I’ve been a fan of TED and TED Talks for years. (No really, see this blog post from 2007). I’m excited to be part of the team bringing TED to Knoxville for the first time, in the form of TEDxKnoxville.
Our theme? Explore the meaning of human potential.
So come on out for one-night and enjoy a series of 3-12 minute on-stage presentations from some of our area’s most compelling thought leaders. It is an event you don’t want to miss, but there is a maximum of 100 seats, so buy your tickets today.
It starts at 7 pm on Wednesday, November 16, 2011. See you there!
Last week, I wrote a post on the New Streak (where I blog for work), on my participation on a panel at the Entrepreneurial Imperative 2010, a conference focused on entrepreneurship and hosted here in Knoxville, TN. I’d highly recommend this conference as it’s one of the biggest groupings of entrepreneurial minded folks I’ve seen in Knoxville.
My session was wittily titled “Social Networking – Untangling the Web of Cutting Edge Technology.” I talked about marketing for startups and particularly on if Facebook or Twitter was a better place to start your marketing efforts. Wondering where I suggested? Check out the post for the full answer.
I came across this blog post recently where a waiter was fired for twittering while on the job. This wasn’t a case where they were fired just for twittering, it’s because who the tweets were about which is a whole new kind of fail whale.
Let’s cut to the chase, if you work in a field where you work with other people, about 99% of the people reading this, you need to watch who you tweet about.
I caught a piece on eMarketer by Clark Fredricksen today about the dilemma of customer engagement companies face when moving into social media. The basis of the post is found in the video embedded below. Tension ramps up between the desire to have a presence and the need to participate. To quote the post:
Most businesses have realized that when it comes to social networks like Twitter or Facebook, simply broadcasting content isn’t quite enough. Consumers want companies to engage with them on social networks — not because they want to have a relationship, per say, with a brand of soap or shampoo, but because they appreciate the opportunity to give feedback on products, receive meaningful information from brands, and catch the occasional bargain, among other things.
What he says is entirely true, launching a presence on a social channel (i.e.. facebook, twitter, yelp, flickr, blogging) is a great thing for many companies and their customers, allowing them to mutually share and receive information. The dilemma comes when a brand has to decide how, when, and who should engage. In my opinion, if a brand is opening an account they are already in the game so there is not the option to not participate so the question becomes how and who. This should adhere to some basic rules of responding to most mentions, answering questions, etc. and every company will have secondary rules they will need to explore that will work best for them. Two great examples of this choice on engagement are Best Buy’s @twelpforce or Comcast’s @ComcastCares – where they are defining their intent because while the CEO of Best Buy is on twitter – having the expectation that he’ll respond personally to every question/whim isn’t only crazy its incredibly of base. Along that path, deciding to do customer service is a common tactic for those companies who use twitter. This brings up the great point that Jeremiah Owyang of the Altimeter Group makes “As companies accelerate their social support efforts, responding to customers in public reinforces the behavior of complaining to everyone they know.” I’m certainly not saying that responding to customers on twitter is a bad idea, but it’s an interesting idea to consider.
Something else to consider is that with the growth of web technology the last few years, the barriers to entry have dropped to a level for where for all intents and purposes it’s 0. It requires very little technical skill to open an account on any of the pieces named above which presents the dichotomy that marketers face – the ease of use can quickly translate to accounts that amount to “hello world” but often get forgotten in the hustle and bustle of day to day work. Without a focus on any account, those customers (guests in Ruby Tuesday’s world) who were very excited at the entry of a company they cared about in a digital space – will quickly move from excitement to vocal anger as their tweets and comments go unanswered and seemingly uncared for.
Which means that brands must ask, and then quickly answer the question, “what type of social media engagement is right for our brand?”
I think he’s right on for 2 and 3. I’d add an additional prediction – that social networking sites and tools will begin to add offerings that appeal to business. I’m not talking about CoTweet ramping up it’s twitter tool, while it’s a good product. I’m talking about product design BY the sites themselves. Sites building out tools and frameworks that not only support businesses but invite them. Let me be clear, I’m not sharing insider information, I just know what I think would help us and other companies like us.
Most social sites are designed for the individual and rightfully so as relationships are what create and grow these sites. But now that organizations are starting to join the fray – their needs, our need are different. Take for example any national retail company in any vertical. Walmart, Best Buy, Ruby Tuesday, P.F. Chang’s, Moe’s, etc. the list goes on and on. The commonality with all these organizations is that they are national, if not international companies, but ultimately serve customers locally.
Each of those customers cared for locally visits a store, where there may be 10-10,000 locations and those local stores together create the global brand. The tension is that social sites know how to serve the local – they are even set up for that in most cases (i.e. requiring a geographic area) but they haven’t quite figured out the global range yet. Global brands need the ability to set parameters to maintain control while allowing for local flexibility.
I’d also add that this need “could” be filled by third party developers if the platform API’s allow deep enough access.
Last week, I wrote a post on the 
