Breaking Boundaries means Learning and Integrating, not "Keeping up"

Or not merely keeping up. The ever changing ebb and flow of human history, sociology, and even biology are all taking us to what is next. Keeping up is what organisms do when they are thriving. I read somewhere that to keep from dying, all cells evolve. So do we, and so - hopefully - does the set of actions and responses we categorize as marketing communications.

A couple of days ago, we held a panel discussion at Drexel University about Breaking Boundaries: The Revolution of Social Media. Breaking boundaries means we're integrating connections, communications, conversations, and community into our thinking and doing.

Many worry that this new marketing thing caught them off guard. I remember how nine years or so ago professionals were telling me I was wasting my time with the whole listserv thing and social networks. Maybe they wanted me to fall in line - follow the recipe, this is what we're supposed to do.

I bet when the phone was invented, or anything else, people were resistant - "I'm not going to have the time to speak to my neighbors anymore." Now we often call them on the phone. Things do change, and we adapt. I'm glad I followed my instincts.

From the very first moment this unstructured and messy thing called social network was on my radar, I was hooked to the sheer power of the possibilities inherent in it. If these tools allow us to forge connections and have conversations, why do we think we have no time for that?

Why do we think we need to make a special time for it? Isn't networking and building relationships part of the evolution of business already? I think first we need to understand where we came from and where we're headed.

The Internet changed everything

Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web to reframe the way we use information and work together. 20 years later, for his next project, he's building a web for open, linked data that could do for numbers what the Web did for words, pictures, video: unlock our data and reframe the way we use it together.

[TED talk 16:23']

Data is relationships. Stephen Baker documented how The Numerati see workers, shoppers, voters, bloggers, patients and lovers. The sentiment is good, however the concerns over privacy and personal data remain. 

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) goes social

Brent Leary has been writing about Social CRM over at his blog. If you read a couple of his posts, you will find that we're still a bit far from the whole realization or pay off in terms of CRM and social. Data mining is hard enough - imagine dealing with live data that moves around.

In case you're not familiar with the term, customer relationship management (CRM) consists of the processes a company uses to track and organize its contacts with its current and prospective customers.

It is - or should be - a combination of policies, processes, and strategies implemented by an organization to unify its customer interactions and provide a means to track customer information.

Is there always a unified customer experience at the end of that process? What about humanity, unscripted opinions? It seems to me that the most valuable entry field is becoming the comments section - in systems and in media.

Analyze This

Another important component of data is analytics. Every marketing activity has to drive outcomes. If you desire an outcome, you can measure it. That is valid for branding campaigns, digital marketing, and social media. Think about:

• greater site loyalty with return visits
• higher percent of sharing and recommending
• increased sales (why would that not be one of your goals?)

For this kind of in depth understanding of what to look for online, I recommend Avinash Kaushik and his site and book. The first step in being able to leverage the information is understanding what to listen and look for and why.

ROI - are we there yet?

Everyone is running around talking about ROI and explaining it in many different ways, yet very few are diving deep enough to know that measurement starts with having specific and focused objectives.

This is not new, of course. Many investments have been made by companies in the past that have not paid off because of a slight misunderstanding or mis-alignment over goals.

Our panel conversation centered on public relations, a discipline that in the past has been challenged to come up with metrics other than clippings.

If you've ever wondered how to measure social media, public relations, public affairs, media relations, internal communications or blogs add KDPaine's blog to your reading list.

Wikipedia's entry on public relations defines it as - a set of functions that foster an organization's ability to strategically listen to, appreciate, and respond to those persons whose mutually beneficial relationships with the organization are necessary if it is to achieve its missions and values.

The focus is on two-way communication and fostering mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and its publics. It does sound like it would be compatible with the social in media, doesn't it?

Full Circle

The Web is a marketplace - not a medium, not a channel, not another TV, not a radio with images. I once explained this to a friend at dinner. Imagine you're going back to the Bazaars of old, where people displayed their wares and met each other in conversation, negotiation, community, and transactions.

How do you figure out who you connect with on the Web? How do you figure out how to measure it and how to track it? How do you manage those connections, how do you keep them active and engaged?

Start with what

What are you trying to accomplish? Please tell me it's not more stickiness for your Web site. That's a nice outcome, but the objective should be a bit more ambitious. In PR, marketing communications, and marketing in general, the objective is not to measure the number of clicks. It's to determine and track and measure what you want to happen from those clicks.

It's the change in behavior and the direct communication and conversation between marketer, the content creator, and customer, who - make no mistake - is in control. It's not your message, it's what they want to do. 

Don't just keep up, then. Jump in with both feet. Learn what this whole marketplace for people and ideas is about, and integrate what you've learned with what you thought you knew (yes, you will need to challenge yourself a little or a lot, too).

Comments

[Steve Roesler]

Valeria,

Terrific post--(I think it's actually a small book:-)

Your million-dollar line: ". . .the objective is not to measure the number of clicks. It's to determine and track and measure what you want to happen from those clicks."

I wonder how many people have actually decided what they want to happen?

[Brindey]

I think you touched a lot of points of the first chapter of the cluetrain manifesto, but you took it one step further with you thoughts on evolving and making connections instead of grabbing more traffic. I am liked your inclusion of Numerati and Tim Berners.

You have narrowed my focus and direction- thanks.

[Diego]

Very nice article Valeria.
As a side note regarding the telephone, back on those days various experiments have been made to figure out how to transmit multiple signals over the same cable, the idea was to improve the technology behind the telegraph. Before Gray and Bell there was a German inventor called Philip Reis who in 1854 built a device, similar to the telephone, able to transmit musical tones.
Later on, both Gray and Bell came up with devices able to produce musical tones over cables. There's a nice picture of "The Musical Telegraph" right here: http://120years.net/machines/telegraph/index.html
So, despite the fact that Grey lost the battle for the patent of the telephone, he's considered one of the first to create an electronic musical instrument!

Bottom line is, breaking boundaries to me also means exploring options that are apparently out of the focus of the project. Sometime this process is not voluntary but it can possibly lead to interesting innovations.
I think that keeping an open minded spirit in these days it's even more important than before.

BTW, later on Bell didn't even want a telephone in his own studio!! : )
http://massacadsciences.org/famous.shtml

[Brent MacKinnon]

Your rocking with this post Valerie. The more I read, the more excited I got. You captured the dynamics of participating on the web, in the marketplace bazaar, pushing your boundaries of learning, integrating, adapting and much more. Your post was like a shot of tequila for me.. a jolt followed by a burst of energy to take me to new places in my own work with others..

thanks,

Brent MacKinnon

[Seth Goldstein]

Once again Valeria great post once again.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Steve - long time and great hearing from you. The hardest decision any human being is ever going to make is that of what she/he wants.

@Brindey - I'm sure I have as that book has been one of my guiding readings to understand and explore this space. We had questions about metrics coming up left and right at the end, and so I started thinking about what is behind metrics, which is data, and how we're thinking about it today.

@Diego - thank you for allowing me to learn so much with you today. I suspect you responded to the title of this post because of the work you are immersed in as well. Keeping an open mind and, as you put so well, spirit, is key in this day and age.

@Brent - glad to be of service and inspiration for your projects and work. It sounds like you are already thinking in new directions.

@Seth - thank you for stopping by.

[Shannon Paul]

I love your longform posts by the way even though I don't have the attention span to actually write like this. :)

I'm also really digging the parallels between social media communication and the telephone. Scott Monty and I were on a panel together awhile back where he cited some pamphlets that were being circulated to business leaders in the 1920s-30s time-frame. Basically the pamphlets served to warn businesses about the new threat to productivity - the telephone (gasp!). I also like to think about the ROI argument now in terms of the telephone -- seriously, what's the ROI on your phone system??

As usual, you do phenomenal work explaining all of this stuff in cogent and relevant terms. Thanks for all you do!

[Ferg Devins]

Valeria...great post as we continue the pursuit of measurement, metrics, the explanation of why and what return...thanks for all the insights and the links..Amazon did well this morning...cheers ! @MolsonFerg

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Shannon - thank you, glad the content was helpful. Yeah, when I wrote the post on social media and the telephone many really responded to the analogy.

@Ferg - sometimes the best book recommendations are not reviews but ways to show how the content was helpful. I keep hearing the same questions and see that people are having a hard time getting started because the data and measurement issues stump them.