AniBlurbs (Column)

In this excellent, thought-provoking documentary Evgeny Morozov (@EvgenyMorozov, author of The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom) punctures the Utopian idea that Internet is somehow by default and inherently a Freedom- & Democracy Enabler. Mr. Morozov is placed inside a digital Panopticon and reacts to the short video’s and sound bites projected there-on.

The questions Evgeny Morozov poses, his critical stance regarding Tech-Optimism and the issues he rises are very legitimate: Is Social Media really bringing us together? Or is the Filter Bubble merely strengthening our (narrow) visions, thoughts and opinions? Is the internet a free floating island, isolated from politics?

One of his gripes against the Tech-Optimists is that they seem to leave out of their equation any political, cultural and economic aspects needed for / impairing societal change and progress, as if all our problems and challenges are somehow fixed by becoming a cyborg or as if a distant regime can be overthrown by collectively changing the colour of our social media avatar. (His stance is even more interesting if we take into consideration the UK Governments’ plans to censorize twitter and Blackberry Messaging “Pinging” in case of riots or public demonstrations.)

Evgeny’s is a fresh and different philosophy, going straight against the current online, real-time “social” Echo Chamber and one that merits further thought and debate. A (lone?) voice of dissent that needs to be heard.

If you happen to have some spare time I really recommend watching and sharing this documentary – of special note are his takes on Ray Kurzweil (Singularity / Cyber-Optimism), WikiLeaks and Google vs Baidu -
as it will challenge your assumptions about where society and tech(nology) are heading and how they (should or should not) influence one another.

Evgeny Morozov: The End of the Internet-Utopia

This documentary aired last week on Dutch Public Television, for background information please check here » http://www.hollanddoc.nl/kijk-luister/documentaire/e/tegenlicht-evgeny-morozov.html

Post maintained by Anibal do Rosario

Inspired by / based on Maslow’s work on our individual hierarchy of needs, the folks over at Altimeter Group noticed a pattern than companies undergo a similar growth with regards to Social Business Maturity (see the image below):

Companies must fulfill the requirements at the bottom of the pyramid and then layer on top of success, building each layer. To date, they’ve found only a few companies that are getting near “enlightenment”.

According to Jeremiah Owjang there’s a pattern to be found from those advanced companies:

1. Foundation: First, develop a business plan and put governance in place.
2. Safety: Then, get organized by anointing a team and process to deal with crises.
3. Formation: Next, connect business units to increase coordination and reduce duplication.
4. Enablement: Grow by letting them prosper – give business units the support and flexibility to reach goals.
5. Enlightenment: Finally, weave real-time market response into business processes and planning.

Source: Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang – (Report) Social Media Crises On Rise: Be Prepared by Climbing the Social Business Hierarchy of Needs
  
Post maintained by Anibal do Rosario
  

I’ve discussed Coca Cola’s Social Media Policy in a column not too long ago. Now there’s an excellent slide deck on Coca Cola’s complementing Social Media Marketing strategy.

The only thing missing in this presentation is the way they handled the unofficial Facebook fan page. Coca Cola’s Facebook fan page had a staggering 3.3 million fans making it the biggest fan page second only to POTUS Barack Obama (until Michael Jackson’s tragic death, now almost a year ago which resulted in the superstar entertainer taking top spot for a while, see Page Data).

What Coca Cola did back there was quite remarkable; instead of the usual corporate Pavlov reaction of shutting the non-official grassroots initiative down (Apple anyone?), they reached out to the two fan page moderators instead, gave them a tour, full support, the works; effectively making them even more engaged as brand ambassadors.

To my eye it is clear that one of the biggest brands in the universe is more than ready for the new realities of the next decade. Are You?

“Our Customer Loyalty Team is not scripted and is not measured on Time of Calls.” -Aaron Magness Zappos, director for Brand Marketing & Business Development. The review for the Zappos account … was one of the strangest that Madison Avenue has witnessed recently. It began with 16 agencies, but after word leaked out about the review, “we ended up getting 190” requests to take part, Mr. Magness said.

Source: New York Times – Tireless Employees Get Their Tribute, Even if It’s in Felt and Polyester

With regards to Customer Retention and Customer Intimacy, perhaps the following is evidence that there are no such things as “costs” involved, rather we should think in terms of investments: Zappos last year was acquired by internet giant Amazon for no less than $1.2 billion. The main reason? Their offbeat company culture of putting the customer first, which makes Zappos (founded in 1999) roughly $1 billion per year.

Zappos became famed for their Customer Intimacy: If, for example, you can’t find a specific shoe on their web shop, or it happens to be out of stock; the Zappos Call Centre Rep. happily guides you over to a competitors site and co-surfs their shop with you as long as needed to help you find the item for the right price.

Please note: The above is not an exception, it’s their official company policy.

Read that last sentence again and know it still equals heresy for most corporates out there.

It’s really sad how Call Centres (and the organizations hiring them) to this date still believe that call scripts, lowly paid Call Centre Representatives and a strict focus on Time On Call are defining factors of success, while Zappos clearly has shown otherwise on every conceivable level.

(On a similar note GetSatisfaction recently made some revisions to their Company-Customer Pact.)

Zappos understands that Marketing starts at the core -the experience you deliver- first, and advertising last. No wonder Madison Avenue went the extra mile to acquire the Zappos account: working with a brand with a stature and Customer centred culture like Zappos’ is any Agency’s wet dream…

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from Jesse Thomas on Vimeo.

Flash gaat nergens heen, en kan en zal prima naast HTML 5 blijven bestaan.

Dat is in een notendop mijn repliek op de post van eFocus internetstrateeg Freek Bijl (BijlBrand) To Flash… or not to Flash. Oftewel: Flash wordt overbodig? Dit dan weer naar aanleiding van de onthulling van de iPad, nu alweer een maand geleden, en het controversiële besluit van Apple om daar geen Flash op mogelijk te maken.

Volgens Freek en vele anderen -voornamelijk Apple adepten- Het Einde Van Flash, omdat de iPad uiteraard allesoverheersend zal zijn. Kijkende naar de feiten denk ik dat dat nog wel eens mee zou kunnen vallen. Zie ook mijn eerdere column over Apple iPhone / iOS versus Google Android: Thoughts on the future and past of Mobile (Applications).

Hoe dan ook, het zijn interessante tijden voor een ieder die zich zoals ondergetekende met internet en mobile bezig houdt en Freek’s prikkelende vraag heeft een interessante discussie op gang gebracht, dus voor wat meer context en meningen, check BijlBrand! ;) Hieronder in ieder geval een cross-post van mijn gedachten, welke ik ook daar in de comments heb achtergelaten:

Mijn eerste gedachte: Zucht, ook hier dus een HTML óf Flash is DE toekomst verhaal… Alsof het web -of onze wereld- bestaat uit technologieën die elkaar direct en volledig vervangen (zie ook: radio > tv > internet), beetje plat, maar goed dit terzijde.

Wat ik een beetje mis in je analyse zijn zaken zoals impact die de huidige HTML 5 voorstel zou hebben op Net Neutraliteit, het Open Web principe, et cetera: Flash is uiteindelijk een proprietary format van Adobe, HTML 5 biedt ons een unieke kans om een ware Open Standaard voor video te introduceren.

Gezien het gegeven dat video een onlosmakelijk onderdeel van het web is geworden (en één waar ze in eerste aanleg niet voor gebouwd is, maar dat is een ander verhaal), houdt deze ontwikkeling rechtstreeks verband met het wel of niet verwezenlijken van het ideaal om het internet open, neutraal en democratisch te houden.

Zo heeft de Free Software Foundation onlangs bij Google bepleit om een variant van de On2 codec vrij te geven: http://webwereld.nl/nieuws/65237/google-gevraagd-videocodec-te-open-sourcen.html

Probleem bij HTML 5 video -zoals je wellicht weet- is dat Mozilla (die van Firefox)
uit principe niet de video-tag ondersteund, omdat de codecs die daar nu voor geïmplementeerd worden niet op Open Standaarden gebaseerd zijn.

Een open standaard voor de video-tag met support van alle grote(re) browserbouwers (Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera en IE) zou een van de vele benodigde nagels aan de kist van flash kunnen zijn. Maar misschien ook wel niet.

Wat ik wél zeker weet is dat de iPad absoluut “0” impact zal hebben op bovenstaande ontwikkelingen, je dicht het beestje -kijkend naar wat voor een gadget het is en marktpotentieel- namelijk toch echt een te grote rol toe.

Om het te onderbouwen: Ja Firefox met flash is een aanslag op je werkgeheugen, but then again, iTunes van Apple is dat ook. Zo heb ik laatst voor de leuk bij de herinstallatie van mijn laptop het browsen een aantal weken zonder Flash gedaan en kan je melden: die ubiquitious blauwe legoblokjes maken het er allereerst niet een betere browse ervaring op.

Vergeet niet dat de iPhone een mobieltje is en om die reden het ontbreken van Flash geen groot gemis is geweest.

De iPad on the other hand, moet tussen mobiel en notebook in gaan zitten en meer een leisure apparaat worden die je dus ook voor alledaagse dingen gaat gebruiken en wellicht in sommige huishoudens die het kunnen betalen de netbook/notebook gaat vervangen. In zo’n gebruikersscenario, die dus regulier gebruik benaderd, wordt het een heel ander verhaal kan ik je melden…

En wat te denken van al die online blader-apps (vaak gratis kant-en-klaar via een WordPress plug-in te publiceren en voor 99,9 % van de internetpopulatie toegankelijk, dit in tegenstelling tot het ontwikkelen van een duur touch-app voor de iPhone OS voor een specifieke markt), Flashgames, chat applicaties en what have you.

Ontwikkelaars vinden de AIR en Flex koppeling met Flash daarbij ook niet vervelend en de zo geliefde tweetdeck en Seesmic draaien daar ook op. Oh, en dan is er ook nog Silverlight wat met Olympische Spelen en andere sportevenementen ook in de US flink gepushed wordt/is.

Kortom Flash en aanverwante technologieën zijn zo verweven met alles wat interactief / online is, dat meneer Jobs écht met een wonder moet komen wil dat veranderen in de komende pakweg 5 jaar.

Nog één laatste argument: iets meer dan anderhalf miljard mensen hebben momenteel toegang tot het internet, wil de iPad relevant zijn als client die zo disruptive is dat flash gaat wankelen, dan denk ik dat we kunnen stellen dat de penetratie op ongeveer een half miljard (een derde) moeten zitten wil ze enige impact maken op ontwikkelaars en hen bewegen om flash uit te sluiten en dan nog denk ik dat dat een zeer onwaarschijnlijk scenario is, gezien al het bovenstaande.

Doe hier zelf mee aan de discussie: To Flash… or not to Flash. Oftewel: Flash wordt overbodig?

How do you build a chocolate brand? from edenspiekermann_ on Vimeo.

“There’s demand in the marketplace for creating a new type of agency,” said Sean Corcoran, an analyst with Forrester Research. “The question is whether that’s viable long term.”

Because it can touch everything from Communications to Marketing to Customer Service to Product Development, Social Media has created a muddied playing field that some see as ripe for creating agency opportunities …

Now the question for social media firms is whether they’ll translate the short-term demand for Facebook pages, Twitter campaigns and audits of social chatter about a brand into a long-term strategic business … Otherwise what they’re offering clients will quickly become the domain of established agencies in Public Relations, Advertising and Digital.

Source: AdWeek – The New Social Gurus: Social media agencies are popping up to address new strategic demands — but will they last?

The jury is still out on this one

First of all let me state clearly that there is no silver bullet with regards to whether a Digital Agency or a PR outfit should be leading the charge when it comes to Social Media.

Furthermore, one size certainly doesn’t fit all when it comes to whether your company or organization should be utilizing Social Media or not, and if so with whom.

Mitch Joel (@MitchJoel), from Twist Image (Canada), also weighed in on this subject:

Going back to that quirky quote from AdWeek, it’s like saying, “we can help you build a Facebook fan page or a Twitter profile, but if you need a microsite or some banners to promote it, you’re best off calling a Digital Marketing agency.”

Newsflash: Social Media is Digital Marketing.

Sorry to break this news to the Social Media Gurus and social media agencies of the world. You can dance around this statement all you want … let’s face it: all Social Media strategy and first-contact happens in the online channels.

The results of that strategy and activity may filter through how an organization communicates, markets, handles after-care or customer service, but Social Media starts and lives in the Digital Marketing channel….

And, if it does live in the Digital Channel, but as a social media agency you can’t help your client also build both the platforms and presence online, what does that say about your skill level?

Let’s not make it bigger than it is.

Like a strong direct marketing strategy, advertising campaign or affiliate program, Social Media is one spoke in the marketing wheel (it just looks more shiny than the other spokes because platforms like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are new and exciting).

In fact, Social Media is much more like a spoke in the Digital Marketing wheel. This doesn’t mean it should be diminished, but to think that a strong Digital Marketing shop doesn’t have the abilities or capabilities to lead Social Media is downright silly and unfounded.

A great Digital Marketing agency that truly meets the clients’ needs is one that can develop the digital strategy and then execute on it (the design, content, technology, marketing and communications).

It’s going to be interesting to see what unique offerings these social media agencies bring to the brand table that the Digital Marketing agencies were missing.”

Read the whole post and the comments over at Six Pixels of Separation by Mitch Joel at Twist Image: Social Media Gurus – That Old Chestnut (Who Owns Social Media?)

Challenges for Businesses with regards to Social Media

A few days back  Liz Pullen(@nwjerseyliz)  tweeted the following on twitter (see screen grab below):

I tweeted in reply that Social Media on a personal level doesn’t scale:

It´s a scientifically proven fact that there’s only so much meaningful interaction, friends, interconnectivity, sharing, status updates and ReTweets one can take at any given moment in time.

And this isn’t even taking time management or life hacking into account; strictly speaking there’s (Dunbar’s number) a bio/psychologically maximum amount of social interaction and stimulus our brains can handle – be sure to keep an eye on the latest Oxford findings regarding this.

What this also means today is that people in general -becoming ever more acquainted with Social Media and most of its apparent benefits & setbacks- are increasingly critical about whom they connect, or “friend”, with online (quality/potential Vs. quantity). And, as a result, how much time they spend with them on any given social network.

The analogy goes that you could compare it to standing in a café socialising with friends and familiars; you wouldn’t appreciate someone breaking in the conversation or party (with a commercial message) without introducing properly first.

These developments have spin-off effects for your brand in this space as well.

Think about this for a minute.

Now, let’s take a look at the slight nugget called Legal, as Clorox has done:

That could help explain why the marketer has taken the unusual step of advertising for a full-time in-house legal counsel to focus on social media — a rather surprising sign of how entrenched social-media marketing is becoming even for relatively established household products.

Currently, having such expertise in-house and full-time at a marketer is rare, said Jack Greiner, an attorney with Cincinnati’s Graydon Head & Ritchey, one of the few attorneys on LinkedIn to list social-media as a specialty. “It’s the first I’ve heard of it,” he said.

“Social-media channels are a growing focus for consumer communication and stakeholder engagement for our brands and company,” a Clorox spokesman said in an e-mail.

“As a newer communication channel, the application of existing laws to this medium is evolving. For those reasons and the rapid pace of communication in the Web 2.0 world, we’re seeking an attorney to focus on social media as well as talent rights.”

The primary duties, he said, are to clear and procure intellectual property rights regarding production and distribution of advertising, including Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Recording Artists issues, consumer privacy and video licensing.

              

Comment addendum by Antone Johnson:
Regarding social media policies, I think it’s helpful to divide the universe of communications into two distinct buckets.

The first category is the everyday online chatter by thousands of individual employees, which may or may not touch on the company’s business or products.

This kind of communication can and should be regulated by a well-thought-out social media policy, enforced by HR and/or IT in the same way they enforce other employment-related and IT usage policies. (A little training during employee orientation goes a long way.)

The second category is messaging from authorized corporate communicators:

Senior executives, PR, MarCom, Customer Care, Community Managers on online forums, etc. A social media policy alone isn’t enough; these folks need individualized, timely, thoughtful legal guidance.

Their statements can and will be taken as the corporation’s official view of things. Social media make it easier than ever to make misstatements that can be used against the marketer as “Exhibit A” in litigation.

This is particularly true for large corporations, which are perceived as having deep pockets and become targets for class action plaintiffs’ lawyers and government regulators.

Source: AdAge – Clorox Seeking Attorney to Oversee Social-Media Programs: Marketer’s Move Seen as Testament to Importance of Twitter and Facebook

As the quotes above underline, social media expertise should occupy two seats: one inside the advertiser itself (I’ll get back to this in more detail later on) and one inside dedicated Digital Agencies, since, inherent to their DNA, they’re better suited at this than pure traditional Agencies are right now.

Dedicated social agencies can’t create effective Social Strategies

Though I’m all for entrepreneurship and an avid fan of innovation, I’m quite sceptical about yet another specialist niche branch forming, (viral seeding agencies anyone?) be it inside or independent of traditional or Digital Agencies: yes, I’m looking at you, social media agency.

Especially since in this specific case the subject matter ties so close –too close- with the core business of any organization: i.e., taking for your customers / prospects / leads.

Why exactly is your company contracting a newly formed “social agency” to do the crucial interaction with these people in such a delicate environment (sometimes volatile even)? A few more questions:

• Can this freshly formed organization handle the scale 6, 12, or 18 months from now (community management, moderating in real-time 24/7, mob behaviour even)?
• What about legal liability (see the quote above from Jack Greiner) when it comes to international operating brands on Facebook?
• What about accountability (towards customers/end-users, partners and B2B clients), lead follow-ups, customer retention and so on?
• What about integration with the online display, SEA campaigns and the mini site?
• And what about the connection with the core brand values “as seen on TV”?
• Do they understand the finer intricacies of your business goals on the one hand vs. customer service & needs on the other hand?

Make no mistake about this, many industry thought leaders are (the dotcom bubble freshly in the back of their mind no doubt) rightfully questioning this trend of social agencies and self-proclaimed guru’s:

Do they even know your competitors, the field your operating in, the challenges you face, regulations, et cetera? You know; the stuff any Marketing Agency worth their salt actually takes into account before helping you set a long term strategy? If so, then why set up a separate one-trick-pony-entity instead of integrating it in the (digital) media mix? It just doesn’t add up.

Social Media is Anthropology, meets PR, meets Customer Service, meets Sales, meets DM, meets Sociology, meets Business Intelligence, meets Legal, meets… what-have-you, all for the greater good of meeting Business Objectives at the end of the day.

So. Exactly what are the business credentials of the people employed in this social agency, apart from having set up a Facebook fan page for their local small-town barbershop?

[Note: I’m not talking about credentials in a “certified social media company” kind of way, nowadays most of us are aware that in IT -for the most part- certificates (Google AdWords and the like notwithstanding) don’t prevent disasters, nor do they guarantee a pleasurable partnership or outcome. How many big IT projects had multiple Black Belts overseeing certified .NET implementing professionals and failed big time?]

Getting and staying involved in Social Media isn’t the same as setting up a one-way Interruption Marketed Advertising campaign for six weeks and it isn’t action based Sales Promotion with a short term focus either.

Nor is it about hiring a Web Care Team after the damage has been done in order to clean up the online response on a subpar product coupled with bad customer service.

UPC (Cable giant) has felt this here in The Netherlands as recently they’ve been indexed as the company with the worst customer service in a research conducted by the Customer Insights Center from the University of Groningen, intelligence agency MIcompany and Dutch research firm MetrixLab.

This despite being an innovator online by being the first Dutch company to deploy a Web Care Team with varying success. Sweet Irony to some, Social Media in full effect to others (as sharing bad customer experiences has become ubiquitous).

Social Media is a mindset ideally to be adopted throughout the whole organization, just like company values. Larger organizations will have to act on this in the coming decade.

Joseph Jaffe: In my opinion, this isn’t about tactics or platforms….it’s about a mindset shift. Commitments versus Campaigns. Retention versus Acquisition. Conversation versus Communication. And in the former cases, we’re dealing with decidedly post-marketing platforms that are – for the most part – decidedly brand unfriendly.

It’s an ongoing process, not to be automated.

Au contraire; it’s actually about interacting with human beings(!) in a passionate and authentic way, all whilst keeping the mutual interests of the organization, as well as the customer in mind. Though balance to strike.

Earned Media vs. Paid Media (Dealing with The Shift)

Who knows? Maybe over time they’ll embrace your efforts and your brand.

Then again, maybe they won’t because a few days back your Call Centre Manager was focussed more on her maximum allowed Average Conversation Duration Per Service Employee instead of solving the problem of a frustrated customer. So, said customer has started a flame blog, which TechCrunch has picked up, turning it into a trending topic on twitter overnight, which in turn has been indexed by Google in less than an hour, effectively making your SERP turn off potential customers and would-be B2B partners, despite that carefully planned and crafted Super Bowl Ad…

As you can see, Social Media is much as it has always been in real life actually, with the critical difference that these interactions between your brand and “them” are online, out in the open, for all to see, to monitor, to be spread in real-time and archived. Forever (or until Singularity at the very least).

This, combined with the fact that your organization has to structurally change internally for any meaningful long-term results, make this quite a complicated and challenging era, as you cannot afford not to be at least somewhat social, yet it can backfire significantly when implemented in the wrong way. Or with short-term focused expectations from shareholders, the board or senior management for that mather. Oh, and I’ve left the whole Social Media ROI debate out of the equation.

Still convinced that fancy social agency is well equipped and worth the check/PO?

Possible solutions: Internalizing the knowledge

The point I’m trying to make is that these new upstarts are either interested in making a quick buck over the back of you and your customers, or they’re focusing on the “What?” (“Which social tools should we deploy? YouTube or twitter?” -in other words: operational tactics), instead of focusing on the “Why?” and on what Social Media could mean for you and your customers.

Take heed of the former, and as for the latter, well, benevolent though their intentions may be, know that the way to hell is paved with good intentions…

Notable exception / leading example in this discussion are the Social Media Monitoring companies like Radian6 as they have a very tasty asset, or two actually: hard data and experience.

They’ve been busily beavering away for the past years, before Social Media became de rigour and have actual added value in the partner chain around your project/organization. They have the data, the knowledge and experience to translate social media output into actionable insights.

To my eye the solution is as follows:
Your organization must internalize Social Media as soon as possible -not tomorrow or next week necessarily, but do start as soon as you can (word has it your competitors are already a few laps ahead -sensing the urgency yet?).

Then, drilling further down, you should have one or more internal champions, digital marketers along with their traditional kin, who can sit down at the round table with IT partners, Social Media Monitoring Companies, Digital Agencies & Traditional Agencies alike, and get down to business.

You don’t outsource Sales, you hopefully are not outsourcing your Customer Service* and you definitely should refrain from outsourcing direct contact with your target audience and customers. If you’re not convinced yet, then feel free to take a look at an interesting development over at one of the biggest brands on the planet: Coca Cola are internalizing Social Media as they go .

Ford Motor Company is, arguably, one of the leading big brands in the world when it comes to having garnered considerable achievements in/with Social Media; admittedly having Social Media rock star Scott Monty (@ScottMonty) aboard as an internal accelerator or catalyst as well as a CEO backing him helps a lot. Ford’s Scott Monty has the following take on this topic:

“If you have a dedicated social media agency they need to be well integrated with the rest of your team because none of this stuff stands alone,” said Scott Monty, digital and multimedia communications manager at Ford.

Rather than have a single social media shop, Ford works with several for different needs. It leans on the social skills of OgilvyPR, while also working with Social Media Group and Undercurrent. “This is the year that will separate the pretenders from the practitioners.”

Source: AdWeek – The New Social Gurus: Social media agencies are popping up to address new strategic demands — but will they last?

[* In twenty years time we’ll have a jolly great laugh looking back on the days when you actually didn’t help the customer yourself because... err, business books and MBA’s thought us it was the right way, we never questioned its merits out loud towards senior baby boom management and the internet, social media et al didn’t exist to expose this mindset, but I digress...]

Off course, your mileage may vary, depending on whether your organization is strategically focussed on either Cost Leadership, Innovation or Customer Intimacy.

And it could be both Mitch, Scott and many others in our field, are proven wrong over time as, like I said above, the jury is still out on this one.

Speaking of Mitch Joel, he posted the following piece regarding ROI and Social Media:

Richard Binhammer (from Dell‘s Social Media team) gave a presentation and when one of the audience members asked about how Dell measures the ROI of their Social Media strategy, Binhammer responded that ROI was nothing more than an accounting term and probably has little to no place when it comes to measuring the success of any Social Media marketing initiative.

How would that make your clients, team members and supervisors feel?

Binhammer … concluded by saying that he doesn’t think about ROI, rather he looks at the overall business objectives and if Social Media can help him meet those objectives, then that is what is ultimately the most important thing.

Let’s repeat: forget the ROI and look at the business objectives.

In looking at business through this prism, Dell has changed the way they do business and – in doing so – they have made lots of money by being engaged and using everything Social Media that is under the sun.

In a more primal way, they’re focused on using Social Media to meet practical business objectives and not looking at the overall ROI…

              

Comment addendum:
My argument is not against metrics and measurement as it relates to social media and business. My point is that we sometimes get lost in the forest for the trees….and one step further, some of the traditional metrics and insights need revision when we think about social media and business….but fundamentally we do measure measure and measure more.

Source: Six Pixels of Separation by Mitch Joel at Twist Image: Killing ROI

Conclusion: Due Diligence/Beware the Snake Oil

All in all, the debate regarding ROI in social media and the added value of social media agencies still has yet to give birth to a definite, industry wide accepted outcome, and maybe won’t  for some time.

To my eye, all facts point to one conclusion which I’ve summed up in the title of this very column.

Bold statement?

Dunno, like viral agencies we’ve yet to see a yearbook worth of big brand cases produced by dedicated social media agencies that showcase their worth, yet they tend to position themselves with the swagger as though they have seeded viral or social media campaigns with an 80 to 99% success rate…

Should anyone care? Aren’t we “all in it for the money”?

Well, yours truly is not and I’d like to believe most of us are “in it” out of a passion, which happens to provide us with the means of getting food on the table, paying the rent/mortgage, etc.. Make no mistake, I’m an entrepreneur at heart and a positive minded one at that, but with great power comes… (well, you know the drill)

Remember the dotcom bubble bursting less than 10 years ago? We’ve seen what self-proclaimed consultants in green field markets/industries are capable of if left unchecked: wrecking havoc amongst clients eventually seriously damaging everyone in this space.

Sounds farfetched? The Credit Crunch demonstrated to us what happens when an influential industry is left unchecked and nobody calls out the cowboys.

Granted, social media is new, standards are yet to be fully understood, found and implemented. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take pride in our work, our profession, our science, our art. It is a professional responsibility to call out the snake oil sales men.

Perhaps more than anything Social Media is also about the “echo chamber”; about memes being spread. By adding my voice to the ever increasing echo of industry specialists, agencies and bloggers, I hope to amplify the growing consensus that social does not an agency make. That you should be mindful of letting your company in with any self-proclaimed guru or social agency. Due diligence.

This column turned out somewhat longer than expected, so thanks for bearing with me. I will be keeping a close eye on this topic as it continues to evolve.

In the mean time I’m really curious if there’s an angle I might have missed, so feel free to drop a comment below.

The Three Laws of Customer Centricity (Beta)

The above was an idea I derived from the famous Three Laws of Robotics, a set of three rules written by SF author Isaac Asimov (1920-1992), which almost all positronic robots appearing in his fiction must obey.

I was thinking of coming up with a “Three Laws of Customer Centricity” adaption, but I think the model still needs some tweaking here and there. Any ideas?

Recently Alexander van Elsas posted his thoughts regarding Google’s Android flagship, the Nexus One. In short, his closing statement summerizes his stance:

I humbly dissagree.

Now I’ve always read Alexanders’ musings with great interest, but this post triggered me to add my thoughts in the comments section. For some context, you can read his full post, all comments made and his response over at his blog, I’ve cross-posted mine below:

“With regards to the Android Platform making a dent in Apple’s and RIM (BlackBerry) domination of the smart phone market; first of all each system shall attract its own audience of course.

Three points I’d like to raise:

1. Apple’s Mac OS has a (reputation for having a) superior User Experience and system stability because of Apple’s rigorous Quality Control combined with the fact that they have full control over the production of the hardware as well as the OS itself.

   Compare this to the fragmented windows platform (Though windows 7 admittedly comes a long way in addressing many of its legacy irks).

2. For over 12 years I‘ve been hearing about the promise of Mobile devices with regards to downloadable applications, games and mobile internet access… Twelve years. Each year the promise fell flat on its face.

   The main reasons: multiple standards for programming apps, multiple platforms, specs, models, no flatfee datarates, lack of mobile broadband like networks (GPRS/UMTS/HSDPA) and walled gardens with a premium price fixture tied to applications and use of closed mobile WAP internet, carriers using different labels for what is in essence the same comparable service (iMode, Vodafone Live, T-zones et cetera) …

   Now the iPhone is the closest in realizing this 12 year old vision and one of the main reasons lies in Apple’s QC, and “closed nature”.

   Developers develop one app for one platform with one specification sheet and they’re all set. Distribution? Centralized and optimized UX by way of iTunes (a familiar concept and a trusted format!).

   Consumers finally get what they see: a plug-and-play device with a flat-fee data rate so they don’t have to worry about “THAT” phone bill at the end of the month, and can download apps and browse the web to their hearts content. And of course there’s the Apple / iPod brand attached.

   Because of the above, in combination with Nintendo’s Wii and DS paving the way for casual gaming as a serious branch within the Gaming industry, we can now say that the iPhone (platform) is actually becoming a serious contender in the Gaming space as well.

   After more than 12 years mobile is now finally starting to realize its potential and this is largely due to Apple entering this market while staying true to their strategic approach w.r.t. Product Development and distribution.

3. The PC as a gaming platform has been suffering from the same problems as opposed to the console market which has been growing from strength to strength for over 20 years now. Why? Unified approach and stringent Quality Control (Mind you, Nintendo singlehandedly revived the Games market at the end of the 80’ies by adapting the same approach towards developers as Apple does today with its iPhone. They dropped it after Sony stole their crown 10 years later, but today’s Game Industry wouldn’t be the largest in the Entertainment sector today if it weren’t for that Quality Control and that same walled garden approach). Starting to see the analogy here?

Android OS is a fragmented platform and actually has more in common with Nokia’s Symbian platform (though they have gone open as well). Also we’ve seen Google has met considerable trouble with Customer Service upon launching the Nexus One. Last but not least a multichannel approach is not something executed with success so easily, not even when your name is Google…”

Dive into the discussion here: The one thing that Google Nexus One has over the iPhone