Helt enig i at sociale medier bare er en lille detalje i et meget større, mere komplekst og langt vigtigere spil.

I wrote a while back about social media and culture shift. I continue to believe that the biggest obstacle to social media adoption and integration is a culture shift, not an operational one. But there’s a subtle point to be made.

The culture issues that exist in these companies have been years – even decades – in the making.

So, social media didn’t cause the culture disparities. They’ve been there all along. But the new expectations for responsiveness, accountability, personality and human focus as a result of the potential and visibility of new communication have put a big, fat spotlight on where those values are missing. Social media may be part of the indicator, folks, but it’s not the issue.

Change is.

And change isn’t instant, nor is it usually easy. We’re not really asking for companies to embrace social media. We don’t really care if they’re on Twitter or blogging. Those are just details. What we’re asking is for them to take a good, hard look at why they’re doing business, for whom. We’re asking them to communicate better, more clearly, more genuinely. We’re asking them to spend the effort to rework the way they do business to make customers feel like they give a rip. Social media is just the soapbox we’re using to ask for that change. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, of course. I’d be willing to bet that hundreds of businesses that we would identify as not putting their customers first will tell you all day long that yes, indeed, that’s what they aim to do. It’s the rare, ruthless business that would say they truly don’t care about people (and if that’s the case, we can’t help them anyway).

But what we’re NOT doing well – collectively – is really illustrating the disconnect points where organizations’ expressed positive values don’t line up with the way they do things at a functional level.

We’re telling them to get on Twitter, but we’re really asking them to have more immediate and responsive customer service channels because their call center is a nightmare to navigate. We’re telling them to blog, but what we really want from them is to understand more about the people behind their business, and what they’re thinking and feeling and doing, and feel like they really want to share those things with us. I’m getting hungrier and hungrier for the next phase of this blog, because that’s where it’s all focused. It’s discussion with all of you about how to communicate, architect, and implement change. Big and small. Operational and cultural. Social media is one of the vehicles, but what we’re really focusing on is far, far more fundamental than that. It’s down at the roots of these businesses, and in the minds of the people that have build them. It’s in the intent, the approach, the thinking. That’s where the pivot point is. The challenge for us is to get thoughtful and articulate about what we’re really asking for. There may not be a one-size-fits-all approach to creating change, but we sure as hell can do a better job of cutting some clearer paths through the jungle that aren’t regurgitating the same old  generalized rhetoric. I’m committed, and ready to tackle the tough stuff. Are you with me? image credit: photofarmer Getting Real About Creating Change

Jeg elsker denne tjeneste. Punktum. We are crawling the Internet all the time; monitoring the latest trends and technologies, seeking, discovering. If you’re like me, during your web travels you often come across treasures you want to share. Some deserve a tweet; some belong on your pro blog; others on your personal blog. But sharing what you find can be time consuming and hinder your productivity. Posterous takes care of this problem for you by making it extremely easy to post content to the social media apps you use. Doriano previously described how you can use email to share photos through Posterous, but I’m going to talk about how easy it is to use the Posterous bookmarklet to share any content across multiple platforms. To create a Posterous account, you don’t fill out a registration form, you send an email. Then you get a confirmation email that will take you back to Posterous to add your social apps accounts to the service. Once you’ve added the accounts to which you want to be able to post, the next thing I recommend you do is install the bookmarklet. On the “Manage” page, under the “Posts” tab (the default) scroll down and find the “Posting” box. Click the bookmarklet link and follow the very simple instructions to add the Posterous bookmarklet to your browser’s bookmark toolbar. Now go to some content that you want to share and click the bookmarklet in your bookmark bar. In the window that pops up, you can customize the info you’re about to post:

Posterous grabs images, videos and sometimes text from the site and lets you pick which you want to use. You can add your comments and click “Post” if you want this item to go to all your social media accounts, or you can click “Advanced Options” and pick and choose which accounts to post to. For example, I only want this link to go to my Twitter account and a personal blog:

Tips: If you want to use a specific text excerpt from an article, select the text before clicking the bookmarklet, and it’ll be added to the image/excerpt options. Choose it, and it’s neatly inserted as a blockquote. If you want to send the item to a blog where you have categories, in the title field, type ((tag: Category1, Category2)), for example, and it will automatically be categorized on your blog. Note: Unless you want the cute puppy video you sent to your family blog, the excerpt of the article on agile programming you sent to your pro blog, and the photo of Freddie Mercury in an eyeball suit you just tweeted all to appear together in sweet cacophony on your Posterous site, you need to create multiple Posterous sites. This is easy to do, and you only have to add your social media accounts once. Then when you choose Advanced Options in the bookmarklet, a drop-down lets you pick the Posterous site you want the item to appear on:

I have only tested sharing with Posterous to a blog, Twitter and LinkedIn. If you post something to Twitter or LinkedIn, Posterous inserts a link that takes people to your Posterous site, not to the original site online. I assume the same is true of other social media apps, too. On a blog, the links go to the original item wherever it appeared online. I recommend testing Posterous a little bit at a time to see how it works for you. I’ve only talked about the bookmarklet here, but do check out the email options. The first thing I did with Posterous was take a photo with my iPhone and email it to Posterous, which automatically autoposted it to every service I’d added. Doriano explained how to email content to specific sites in his article, so check that out as it’s actually kind of hard to find the info on the Posterous site. Have you tried Posterous yet? What tools do you use for social sharing? Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Social Media in the Enterprise

Jeg forstår stadig ikke, hvorfor dette tilsyneladende er raketfysik? What do you get when a VP of Influencer Relations from SAP, the founder of Silicon-Valley Watcher and former Financial Times Journalist and a Social Media strategist come together? The answer is lively discussions and debate about the impact of social media upon business. Don Bulmer, Tom Foremski and I have recently formed a lyceum of sorts and meet regularly to discuss this very topic.  In addition to thoroughly engaging and timely discussion, we are also forming a framework for understanding social media in a business context. We believe that social strategy is and needs to become about more than just marketing, and will be woven into the very fabric of the enterprise as a strategic platform.

We are actively exploring the idea that every company is a media company. Initially, I had a negative, knee-jerk reaction that this didn’t concept sound right. How can every company be a media company? Why would every company need or want to be a media company? When this idea was first introduced by Tom Foremski, my mind quickly went to a mis-interpretation of the concept.. every company is a media company meaning that each should be mini-publisher, every organization now needing to be burdened with complex publishing cycles. I recoiled from the thesis... Everyone knows that enterprise success is predicated on competitive advantage, best products and services, excellent customer service, and right pricing. Being a media company is the last thing strategic executives need to have on their minds to excel in today’s global economy!

But the more we talked about this concept – the better I understood and the more I agreed. The reality is that every company today and into the future faces a new reality: the need for speed and relevance in the market. Competition is stiff in most industries and due to the recession, we face a “new normal” of doing more with less budget, fewer staff, and a reduction in experimental or innovation projects that are geared towards discovery. Plainly spoken, companies need to “get it right” to survive. I have written extensively in my blog about the Engagement Cycle; the basic tenant is that the more a company engages with clients and prospects, the more likely they are to gain awareness, insight, and ideas into the market’s needs. Through the sheer act of engaging with the very constituents they hope to attract they can begin to strengthen relationships that are at the very core of the buyer decision-making process. This belief was reinforced through the research that Don and I did called The New Symbiosis of Professional Networks (under our research fellowships with SNCR) where we found that decision makers are increasingly relying on social media driven peer networks to make buying decisions. In fact, in-person and social media driven relationships are almost equally as trustworthy, according to the survey participants.

Re-enter the idea that every company is a media company…. Media, and specifically social media, is the wellspring for relationships. It is the source of information, collaboration and dialogue with the market that can, and will, inform enterprise about the needs of their buyers and influencers.

When media is used strategically and effectively, many of the answers to these burning questions can become clearer and help shape competitive strategies for success. On the flip side, people are already talking about notable companies, brands and products. The dialogue already exists, outside the control of the enterprise throughout online and offline channels – in email, phone conversations, industry gatherings, Twitter, blogs, online peer networks and groups The buzz – both positive and negative- happens with or without intervention but unlike in the past – before social media – enterprises now have an opportunity and, in fact, a standing invitation to participate. And, they also have an opportunity to share the leading thinking in the market. Most successful companies got to their levels of achievement, in part, due to their deep understanding of their industry and its nuances. Thought leadership is the new relationship conduit. Through the effective use of thought leadership platforms, made so agile on social media, companies can “be the media” by sharing and showcasing content and ideas of value. They can participate and in some instances lead and shape the dialogue, not as an overt marketing channel, but through earnest efforts to educate and inform about the issues and topics relevant to their segment.

As Don so eloquently summarized in a recent blog post on the topic “The way that people (consumers, employees, partners and influencers) are using social technologies to inform, shape and share their opinions has quickly become a priority for business leaders to understand and appreciate as they (re)define their corporate strategies and operational business plans. Many companies are actively looking to incorporate ‘social strategy’ and social thinking into the core of their innovation process (research and development), service and support operations, sales and partner programs, and of course employee engagement efforts.”

So, through this lens of urgency and strategic value, Tom Foremski, Don Bulmer and I have begun to capture key concepts, best practice and look forward to the future where all competitive organizations are weaving social strategy across the value chain. We are soon to launch a new blog together to explore the ideas with you and are also creating a framework for putting the ideas into the business content to help companies in their charters.

Coming full circle to the platitude that every company is a media company, I believe the answer is yes! Through the act of creating, leading and engaging, companies take a more participatory role in shaping their future.

Grotesk taget i betragtning hvor meget mediehuse ellers klager over, at Google nasser på dem. Faced with declining revenues and increasingly dismal prospects, some  mainstream media outlets are adopting questionable tactics, specifically dead-end web pages stuffed with outbound links and pay-per-click ads. A liberally funded LA startup is only too quick to help them. The story starts with San Francisco-based sex writer Violet Blue. She used to be a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, the SF daily with ever-declining circulation.

Recently, while writing a column, she did a search through the archives of SFGate.com, the online presence of the Chron. She discovered that the web site was “copying” and “distorting” her column archives. (Here’s the link– Warning: Not Safe for Work) Here’s how she describes what she saw:

The column had been stripped of all links, and divided across several pages. My bio was missing, as were all the comments. Freakishly, all the commas were gone. And the URL had been changed. The address was comprised of words; to my horror the URL had been keyworded to say “ashamed porn star” — the exact opposite of the article’s content. There is a much bigger story here. It’s all in what’s going on with archive duplication and the nation’s old media newspapers online. I think that the work done to the duped content is done for the purpose of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). The idea here seems to be stripping content, duplicating it, make SEO’d content that is a dead end for readers, and drive up results with cost per click ads.

The San Francisco Chronicle, it seems, like the Los Angeles Times, is using the technology of an LA-based startup, Perfect Market, which has raised $20 million from Trinity Ventures, Rustic Canyon Ventures and others. Tim Oren, a venture capitalist at The Pacifica Fund, on his blog, Due Diligence, points out that while there’s nothing illegal about what the newspapers are doing, it does border on scraping. Typically, spammers scrape web sites, then set up shadow blogs and fill them with pay-per-click ads. As Oren writes:

The keyword and ad-stuffed dead end pages apparently produced by Perfect Markets’s technology are isomorphic, from a search company’s point of view, to those created by more questionable tactics such as scraping. The intent is the same: to spam the index. This is the behavior that routinely gets questionable sites shoved to Google’s back pages, or banished altogether. One has to wonder just how long this type of abuse will be tolerated, simply because it’s being practiced by a recognized media outlet.

I couldn’t agree more. Nor could I help but notice the irony, considering how quick the mainstream media is to lament the traffic-stealer that is Google. It wouldn’t surprise me if more newspapers adopted these kind of strategies.

Photo by Seattle Municipal Archives via Flickr / CC BY 2.0