A few clips of interviews we collected from the event we organised last week at the AirMuseum on the impact the volcanic cloud has had on social media. Some nice insights from the EU commission on social media that works and quotes from Aurelie @Euroocontrol and Simon McDermott and myself.
The social network that was created last summer for IABC (the International Association of Business Communicators) is one of the best ways for communicators in a corporate environment to experience ‘social media’ and online communities first hand.  We are using a ning platform (a site that allows you to build your own ‘facebook’) and enables members to share information, videos, presentation and discuss a range of topics. It is also very practical to organise events and keep your network aware of recent news.  Those interested in discovering more about this should join: http://be-iabc.ning.com/ or watch the video where I discussed the kind of conversations that take place there.
Here’s a short video of me – explaining a bit the IABC ning in one of our ZN events.
Greenpeace's Nestle Killer campaign logo
From time to time, we come across a story that demonstrates that a worst case scenario can come to life. Nestle is currently going through just that ( http://www.mycustomer.com/topic/social-crm/nestle-debacle-demonstrates-common-social-media-misunderstandings/105610).
The story is that they launched a facebook group which is a general ‘corporate’ one – if you read the information page, it talks about Nestlé, and its Mission is ‘Good Life, Good Food’.
The group has over 93 000 members, so clearly has attracted many people.
As the communication team was getting excited about the success of this open engagement strategy something went badly wrong.
Greenpeace decided to launch a campaign against Nestle called Nestlè Killer – Give the Orang-utan a break, driven from the main UK site: http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/. The greenpeace campaign has all the marks of a social media campaign (including a truly gross video – do not watch this before eating!).
But here comes the twist. The greenpeace campaign gradually started to take over the Nestlé facebook group, putting comments, pictures and activating the campaign using the very platform Nestlè had build to show it’s customers how it was delivering ‘Good Life, Good Food’. The result is that currently the site is dominated by posts by anti-Nestlé campaigners. The company is struggling to find the appropriate response – first by deleting comments, then confronting the campaigners and finally apologies and letting all the comments stand. The spirit is one of open and and learning – but it feels a lot like a catastrophic situation out of which there is no easy way out. As this is still unfolding it will be fascinating to observe how this plays out.
Nestle Facebook Fan Page: What should Nestlé do now?
The question is: what should Nestlé do now? Delete? Engage? Change country? Flee the country? They have already said that they had stopped giving business to one the companies that was responsible for the deforestation that is leading to the Orang-utan being threatened.
Perry Belcher explains how social media can create benefit for your business. A clear and simplified way of outlining some of the basic principles of Social Media Marketing.
Based on 2009 research, Forrester has developed a simple profiling tool that maps out consumers depending on their age, gender and country to determine their level of online engagement.
The scale to measure consumers’ level of engagement is based on Forrester’s Social Technographics® which classifies consumers into six overlapping levels of participation (see a 6 slide presentation below). Not all European countries are represented; nevertheless it’s interesting to see e.g. the difference between the US and Europe.
A friend of mine just sent me this absolute beginners guide for twitter (thanks Bryony).
She found it quite useful and there are even things in there I wasn’t personally aware off.
How can Twitter as a social media tool help you grow your business? The author maps out 3 priorities:
1. provide value to your audience. This is the basis for everything else
2. drive that audience to your blog
3. grow your audience
Definitely worth a read
Clay Shirky gives a TED (www.ted.com) 16 minute presentation on how social media changes the dynamics of power and communications because it creates the possibility of masses communicating with masses. A compelling account of what communicators and politicians everywhere need to understand.
Clay wrote a book called ‘Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations‘ which looks interesting. His site/blog also contains some more background on his thinking and approach. He is a consultant to international organisations like Nokia and the BBC and a professor at NYU.
Just came across this post by JustinSMV about the impact social media is likely to have going forward (a bit like a fresh version of the machine is us). Â A good way to get your mind to focus on the strategic importance of these new tools when preparing yourself for 2010. Â As the FT and the Economist recently declared the recession in Europe (ok at least for France and Germany) is (almost) over, it is time to start thinking about the future and how to plan for 2010 - but without going back to the bad old ways…
This should give you some inspiration.
Here an interview from a Social Media presentation I gave at The Hub last week together with Oihana (eMarketeer at The Hub):
I do believe that the shift towards social media is not only important for Corporate Marketers.
The fact that you have to become more transparent also means you have to start reviewing your current business operations: How compliant are we really? And how do our stakeholders perceive our performance?
Some years ago it would have been a great opportunity for a Business to move towards social & environmental responsibility to gain a competitive advantage. Today it becomes more and more a must to not fall behind your competitors and to avoid a potential crisis.
Being truly transparent does not only mean that a corporation needs to implement a CSR report that is compliant with GRI standards we are talking about a process of change management that is not to underestimate. It’s not just about the numbers but also about the motivations & meaning given to these values by each and every employee.
Only in the moment a researcher from the R&D division, your supply chain partners and the external maintenance guy live up to this philosophy and come to work every day because they truly believe they help save the environment and add benefit to the community by working for your organization, you can talk about a successful implementation of this approach. It’s not just a one off exercise. It’s rather a cultural transformation of the whole organization.
“We think the web is better when it’s social. Currently, you have friends locked up in one or more social networks, social applications that work on only a few sites, and multiple usernames and passwords to remember. It can be better, and we are developing tools to make “any app, any site, any friends” a reality.”
Read more on http://googlesocialweb.blogspot.com
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