Time 21:04

Before I head off to a great conference on social media at the NewComm Forum, author of The Age of Engage Denise Shiffman spent time with me on the Marketing Edge podcast.

We get into the double edge sword of ROI for marketers, what sold a bunch of web banners, click through ads and email campaigns 5 years ago is now coming back to hinder social media adoption. Why? because relationships take time and are hard to predict. Shiffman suggests the social media measurement metric should be lift around campaigns and to implement small, focused projects with a clear objective. A discussion of that campaign its achivements and failures should be shared across a company to get buy-in and help the learning process.

Shiffman has also set up Marketing Reinvented wiki as a marketing plan for a real restaurant opening in California this summer called Amanada’s Restaurant. It’s a down to earth, health food restaurant. Shiffman invites anyone to register for that wiki and comment about marketing a restaurant.

Congratulations to Murine Juenda, of Seattle, Washignton the winner of the Age of Engage book from the Marketing Edge podcast.

The next book giveaway is The New Rules of Marketing and PR from David Meerman Scott, to enter the drawing send an email to marketingedge@providentpartners.net with the words New Rules in the subject line.

Here are some ways to get people to participate in a wiki. Quick definition of a wiki, for purists the Wikipedia definition is what you should fall back on. For those that just want to keep reading here, a wiki is a web-based place for individuals to contribute knowledge so that others may benefit.

At the Social Media Breakfast in Phoenix on March 14, 2008, I had a conversation with a colleague named Miles who provides tech support for computers at the retail stores of a major wireless company. Working with a team of developers, Miles is trying to increase participation in the company’s wiki, which will be used for tech support issues, essentially a knowledge base to expedite troubleshooting.

Here are some ideas for launching an internal wiki focused on, but not limited to
tech support.

1. Create dedicated contributors
2. Build an inventory of information that the site will have upon launch
3. Provide incentives for contributions in the first phase of the launch
4. Assemble targeted users and contributors to build Alpha version
5. Assemble different set of users for Beta site & bring groups together
6. Promote alpha and beta programs in anticipation of larger interest for the launch
7. Create recognition program for creative tech support solutions posted
8. Adopt wiki participation in the corporate or at least the departmental culture

Now for those of you that really like the details, here’s a thesis paper on Social Rewarding in Wiki Systems that will make you drool. After you go to this link paste in the following

World of Wikis is another good primer on wiki participation

Since there are just 8 ideas, we need two more for your typical ten of anything list, so please add a couple below.

Chris Heuer points out how an enterprise wiki building company, Social Text, has in its product plan that their product will be produced in conjunction with its customers. This is a change from business plans of old. Heuer is eye-opening in this presentation. Why? Because the net result of such a product development paradigm over the long term, is happier clients, a more innovative future, and products that are driven by demand.

I realize in the busy days of a corporate marketing exec, having been one, that you want a turn-key solution. But in this social media landscape, there is no template formula. There are tools that make the job of working within the social media space efficient, but there is no quick fix for engaging in conversation. That takes time.

Marshall Kirkpatrick talked about podcasting as being a medium that will continue to grow. “My dog loves podcasts,” he exclaims. No he doesn’t have smarter dogs that listen to them (or do you Marshall?). He just listens to podcasts while walking the dog.

Audio is the medium that gives you time to think and the convenience of being passive. It’s a beautiful thing for communicating in a variety of circumstances.

Paul Dunay, on the panel about how to integrate social media into your marketing mix, focused on wikis and has some keys to look for. I’m paraphrasing here; Paul, clarify in comments if you need to.

• It should be two-way dialogue
• Shared opinions are good things
• Wikis can help engage early adopters and encourage thought leadership
• Starting internally with a wiki can build a foundation for your external-facing social media tactics
• Bring in IT at the beginning of the project discussion to get their buy in and expertise

Maggie Fox, on the same panel as Dunay, highlighted Mozilla’s launch of Firefox. Mozilla leveraged its users, which exponentially expanded the marketing department by essentially creating a suggestion box that generated both good ideas and advocates for the product — a winning combination for Firefox. It went from 0 percent market share in 2004 to more than 35 percent market share in September 2007.

The panel also included Tom Gerace, CEO of Gather.com, and Andy Beal, contributor to the Marketing Pilgrim blog.

As I listened to this excellent panel, it struck me that there are several parallels between being a corporate marketer and the job of communications strategy for a political candidate or public policy initiative.

Social media, by definition, requires:

• Listening to constituents (or customers or prospects)
• Responding (or not) to critics
• Communicating and building supporters
• Taking into consideration the larger environment in which the company and its communications initiatives exist

I remember when I was in Washington, D.C., as press secretary for the Republican National Committee. The radar was always listening for critics, and the supply lines were always full of talking points to funnel the grassroots support network.

Today’s social media campaign should go through a similar process of thoughtful messaging and coalition (community) building, with an abundant portion of patience to listen, and sensitivity to provide timely and responsible responses.