The quote below from Harris Diamond reflects a few things.

While most brands are implementing social communications programs using one or two social platforms, only a handful are thinking holistically about managing communications across all media and touch points.

1. PR is increasingly taking the reins of interactive media strategies. Their DNA is founded in communications..social media is online media and the latter requires the same best practices as the offline world.

2. The touch points Diamond refers to stress how organizations are hard-pressed to scale engagement. Right now, brands are bulking up customer service teams just to respond..and they’re learning as they go along.

3. There’s a tug of war going on between the best way for brands to harness and reach customers. Do you build a hub. Do you fish where the fish are? Because the answer is of course a resounding yes to both, it becomes a question of who can lead the charge long-term. You have to wear customers down (with substance) with the value you provide and that takes time.

Too many see the “social” elements of media as a quick fix.

The UK version of paidContent reported on some more moves from Rupert Murdoch yesterday in the growing war over content on the web.

It’s easy to be dismissive of Murdoch’s strategy — especially when it comes to Google — but scenarios like this show that even one or two media outlets can make a difference in the quality of what’s being indexed. In some respects, the PR industry is caught in the crossfire. Think about the growing revenue streams that could be impacted if news stories can’t be consumed by the monitoring algorithms.

I think this quote summed it up pretty well:

“It means thousands of Meltwater customers around the world won’t get to inform clients when their company is mentioned in The Times.”

[Photo: jeremy sutton-hibbert / Alamy]

One of the things I like about Ogilvy’s thoughts is how they make it clear that social media isn’t owned by one department or the other. That ownership volley is what costs too many companies precious time. It’s much easier to rally the business units that want to step up and commit resources and budget.

The other thing that stood out is Ogilvy’s Social Enterprise Change Framework. There’s simply not enough frameworks out there to anchor how companies can begin thinking about an interactive strategy. Hell, I still reference Forrester’s POST methodology for some of the sessions I’ve run. What the Ogilvy framework smartly outlines are the steps required for brands to establish “Centers of Excellence” – yes the COE is back. And it actually maps really well to the challenges I see in the marketplace. Without sharing the burden – ok,tasks – companies are easily victimized by the silo effect and just can’t scale social media expertise across the organization.

The “Action” step in the diagram shows how talent needs to be peppered throughout the organization. Which lines of business to start with can often be the most daunting exercise. It’s hard to look inward and admit your customer service sucks needs improvement, although half the Twitterverse probably already knows it.

And while “action” is the right word in this context, I’m seeing companies act with more preciseness these days, as if engagement strategies were planned for long-term sustainability. I know, what a concept, right? Part of it’s from earlier social media war wounds  and part of it’s due to the listening capabilities that are now utilitarian. What the Ogilvy whitepaper also largely underscores is how twenty-ten will be year that social media’s shiny new object affliction is finally cured.

Ogilvy Enterprise Social Media v1 0

Image by cambodia4kidsorg via Flickr

One of the other quotes that stood out was John Batelle’s prediction that the microblogging interface would change and “look nothing like a microblog.” I’d guess that has  a lot to do with the interface disappearing in some respects. By that I mean interfaces will be accessed through all sorts of services, applications and embedded widgets. And in a sense I think it’s already changed pretty drastically.

The other thing that almost everyone seems to allude to is how social media will become more entrenched in the inner-workings of companies – from their external communication practices to the way business systems are built, designed and deployed. 

That last part is why you hear so much about “social business,” which is a really tough thing to distill into something folks can understand.

If you stray too far to the technical, toolset, or process side, you sound like a business process re-engineering (BPR) evangelist. Jump over too much to the “social media” side and you quickly run the risk of being categorized as too fluffy or someone trying to socialize things that really don’t need to be social.

2010 Social Media Influencers – Trend Predictions in 140 Characters, by TrendsSpotting

I received this message from Richard Aschcroft’s agency yesterday. Apparently he’s donating the proceeds from the soundtrack he created for Richard Jobson’s "The Journey" (a short film to raise awareness for ignored womem) to help the Helen Bamber foundation. You can read about the project at the Guardian. 
via

richardashcroft.co.uk

Posted via web from George Dearing dot com

Posted via web from George Dearing dot com

Nice conference follow-up from Melissa Brenton at Racepoint Group..met her at Enterprise 2.0. Looking forward to reading Larry Weber’s book — Sticks & Stones.

Sent from my iPhone
—————————-
George Dearing
Voice | 713.965.4440
georgedearing.com

Posted via email from George Dearing dot com

Image via CrunchBase

• Q&A: Dan Lyons Talks to Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg [Newsweek]
  "Facebook will be less about Facebook.com and more about this underlying system and platform that we’re building. What we’re trying to do is be more about letting people use their information on any site or platform they want. We launched Facebook Connect last year, and we now have more than 15,000 sites using it, and that’s just a start. Within five years we hope to have hundreds of millions of [more] people using Facebook. But it’s more about using the system to make other sites more social." ~ Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook in 5 years
  (tags: facebook newsweek social+networking social+computing facebook+connect)

  

• Fair Syndication Consortium Gets Its First Ad Network: AdBrite [paidContent]
  "AdBrite is the first ad network to join the Consortium—and it’s a crucial first partnership—since working directly with the ad networks that are keeping content aggregators (and scrapers) afloat, is the cornerstone of the Consortium’s business model. Even with this milestone, though, the group still faces challenges, including defining what constitutes fair use vs. content aggregation and tracking specific ad impressions across multiple networks."
  (tags: fair+syndication+consortium paid+content micro-transactions advertising content+distribution)

  

• Send a One Line Press Release on Muck Rack [Twitter style]
  Sawhorse Media is letting companies submit press releases at $1 a character to its journalist community.
  (tags: sawhorse+media muckrack journalists aggregator press+release twitter pr pr20)

  

• Online Community Interview: Dawn Lacallade, SolarWinds [Online Community Report]
  Good chat with Dawn Lacallade at SolarWinds. They’re using the Telligent platform to integrate much of their online activity.
  (tags: solarwinds telligent online+communities community+management)

Image via CrunchBase

• Use Microsoft Outlook with Google Apps for email, contacts, and calendar
  Google V. Microsoft continues.
  (tags: SaaS cloud+computing microsoft google google+apps)

• Paid Subscriptions to Digital Editions Rise – MarketingVOX
  "number of paid subscriptions to digital editions of magazines has leapt since 2007"
  (tags: paid+content digital+strategy online+content magazines content+distribution content)

• Collaborative Networks vs Social Networks
  "the English Daily Telegraph..recently integrated its web and print operations while laying out the newsroom around a central “hub.”
  (tags: enterprise2.0 collaboration socialsoftware e2.0 zdnet)

• How the $0 Netbook Might Just Help Save the Media Industry – AdAge
  "..imagine another netbook maker marketing a higher-priced monthly subscription fee for a tiered level of media access — with, say, Hulu Premium, or a Kindle-like book-subscription service or Times Reader 3.0 from The New York Times."
  (tags: netbooks media paid+content smartbooks advertising)

  

• BuzzStream: CRM for Social Media
  Web tools mashing up CRM and monitoring are increasing.
  (tags: tools measurement buzz software buzzstream social+crm)

Image by George Dearing via Flickr

• How Not to Manage Innovation – Umair Haque – HarvardBusiness.org
  "It’s what happens when we misapply mechanics of finance 2 the art of innovation." – Umair Haque
  (tags: innovation economy capitalism harvard+business+review)

• Audience Targeting in Social Media « PR-Squared
  Expands on Forrester’s Technographics research.
  (tags: socialmedia monitoring influencer+model analytics forrester pr2.0)

Image by the waving cat via Flickr

It’s funny how things come full circle. A big part of the pitch for next week’s Web 2.0 Expo is “the power of less.” I can remember pitching large organizations back in the late 90’s on the value of doing “more with less.”Whether you had less people, less software or inadequate infrastructure, we held close to the notion that we could all be a lot smarter if we were more creative instead of backing up the buses and unloading more resources.

Conference spokeswoman Jennifer Pahika talked to CNN recently and explains Web 2.0’s lure for companies seeking innovation, cost reduction and better service.

Image via Wikipedia

• Apple to debut iPhone OS 3.0 next week
  Maybe Qik (video) capability is finally nearing? Doubt it.
• Digital Marketing: The Golden Rules of the Web
  "Stop thinking like a company & act like a person"
• PR firms grow amid marketing gloom
  "boom in social networking & need for online reputation management has helped increase public sector PR spending"
   

I continue to like T. Boone Pickens’ communication strategy. While it helps to have deep pockets, you still have to pull it all together and execute. His so-called “army” is actually doing a lot of the heavy lifting itself with all sorts of digital tools and services that spur the creation of consumer-generated content. Over the last 48 hours there was a battle brewing over whether or not NBC would show a recent Pickens’ ad.

Below was the first message I saw early this morning. I didn’t realize that I was a half day late seeing the initial email message. The first blog post was this:

We have four new ads which are either on the air, or ready to go on the air. The ads have been “cleared” by every network… except for NBC which has refused to clear a :15 second ad about Iran.

Right when I was about to post this, I circled back to the site and saw a more recent blog post that updated the situation.

On Wednesday the Pickens Plan Army engaged in a battle against NBC. The network had refused to run our 15-second ad talking about how Iran–IRAN–is moving quickly to CNG-powered vehicles so they can free up their oil to sell it to us at $120 per barrel.Guess what: We won the battle!By Wednesday evening, NBC had re-examined its position and told us they WOULD allow our ad to run in its original form.

There’s no questioning the web’s impact on things like this. Call it social media, citizen journalism or what have you, the fact remains we’re in the midst of some big shifts around traditional media. The winds of change are here.

SDL Tridion’s PR firm sent this to me last week and I couldn’t resist.
——————————————————————————————————

Web sites that are attractive but have no real substance – the “bimbos” of the Web world – are the most frustrating on line experience according to research carried out by SDL Tridion.

The top 5 online frustrations, as revealed by the research are:

1. Pop up ads: Like acne or ex-boyfriends – always appear at the wrong time and difficult to get rid of, 78 percent of respondents voted this the most frustrating aspect of the web.

2. Long intros you can’t click out of: Too much irrelevant information that wastes time; 56 percent of respondents were irked the most by this.

3. Hitting ‘back’ and losing all your information: Too much like hard work – 53 percent of people were driven to distraction when they had to repeat inputting their details.

4. Downloading new applications: Web sites are too flashy sometimes. If all you want is information, having to spend minutes downloading the latest version of an application to watch a video or read a document bothers 50 percent of people.

5. Asking for personal details: Why do you need to fill in your life story to get an answer out of some companies? 49 percent of people found this nosy neighbor attitude annoying.

“A company’s Web site is often the first thing visible to people when doing an on line search. First impressions count and all “fluff” and no content drives Web site users mad,” commented Erik Aeyelts Averink, president at SDL Tridion. “Don’t push customers away and annoy them for no reason.”

Also infuriating people are moving graphics that are difficult to click on (40 percent), a site without the usual options like contact us or about us (48 percent) and irrelevant information on overcrowded homepages (39 percent).

“These elements aren’t just annoying; they make up the Web site from hell,” continued Erik Aeyelts Averink. “Companies need to ensure they aren’t alienating Web users.

The Internet is often the first port of call for research and a Web site deserves the same time and effort spent on other marketing materials. If companies continue in this way they will lose not only customers, but their reputation.”

Here, Here.

It was a hectic June and I’m finally starting to distill some of my conversations and briefings. I was in Boston a few weeks back for the Enterprise 2.0 Conference and while I definitely came back energized, the best part was the old-fashioned version of social networking — pressing the flesh as the saying goes.

I was there as media and while I would’ve liked to have blogged more about the show, I did manage to get some microblogging in courtesy of CoverItLive’s service. I realized early that I’d be attending a bunch of sessions with a crappy Wi-Fi connection in the backdrop, so I figured I’d cut my losses and get as much micro content in place as possible.

The widget below is the snapshot of my ad hoc meetings, session tracks, and a few hallway and bar conversations. Some of the latter were definitely the more interesting as I had several instances where I connected with folks I’d blogged with and collaborated with through Twitter and other channels.

I ran the CoveritLive widget on the Content Management Connection and ECM Blog after the show and noticed it had about 500 unique views over the course of a few days. How much of that had to do with the novelty of the service remains to be seen. Janet Lee Johnson thought it was cool enough to blog about it, and I noticed it had enough lift to light up Twitter with a few Tweets.

If you’re into content management, or in a broader sense, information management, I hope you’ll pop in occasionally at one of my new homes on the web. (RSS feed here)

I’m part of Information Week’s blog crew and recently started covering all things related to content and information management. And what the heck isn’t related to managing content these days? It’s such a broad topic I know, but my goal is to bring a business person’s voice to it all.

If you’re a vendor, make your PR pros earn their money by sending along story ideas and vendor news. If you’re a client and want to get some pub on how you’ve mastered the content beast, you can also drop me a line.

Here’s some of my latest posts..and as always, thanks for reading.

• Top 5 Content Management Trends For 2008
  
• Oracle’s BEA Acquisition Makes Things Interesting
  
• Oracle Captures A Key Component To Its ECM Strategy
  
• Clickability Clicks On All Cylinders
  
• How Web 2.0 Affects Content Management
  
• IBM Hints At FileNet 2.0
  
• Open Source Funding Signals CMS Shakeup
  
• Engineering Content Management For A Web 2.0 World
  
• Are Enterprises Finally Waking Up To RSS?
  
• SaaS Trendwatching With Clickability

Explore The Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Network (a FeedBurner Network)

A while back I attended a PRWeek and Waggener Edstrom event at the posh  Hotel Palomar here in Big D. The event was titled Campaigns in the 21st Century: Measuring Perceptions. Dan Gallagher delivered an interesting look at how they analyzed content being created on the web related to the Presidential candidates. The analysis was done back in Sept. 2007 and was accomplished using the Narrative Network, a toolset they created using some pretty nifty algorithms. You can download Dan’s presentation here. (if it doesn’t work. lemme know) And here’s the movie.

In short, it’s text mining and brand mapping that creates a visual map of how the media perceives a particular brand or topic. That’s pretty hot stuff these days with all the attention on social media measurement or brand monitoring. Smart companies and agencies are finally figuring out that social media measurement is just another layer in a well-integrated approach to digital marketing and public relations.

I’m still a little baffled when clients don’t want to budget for stuff like this. It really gives new meaning to the “intel” connotation.