity with our friends at Taylor O’Brien.  As brands define their identity and take that identity into the social arena, we advise a consistency in how they represent themselves.  The question that is puzzling me now, is if I work for a major corporation, am I Peggy Dau or am I Peggy from Company X?  If I am socializing as a business professional, my employer would argue that I am a representative of the company.  Since they provide me with a paycheck, I would agree.

However, in the social arena, Peggy Dau is a unique individual with profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn and other social places.  I tweet as MADPerspectives, which is my consulting business, because Twitter allows pseudonyms.  But, I could argue that MAD Perspectives is a real name – for my business.  The content I tweet as MADPerspectives, is content related to my business and the industries I serve.  It’s an interesting conundrum, isn’t it?!

The challenge for companies is to define their identity and set clear guidelines for how their employees who are representing the company in social networking, understand the voice, culture, image that the brand wants to reflect.  Companies by their very nature are somewhat anonymous.  Sure, we understand what Apple, Coca Cola and Proctor & Gamble stand for, but do we really associate with individual employees?  Do we want to?  Do employees want to be recognized and associated with their employer as the engage in social networking.  For social media mavens, representing their respective companies, this is an opportunity to build their personal brand as they represent the corporate brand.  However, customer support teams may prefer some protection of their identity – not because they don’t provide excellent customer support, but for reasons of safety or career aspirations.

Corporate identity has taken on new meaning in the authentic, transparent and spontaneous social community.  Can a corporation be transparent if it doesn’t reveal the real names of its social networkers?  It is authentic when tweets come from @BronxZoosCobra?  Are “push” marketing tweets from consumer and high tech brands really spontaneous?  In fact, they are an extension of an overall marketing plan to increase brand and product awareness – reinforcing brand identity and consistent messaging, but perhaps losing authenticity.

It’s a new world and our identities are tied to the context in which our networks know us and the perspectives they have of our personal and corporate identities.

What’s your perspective?

I was discussing communication strategies with a colleague recently. Her company is initiating a series of executive videos to increase employee understanding of company strategy, key initiatives, customer priorities, etc. My first thought was - that's great. Her response was much less enthusiastic.  As chatted about our divergent responses, we realized that while we reacted differently we did have similar opinions.

My response was driven by a love for open communication. I see the series of executive videos as a way to make management more accessible to employees. While the videos do not allow for live interaction, they are available on-demand for employees to access. I hope there will be a mechanism for employees to comment on the content presented. The company has been going through a series of organization and management changes and I see this video series as a way to reinforce the direction and priorites of the company. I believe that video is more memorable than a stack of powerpoint slides. I feel that this series is a step toward open, internal communication at this company. 

My colleague is more skeptical. She feels this is just more 'blah-blah' from senior executives and that it will have little impact on rank and file employees. This is not an uncommon response from an employee working for a large corporation (I remember feeling the same way when I worked in corporate america!). My optimism and her skepticism raise the question of how to make such a video series meaningful and successful.

The videos, on their own, cannot address cultural challenges that have arisen over time. However, should the company stick to traditional communication methods with hopes that employee morale will improve? Or should the company use video, supported by other communications tools (including social media) to reinforce their committment to the company and its employees.  It really is about walking the talk.

This is what any good communication plan is about. Video solutions and social media are simply a means to reinforce this mantra. When I started working at HP in 1985, the culture of its founders, Bill and Dave, was prevalent in the way that managers, engineers, sales and admin staff worked with each other. We could easily ask questions, get answers and figure out innovative ways to serve our customers. Social media is the online instantiation of 'management by walking around'. We're just walking (and talking) to a much broader audience. Authenticity is a must. Follow through is a requirement.

I hope my friend's company is using video in a positive, meaningful way to reinforce their strategy. I hope they enable and encourage employee comments...and then, I hope they respond to them in an open manner. I hope they understand that the expectations of employees have changed. This is no longer a world of push marketing. Honesty, integrity, committment, follow through, open interaction - they have become core tenants of both external and internal communication. Is your company walking the talk?

What's your perspective?

I've been thinking about how companies get started using social media. External usage tends to be led by the marketing team. Their focus is on sharing company and product information with customers to increase brand awareness, thought leadership and ultimately lead generation. This does not mean that that companies are not focused on other uses (think Dell, Comcast or Jet Blue have not focused on customer service. We've read and heard about leaders in social media. But, I'm now thinking about how company leadership influence adoption or use of social media.

There are great case studies about Marriott, Cisco and Best Buy (to name a few) and how CEOs at these companies "got it" when thinking about the benefits of social media. However, many c-level execs think in a traditional hierarchical organization mindset. They raise concerns about risk, security and confidentiality. For me, this begs the question about leadership style. Do certain types of business leaders just "get it" easier than others, or are they just throwing caution to the wind?

In her book "Open Leadership" Charlene Li, shares her thoughts on how social technology can change the way you lead. She presents great examples of companies who have experienced success. She shares case studies on how social media has influenced leadership and culture. She also talks about the best mind set for open leadership:  passion for the vision, focus on relationships and a hacker mentality (by this she means dissatisfaction with the status quo). But still, I wonder, is that enough. I've experienced many leaders who had passion for "their" vision, focused on relationships (with customers, industry leaders or peers and executive peers within their company), yet, their support for social media was tepid at best.

Social media requires openness. Are leaders open? Social media is collaborative. Are leaders collaborative?  Social media requires trust. Are leaders trusting?  Social media is authentic. Are leaders authentic? In fact, this last question is the big issue that faced many of the top executives at financial services and automotive firms during the economic crisis. There is a significant cultural shift underway, enabled by social technology, that is bringing openness back to big business. Do customers and employees trust executives? Once upon a time, yes. Once upon a time companies were transparent. 

My career alma mater, HP, is a classic example. The HP of Bill and Dave was one of collaboration, innovation and openness. Trust was paramount. However, the HP of the past few years is hierarchical and siloed with employees living in fear of making a mistake that might cost them their job. Communication flows downstream and is edited and reshaped until it loses meaning. Power is craved and held tightly. The culture of open communication is long dead and the bottom line has become the driving force (and perhaps that is partly Wall Street's fault) of all activity. 

Executive support is critical for social media success. What leadership characteristics are needed to drive social media success from the top? I recently read "Leadership and Self Deception" by The Arbinger Institute. Their advice (adapted a bit for my own purposes) is relevant:

     - Don't try to be perfect - try to be better!
     - Don't use vocabulary people don't understand. Be clear and true to your own principles.
     - Don't impose your fears, confusion or uncertainty on others. Assume the best!
     - Don't give up when you make a mistake. Apologize and move forward.
     - Don't focus on what others are doing wrong. Focus on what you can do right to help!
     - Don't worry if others aren't helping you. Focus on helping others.

If your executives and senior leadership exhibit these characteristics (they sound awfully social don't they?!), your company can successfully implement social media tactics to engage customers. That is the goal, right? A meaningful social media strategy requires support and involvement from executives and employees across the company.  Employees won't feel empowered to be authentic and transparent unless their leadership also exhibits those traits.  Customers are demanding honesty and openness.  Social media is the desired method for this style of communication.  Are you ready?  Are your executives ready?

What's your perspective?

Video is a pervasive part of our lives.  As consumers we watch TV to enjoy comedy, sports, entertainment and news.  We also go online for this same content and more.  We go to YouTube to check out user generated videos as well as professional videos.  We use Skype to for ad hoc video communication.  Enterprise business recognizes the value and power of video, but is still predominantly using video for internal purposes.  Consider the power of video and then consider video as a critical part of the enterprise communication strategy.

Large enterprises have been leveraging video for employee education, customer training, customer support, product promotion and market awareness for many years.  These large (think Fortune 500) companies are also targets for Unified Communication solutions offered by companies such as Cisco, Microsoft, HP and others.  However, there are also many vendors offering solutions for video streaming, video conferencing, webcasting, web conferencing and more.  According to Forrester Research’s Enterprise and SMB Networks and Telecommunications Survey from Q1 2010, within the next 12 months:

-          31% of companies  are interested in Desktop IP Video Conferencing solutions

-           29% of companies are interested in enterprise IP/Digital Video for internal purposes

-          32% of companies are interested in immersive video conferencing (i.e., telepresence)

However, few companies have actual plans to implement and deploy these solutions.    Adoption of these solutions will take into account business requirements, geography, feature/functionality, price, impact on corporate network and ongoing management.  Why should companies be developing actionable plans for video solutions?  Here are some pros and cons:

 

PROS	CONS
-          Video is expressive and compelling	-          Video solutions are complex
-          Video enables participants to see body language, facial expressions and reactions	-          Video infrastructure is expensive
-          Video is more memorable than the written word	-          Video is time consuming to create, edit, process, upload and consume
-          Video enhances clarity, authenticity and credibility of messaging	-          Video needs to be distributed with multiple media player options (i.e., Microsoft, Real, Apple)
-          Video can be re-purposed across a variety of distribution channels
-          Video solution vendors offer increasingly cost-effective business models
-          Video can reduce travel expenses

 

As companies develop their plans for incorporating video into their enterprise communication strategy, they should consider:
1. How the company will use video

•      - For internal communication and collaboration
•      - For external communications and education
•      - One to one, one to many or many to many communication
• 2. Developing Content
•      - Length of meeting or presentation
•      - Goals for the meeting
•      - Personality mapping (consider your audience and the type of presenter who can create best impact)
•      - Metadata description of content
•      - Search Engine Optimization (based on title and metadata)
• 3. Post event activity
•      - Availability of on-demand video “replay”
•      - Posting/Distribution of content on website or 3rd party sites (i.e., YouTube, BrightTalk)

 

Video has become more than a solution for pushing information to a target audience.  It has become part of the real-time communication process.  With desktop video conferencing and immersive video conferencing (think telepresence) ranging from high-end to low-end, companies have greater opportunities to leverage video on a daily basis.  Whether you are a large enterprise or a small/medium sized business, video can help you communicate with your audience.  Aligning the use of video with your overall business strategy is critical.  Aligning internal business groups (i.e., Execs, marketing, sales, IT, etc.) is also important.  How is your company going to incorporate video into your communication strategy?

What’s your perspective?

Many companies recognize the potential value of blogging, but struggle to organize their thoughts and the actual writing of the blog.  Subsequently, the blogs imply doesn't happen.  Yet, according to the Business.com 2009 B2B Social Media Marketing Study, 74% of companies surveyed maintain one or more blogs.  What are all these companies blogging about? And, how do they manage it?

When I look at companies or sites who are blogging regularly and considered leaders in their industry, I've learned the following:

     1. Empower Your Employees - Encourage your employees to blog and share their insights, their smarts, their personalities.  Invite employees from different business groups to write about what's going on the industry.  They will have unique perspectives given the groups they represent (i.e., marketing, sales, engineering, R&D, support).  Their perspectives will be interesting to your current and prospective customers.

     2. Share Your Policy - Many companies will be concerned with giving their employees a public voice.  This is where establishing a policy will alleviate many concerns.  The policy is basical the rules of engagement for your employees...and for your customers.  It should provide guidance to your employees about what is acceptable or unacceptable blogging behavior.  By sharing your policy publically, your customers will know what to expect when engaging with your blogs.  Here are some examples from HP, IBM, SAP and Intel.  My thanks to the high tech community for being so open about their policies!

     3. Enable Comments - Invite and encourage readers to comment!  Comments are what make blogs interactive.  They enable the conversation.  They provide you, the company, with honest, candid, immediate feedback.  It may be supportive, discouraging, antagonistic or enthusiastic.  Aside from concerns about foul language, do not disable comments for fear of negative comments.  common sense must be employed to determine the best approach to addressing negativity, but that negativity can have positive results.

     4. Invite Guest Contributors - Every industry has its pundits.  They exist in the form of analysts, columnists, technologists and executives.  Inviting these thought leaders to contribute to your blog can bring a new perspective to a hot topic, insight to emerging trends and clarity to industry debates.  Your alignment (or lack thereof) with these pundits may attract new readers to your blog.
 
     5. Establish an Editorial Calendar - Creating a plan can simplify the effort associated with managing and writing blogs.  While it is often useful to allow the blog to just "happen" in response to industry trends or to incite new discussion, it is also beneficial for it to reinforce annoucnements or events.  Laying out the calendar will help define the need for content or resources, and give you time to fill that need.

     6. Be Interesting - This is most important.  Think about what you would want to read.  What kind of information are you seeking that only a blog can fulfill?  A blog is not a product or press release, allow your personality to shine through.  As always when thinking social, be transparent and authentic.

What companies or blogs did I check out when thinking about this blog?  After 25 years in high tech, I folow blogs from the companies reference above.  However, I also check in with Marriott, Nike, and Whole Foods.  With my focus in digital/social media, I read streamingmedia.com, Mashable, Social Media Today, Smart Blog on Social Media and more.

Does your company blog?  What's your blogging experience?  I'd love to hear the good and the bad!

What's your perspective?

Last week I talked about how social media can facilitate the sales process.  Let's take that one step further and talk about how digital media can help you improve customer retention.  We touched on the topic of customer support as part of the sales process.  This topic is even more critical when it comes to customer loyalty.  A happy customer can become your best advocate. 

What is a happy customer?  Simply put it is customer who have not defected to a competitor.  It is customers who intend to purchase more goods and services from you.  It is a customer willing to recomment your company and its products to others.  It is a customer making incremental purchases or increasing their average order size.  It is a customer sustaining customer support or renewing their warranty.



What does customer support entail?

Customer support is more than enabling customers to contact you when they have a problem.  Customer support is getting ahead of the curve and proactively notifying customers when their are issues, product changes, special offers, in person events and more.  The goal once you have attained a new customer is to encourage them to buy more or for your cusomters to recommend you to their business colleagues and partners.

A few facts about B2B buyers:

- they depend of 3rd party feedback in purchase decisions
- they want to be part of the product or solution development process
- they trust colleague opinions particularly where those colleagues are using the target product or service

How does social media fit here?  Social media = an objective 3rd party opinion.  In addition, social media allows and enables real-time interaction.  It fosters an environment to inform while building trust and creditbility.  Whether it is a LinkedIn group around a specific category of product or the customer support forum on your company website, ad hoc interaction with your existing customers allows you to get honest feedback regarding customer satisfaction, IT needs, purchasing plans.  Companies can use social platforms to alert customers to supply chain issues, product releases, training sessions and more.  Being proactive is an element of the authenticity often mentioned around social media.

Your ability to LISTEN to your customers as they participate in online forums or to invite their feedback regarding product performance or features, enhances the relationship. Extend your conversation with your customer beyond the actual sale. Acknowledge, respond and champion their involvement.  It can turn customers into influencers of product roadmap and new purchasers.  Social platforms allow companies to have direct, immediate and interactive communication with many accounts.  Take advantage of these tools to sustain your customer base.

What's your perspective?

 

Tranparent.  Authentic.  These may be the two most overused terms in social media. 

Every social media pundit emphasizes the importance of transparency and authenticity. 

 

Whether we are communicating as an individual or as an organization or company, we are encouraged to be transparent.  What does this mean?  The dictionary definition states “easily seen through, open, frank, candid”.  It means to be clear.  Clarity is often in the eyes of the beholder to adapt a well known phrase.  While the communicator may feel they are being clear, the listeners may not agree.  The evolution of social media is challenging organizations to be very clear in their intent and in their communication.  It also allows the listeners to emphatically state when communication is not clear. 

 

Hand in hand with transparency is authenticity.

The dictionary states “not false or copied, trustworthy, valid”.   It means to be honest.  There is an interesting paradox that states that perception is reality.  However, this does not mean perception is honest or authentic, yet the internet provides a forum for information exchange that is not always true.  Fortunately the increased level of interaction via various customer forums encourages reality checks.  A company can make claims to the value of its products.  However, if even one customer is unhappy there is a chance that they will express their dissatisfaction online, thus disruption the chain of communication promoted by the company.

 

 

Transparency and authenticity.

With the advance of social media, companies are being held to different standards.  Before the internet companies pushed information to their customers.  They created campaigns and messaging to position their products and services in the most positive light.  They were honest, to a point.  They did not have to worry about the viral nature of the internet where one unfavorable comment can mushroom into a perception that takes both time and money to reverse.  The messaging was, sometimes, overly positive.  It focused on the positive and on the benefit to consumers or businesses. 

 

 

Companies are learning to listen.

As they become more transparent (i.e., Dell asking for advice on how to improve its customer service) and authentic (i.e., Zappos) they are understanding that they have an opportunity to create much tighter customer relationships.  They have the ability to understand the needs and demands of their customers better than ever before.  However, they must open themselves up to this interaction by becoming more transparent and more authentic.

So, yes these terms are overused, but they are the keys to success in implementing a social media strategy, internally or externally!

What's your perspective?