codegent

I chaired a round table at the IDBG Marketing Directors Strategy Meeting last week on the subject of corporate blogging. There were two key things that we wanted to look at:

1. How should brands approach the subject of blogging? Should they even be blogging in the first place?

2. In what ways should brands be working with other bloggers who may have an influence on their customers?

I’ll talk about the first one today and follow up with the second one next week.

The panel of brands represented at the table was an interesting one: it included representatives of companies such as Bowers and Wilkins, CNN, Comet Group, Endsleigh, Hodder and Stoughton, Microsoft, More Than and T Mobile. Some of these companies are doing interesting things with their blogs.

We began by talking about our own experiences: I admitted that our Codegent blog sometimes became a bit of a sales tool and was often written by the usual suspects, even though the blog is open to everyone in the company to contribute to and is not policed. So, note to self: less bragging about how great we are and more industry observations and insightful witticisms. Maybe even have the balls to criticise people now and again.

The over-whelming feeling is that blogs have become incredibly influential over the last few years. One attendee explaining that they treat bloggers with the “same deference as they treat journalists”. With this in mind it makes absolute sense to have some degree of involvement, but without turning what you do into an overt drive to increase sales.

But hang on a minute, we’re all a cynical bunch really, aren’t we? Can blogs from corporates rather than individuals ever be anything ‘more than’ a sales tool? More Than (see what I did there in the previous sentence) believe that they can. With their Living Blog, they write, not about insurance, but about green driving. The site is a genuine attempt to raise a debate around this important area which, although loosely associated to More Than’s products, is not directly related. In other words, by writing a blog about green driving rather than a blog warning of the dangers of inadequate insurance, More Than believes it is able to maintain credibility.

Microsoft, too, allows its staff to blog about issues that their customers might be interested in. The very popular and respected blogger, Robert Scoble (pictured), “Scobleizer” is a geeky employee of Microsoft. He apparently isn’t “policed” as such, but in a strangely relevant post this month he talks about the question of whether what he and other corporate bloggers might say reflect on the companies they work for.

Hodder & Stoughton talked about their multiple blogs that are written both by authors and by staff. We discussed whether negative comments should be responded to. The feeling was that it depended on who was writing the blog: a member of staff might have thicker skin than an author who is being directly attacked.

This led onto whether a blog could be used for crisis management. We spoke about PA Consulting’s handling of the loss of data for the Home Office and their subsequent radio silence for three weeks afterwards. Everyone agreed that starting a blog just to deal with this would have been a mistake, but given the fact that PA Consulting already have embraced the internet with their Second Life  presence, arguably they should have already had a blog. According to Robert Scoble in his Corporate Weblog Manifesto, you should “Post fast on good news or bad” and “If you screw up, acknowledge it. Fast.” But in a world where you have demonstrated publicly how useless your staff are at holding onto information maybe opening up a public forum where they can talk about it isn’t the smartest idea.

Last time, we looked at how the Social Media omnipresence is changing consumers' behaviour and concluded that marketers need to change their mindset and techniques to shift from traditional marketing to more of a conversation: a real dialogue with their audience.

It seems to us that most marketers and web users are talking at crossed purposes these days. Marketers are still broadcasting interruptive one-way messages, speaking loudly to target audiences and controlling the message. The video above is a good example of the traditional marketing model, reaching out to a large volume of consumers through messages without listening directly to the needs of the customer.

But forget about your monologue if you don't want to be abandoned. Instead let's create a dialogue between your clients and you. Dell finally managed to do this and have significantly improved their customer service, you should be able to as well!

Web users have fully adopted social media tools that enable them to create, share, discuss, and participate online. This results in empowered users who can say anything they like about brands: the good (Zappos) and the very bad (Taco Bell).

Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do about these conversations happening online, on blog comments, on customer reviews, on feedback platforms... They are taking place with or without you and travel even faster and further than you think.

So what should you do? Don't ignore what people are saying about your brand, a bad customer experience leads to a bad reputation which loses you money! Furthermore, if you're not part of the conversation, other people, competitors, are.

The best communicators start as the best listeners (Brian Solis – Social Media Manifesto). It is no longer what you say about yourselves, but what they say about you! So LISTEN to what people are saying then analyse what is being said and why. Only then should you ENGAGE and PARTICIPATE.

Some tips:

• Think like a customer and talk to them with a real voice.
  Don't make them feel small!
• Be transparent and honest: if you are wrong, it's ok to admit it.
  Honesty is rewarded and it will bring back customer trust.
• Provide your customer with tools that they are happy to use and help them accomplish what they want (suggestion platforms, voting system, blogs, comments, video sharing...)
• Create opportunities to make them feel owners of the brand. They can become your strongest advocates!
• Think of Social Media as a long-term strategy not a one-off communication campaign.
• Remember this is a two-way communication so be prepared to relinquish some control.

If you engage people by building relationships, you can expect your customer service to improve significantly. In addition to helpful feedback on what you currently offer its also a great source of fresh ideas, free R&D!

According to a recent study published by Opinion Research Corporation for Cone, consumers are enthusiastic about companies involved on social media platforms as it opens new channels to interact with the brand. So what are you waiting for? Start now before it's too late!

David has sold my beloved fruit machine on e-bay for £10.50 "to make more room in the office" for our new joiners, he might have a point. But! Matt and I nearly killed ourselves carrying that thing up the stairs! And in doing so we bonded with 'fruity' in a special way.

So with a heavy heart I turn to the words of others to express my feelings on this impromptu break-up :(

"And although we might say that we're alright,
it's clear that we've stepped out of time.
There's something quite telling just there at the edge of your smile.

And its not that a heart has been broken.
It's just sad when the flames start to freeze.
And the sparks that we had can no longer light up our debris.

It's just part of us all growing older.
Facing things that we don't want to see.
Like a heart is a thing ever changing.
And love, is a thing that will come and go with the breeze."

'Debris' available for purchase here

Every day we use something called Social Media. Social networks like Facebook, Myspace or Linkedin are really pervasive in our life and we use them either for professional or friendship networking, events planning, pictures sharing, comments or chatting...

We spend so much time sitting in front of our screen connected to our online communities that we are even putting on weight! Facebook 'makes you fat' as Britons pile on the pounds.

But Social Media is far larger than social networking websites. It is actually about all the available online tools that allow us to communicate, create, share, listen, recommend, network... in fact, it is a new world of free media transforming the passive user into the content creator.

When you think Social Media, you have to think blogs (Blogger, Wordpress), video sharing (YouTube, Dailymotion), microblogs (Twitter, Pownce, Jaiku), wikis (Wikipedia), social bookmarking (del.icio.us, Digg), virtual worlds (Second Life, Entropia Universe)…

The internet is becoming social and users' behaviour is inevitably being altered by this trend. Indeed, consumers are less receptive to interruptive and monologue communication from advertisers. Instead they turn to Social Media for information, real life experience, opinion and recommendation. Trust is shifting to the network and therefore marketers must re-adapt their techniques and their strategies in order to engage consumers and build strong relationships.

Marketing professionals must understand that people are overwhelmed by messages and that the old communication model is not as effective anymore. Companies must learn to move from interruption to inviting participation. The new communication model is a transparent, authentic, vibrant and consumer driven dialogue. Social media offer tools which allow companies to listen to what consumers have to say about their brands. More importantly, it offers companies the opportunity to interact with their customers. However, to make efficient use of social media marketers must relinquish control. The goal is not to control messages but to inform, share, inspire, engage and satisfy. Finally, marketers should aim to leverage consumers as a Media.

Here are some companies making the most of social media:

Dell:
Blogging: Direct2Dell
Crowdsourcing: Ideastorm permits users to suggest and vote on ideas
Microblogging: Dell on Twitter
Virtual Worlds: Dell on Second Life

Jeep:
Online video: YouTube The Jeep channel
Photo sharing: Flickr Jeep Experience
Social networks: Facebook Jeep fan page - MySpace Jeep page - Jeep community

Doritos:
Crowdsourcing: Consumer-generated Super Bowl ads

Many other renowned brands harness the power of communities and YOU, are you ready to embrace social media marketing?