Conversation Agent

More Agent, a Little Less Conversation

I have a bias for action, always have. This need to do is becoming particularly obvious at this time, especially with all the talk that goes on.

We think together a lot, more ideas bubble to the surface, more desire to see something good done.

We live in an age where there should be no excuses, no reasons why we cannot act - on our dreams, on our work, on making something amazing happen.

That is why it's all the more disappointing when companies do not embrace the tools to lean forward into the issues, communicate better, more effectively, with customers. The opportunity is right when something goes wrong. At the time of this writing, I have no power and have been on hold with PECO energy for an hour. I'm hanging up.

This is not the way to connect with customers in a noisy world. There is no amount of marketing material the energy provider will be able to throw at me to make me do something. The time to act is now, on the customer service line. And the nice messaging on low emissions goes out the window when hundreds or thousands of customers are running their generators because they know they'll get nowhere with you.

There is an action as a reaction to lack of action, if that makes sense. Not doing anything is also an action and it has consequences - for people and in this case, the environment.

But I don't like to dwell on the negative, I do believe in karma and I like the good kind - for me and for the rest of us.

I wanted to introduce you to this gem from Tom Asacker, who's been an inspiration through his work and in the comments to this blog recently. It's called A Little Less Conversation - connecting with customers in a noisy world. It's written as a conversation between Tom and a business executive after an event.

Some pearls of wisdom (in bold), with my own additional thoughts:

• you can no longer benchmark and model the past in order to be successful in the future - just because you can, it does not mean you should. If you haven't read it, I urge you to read the conversation we had with Frank Eliason from Comcast.

It turns out that today I also lost my modem and called the regular Comcast line. A technician got back to me within minutes, held on the phone while I figured out what happened, and then came to repair it. He even explained what to do in case of an outage - little he knew.

Frank has given me hope, the company is backing him up with action. This is important to establish a connection. There is no loyalty program that will make up for letting down your customers. There is no stronger trust than that acquired by coming through.

• to construct their views of reality, people combine what they sense with what they already think, feel, and believe - truth is subjective, and that's why it's so hard to regain trust once you lost it. It goes to memory.

• the most valuable and scarce thing is a strong brand protected by an organization with unique capabilities to appeal to customers' changing priorities and preferences and ultimately, make them happy - do I need to elaborate? If you don't know what would make your customers happy, ask them. They'll tell you.

• people don't dislike change, not really. What they abhor is the unknown, because they can't envision it - no vision, no action. Hence the importance of communications. So that we're clear, listening is a big part of communications, or you won't know that communication in fact did take place.

• branding is about creating your essence by working with customers to uniquely add value to their lives - value is what the customer thinks, not the company. 

• you are what you do (and why you do it) - are you doing the right things?

There are many more. I wanted to give you what resonated the most with me. I'm with Tom, we need a little less conversation. I say we need more "agent". What about you?

The Answer to How is Yes

Because she used to work in advertising sales, my mother often asked for directions when going to see a new customer in a less known town.

One time she approached a traffic cop with the question. He patiently explained were she was to turn and go. When he was done, he asked her if she understood and remembered the directions and she said she did.

His next question was - tell me how I get there, then.

She stumbled through several corrections and had to redo a couple of times, but eventually she was able to repeat it. That was the only time she got to her appointment without having to approach someone else for directions. She got there because she had to visualize for herself how to do it. That's what made the cop's "how" hit home.

I see it all the time in conference evaluation forms: "speaker didn't tell me how to do something". Often they did, you just couldn't play it back because you're not executing or visualizing it. The other case is that when the speaker gave you plenty of "how-to"s, you're happy, but you are never going to execute on them. You know why?

Instead of Benchmarking, Start Bench Pressing

Do you ever wonder why the usual posts and articles with what seems like the same advice over and over get so much traffic and comments? I do.

The "how" question answers whether the authors are actually implementing the advice it or just talking about it, for starters. But that's not all. Are they asking and answering the bigger question? The question that would and does warrant a response before any "how". Surprisingly, the answer is not just "because".

It's great that one can sit down at a conference and hear someone from a large organization implement a Second Life program, or a large scale integrated program with all sorts if good content and tools. Now tell me, how are you going to implement that within your resource constraints? Cut Second Life? Cut the events? Do Webinars instead? 

What makes their program successful is the marketing foundation - and budget - they have, their company culture, the number of staff working on it, and their services that lend themselves to the tools. Are you going to tell me their "how" applies to you?

Furthermore, even if it did, your results may vary depending on the relationship you have with your customers and the challenges your business faces in the first place. And I'll throw in something for you to think about - I want to know that you've done it.

I want to know that one to three months after you attended that session you raved about you actually executed on the advice.

Stop Whining, Start Winning

It will be helpful when and if you do because you can then build on your experience at the next event. Which is a much better alternative to not learning as much as you thought you would. You cannot delegate your experience - you have it proportional to your desire to be involved and active.

Social media is not the same destination for everyone. Often the question is not "how" exactly you get there - that is probably more appropriate for you to figure out. There are better questions.

For example, why do what and who is going to be involved? Critical thinking needs to marry common sense. You're responsible for the critical thinking. Or, you could pay someone to do it for you according to your specific circumstances.

Critical thinking is not in the scope of work of a conference talk or even a brief discussion in the hallway. It's more like what you'd get in a workshop where you get to actually do things yourself. It's in your daily work routine that needs to change. If you haven't been doing the work, your answers will be mismatched to the questions.

The Answer to How is Yes

This is not mine, by the way. Organization development consultant Peter Block came up with the line, which is the title to a really good book he wrote a few years ago. You might consider reading it.

Why? That is the crux, why is a much more difficult questions than how and we continue to skirt it with volumes of "how-to"s. The challenge is to rethink basic cultural assumptions. Block asks how the pervasive archetypes of engineer and economist - those of cause-and-effect and predictability - could truly share the stage with the creativity, imagination, mystery and heart of the artist and architect.

He talks about change, which is what is holding you back. You think you can just apply the same learning mechanisms and terminology of traditional marketing to social media. It's an entirely new way of thinking about the question that needs to take place.

How do I get more customers to buy more? How do I get more new customers? The answer to how is yes. You need to want to do it - really do it. Your customers are telling you and each other how, you're just not listening. Or they would tell you if you gave them the chance - if you just asked.

But, you're just like the conference attendee who's constantly hoarding information they're never going to use.

[images of IBM ad campaign and Peter Block redesign of social space]

The Agency Side of Business: Shiv Singh, Razorfish

The first time I had a chance to meet a Razorfish team in late 2000 and was impressed by their ideas. Shiv Singh and I crossed paths early on in my blogging and I've been reading his work since. He just announced the launch of Fluent, the Social Influence Marketing report. There are some interesting observations in the report, some of which I will need to think about.

I would be really interested in David Alston's and Olivier Blanchard's take on SIM as related to measurement and engagement. Maybe we can start a conversation with Shiv here in the comments.

I asked Shiv for his take on the agency side of business.

How did you come to join Razorfish and when did you become the company's Global Social Media Lead?

Shiv: I came to Razorfish over ten years ago and have worked in its Boston, San Francisco, London and New York offices. I actually came to Razorfish through a company that was acquired by it back in 1999.

At that time Razorfish focused on creating useful, usable and desirable user experiences for the web. It didn’t do much in the media side of the business. I moved into the role of the company’s VP & Global Social Media Lead two years ago.

Has your focus been exploring alternatives to traditional advertising or has it evolved to that point? How do you decide what is best to integrate in marketing and communications activities? Does a company culture play a role in that?

Shiv: Yes, that has definitely been a part of my job. But I’d emphasize that the focus is also very much on how marketing as a whole is changing and how marketers need to take advantage of these new opportunities while also revisiting some of the core assumptions that have driven marketing for decades. This is about more than advertising but marketing more broadly too.

What’s interesting is that on the advertising front, we’re seeing that social media being the perfect complement to all the traditional forms of advertising. It doesn’t replace advertising as we know it but extends it enabling companies to form much deeper, longer term emotionally driven and more balanced relationships with consumers.

The best way to integrate these other forms of advertising is to first understand what works and what doesn’t. But then it is extremely important to know the brand and the permission that the brand has to do certain things digitally. That is really the most important factor.

After that it comes down to judgment, imagination, risk taking and metrics. That’s how we decide. We make mistakes as we get the various marketing activities to work for each other and with each other but we learn a lot along the way. And our clients respect that.

You have been an active participant in many social networks and have direct experience with social media. How much did your direct involvement help you feel you understand its dynamics well enough to explain them to your clients?

Is your decision to experiment with certain tools based on potential client work with them? How do you prioritize where you're spending learning time?

Shiv: Yes, my active participation has made a huge difference for my own learning and it dates back to my participation with The Well back in the 1990s. When I start to learn about something now its less driven by a specific client need and more by a curiosity.

Invariably, a lot of my friends keep me tapped into the latest and greatest innovations in the social web and that serves as a nice prioritization filter. That’s one of the many advantages to working with some really smart people in a large agency. I also run a wine magazine (with an accompanying blog) and that helps me always practice what I preach and think as a brand and not just as an agency person.

It's not enough to explore and participate too though. I do a lot of reading and my past research into social network theory helps me frame the trends, the dynamics of the space, the technologies and human behavior in simple and easy to understand terms. My graduate research gave me a mental model that makes everything far more digestible. I try to keep up with the research by reading the journals but that’s difficult sometimes.

From the corporate side I have not been impressed with some agencies over the years. Creative that did not sell and account teams that did not understand the business have by and large been a problem.

Social media is transforming work, the dynamics and business models. Yet, it seems that agencies have underestimated this shift.

As an agency that made a really good transition from digital to engagement, does Razorfish have the opposite challenge - that of educating and enlightening clients?

Shiv: I sometimes feel that folks on the agency side of the industry underestimate their clients. Our clients are more cautious than us for good reasons. Their jobs are typically on the line, they’re less likely to be over the top on a specific phenomena and they’re always constrained by the politics of their organization.

Over the years, I’ve learnt as much from many of my clients as I have from internal teams. So rather than saying we’re tasked with educating and enlightening our clients, I’d say we learn equally from each other even about new phenomena like social media which can turn a business inside out.

Regarding the shift that social media has caused, it is indeed huge. And everybody from the agencies to the brands and the technology vendors are figuring out how social media is transforming their businesses and their relationships with other players in their ecosystem.

In the case of Razorfish, being digital at the core definitely puts us at an advantage. All our employees were highly active on the social platforms before the phenomena hit the mainstream. In fact, many of us have been designing and marketing on websites with core social elements for a number of years now.

We recognize that the recent shift is huge (the turning point for us was a year and a half ago when we said that social media is resulting in a whole new form of marketing as important as brand marketing and direct response. See your 2008 Digital Outlook Report for more on that).

Every day we learn something more about it and try to harness the best thinking from within our company and from the industry at large to our clients. Fundamentally, we believe that brands can’t push messages anymore. They must participate...they must do.

Credibility and value are the currency of social media. Companies are struggling to figure this one out, especially those that are used to think in terms of their messages.

You have an advantage over internal resources in companies: as an outsider, your advice may be followed. How do you work with companies to help them build better relationships with their customers?

Shiv: We continuously ask our clients to put themselves in the shoes of their customers and imagine a world in which every brand that their customers interact with is trying to engage in a conversation or follow them on twitter.

That’s when they realize that it can all feel like a fish market. How do you succeed in a world like that? Only by providing better value exchanges and what we consider to be a better ROE – return on emotion. And by making your brand one about doing and not just about pushing messages.

What do you think is in store for agencies in the next 3-5 years? Will agencies rethink their dependency on media? Is there a new model in sight?

Shiv: I think agencies are about to transform significantly. Firstly the separation between digital and traditional agencies is going to continue to blur. Separating those two worlds doesn’t make sense anymore. Everything is digital even TV is going digital.

Secondly, agencies are going to realize that a big idea with multiple executions needs to be replaced by the notion of many small ideas that are created in response to consumer behavior and are adapted, changed or pulled as consumers interact with it. These small ideas when strung together create the brand story. To think along these lines requires a totally different mindset and organizational structure for many agencies.

I also believe that agencies are going to need to focus on business transformation. Helping businesses transform themselves through digital technologies to increase the value they provide consumers.

It isn’t going to be just about marketing but how can you reorient your organization to engage with consumers in real time, incorporate their thinking into everything from product development and customer service and yes also serve as the influencers for your brand. The agencies that can play this role too and move beyond the strict worlds of advertising will win.

The dependence on media is already reducing. The new model will have to be a more consultancy oriented one.

What is your personal secret sauce? How do you influence your colleagues and team?

Shiv: Secret sauce? I’m not sure if have anything specific though I would say a few things help me a lot – I seek out mentors who provide me with valuable advice and guidance. I also follow their careers so that I can understand not only how they think but what decisions they make and why.

Secondly, I try to practice what I preach and get my hands as dirty as possible. I learn the most when I work with teams on the ground and that’s one of the special benefits with working for Razorfish – lots of really smart people who are generous with their time, energetic and collaborative.

And thirdly, I believe in the Woody Allen philosophy that 80% of success is showing up. I try to show up as much as possible and be there for my clients, teams and peers. Everything else tends to fall into place.

In terms of influencing colleagues and teams, I depend on the wisdom of the crowds within the agency to do the influencing. The best ideas always rise to the top and by promoting an active community of social media enthusiasts who debate every facet of social media vigorously, a lot of ideas get tested by the community. I influence through this community just as they influence me and keep me straight.

Who would be your ideal client?

Shiv: A client that gives us permission to help them transform their business via digital top to bottom. We’ve got the innovative thinkers, the experience and know the realities of the corporate world. We’re ready for any challenge!

_______

I don't know about you, but the idea of small chunks of contribution to knowledge and relationships to form the whole resonates with me. It's probably why I took to social media so readily, I've been operating at that level, in analog or digital space, for a number of years.

These were my questions. What questions do you have for Shiv?

[image for Social Networking Conference, 2009]

What's Holding Organizations Back?

In the comments of last week's post titled 100 thoughts on marketing, Tom Asacker asked me: since just about everyone who reads this list agrees with it, in principle, what's holding organizations back? This is a pretty difficult question because I'm looking at it from the inside out.

While I was mulling over how to respond, I came across this interesting exchange by Best Buy CMO Barry Judge and Gizmodo Adam Frucci.

For those not familiar with Gizmodo, this is a blog about gadgets and technology started by Gawker Media in 2002. The blog's traffic is now upwards of 100 million page views a month.

Gawker Media's founder Nick Denton believes in content, and given that comments play a really important role in social media, I found what the organization shared as reported by The Blog Herald interesting:

The favored commenters will be silent; and the illiterate ones will rant, well, illiterately. But we’ll be able to encourage the kind of discussion that *we* want — not one that is dominated merely by the most prolific of our commenters. It’s our party; we get to decide who comes.

This is an important step to note. Gizmodo is doing it to balance the conversation. Would you like to bet that if a company had taken such a step there would have been chatter all over the 'sphere? Blogs are so old compared to other social media, yet behaviors do not seem to mature. I'd say this example gives companies that are thinking about starting a blog something to think about.

Anna at Jezebel expands:

Stars will no longer be given out – or retained – based on the number of followers a commenter has. Instead, they will be granted to readers who have proven themselves to be engaged, intelligent, humorous, fair-minded, thoughtful, rational, etc.

I hope companies take a look at the whole post. High traffic and profile blogs that expand to the level of full online publications, need comment policies to help facilitate that traffic and flow. Does your company blog need to implement such a policy?

Back to the inter blog exchange between Judge and Frucci.

After Frucci posted about the seven types of employees you meet at Best Buy, Judge (and team) responded with the one type of Gizmodo blogger. Frucci got back in the discussion with another post - this time the post is about Best Buy's response. The fact alone that a company blog by a C-level executive would engage in a humorous exchange is remarkable (although I agree with some in the comments who pointed out that the revised post is confusing).

You cannot have it both ways. If you've been out there talking about organizations and criticizing their lack of involvement you cannot criticize them when they join. This is something I shared at SxSWi during the BlogTalk Radio show. Comparing comments at the time of writing this post, Frucci's got 129, Judge's 158. Both got two kinds of comments:

(1) by people who were constructive and provided a thought-out opinion;

(2) by people who were disappointed and not so thoughtful in exposing their case.

Dissenting and arguing is good, but it's an art. If you're going to do that, you might consider staying professional and poised while you share a piece of your mind. Also, you might check your spelling and grammar for good measure. I read and liked the comments from those who were able to strike the balance - well done. Your points will travel further that way.

One of the reasons why organizations have been able to brush off criticism has been poor delivery. My mother taught me that getting angry and bursting out in frustration makes me less effective at actually fixing the issue, helping someone do that, or making my voice heard.

Who likes a company blog that looks like a Web site with corporate messaging or product releases and discount coupons? Right, so can we all respect each other and navigate social media together while we iron out the issues?

It was Oscar Wilde who wrote something like if you've spent your whole life pretending to be good when instead you wanted to be bad, you're a hypocrite. Customers are sending mixed signals. This is one of the reasons why organizations have been held back. They/we say one thing, then do another.

However, in this case, there is a next step. If I were Best Buy, my next step after the humorous response would be to take a hard look at the reason for the first Gizmodo post and engage the customers among the readers who found truth in that. There is always some truth in comedy, isn't there? Given that customer service and interaction is the new marketing, this needs to be addressed. 

The whole reason to join the conversation, the reason to have one in the first place, is that you can take lessons back to your business and change it (and the way you look at it) for the better. Otherwise, it's just an academic exercise (no offense meant), isn't it?

Some ideas I could think about (some of which exclude others):

• tier prices and service levels - cheap price comes with self-service
• expand your vision of customer - this goes hand in hand with tiering prices and service levels
• consolidate who you want to sell to and go for that - the trouble comes when companies try to be all things to all people...
  
• take another look at work practices - there's an amazing story in results-only work environment. Is it just a story?
  
• consider who you want working at your stores - this goes hand in hand with tiered prices and services
  
• build accountability at every level - and give people power to make things happen
• think about what your business stands for and understand that your execution needs to deliver on that
  

Three could work for many businesses.

There is a lot more to it.

John Hagel, the Co-Chair of the Center For the Edge at Deloitte and one of my new favorite thinkers, just rolled out a new report called The Shift Index, that suggests the current recession is masking long-term competitive challenges for U.S. businesses. [hat tip Francois Gossieaux]

Among the key findings, U.S. companies’ return on assets (ROA) have progressively dropped 75 percent from their 1965 level despite rising labor productivity. Even the highest-performing companies are struggling to maintain their ROA rates and increasingly losing market leadership positions. What can companies do in this fast-cycle world? I know the hard nosed won't like some of the answers:

• increase unexpected encounters that are valuable and generate pleasure when you encounter them. We can shape serendipity - both by increasing quality and quantity of unexpected encounters, for example by being in the right location
• shift from a push model to a pull model - one in which you attract partners, customers and talent, instead of pushing out products and messages. Attract, assist and affiliate customers and prospects
• build communities if around the needs of the members, engaged around three types of cultures - content, social interactions, and economic business models

I agree with Hagel, you cannot participate in knowledge flows for very long if you are only a “taker”. Also, check out the collaboration curve.

I'm thinking that the Best Buy exchange example is a manifestation of this shift. Companies are having a hard time with the diminishing return on assets. Joining the conversation is the tip of the iceberg. There needs to be a lot more in place with marketing, public relations and business practices. This is what's holding organizations back.

What else do you think is holding organizations back?

Social Media as Modern Telephone, Frank Eliason, Comcast

[0:45 on investment in social media during hard-times, courtesy of Radian6]

He struck me as the real deal from the first time I contacted him via Twitter. In the last year plus, Frank Eliason has become the face and experience of Comcast for many of us. Rather than me talking about him I thought it a good idea to let him talk directly with you here. Our conversation:

Can you talk a little bit about your background? How you got to Comcast.

Frank: I have always been a simple Customer Service guy. My background prior to Comcast was Vanguard Investments, followed by Advanta Bank. While at Advanta I learned the power of the Customer story in implementing change.

I have found Customer Service operations are always centered on numbers, but change was rare. When you drilled into the numbers and use the Customer story, change happens fast. People, including the C-suite, are Customers too and they can easily relate to a bad experience.

While I was at Advanta we did a lot to improve the experience. One day I was putting together the annual report for Advanta, and it was to include Customer calls as the background. It was at that point I realized how far we moved the needle. That was around February, 2007. I decided at that time I would seek a company I can have a strong impact on the Customer experience. The only company I applied to was Comcast.

I joined Comcast as a Customer Service manager in September, 2007. On my 4th day we were asked to locate a blogger and reach out to them. Since that time, when we had time, we continued to do that. At the time we were only reaching out via phone.

In December, 2007 I was asked why we were not posting on the blogs. I did not realize that we were allowed to do that due to my background in financial services (that would not have been permitted in those worlds). So we started to post to blogs when we could not identify the Customer.

Bloggers loved it! They blog for a reason: to be heard. They loved that we were listening. In February, 2008 it became my role, and I was asked to hire a few people to help. Going back to what I learned at Advanta, I started to share the story via a daily newsletter. Today that goes to about 3000 people within all levels of management.

Believe it or not, prior to this role, I was not on Facebook, or Twitter. Besides a limited amount of activity on LinkedIn, my only experience in social media was a website I had for our daughter Gia when she was born premature. She spent the first 3 months in the NICU and we created the website to communicate with family.

We later used it to educate people about Cystic Fibrosis and to support fund raising efforts for charities close to our heart. At the age of 3, Gia was diagnosed with liver cancer, so again we turned to the website to keep people up to date and teach them about the form of cancer she had. She passed away in July, 2004. Later when her sisters were born, we created our family website. Today I also have a blog of my own.

Business Week called you "the most famous customer service manager in the US" in an article that detailed how you help customers on Twitter. I remember when I reached out to you on Twitter early on asking for an interview and your response was something like "I'm busy helping customers now".

There's been an evolution from stories of disbelief to the NYT and BW featuring your work in a positive light. What has changed inside Comcast through this transition in the media? Are you getting more support?

Frank: To us this is just another contact channel, just like email, phone or chat. This is just a preferred method of support for some Customers. When we set out our goals were simple: Listen to our Customers and help when we can. That is all we strive to do.

We were already in a transformation when we started this. Comcast has been working hard at improving the overall experience for our Customers. This was just a small part of that effort.

I have always had support from all levels of management regarding our efforts. They saw value in meeting Customers where they already are, and have provided us free reign to do just that, wherever we think is appropriate to achieve our goals. The support I received extended to if I would require additional staffing, I know they would continue to support me. I am so grateful for having a leadership team that is open to trying new things.

Even though you are known and your work is respected online, you're talking with one sliver of Comcast customer base. I imagine that NPS metrics are rolled up at C-level. Have you seen an influencing effect of the positive sentiment your work created and is creating online in other areas of consumer sentiment for Comcast?

Frank: It is hard to say, because we are doing so much to improve the Customer experience throughout the organization, that positive improvement truly highlights all of those efforts. I think the preferred measurement for the C-Suite has been how we have taken what we have learned from Customers and truly improved the experience for all Customers.

Unlike typical measurements of performance, my team is measured on effectiveness and improvements they make for our Customers. I teach them to be proactive and find solutions to problems they encounter. If something is broken for others they are encouraged to find solutions.

In an interview with Lee Odden at TopRank blog, you talked about the two criteria that you look at for getting involved in media at a tactical level: Searchability and Timeliness. You talked about Twitter and Google, but you have since expanded your toolkit.

How did you convince Comcast to make the investment? How do you structure your reports to senior management? This is something that would be helpful to your peers who are looking to ask their organizations to make the investment.

Frank: Ultimately we look for any space that is efficient in helping us meet our goals of listening and helping Customers. I think for us it was easy because Comcast already wanted to find ways to improve the experience. We also started gradually assisting Customers, and each time we did, Customer would let it be known how pleased they were to have the assistance.

We were also learning, and continue to learn every day. The main report we do to management is our daily rollup (also goes to anyone that requests it internally, no matter the level). We refer to it as the Comcast Online Pulse. The goal of the report is to provide an at a glance review of conversation about Comcast. It is our way of sharing the story, which as I learned at Advanta, is very powerful.

What is the best move you made on behalf of the business to date? Why?

Frank: Wow, this is a tough question for me. I have not believed anything I have done is that special. To me it is common sense to help Customers in need. I stepped away to think. I think the best move I have made was to really hire a great, passionate team that strives to create the right experience with every Customer they come in contact with.

They are a huge credit to the success we have had. They all were hired internally but each brings new experience and a unique background to our effort. They also love finding ways we can improve as the organization. I absolutely love every one of them (don’t tell them, I do not want it to go to their heads).

You and I talked about the fact that we both view social media involvement as a team activity with many players with complementary roles. Is Comcast learning more about social media as an organization? Do you share best practices and learning internally, beyond the communications group?

Frank: We are constantly learning in this space and we meet regularly to share what we learn. These discussions include PR, Customer Service, marketing and many other teams in the organization. We continue to learn in our help forums, external forums, Facebook, Twitter, external blogs, and even our corporate blog. These discussions help us understand what is working, and what is not. We encourage all areas to be involved in social media.

You recently came to the realization that, yeah, you actually do marketing when you're helping customers. What's in store for the future? What do you envision for the organization and where do you see your role evolving?

Frank: It is hard to predict where I see my role evolving. I love helping companies improve the service for their Customers. I love the social media space, but the Customer will always be the first love. But I do see a convergence of marketing, PR and service.

This space is not about ads; it’s about building relationships and having conversations with your Customer and prospective Customers. I think in the coming years you will see more companies encouraging their employees throughout the company to be a part of social media spaces.

I also think companies will see the benefits of crowd sourcing to learn more from the community. This already happens in places like forums, but think about how different products impact each other. Think about how your computer interacts with your router, modem, to the internet through your internet service provider, then to other server beyond your ISP’s network.

Those are a lot of parts working together, or in some cases, not. How does a Customer know where to begin? There is not an easy way for any of those companies involved in the products to answer every aspect to find a solution. But there are always people on the net that have had a similar experience. I think we will see evolutions that will make this all work to provide the best support to Customers.

_____

Thank you, Frank. I was really touched by Gia's story and what must have been such an emotional roller coaster for you and your family.

Today at Fast Company Expert blog we talk about how when it comes to customer service, action speaks louder than words. You'll see how this matters when it comes to using social media, especially as you start executing.

Will Google Wave Eliminate the Need for PR as Media Relations?

New media has already reminded up that PR stands for public relations and not just media relations. This is still something that many organizations are navigating at the moment. Now Google is giving us yet another Wave of innovation and showing us what is possible in the browser. It was developed by the team that gave us Google Maps. From the site:

A wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

A wave is shared. Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process. Then playback lets anyone rewind the wave to see who said what and when.

A wave is live. With live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time.

Note that Wave is an open protocol that will allow third party developers to make their own Wave servers - just like they did with email. What seems nice about it is that it treats media as a process, where truth could emerge from many voices and forms. Is this going to spell the age of news in the cloud?

I was reading a post by Jeff Jarvis on the possibilities of Wave and news and noticing how resistant to proposed changes people are in the discussion that ensued in the comments. We don't have to like it, we can however admit that things are and have changed. As a reminder, I encourage critics to propose an alternative, to build it, to champion it. It's way too easy to just say "I don't like it," and "you suck".

Rather than resisting to the idea that this is happening, I'd like to think with you about the opportunities - and changes - that such a tool brings to the fore. When media becomes fluid this way, does the public relations profession need a digital tune up?

Where will the public relations professional and publicist fit in? Is it time for the transition to true communicator and conversation agents vs. merely passing along information, in some cases pushing it onto people who do not want your news?  Will press announcements be streamed real time through the wave? What will be the long term changes?

In a wave, your press release would have a long tail. Would PR be free? What are the things you should think about for your news?

• the content - what value components will allow your publics to derive self-worth and interest?
• the multimedia - this goes way beyond the social media release to access and potential community involvement
• the conversation - what's the story from the point of view of the community?
• the social aspect - this is where the information generates engagement

Would we use other software with the Wave? What kind of changes will this bring to the ability of small businesses to compete with larger ones? Will Google Wave eliminate the need for PR as media relations? How about listening tools? You should be thinking about the implications. Wherever there are changes, there is opportunity.

The future belongs to those who make it happen.

___________

Related posts:

Your New Media Equity
You're Writing for End Users, You Always Were
Do You Need Trade Media for a Product Launch?

Who cares about your news?

I mean who wants to hear from you? How is the information going to help them be smarter, do their job better, sell more? One of the most frequent pitches I get says something like "we thought your readers would enjoy to hear about 'x'".

Would they? How do you know? We had an interesting conversation in the comments at John Cass blog a couple of weeks ago when he posted about a pitch he received from Gary Vaynerchuk's publicist.

In the comments to that post, I wrote:

Neville and John, you now make me feel special as I received the very same email on June 5. I was going to write a post about the fact that media "celebrities" - and Gary qualifies as one - might really have a chance to change the game on this whole social media thing with execution.

Passion is high on my list, but I don't think that's why I got the email pitch. I do understand that scale gets challenging once you go beyond a certain threshold. [Sorry to miss you at Mediabistro Circus, Gary, I was speaking on the same day. Congratulations on your daughter.]

My other thought was that perhaps a few bloggers might enjoy spending time at Gary's site. Going back to what both John and Neville said in this thread, it's not be about generating traffic opportunities for a personal site... but it might be about making connections with a different community and Gary has a very loyal community.

Just brainstorming here. Because of my passion and involvement with Fast Company, I've met many authors over the years and helped those who wanted to connect with live events - we did two for Dan Pink, one with Ben McConnell, two with Bill Jensen, one with Bill Taylor and Polly LaBarre... I could go on. Only on one occasion, the author, who will thus go unnamed, felt he wanted to get paid to come and promote his book. All of this is in my blog bio, within reach.

Reach means different things to different people and connection depends on the ability to find that out. Good discussion, thank you all

Gary's response was brief:

Thnx Val u hit the tone as those were many of the things I was hoping to do, in hind site I picked the wrong of communication, I should have made a video..and I will :)

Gary was being brief. But there is one indication of whether you care about someone or not - spelling their name right. For those reading (and pitching), I absolutely dislike any name shortening or mishandling, like using the Anglicized version. But that was not going to be my point.

You see that in my comment I make a couple of very specific suggestions to Gary. Do you think anyone followed up since June 15? Not a peep. When you're asking others to care about you, do you ever consider for a moment who cares about your news?

Stop trying to count number of impressions and start working on making an impression, being memorable. We discussed connections yesterday. What if I have only a few readers here, but a very large network off line? What if I speak to or know the one person who will sneeze your news to the whole world?

When you pitch someone, stay away from the obvious mass emailing - just because you can, it does not mean it will give you the best results. Also, fewer and more targeted sites or relationships may open you more doors. This may not be the case for Gary - who doesn't like Gary Vaynerchuk? It will be your case in similar circumstances.

When is it a good idea to include bloggers in your media outreach?

1. If you can pass the straight face test - this matters to their readers
2. You have an integrated approach - part of the story fits the new media landscape like a glove and you have something unique to offer for that one media property
3. Their traffic is your audience - chances are a blogger's traffic is much more targeted than a magazine's, but more fragmented
4. You intend to dedicate time and resources to being authentic - cutting-edge, leader, authority in whatever it is you do tend to sound fake to someone who writes for passion
5. You're open to a two-way dialogue and accept that ideas may come back to you as a result of the conversation - do you have a plan to follow up with that specific person?

How do you figure out who to pitch?

• Do your homework. Read their work - not just the first three words of the last post so you can tack them on the beginning of your email, please. We can read, too and if your email doesn't make sense you've lost your chance. I provided an example of a good pitch here.
• Get to know them, develop relationships. Aren't you in public relations? What happened to the "relations" part? Or do you think your job is just to send out lots of emails? What is better, several ignores and relegation to the spam folder, or a few quality (for the blogger) conversations?
  
• Make it easy for them. Whatever happened to the much hailed social media release? Why are PR agencies not using that? It works [hat tip Shel Holtz]

Also, if you spend time online, you will know the tone, and topics that resonate. People share a lot - on Twitter, FriendFeed, Delicious, etc. Maybe you feel this as you're reading - we've been over this before. Why beat a dead horse? Well, it's not old until it's done and today very few, not so many, ok maybe one and they're my cousin, do it.

How do you measure success?

Please don't tell me you count impressions or media by the number of readers I have. Don Bartholomew has it right, let's not get carried away by the numbers of followers or readers. Relevance is a very much fragmented concept in social media. Ask yourself: what numbers are real?

[image of yesterday news by Zarco Drincic]

How I do the Connecting Thing

Jay Baer let the cat out of the bag, so I might as well confess - I am a connector, and a life time one, too. Someone said on Twitter today that she wished people understood that the loudest ones are not necessarily those who are making stuff happen (I'm paraphrasing here). Many collect people, I learn about them - what they're looking for, what they're passionate about.

From strangers to friends on trains (part of being Italian and trains never arriving on time), to discovering amazing talent among people in a room crowded with voices intent on networking. I don't have a very sophisticated method, I'm afraid. No big spreadsheets or ultra-tech tools, although the human brain is probably the most sophisticated of all systems.

I just choose to observe, find out, and remember. Because I know a time will come when I'll be able to connect a dear friend with a resource, a business with a partner, an acquaintance with a job opportunity.

What do I get out of it? Why do we need to get something beyond the being helpful part out of it?

Connections is one of the topics here at Conversation Agent. I met Jason Falls when he noticed my first post on connection Katas. I still remember his comment about it.

Being that we're enamored with data, I can tell you that quantity and quality of connections both matter. There is a tipping point when you begin to know fairly well a good number of people and you can help exponentially.

I started making introductions to people early in life and my network has grown organically as a result - on two sides of the pond. Community can also form from the connections made between smaller networks.

During the years when I was facilitating online conversations at Fast Company and organizing live events - yes, 98 free live events, way too many to compete with anyone doing them today - content was the determining factor for inviting the right people to the conversation. Like any good Italian meal is an excuse to be social, right?

You want to have a mix of professionals in organizations, consultants, and service providers/agencies at events. And you don't want especially to be preaching to the choir. There needs to be a nice mix to make things interesting for everyone.

One of the weaknesses of professional associations is that often there are many more providers  than buyers at events, for example. Our community/network cut across professions, industries, and organization type. And it grew organically over time.

You can turn the dial with content and change results.

The other great thing is that because we had series of events, we had a great deal of diversity among attendees within the same community. We played with Legos, worked on the digital strategy for a museum and tested restaurant technology, we brainstormed with CEOs, and went shopping for the right internal communications strategies.

I summarized some of it here, the rest is what you learn with me in posts and through the connections we make now. It was never about me, it still isn't. It's about exchanging ideas and meeting people. In some cases, it's about giving the stage to anyone who decides they want to connect.

Give it time. It may not work today, but I will remember tomorrow, and the day after. I don't believe we lost the ability to pay attention to what's important - and you are important.To make the right connection, where the is a fit, takes time. But when you do, you fly, you're in "flow".

Yes, I do the welcome bit - an email on your first comment and whenever we have something to say to each other, email is the new offline. I do the the facilitation, answer questions - this post was the result of a question - the connecting - usually most of it behind the scenes - and thank often, in many languages. 

Finally, as I wrote to Jay the other day, I think it ironic that my posts show such a low comment count, because they are shared and discussed in many places - I wish TypePad had thought of innovating in the direction of aggregation vs. its own sign up system.

Steve Rubel says blogging may be dead - not by a long shot. It's "and/and", rarely, "either/or". I'm with the getting to know you movement, and for that you need to actually be impressionable and have enough content to invite discovery - in one place.

As for the impressions I make, I know it takes time to notice someone else. I'm in no hurry. I'm in it for the long haul.

What about you? How do you make real connections?

[image of world's tallest Lego Tower]

Producers, Meet Colleen Wainwright, the Communicatrix

In a recent post, she wrote about travel: "The destination may surprise you. It will probably surprise you. When you get to what it is you’ve been working toward—a primary relationship, a VP title, your own business, a gold statuette—it will not feel like or seem like or look like what you thought it might on the way there."

And I guarantee that it will indeed do just that. Working towards something is a lot more fun and challenging - some days in good ways, others in not so good ways - than being there. The growth is in the motion.

Have you ever watched a tree or a plant grow? You probably won't see it day to day when you want it to show, but you will see it in the end. The destination often is also an opportunity to look back and see how far you've come. Colleen writes at Communicatrix. This destination will surprise you, and so will the exposure to her ideas.

I'm one of those people who connect with stories, that's why I write so much about them. And her story is intriguing. Colleen's transparency is the kind Jim Collins talked about when he was on stage with Alan Webber at Fast Company Real Time in Phoenix talking about "the three circles". Finding that place of intersection - and interest - between passion, DNA, and economics. Straight from the About You page, here's a conversation with Colleen.

Why are you online?

Colleen: Aside from TMZ and all the awesome pr0n, for two main reasons:

First, it is the cheapest, fastest, easiest way to put the word out there. Growing up, I always wished I had my own publishing company; now I do. She shoots! She scores!

Second, as many of your wiser and more articulate subjects have already said, the Internet is a genius way of connecting with your right people. "Right" is going to vary from person to person, but for me, it's about finding people with whom I share Significant Areas of Overlap, and expanding my knowledge base from there.

For example, we may both be fascinated by marketing, but you come at it from the perspective of a multinational conversation-starting sharpshooter with experience in big-boy stuff like tech, whereas I'm a loopy clown who has happily frittered away her life writing jingles, playing dress-up and waxing rhapsodic about her intestines. Where in real life would we have met? Maybe SXSW, but even then, not without the Internet intervening.

What prompted to post in "About You" at Conversation Agent?

Colleen: Because it terrified me to do it. I think it's pretty important to do stuff that terrifies you on a regular basis.

Also, I see what you're doing as providing a bridge between people who might not otherwise meet, and whose connecting will certainly change them, and might change the world, for the better. That's something I want both to take advantage of and to support.

Also-also, because I knew if you decided to interview me, I'd get to see how you describe me. Since half the time I have no idea of how to describe myself, I shamelessly throw myself in the paths of those who can do it for me.

What are you working on that you feel will connect ideas and people?

Colleen: I wish I had some big, schmancy-cool, global foundation or think-tank or what-have-you to get people on board with, but really, it's just me, the entertainer, and my mission: to be a joyful conduit of truth, beauty and love. Not exactly Joan of Arc material, but hey, we all have our jobs.

Currently, mine translates to a lot of writing about my own processes—on my blog, in my newsletter about effective communicating, in a monthly column about marketing for actors. I'm halfway through a year-long project that's about "marketing out loud"—I'm externalizing the day-to-day work of marketing a small business via a separate blog and podcast. I speak as often as I can about non-hideous ways to put yourself out there on and off the Internet, and I've got a few other strange little creative projects cooking on the back burner.

I suppose you could say the main thing I'm constantly doing is working to make myself a better, more joyous conduit. Is that even a thing? I'm doing it, so I guess it is.

Who would you like to connect with?

Colleen: At a recent unconference I helped facilitate (an amazing experience I heartily recommend to anyone thinking about it), a friend of mine, Jason Womack, answered this question the best way I've ever heard: I don't know what I don't know.

I have a long wish list of people I know I'd like to meet because I think they're cool, but I'm equally interested in meeting the people I don't even know that I want to know. I'm pretty sure I'd like to meet someone who likes producing as much as I like creating; I'm much, much better at generating content than I am at putting it out there. And it would be amazing if they were fellow travelers who get that self-development doesn't have to be ponderous, dull or poorly written, and who want to put some good, juicy, fun stuff out there.

But really, I'm open to what I'm not so sure about, too. Serendipity rules!

______

A couple of immediate connections I would make for you come to mind:

• my friend CK, who I admire for keeping it real and managing to be kind, generous and graceful while kicking ass in the marketing department
• I know you would also enjoy meeting the talented Karen Hegman, a communicator passionate about narrative
• and my Australian friend Gavin Heaton, a servant to chaos and a master of story

I open the floor to the community for more suggestions and ideas on who you should meet, as well as of course, the connection they can make with you directly.