Category: Strategy

On December 18th I spoke at Ohio Web Leaders () with Brian Link (former Exec and now ) and Angela Siefer () about coprorate myths and fears having to do with social media. A PDF of our preso can be found .

We started off with a brief intro and then had the 60 attendees break into small groups to come up with fears/reservations that they personally or their companies/organizations had with regard to social media. The list was pretty telling of corporate attitude toward social media, so I thought I’d share. Great material here for anyone looking to engage a corporate entity in SM consulting. A few of the companies in attendance were: , , , , , , , and more.

Afraid of broadcasting private company information and losing control of messages.

Worried about proving ROI -what is the result and cost?

Time waste for employees – loss of productivity

Bad/wrong info being distributed

Keeping up with the pace and the pure volume of etiquette, dos and donts, new technology, etc

Big stories (dell, comcast, zappos) don’t translate to my organization

Sabotage/negative efforts by competitors

Ability to make it 2 way vs 1 way. what if people dont talk back?

Support and sustainability of a campaign/initiative

Targeting/audience – are the people I want to talk to using social media?

Capacity to handle it in terms of personnel? Who owns it in the organization?

Getting internal (specifically upward) adoption

Generational – is this a FAD? Invest now, flavor of the day?

Compliance and legal!

Difficulty integrating with existing campaigns and efforts

Brands in social media are not authentic (perception)

Loss of face-to-face communication skills

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I think many of these are consistent per what I’ve encountered. Some are legitimate and need to be addressed strategically and some are simply the misconceptions and/or resistence to change in engagement realities.

Are these consistent with what you’ve heard?

You’re a brand and you want to interact with me digitally (namely via some social media piece)? Good, great, I’m all for it. Become the Stain on the Ceiling in my Shower.

I’ve seen it all. I’ve seen the billboards, I’ve seen the commercials. I’ve had the popups (and blocked them), walked by motion triggers in Walmart, even been served something similar to what my mom just wrote me in an email. Truthfully – I don’t even see/hear/feel anything anymore (jeez, that sounds horrible doesn’t it?)

You want to be affective? Become the Stain on the Ceiling in my Shower. Show up and I’ll notice you. Don’t get worse, or else I’ll paint over you. Be there; be something I can deal with; become part of my every day. Most days I won’t pay attention to you. Some days I’ll look at you and subconsciously think that you look an awful lot like what’s-that-country-called-in-Africa. Believe it or not, this adds value to my day. Get me used to seeing you, but don’t drip on my recently-shampood head.

What you want to do is get to the point where, were you gone, I’d miss you. Remember, you’re not an aggressive stain. You’re not growing, peeling or molding. You’re just there. You actually add value to my life by making me think, by adding color to my sometimes-all-to-white-shower-ceiling and by sharing with me things only a stain could know. When you’re at this point, you can affect me and call me to action, subtly, but remember, I have tolerance for you now.

Had you done this on day one, I’d have had the spackle out and we wouldn’t have shared those intimate steamy moments together. You wouldn’t have been able to gain the insight that you have (wink) and I wouldn’t have looked to you for inspiration and (don’t tell my creative or purchasing managers this) answers.

Get it? Now go Become the Stain on the Ceiling in Someone’s Shower and develop that relationship that you might not be used to, but that allows you into a world of a steamed up glass door, not the one-way mirror of the focus group room.

Of note: “No matter how great the talent or effort, some things just take time: You can’t produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant” – Warren Buffett

@NickSeguin

I’ve got a number of friends who work for big corporates (consulting firms, major retailers, banks, big 4, etc.) and many of them didn’t have holiday parties this year. Ya, ya, I know, the economy and all that. Hey, at dynamIt we bootstrapped. I’m very aware of costs and we’re doing our own hunkering-down considering the climate, but the LAST thing I’m cutting is a holiday dinner, or any company culture/motivation pieces for that matter.

Now, more than ever, people (clients/customers) are looking for value Value VALUE. Your people are the ones creating and delivering it. Yes, I’m sure they are happy they still have a job, considering the alternative, and that immediately makes/keeps them happy and doing their best every day, right? Cmon.

My point: Everything has a cost. Know the difference between a spend and a spendvestment. Keep your people happy and motivated. Invest in them, their morale, their personal interests and development. Invest in your culture (read: have holiday parties); find other fat to trim and save. Spending money on the pieces of your machine that have the ability to make a difference and be dynamic in a time when clients are looking for PODs beyond lavish conference rooms and peripheral fluff is a smart play. Something like a holiday party shows that you care about your people outside of their cubicles and their deliverables. It shows that you’re interested in their social needs and allows you to say Thank You. Plus, it’s probably tradition. Start cutting traditions and people start losing core organizational characteristics to root themselves in.

[Pics from dynamIt Holiday Dinner and also our Advisory Board Dinner will be in the first week of the new year. Ya, that's right, we're spending on people who create value. We've found tremendous returns so far...]

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11.18.2009 UPDATE

Great piece on extrinsic versus intrinsic motivators which I consider relevant:

[Originally Posted on the 3, October, 2008]

Is there a Social Media Dress Code? Should there be? Is it situational? Does it matter? Should it?

I say no. If I’m heading down to a big law firm, a big company or walking into a half-century-old PR firm who buttons up, ya, I pull on the suit and rope on the tie. While I do dress according to my day, I can’t wait to stop. I understand that traditional business is suited up, dressed to the 9s and perhaps a bit more conservative and structured. However, Social Media is about channels of connection, it’s about brand championing, it’s about reaction-engagement-participation. Social Media is about common language communication and time and space shift*.

I contend that dressing Social Media in a suit actually inhibits it. Think about it like this – are you more apt to give a real answer in a focus group observation room with 1 way mirrors and a camera or in a cafe, at your home or somewhere you feel comfortable? Is your conversation and thought process more natural when you’ve ironed your shirt and lint-brushed your trousers or when you’ve pulled on the sweats and are sitting in a more ergonomic chair not worrying about wrinkles and dog hair? The point is, for Social Media to be effective [read: gain valuable insight, true connection, trust and reliance] it needs to be second nature, unobtrusive and comfortable.

To that end, were I heading a large company/department looking to at least explore and hopefully implement a Social Media campaign, I would actually feel more comfortable talking with someone “dressed down”. 1. Social Media is trendy – I expect domain experts and thought leaders to reflect this 2. Successful Social Media implementation is not a toe in the water, it is commitment. As described above, someone consulting on this and coaching my people toward a positive result and experience should fully embrace the realm and “personality”. I’m pretty sure clients/customers would rather be talking to someone “like them” horizontally than a suit from above. As points out, 93% of Americans expect companies to have a Social Media presence. 93% of Americans (all of us consumers of something and clients of someone) do not wear suits.

Again to the time and space shift* – Social Media pieces aren’t used in a conference room or in a board meeting (well, some are getting tweeted out!) but on breaks, on the run, on the road, after hours. Social Media is used/produced around life. If that life happens to be a business professional meeting, then by all means rock the double-breasted. However, just because you’re used to seeing a suit doesn’t mean that your clients and customers want to talk to you in it = your SM campaign doesn’t need to wear one = the thought leaders, domain experts consultants and participants in the field probably won’t be wearing them… at least not all the time.

*(time and space shift is Dave Berkus language)

What do you think? Should big corporate get used to seeing backwards hats, jeans and when they’re learning about the world of Social Media and how it can and will connect them more intimately with their clients, industry and (the way things are heading) the world?