Time 26:39

Chris Brogan is like the James Brown of social media. Brown was called the hardest working man in show business and the same moniker can be applied to Chris Brogan in social media. Brogan and I met over $.99 margaritas in Vegas at an early Blog World conference. Fast forward several years and the social space has changed, matured to some extent, but still with many challenges for individuals and firms to monetize on a platform of abundantly free information.

There is always a rush to learn and determine whether shiny new objects are worth your time. Google Wave, Buzz, etc have not created the rush of praise and participation as Google + has in the last couple of months. Brogan has spent more than 250 hours on Google + with an eye toward how business can use it. As of this writing business brands are not welcome on Google + which prompted some criticism of Brogan’s webinar. In an era of personal brands, however, there are plenty individuals in business who can benefit from learning about the Google + platform. We get into Brogan’s big 3 reasons for business to understand the direction of Google +.

• indexing
• longer content
• greater ability to follow

Debate, Differences and Gratitude

I wanted to interview both Livingston and Brogan in light of their public differences to highlight the social nature of this medium which is important to me. Keeping a dialogue about how to monetize information, whether in the form of a book, a webinar, a community or a consultancy, is critical for the space to develop. This open disagreement is also critical for brands to see as it gives them a picture of how individuals within different schools of thought engage online in a civil discourse. This is how our economic and organizational culture will adjust to a faster, more open way to reflect nature of how individuals communicate in a public forum. It’s my belief that if corporate hierarchies and individual perceptions don’t change from their pre-social media habits of controlling information and perceptions, then social media will be more a fad, or a niche event and not a cornerstone for global development that I hope it can.

For a variety of reasons, professional and personal, I am not as prolific as many of those who read and listen to the Marketing Edge and who I interview on the program. The fact is I do personally benefit from much of the work of others, including Geoff Livingston and Chris Brogan. The all of them I say thank you.

I realize how hard original content providers work to make the social space a intellectually rich. This podcast is a labor of love and a way, limited I acknowledge, but a way, I contribute to the social space.

Sports Bloggers Trivia Night

We are recognizing four Twin Cities area sports bloggers on Wednesday, August 3, at 6PM at Gabes by the Park. Come out and see a live sports trivia show, have free appetizers, get your hands on the latest 4G devices from Verizon and maybe win some free stuff. Here’s the details. at bit.ly/sportsbloggers

Time 25:00

I scheduled this interview with Livingston to talk about his book Welcome the Fifth Estate, but issues surrounding Google+ rose to a higher level so we talk both in this podcast. And yes we do get into the online differences between Livingston and Chris Brogan, two friends of mine.

First the book and the idea of making your corporate culture receptive to being open. This is the issue of restructuring organizations to be nimble enough in a fast paced, socially engaged environment. This involves two issues:

1) Can you speak about the issues surrounding your organization without having your organization be the focus of that conversation? This paradigm is critical to your organization’s future credibility and the ability to build a community that will expend energy on your behalf. 
 Think like you were an embeded journalist in your company.

2) The social web has no geography or silos, can your organization and its processes accommodate this very different structure?

Google + Observations

• Use it as a person, nothing like getting in the pool and judging for your self whether the water is cold or not.
• Hangouts are very useful, even for a quick video group call with Grandma. And yes just because your brand can’t use it, 10 people can collaborate from your global offices.
• Circles can serve as a Yammer-like platform, remember Yammer?
• +1 can serve as a voting function for more than my comedy posts, for example your ad campaign slogans, designs, food at the office party.
• Bottom line, use it as an individual building your network and seeing through your own work processes how it can benefit

Google + Dust Up

This story is moving fast, suffice it to say here. Google + for business is a lot like the history of the Oklahoma land grab. Just as I post this here is an update on Google booting brands off + and NBC News left Google + but are keeping their reporters on.



As soon as the invites were flowing, businesses opened pages claiming we know Google +. Some by being insiders like Mashable, others by spending hundreds of hours in the + playground. All this despite Google not having an official business policy other than “no brands allowed,” yet.

It’s getting ugly because social is a maturing business. Plenty of individuals in this space are businesses, me included. I am for hire and I am on Google+ and I do know more about it than someone who has not been on Google+. The rub is that brands are being told they can’t play on Google+ (as of this writing) , but in an era of personal brands, how is that possible to not be on. For example, in the social web, Scott Monty is Ford, Jeremiah Owyang is Altimeter Group, etc. etc.

This is a confusing and rapidly changing issue, with some major camps of difference. Livingston and Brogan, two guys I admire greatly for what they have given to the community and me, have sparred over how to monetize their expertise. Brogan this week produced a webinar for how business should prepare to use Google+. Another friend of mine, Jen Kane once called me Switzerland because I get along with folks so I feel uniquely qualified to be in the middle of this Kerfluffel

Here’s my take, this is the result of the “free” economy of information which resides in a mostly socialist state with individuals contributing to a larger community each benefiting each other, while the same individuals responsible for the information reside in a capitalist financial state who some how must monetize a portion of that same information.

It comes down to how you package what may well be available for free, how you add value to that information through analysis or experience, and whether the market is willing to pay for that package. An example in free and paid information of the same topic is software training programs. I get a tutorial and support forums where users offer their experience freely with most software I purchase. However, there are also companies that package “how to use it” information in such a compelling way that some people are willing to pay for it because it saves them time or allows them to understand the software better.

While packaging is the means many in social media are adding value and making a living, the underlying issue remains that the foundation of social media involves individual contributions to the larger group. The irony or the beauty is the community raises the level of “influence” of individuals by their own accord (gaming tactics aside) and the market is willing to pay for it. Perhaps through social media we are seeing capitalism in a more raw form over the last couple of years, and like sausage, sometimes it ain’t pretty – but damn tasty.

Yesterday Chris Brogan and I strolled the Mall of America. This was the first time at the Mall of America for Brogan, who, as a father of young children, was amazed and delighted by the incredible distractions provided by the life-size roller coaster and other amusement rides at Nickelodeon Universe. To most outside of Minnesota, the closest you get to an amusement ride inside a mall is the $.25 horsey plugged in next to the candy vending machine.

Brogan is president of New Marketing Labs providing strategy and execution of social programs for Fortune 500 and major brand companies. We talked about trends in social emedia and how corporations are incorporating social media into their processes. I use the term processes here because it is inaccurate to single out a business function say marketing or customer service. Social media impacts all parts of a company, and last century’s corporate structure, today needs to bend with an increasingly social consumer base.

Pete Blackshaw of Ag Age has a post today called A Short and Personal History of Social Media, also pointed out what Brogan and I discussed which is benefit one - Social media is forcing silos and fiefdoms to work together. This is more like the way consumers view a company. When a consumer has an issue and tweets about it, the fact that XYZ company only uses Twitter as a media relations tool is a bogus response to that consumer. Smart corporations are using this “learning moment” to rethink their processes, to creating greater lines of communication to solve consumer issues, develop better products, and elevate the consumer, and their comments, within the company. This is a wonderful result at a number of levels.

Embracing this concept can be the difference between a company using social tactics, to being a social company.

Blackshaw writes

“So this is big — really big. But where is it going? Looking ahead, expect to hear much more about “enterprise social media” strategy. Good, old-fashioned customer-relationship management will take on new meaning and resonance, as we’ll quickly realize that half the game in social media will be understanding the relationship between existing business processes — service, employee training, product performance — and conversational output, and adjusting strategies and tactics accordingly.
Marketing organizations will continue to undergo dramatic transformation, as social media softens all silos, unleashes both friendly and hostile departmental and agency competition, and sets new standards of accountability thanks to the radically transparent nature of the content.”

Brogan comments in this video about the vast opportunities in 2010 which brings us to the second major benefit of social media – Opportunities with structure. What was referred to as the wild west of marketing on the internet a few short years ago is now taking a bit of shape — you know towns,(communities) trails,(measurement) sheriffs (FTC guidelines and trust agents). In some cases the shapes are similar to what we are familiar with, and it others it is a brave new world.

The familiar parts being implemented in the social world are functions like media relations, with a social twist ( Pitch Engine and Matchpoint ) and targeted audiences (community participation and sponsorship by corporations for example).

The opportunities presented by the brave new world part of this equation may be issues such as companies being more open in conversations. This may be implemented in a concept I’m pushing of an embedded corporate journalist. There are opportunities in new areas of measurement upon which individual employee and agency performance goals are established. Metrics such as number of conversations, Pass Along Readership (this is an old school print advertising concept that has morphed into today’s RT or retweets et. al), or number of uploaded photos.

Opportunities as Brogan mentions for larger agencies and companies to tap into social platforms like Live World, Awareness, PeopleBrowsr, CoTweet, Ning, and dozens of others, (if I missed you, comment, each comment I’ll donate a food item to a food shelf.) Blackwell mentions availability of social tools in his post as well.

Individuals too are finding ways to add value. In some cases it is by default where they play the role of trusted , personal technology trainer, and thought leader apart from the agency relationship. In some ways, they are seen as not being part of a larger revenue generation, project creation machine, but an independent auditor. One that can verify whether the time spent down some new social path is worth the effort.

Lastly, we have moved deeper into an economic landscape of individuals with individual profit and loss. Yes, more consultants, but this means free forming networks of talent, at times viewed as competitors, other times viewed as partners. From the perspective of companies in need of talent, the picture could not be better. The ability to form an all-star team is as close as your next tweet. Brogan’s venture launched today, The Third Tribe, touches on this a bit. The formation of a network sharing ideas, gaining examples and creating a dialogue that ultimately produces a more knowledgeable pool of talent. This is the land of opportunity and 2010 will give greater clarity and shape to what was once the fog of social media.

Time 16:22

Chris Brogan and Julien Smith have this thing about trust. Their new book Trust Agents is a journey for companies and individuals to determine whether each is worthy of trusting each other. After all, all this access to information and opinions makes the world a very uncertain place, and the number one element of fear for companies and individuals is the unknown.

During a conversation tonight with a recently retired and senior Fortune 500 executive, I was reminded of the capitalist’s mantra, shareholder value. You can line up all the other metrics you want, you can argue to various degrees of accuracy that these other metrics impact shareholder value, but those educated in the ways of the corporation will come back to the shareholder number.

In this second and last part of my conversation with Chris Brogan we get into how corporations should adjust to maximize their benefits from social media. Brogan shares parts of his conversation with GM CEO Fritz Henderson, bottom line, the new GM wants to listen.

Brogan and I also get into the current state of social media. I think it has hit a plateau, it’s a time when we’ll see who trusts and who was just in a quick marketing fling. What’s your take? Have too many companies and consultants jumped into the social pool because they want low cost sales or a chance to make a buck telling people how to set up a Twitter account?

The Gartner Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies shows there is an initial spike of usage, a decline and then a refocus on some of the more practical and thoughtful applications of the emerging platforms. I pose that social media in general is toward the decline on the first peak.

Maruggi’s Social Company Trust Test

1. 1) Have a company-wide process to handle learning and comments from social communities
2. 2) Develop multiple social media participants
3. 3) Response plan in place for social media originated hot topics – I won’t say crisis here because if the company is participating online, the likelihood of a socially inspired crisis is reduced.
4. 4) Develop metrics unique to social participation that roll up to shareholder value

Book Drawing

We will hold a drawing next week for Trust Agents – send an email to marketingedge AT providentpartners Dot net – include the word Trust in the subject line.

Time 22:33

Trust is not a new thing in marketing and communications. The most trusted name in news, is the most hackneyed phrase on TV. I believe trusted means you transfer your brain space for figuring stuff out to others, you transfer your emotional defense mechanisms to another entity. Like, I trust this pilot to land this plane, or OK Guy Fieri, I’ll trust this place that’s a real dive.

One of the most awaited studies in the PR world is the annual Edelman Public Relations Trust Barometer. Apparently, people like you are trusted by you more than institutions and we’ll see if that changes because more of you are sharing your trust online.

Trust in social media is now at the individual level. Those that have been involved in social media for years probably know of Chris Brogan. His blog is an excellent body of work in the strategy and tactics of being social. He is noted for his candor and the open discussion of issues, and that includes sponsored posts. For that length of service to the community he is trusted.

His journey over several years to build this trust is the foundation of his new book with Julien Smith Trust Agents. In it he describes for two audiences, companies and individuals, the impact of individual trust networks on companies, and how individuals can launch their own journey into building a trusting audience.

Trust like relationships can be fragile, and require lots and lots of work. The more personal, the relationship, the more work. Marketers have never had it as difficult as today, because we have narrowed our marketing down to individual relationships. Those individuals with a trusted following can navigate a company through these uncharted waters, but also have a little learning to do themselves. Brogan is a living example of this and his audiences and clients have benefited. We discuss how trusted individuals with a following also make a living?

I could have made this post be a “How to”, but there are plenty of good social media examples in Trust Agents of how the trust economy can work. What this interview with Chris Brogan gets into in part one is the meaning of trust and the relationship between trust and earning your keep.

We’ll post part two on Thursday, August 20.

Social Monitoring Tools

There is a segment in the interview where Brogan rattles off a bunch of social monitoring tools, these are most of them as promised. Radian 6, Techrgey, Scoutlabs, Nielsen, Visble Measures , Crimson Hexagon, and Spiral 16

If nothing else, if you are an anti-social company, you should build a monitor and react plan.

Trust Agents – The Book Drawing

Send me an email at marketingedge AT providentpartners dot net – put the word trust in the subject line, we’ll put your name in the book drawing contest. No, no you don’t get a drawing of the book, we’ll draw a person’s name and send them a copy of the book, how’s that?

The conversation on Chris Brogan’s blog about personal branding, strip malls and billboards has developed in a way that I think is a bit off the mark. I don’t disagree with Brogan or the comment on the blog post by Christopher Penn that many social sites can and are used as billboards for personal brands.

I much prefer that social networks be viewed as cafes, restaurants and bars along the road. Not franchises, mind you, although you might get that feel from some of them, but unique places in which you’ll meet some unique and some of the same people. To this environment you will add your own experience, commentary and knowledge. You will pose questions that may well inspire others to enlighten the group. You get a little sustenance, bid good day and come back as often as you like. Oh sure, there are plenty who come in trying to sell flowers from table to table, but that’s a bit of a drag for everyone, isn’t it?

Now it may be that you only frequent a few of these places, but doing it in the manner I described above will give social media more value for you and others. When I hear talk about billboards and strip malls, it begins to sound a lot like Web 1.0. The fact is both of these gents, and plenty of men and women around the world, add tremendous value to the social community in exactly the manner I described. We are grateful for it, and as a result do visit their general stores (websites or blogs).

I just think the billboards and strip malls metaphor conjures up images that don’t truly address the enriching and unique experience to be gained from what we have before us. Some may seek to post up a sign and hawk some goods along the way. Me, I enjoy having a cup of coffee and a piece of pie, even a $.99 Margarita when I can find one, with the Brogans and Penns of the world. Their personal brand in social media is what they share with me all along this winding road, not just what’s at their stores.

The marketing buzz word in 2007 is community. Marketers are trying to plug into, tap into or leverage these social network communities for their companies’ benefit. Not quite sure that’s the right approach here. Communities can’t be leveraged (one step away from manipulated in my dictionary) to your advantage, that’s old model selling in an environment that essentially rejects being sold to.

Chris Brogan makes a good point about power and the social media tools available for the individual to increase their personal power. http://chrisbrogan.com/social-media-as-personal-power/. I believe marketers should view the growth in these powers not as a function of tapping into, but as an environment to participate in. The verbs I used above, tap, plug, and leverage all involve in varying degrees to take from. It’s best to approach this as something to engage in, join, and contribute to. Subtle difference that will enhance the participation for any marketer evaluating what social media means to their company. I also commented to Brogan’s post.