In new media, we're frequently challenged to venture outside our lair of solace, and the more we live outside it, the more we begin to actually redefine our center of judgment, transforming how we interpret, process, and act based on how new information reaches us.
Curiosity and experience can reveal new, more effective, and more efficient ways to get from here to the ever-elusive "there," all while venturing into the unknown. It's what we implement that converts theory into practice, and practice into education and innovation.
Caution, however, isn't something we ought to carelessly throw to the wind. Within social networks and the blogosphere, the rules of engagement are currently in the process of being defined, through its careful development, real-world testing, and continual modification. There's much to learn, but we can't grasp or master anything by sitting idly and watching the world pass us by. Nor can we jump in with both feet and engage without observing how we effectively contribute value and earn the relationships that spark communities, associations, and ultimately action and/or commerce.
You've already acquired a great deal of knowledge about your industry, through seminars and conferences, blogs, articles, and newsletters.
This is your moment, and it starts with becoming the type of person you would want to listen to, watch, read, and otherwise seek guidance from. You are empowered to lead the way and test and employ the lessons and insight you absorb in order to apply experiences that parlay into your reality, your world.
Many are faced with the reality of having to successfully justify, initiate, and implement their education and vision. We are basically attempting to chart the specific steps necessary to accomplish new and great things while tying strategies and tactics to real-world business value, not because we have to, but because we can.
Sure, those responsible for green-lighting a new pilot, campaign, or program may or may not be qualified to do so. They may, instead, stand in the way, in a desperate bid for job security, and attempt to direct a social media project into oblivion, tangle innovation with a Web of process requirements and aging infrastructure, or, even worse, denounce new ideas.
Okay, so then what?
Thankfully, there are also gatekeepers who are never content with the status quo and recognize opportunity and their chance to not only adapt and evolve along with their customers and influencers, but also help lead them to answers and insight to make more informed decisions.
We're all learning. However, history, experience, and intuition will help save us from learning and progressing through friction, public chastising, loss of revenue and brand stature, or perpetual mistakes.
We are the champions.... We are the experts.
While many individuals can demonstrate the benefits of and processes for building and managing personal brands online, only those who have faced business-specific challenges, tested numerous initiatives, experienced buy and sell cycles, and lived through successes and failures related to their markets are eligible to become bona fide experts. The rest of us are still learning together, forever students of emerging media.
It's not about the tools.
It's not about the ability to build profile pages within specific social networks.
It's not about creating a blog and populating it with content.
And, it's definitely not about creating and polluting the Web with irrelevant social objects.
This is about social architecture, engineering, and the empathy required to build bridges between your company, its brand, and its audiences, customers, and peers. It's also about contributing value to the communities in which you wish to participate.
Want to master Twitter? Don't jump to purchase a book on Twitter. It's less important to know the history of Twitter or how to "tweet" and more important to use Twitter as an extension of who you are, what you stand for, and the value that you can add to the community.
The same is true for Facebook and LinkedIn, for that matter. At the end of the day, they're channels—albeit rich channels—for listening, learning, and participating. Understanding the unique culture of each social network as it relates to your business and the corresponding behaviors that define the subgroups of niche networks is critical to establishing, implementing, and managing successful programs.
Tools are just that: tools. They will help you reach people. They'll adapt. They'll change. They'll emerge and merge. And many will simply vanish.
Think about it for a moment.
Your focus, no matter which tools you use, must be on assessing weaknesses and opportunities, defining goals and objectives, auditing the landscape and competitive activity, listening to where and how the community is speaking, and identifying expressed concerns and challenges. We must take steps to create a governing and measurable strategy in order to justify, refine, and improve our activity.
In order to appeal to customers, peers, and other influencers, we need to embrace their point of view, which provides insight into their frame of mind. Doing so will lay the foundation that will allow us to learn from an educated position. From there, our experience and training builds upon itself in line with our markets.
We're usually missing the "day in the life of" viewpoint and the "why should I listen to you" perspective in our strategy and execution, yet it's supposed to serve as the core of anything and everything we do and should be doing.
In my experience, we tend to broadcast, even when we are listening. We tend to communicate without regard for the bigger picture as it relates to participating parties, even if we're engaging.
The experience that's earned through the process of establishing and promoting a personal brand and building prominence, cultivating an active and vibrant community, earning trust and loyalty on behalf of a company brand, and inspiring measurable action and transactions, is immeasurable.
You represent the future of your brand's connections, and resonance within emerging media. Don't get distracted. Get to work.
Any anthropologist or sociologist will tell you that before attempting to join any society, we must conduct initial fieldwork to observe and document the culture, behaviors, communication styles, customs, and traditions of its citizens. And before we can determine which networks we prioritize, we have to first "listen" to the conversations across multiple social networks to identify and distinguish relevant interaction from worthless chatter.
Use the Conversation Prism (see Chapter 18) to establish a Conversation Index.
Transformation begins with observation.
We need to spend more time listening and less time broadcasting or talking "at" people.
We must realize that there are benefits to monitoring, observing, listening, communicating, and connecting.
Earning the attention of peers as part of an integrated B2B, B2C, or D2C (Direct to Customer) communications program necessitates a level of mastery that shares roots and certain tactical attributes with personal branding, but requires supplemental skills and talents that inspire and fuel relevant techniques and strategic vigilance, which ultimately beget presence and mindshare.
It is essential to figure out who's in charge of the conversations around your industry. Is it advertising, PR, marketing communications, or customer service? It's all of the above!
How do you integrate social media into the marketing fold without either being laughed at or, even worse, fired? Perhaps CEOs, directors, and investors will read this and force the change from the top downward. But in most cases, change will be driven from the bottom upward, and also will be influenced by middle management. As social media becomes accepted and practiced industry-wide, change will also stem from outside pressure.
The easy answer is that no one owns the conversation and that each division and each person representing the company, inward and outward, will be responsible for contributing to it.
Conversations will always map directly to specific departments within a company, thus requiring participation from everyone, including service and support, PR, marketing communications, executives, product development, finance/investor (if applicable), and so forth.
The best companies will release their control associated with the gatekeeping of the brand and messages in social realms and trust their employees and customers to carry forward. Don't get me wrong, traditional marketing can still run as it has; it simply now needs a more complementary role with all the new media activities. There also needs to be a more cognizant process for understanding the people who comprise the markets you're trying to reach
The primary metric for business success is measured in profitability and market share, not friends and followers. It is quantified in predefined and desired actions, not conversations. It is metered in presence and not chatter. The path to direct success is impeded by the tollgates that are manned by customers and influencers who govern passage and direction.
While basic communications and personal skills factor into user engagement, they are technically responsible for defining perception, reach, and persona.
While many preach the importance of personality and voice and the humanization of the corporate brand in social networks, there's something to be said for mystique and there's definitely something to be said for behavior.
Being "yourself" or simply being present isn't enough, and many times it can also take away from the persona that symbolizes the company and its products. We examined the need to define and personify the personality of the brand earlier.
Would Apple maintain its magic if hired everyday social media experts were actively engaging with people on Twitter? Would Steve Jobs preserve his charisma if we as the public could freely access him through social networks? Or would these prestigious brands lose their luster and charisma?
But think about it. Would simply having access to the company wherever, whenever, through the voices and personalities of John or Jane Doe change your perceptions of Apple or Mr. Jobs?
I remind you of this here because you are the first line of defense and offense.
In social media, the brands of participants will forever be at odds with the brands they represent. Who we are as an individual and who we are as a representative of a company aren't always in harmony or unison. However, there is an attainable balance and it's this balance that inflates and steers the impression of all brands involved on both sides of the conversation—as it relates to the calculated brand personality.
While we profess to inject a human element into the image of those companies as a way of making them approachable and compassionate, we must assess our intended role and the advantages of engagement in the communities we wish to reach before our inaugural utterance or declaration. Then, and only then, can we plot our bearing and trajectory.
It's a matter of "being human" versus "humanizing the story," and there is a stark difference between them.
Humanizing the brand is necessary if, and only if, a human voice will reduce or eliminate potential friction between the customer and the company. Otherwise, social strategies must personify the greater purpose, significance, and symbolization of the brand, and reinforce those traits through everything we contribute. We do so by also humanizing our existing and potential customers, gaining empathy and sincerity in the process. But we must do so at a profound measure, through not only a deep-rooted comprehension of human nature and connections as it relates to our individual personality, but also an entrenched comprehension of perception management, brand shaping and reinforcement, and active counseling and guidance that leaves those you encounter more informed, aware, and fulfilled. We're instilling the attributes that engender awareness, enthusiasm, and loyalty.
We look to you to act as the gatekeeper who protects the brand while serving the interests of those you're chartered to reach.
The shift from specialist to authority is driven specifically by experience and the activities that define your social portfolio. As a business professional seeking guidance, direction, and insight, become the person you're trying to reach by using the voice of the persona you wish to convey and fortify.
This is connectivity through inspiration. In the process, we become the very social media experts we sought to employ.
Be bullish.
Stand up and assume command.
You are the voice, spirit, and mind of the brand and the people and culture that define it.