Carman Pirie's Blog

No secret formula

Rarely a day goes by where someone in the blogosphere doesn't offer advice on how to write a great blog post. Yesterday, I ran across two (at least). Here they are:

1. Johnnie Moore and Robert Paterson have an interesting experiment on the go over at The 'Phoric... essentially, guests are asked to pick three YouTube videos and talk about what it is about them that they find interesting / exciting. Their latest 'Phoric is with Euan Semple. Towards the end of the abridged version, Johnnie references an earlier part of the conversation saying:

"Anyone who blogs will relate to the experience of writing a masterful post, the fruits of many hours labour, and waiting for flood of comments and trackbacks (and) getting absolutely none. And then, some throwaway post about some inconsequential event generates a firestorm of interest."

The message here is, of course, don't be too clever by half and over think this... just write, you never know what people will find interesting.

2. James Chartrand wrote a post over at Copyblogger entitled The Secret Key to Killer Content: Taking Time to Think.

The message here is also quite simple... if you want great posts, take the time to think. This stuff doesn't write itself, so take the time and do it right.

My point is that I guess there isn't a secret formula to success in social media. Some folks would say that if you don't enable comments on your blog, then it isn't really a blog. But... it has worked out pretty well for Seth. All of this to say that I think it's best if you simply experiment a bit, see what works and feels right for you, and go from there.

What are your thoughts?

Social media and the anti-broadcast

As a marketer, I guess the trouble with broadcast media is that it isn't quite as broad as it used to be. 3000 channels rather than 300 or 30 (heh... or 3 as I seem to recall from my early childhood). 200+ satellite radio stations (or whatever number they're up to now), all commercial free.

To me, one of the interesting things about broadcast is what is positioned as the anti-broadcast. I recall the days when Xerox trumpeted the virtues of one-to-one marketing... everything was going to be infinitely personalized to you. Only you. Exclusively yours. etc. Well, that works pretty well I suppose when you're printing utility bills or investment updates - but when something is for your eyes only, it is completely void of community.

I think that part of the reason social media works is that it is narrow enough to deliver information / entertainment / etc. that is rather uniquely suited to a specific area of interest, while being just broad enough to foster community.

With all of the other differences that social media brings versus traditional broadcast (transparency, 2-way conversations, etc.), perhaps social media is the perfect anti-broadcast.

What do you think?

Chaordic design and social media

A comment earlier in the week from Mark got me thinking. In response to this post, Mark said:

Interesting point about control. To be honest, I see things like this within a company as much as between company and customer.

For some time, I've increasingly felt that there is an intersection between the work I do within companies, and the work I do between companies and customers. Often times it is difficult to concisely describe this intersection, but it's there, I think.

The Art of Hosting works a lot with Dee Hock's chaordic approach to organization. Essentially, 'chaordic' is the term used to reference that space at the intersection of chaos and order within organizations where the creativity and innovation of chaos is met with enough order to give pattern to the organization. Hey, it seems to have worked for Visa.

Finding the chaordic path within any organization requires that the company leadership dispense with illusions of control. Interestingly, for a company to successfully engage in social media also requires them to give up illusions of control in favor of a propensity to converse. More than simply recognizing that you don't have to control the conversation to benefit from it, companies must realize that they cannot control the conversation anymore. Full stop. They can, however, work to gain 'conversation share', and perhaps earn the right over time to nudge the conversation by helping to improve it.

Social media in the agency business

(one of my favorite Hugh cartoons)

Ad agencies everywhere are struggling to find a way forward in the world of social media. Heh... this likely follows a kind of 80/20 rule... where 80% don't care if agencies are struggling and the other 20% are glad they are. However, if you happen to work at an agency, and you're trying to bring about change, take a look at this post from Abraham Harrison on nine reasons why agencies don’t get social media (hat tip: Jason Falls). As you read through the list you'll get a pretty good sense of some of the objections / roadblocks you're likely to face (pls note... having an answer to #4 will be REALLY helpful).

After you've thought of your responses to some of these roadblocks, Seth has some advice for you too.

I've found that people rarely support that which they haven't had a hand in creating... and since many of the people you're working with helped create what is now the status quo, they have an inherent interest in maintaining it. I'd bet that a good part of your success will likely hinge on how you involve them in a loosely held process to create the next steps together. Being co-creative, with a lot of conversation and persistence, is what it's likely to take. Enjoy it.

Social media is earned media

One of the effects that the “increased pool of potential producers” (see the answer to question 1) of Web 2.0 is having on business is that it is opening up a wide variety of ways that consumers – your customers – can help each other.

And let’s face it – they’d rather get the information they need from each other than get it from you. Don’t be shocked on this point. The PR business has long used a minimum 3x multiplier to quantify the value of earned versus paid media, recognizing that consumers value the information they get from other channels more than what they receive from your company. Making matters worse, consumers have been handed plenty of reasons not to trust business anyway.

The opportunity you have is that most businesses (your competitors?) are better at serving customers than supporting community. They’re better at it because they’ve been doing it longer… and they’ve figured out how much control they have in the process of serving customers and how to exercise it. For example, the server at lunch yesterday exercised a level of control when she told my client that she couldn’t get chicken on her salad, even though it was available as an add-on to another dish on the flip side of the menu.

Your PR person would never attempt to exercise this level of control over a reporter. Instead, they…

- invest time and money into nurturing a relationship
- respond promptly and with courtesy to inquiries
- execute interesting and surprising MPR events to spark interest
- deliver helpful / useful information
- etc.

When everybody is a ‘potential producer’ of ‘earned media’, the rules change. It’s not simply word of mouth anymore, but something more. Whether they use their own channel, one that already exists, one you build, or some combination of the three, they have a remarkable capacity to help one another. And when they do, as an added bonus, they do your marketing for you.

Social media in government

Keith McArthur over at com.motion has a post about the Ontario Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs' use of YouTube.

It seems like a long time ago, in a land far away, that I used to work as a political staffer both in the House of Commons as well as in New Brunswick's Legislative Assembly. That experience has led me to believe that in a variety of ways, our politicians in Canada start out with remarkably good intentions. It is only when they learn 'the way things are done around here' that they begin reallly screwing up. I think this is why the use of social media within a government context presents an interesting edge / opportunity.

It seems to me that the transparency and connectedness of properly utilized social media might be a welcomed addition to our political landscape, providing citizens an authentic glimpse into the challenges of those we elect while keeping our politicians more in touch over the long haul. Or, perhaps, I'm being incredibly naïve. Forever the optimist, etc. What do you think?

Marketing and PR in a social media world

Source: Henry Jenkins

I've been using this slide a bit in some of my recent presentations. I find it is a helpful way to get the discussion going about marketing (pulling people together and giving them something to do) and public relations (you don't have to control the conversation to benefit from it) in a social media context.

Stormhoek understood this when they began sponsoring geek dinners.

Mitch Joel understands this with his fantastic weekly podcast.

Apple continuously shows they understand this by making elegant products worth talking about.

And Barack Obama certainly understands this.