Must Read: Groundswell (Con’t)
So, back to Groundswell and the reasons why I said, “must read.”
Groundswell is well researched (Forrester research data from around the world, 65 corporate examples and 25 full case studies), written by two great, knowledgeable writers and fellow particpants, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, and is exceptionally readable at the same time.
Readability in a business book is of course a relative measure, but for me it relevance and time=value.
“Has value” means it is relevant to my work in real time (applicable right now, today; not 15 minutes ago) and therefore is a good (another relative measure and highly contextual) use of my time because yes, I have time deficit disorder that seems to never disappear regardless of which Circa or Hipster PDA strategy I deploy.
This translates into usefulness: I can use the information to support a recommendation to a client, add to a presentation, and/or as a catalyst for an idea or concept. Maybe even to write a blog post.
At the moment, I am writing a proposal for a client and using the social technographics ladder to support a recommended target for a program and to demonstrate how users will become involved and participate. Charlene and Josh have made this tool available on line.
I am also using their POST method as a framework for the strategy I am recommending. I find that for whatever reason, marketers seem to think that social media doesn’t need a strategy or a well defined target and is driven by technology. POST which stands for People, Objectives, Strategy, and Technology…in that order, please, really puts this perspective.
I have a client company whose marketing folks have been setting up Facebook pages. So, of course there is no cost other than their time for doing this. It seems to make them feel like social media participants. We are on Facebook, they say. They friend each other and their agencies and consultants. Add several wall posts and away they go. But where are they going?
And then of course there is ROI. Yes, Virginia, there is an ROI for social media. Remember the objectives and strategy? A recruiting blog? How many applications did you get? A private community? What was the value for that new product idea? Start there. Add out of pocket costs (platform, creative, moderation etc).
Speaking of ROI, buy the Groundswell. Buy a copy for your clients. Buy a copy for your prospects. It will provide many returns.
Ad Age Says There Is No Such Things as Blogging..But The Name Is Cool
A story in today’s Ad Age by Simon Dumenco said that there is no such thing as blogging and no such thing as a blogger…"it’s just the software, people." He says that blogging is instantaneous, "voice-y", and opinionated but says this is not different than old-school media. He says that just because there are blog specific seach engines, blog content is not different than non-blog content and as news sources blogs and traditional news sources are given equal weight. I guess he means by himself.
He goes on to say that bloggers are only bloggers because they believe in blogging as something distinct, in the mythical blogosphere, and because traditional media types think that bloggers are amateurs and that they are the professionals… professionals don’t "work way faster, interact constantly with readers..{and are} not vastly more voracious." Not sure what "vastly more voracious means exactly"
His conclusion is that "blogging software" will become the universal online publishing solution and that there will be two types of media people, fast and slow. He also thinks blogging is a cool name. Actually, I think the name is kind of stupid and I think he is really missing the point about blogging so I have to say that I disagree with most everything he wrote. Blogging is not just about writing faster and interacting with readers.
With lots of help from the not so mythical blogosphere, here is what Simon didn’t say or see:
Steve Rubel summed it up in one word: dialogue. Blogging is different than traditional media writing because blogging is a dialogue and writing for tradtional media is a monologue…comments to the former go instantaneously to the blogger, to be read by blog readers in the context of the post while in the latter, comments go to the editor long after anyone remembers what was written.
Bloggers interact with other bloggers and with readers who may or may not be bloggers. Lots of participants, no editors or refereeing. Big difference.
The Eide Neurolearning Blog say that "blogs foster conversations, interactions with other blogs and other information sources, and invite feedback from their readers. " This would include comments but also includes links, another distinctively blog attribute. Links form the structure of the blogosphere. They can be reciprocal links, explicit or implicit but links drive the speed of the information; not bloggers working "way faster". They also bring up another distinctively blogging attribute, associational thinking. They write, blogging can be a powerful promoter of creative, intuitive, and associational thinking. And yes, this is maybe about "faster" and technology driven, but it is also that faster "promotes a kind of spontaneity and ‘raw thinking’–the fleeting associations and the occasional outlandish ideas–seldom found in more formal media." How does that work? You read it, react to it, associate it, and you blog it. And of course, there is always another blogger or a blog reader right there, ready to comment, link, correct, disagree, or expand upon the thought or idea.
What else differentiates blogging from writing? Well Simon said something about amateurs and professionals….an important difference though not necessarily in the context that he was referring. Writers in traditional media are professionals in that they get paid to write, have editors, bosses, deadlines, page requirements; bloggers typically do not. We might write our blogs so that someone will hire us to DO a job…but writing the blog is not our job. They have editors, we have spell check.
OK, the summation of all of this, blogging is a social media, it is about social networks. Conversations, relationships, social capital, connections, that you don’t get from just writing or reading. Writing is about the page, staying within the lines…blogging is not about the limits of the page; it is about stepping off the page and beyond the lines and engaging rather than reading, writing and listening.
Technorati Tags: social media, blogging, neuroscience, traditional media
Doris Wild Helmering is Blogging!
I am excited to note that Doris Wild Helmering has a blog. Doris, has a busy private therapy and coaching practice here in St. Louis and is a nationally recognized expert on relationships. She is a prolific author, on-air therapist, and frequent radio and TV guest….yes, Oprah, CNN, Goodmorning America and she has even offered advice to Roseanne about controlling anger. Check out her blog….I am sure she will have a lot to say!
Not Your Parent’s Cliff Notes
School starts on Monday for my 7th grader which means the summer long countdown to finish the math packet and the summer reading books is about to end…ready or not. It our house it seems not to matter if we actually start early in the summer or late, it just wouldn’t seem like the last weekend of summer if we weren’t still trying to complete it before M-O-N-D-A-Y! To complicate our lives even more, we just got a puppy. So, the other night a frantic call from our house to a friend’s house regarding a puppy crisis found their household in the middle of a summer reading crisis. A quick swap…help me solve the puppy problem and I will help you solve the reading problem. Google, the source of most if not all of life’s problems revealed, PinkMonkey.com. No need to leave the comfort of your own crisis, Pink Monkey had the book in question, the information was FREE and instantly available and they promised hundreds of other titles. You have to pay to download. I was ready to completely write off Cliff Notes, my own personal long time friend and constant companion during junior high and high school as being as dated as the library card catalog when I decided to Google, Cliff Notes. Sorry, Cliff Notes…you too are instantly available on line.
And now for the real question: Are many blogs just like Cliff Notes? You don’t read the story, you read about the story…over and over and over again. I think bloggers should at least add a personal comment or two when they post a "new flash" quickly excerpted from someone else’s blog or the morning news…otherwise what’s the point? What do you think?
Two Kinds Of People
The first time I heard the There are two kinds of people in this world thing was from my MBA school boyfriend. He had gone to Notre Dame as an undergrad, found another alum upon his arrival at B-School to room with and explained it as "There are two kinds of people in this world…those that went to Notre Dame and those that wished they did. Uh huh. Then there was Dee, my good friend in NYC who said, There are two kinds of people in this world, those that wear nail polish and those that don’t. I kind of agree with that one. There have been many other Two kinds observations that I have heard over the years. Probably the most succinct was, There are two kinds of people in this world, those that get IT and those that don’t. Of course that came from an insight gushing ad person who I am pretty sure had a different definition of IT than I did…but I did agree with her concept.
I would now like to officially add my own: There are two kinds of people in this world, those that get blogging and those that never will. I know that many Bloggers like to refer to themselves as Evangelists…and I do get THAT (That=It, in this case) For me suffice it to say, I JUST love Blogs. It was love at first sight. The chemistry was there…the relationship has grown and deepened. The only proverbial rain on my parade is trying to talk to the second kind of people…the ones who never will. Do you get IT? Well, if you’re reading this, you probably do. Oh, and I like RSS and I like podcasting…its just that the connection simply is not as meaningful.
M&Ms and Books Supersize
Today’s New York Times reported two size increases …M&Ms and paperback books. Because as we Baby Boomers age we struggle with the small print size of paperback books, several publishers are issuing some books in a new Baby Boomer friendly print size. M&Ms are apparently now available in a supersize called Mega M&Ms. They are 55% larger and a Mars senior marketing manager is quoted as saying that M&Ms have historically been about sharing and that the larger size is "in tune with that."
Well, as a small print challenged Boomer I am all for the larger paperbacks…but as a Boomer who has been watching those M&Ms dive into the chocolate and promise to "melt in your mouth not in your hands" forever, I don’t recall ANYTHING about sharing. A quick trip to the M&M website did not produce any evidence of a "sharing" strategy. The NYT article challenged the sharing strategy more directly by saying that in fact M&Ms are the perfect food for stealth eaters…the package can be hidden while the size of the candy itself allows them to be eaten without anyone noticing. I guess especially easy to do if you are hiding from Baby Boomers without their reading glasses. Maybe the new supersized 55% larger Mega M&Ms are really are "all about" the new supersized 55% larger us….60% of Americans are overweight and 20% are obese.
And as far as sharing M&Ms…well as we all know, they DO melt in our hot little hands and we really like to take them from our own package or bowl, not someone else’s hands.
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