Time 29:43

A couple of observations about how last century’s business structure needs to change to benefit from the changes in the market brought about by the social web.

1) Coopetition to Community

Coopetition is the word coined for companies that decide to share expenses for in which areas they do not have competitive advantages or perhaps will jointly provide specific and not overlapping functions for a project.

Social media exposes all kinds of talent online, plus a public discussion of the issues. Now competitors readily learn, copy, share, and engage each other. Or course there is still competition, but now more than I’ve seen in the last century, there is a greater concern for the community as a whole. Companies are shaping their business models to be flexible to address customer needs. Examples of this are the Social Media Breakfast , Social Media Club, and the Unsummit Conference.

Observation – No matter the size of your company, be flexible enough to meet customer happiness, sometimes you have the answer and sometimes not.

2) Customer Participation

The hierarchical nature of old style corporate marketing is transforming to something in which the customer is a participant. In the last century marketing was the four Ps, product, price, promotion, and placement. Today I’d say marketing is about,

Incompleteness – it’s acceptable and beneficial to ask a community to finish a product eg. Ford Fiesta.

Responsiveness – this can be a simple acknowledgement on a blog post or a full fledged policy change as a result of conversations

Joint Ownership – creativity is when programs are absorbed by a community and then turned into something of their creation.

Recognition – when companies are paying attention to their online champions, it’s best to recognize them, a tweet, a coupon, an invitation; it’s good in a relationship to be appreciative.

In this podcast I get into these issues more deeply. I chat with Jennifer Milano, Jet Blue frequent flyer who was excited by the Jet Blue All You Can Jet Pass. So excited she created the blog Where We Jet which attracted Jet Blue customers taking advantage of this program that allowed passengers to jet anywhere the airline flew for $599 from September 8 through October 8

Jet Blue corporate remained hands off, but certainly supportive of the effort and the quickly growing number of customers using the site to learn about places to fly, meeting up with other travel fans and to share stories and pictures throughout the period.

In an appropriate side story, Jennifer’s efforts were acknowledged in many media outlets and the travel site Kayak astutely made Jennifer an offer to lead their social media strategy. All’s right with the world because Jennifer aspired to work at Kayak, a site she frequently used and admired of the company.

Good things happen to good people.

Twitterville Winner

Gerard Tannam of the branding firm Island Bridge in Dublin, Ireland is the winner of the Shel Israel book Twitterville. We did a couple of podcasts with Shel in September. Part 1 and Part 2 It’s on the way Gerard, be on the lookout, thanks for listening. Enjoy.

Time 23:42

It’s nutty, plenty of companies are running around trying to figure out social media. The answer and examples are right under your nose. It dawned on me while watching Jeff Pulver go through his networking techniques at a recent social media breakfast in Minneapolis.

This conversation shows companies how to approach social media from a perspective that many sales people have practiced in their professional communities for decades, one relationship at a time. I use sales only to get the attention here of many marketers, sales people and decision makers because these days there is a premium on getting sales, but as my colleagues know, social media goes well beyond a sale.

Pulver, employs interesting networking techniques during his sessions that would do any Rotary member proud. I use the Rotary example because this is an organization tied to both a business networking group that also has a history of giving back to its local community, a critical concept of social media.

Using social media tools like Facebook, Twitter and others to promote his events, and tapping that group to invite others who are not using social media. Pulver creates a meeting of the digital and physical worlds.


Jeff Pulver @ SMBMSP from Albert Maruggi on Vimeo.

Years ago Pulver wrote “the more digital we become the more need for face-to-face meetings.” His perspective is grounded in good old fashion interpersonal communications and you may say borrow from the work of sociologist Henri Tajfel who is noted for his work in social identity and minimal groups experiments.

It is the kind activity that is at the heart of every good salesperson, every productive chamber of commerce, and every professional association worth their salt to their members. It is about people and their willingness to participate with each other.

People who are neck deep in social media tend to get a little over the top about technology, and new applications, mashups etc, etc, etc, and can loose the essence of what all these tools are supposed to do, make it easier to meet other people, period. It is a foundation to share stories, pass on interesting information that will help people do something, like find the right product, get better healthcare, enjoy a new restaurant, improve their job performance, and the list is endless.

Pulver’s sessions are a must for both social media geek and the person that still carries around a Day Runner paper planner. Both have more in common than you might think.