Every Company Is A Media Company

Welcome - When Every Company Is A Media Company...

By Tom Foremski

Five years ago, when I first began writing and talking about this idea, that every company is a media company, few people understood what this was about. Today, it's a message that is better understood -- but only among a few leading practioners in media, communications, and marketing -- it's still far from being understood by the mainstream.

Yet today, it's a very important concept because the evolution of media, and the powerful media technologies of the Internet,  has transformed the entire media industry and is now transforming nearly every business.  

Placing Value on Social and Online Media Buzz

By Don Bulmer

Is it really possible to measure the impact and quantify the monetary value of 'buzz' generated through social and online media channels?

A few weeks ago, a New York-based company called General Sentiment released a report that attempted to do this.

Below is a graphic from the report where General Sentiment equates the value (in USD) of media mentions and buzz for 20 global companies, measured from October to December of 2010:

 
General Sentiment is a technology company that provides research to help businesses evaluate their brand performance in the media (social and online).  

Among other things they claim to have developed a system that automatically determines the volume of mentions and sentiment regarding a brand, company or person. Combining this data with website traffic and online/news readership figures, they determine the purchase equivalent value (in USD) of brand exposure for each company across the Internet.

I came across the report from a post written by Philip Elmer-DeWitt at Fortune online. Comments on Philip's post range from high skepticism to pure absurdity on the ability to place a true monetary value on the impact of social and online media buzz to a company and its brand.  You can read the story and comments here.

I give General Sentiment credit for taking on the very difficult challenge to develop technology and research to provide such measures, assessments and data points. 

These are important data points (in part) to support decisions associated with communication and social business program investments.  It is amazing how many business leaders underestimate, undervalue and misplace the importance and power of communication in the era of social business.  

What is buzz and can it really be measured?

Every Company Is a Media Company: SAP’s Influencer Summit

By Don Bulmer

This year’s (2010) SAP Influencer Summit was not only a successful model for influencer engagement, but an excellent example of Tom Foremski’s quote: “Every Company is a Media Company.” SAP’s amazing team of communication, marketing and business professionals just wrapped up their 2010 Annual Influencer Summit in Santa Clara, California.

The Influencer summit is a marquee event for SAP that dates back to 2001.  And when we started the event (in 2001), the core audience was a small group of elite IT industry analysts representing many of the top research firms in the industry. Over the years the event has evolved tremendously – in scope, size, audience and importance to SAP and now includes a wide range of industry influencers.

The reason for the increase in scope is tied directly to the changing nature of influence in our industry.  People who make decisions to purchase business software and other IT related hardware and services increasingly rely on multiple sources of experts/expertise in the industry to support, inform and shape their opinions - that ultimately influence their purchase decisions. 

Equal to this, the disruptive nature of social media and advancements in collaboration and mobile technologies have drastically changed the way that decision makers access, consume information, engage and collaborate with their trusted sources in the industry. 

The adjustments that we have made to our influencer relations program over the years are tied directly to these forces of change.

A bit of traditional…

The Influencer Summit is one core component of SAP's overall influencer relations program. 

It’s important as it provides us with the opportunity to bring SAP’s top executives, customers and partners together with the most important thought leaders and ‘truth seekers’ in the business software industry.  The core audience of this event represent the most prominent individuals in the IT analyst, academia, media, blogger, business consulting, customer, partner and SAP mentor communities.  Our estimate is that the people who attend this annual summit represent channels to the market that have an estimated $45 billion impact on business software purchase decisions.  It is an audience we respect and value very, very much.

You have to see this: IBM's Jon Iwata "Every company is a publisher..."

Here is Jon Iwata, Senior VP Communications and Marketing at IBM at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism in March 2010.

Please skip to around the 20 minute mark to cut out the long welcoming remarks.

 

Social Media Has Changed The Business Buying Process...

...But how?

By Don Bulmer and Vanessa DiMauro

We are pleased to announce the launch of the 2nd annual New Symbiosis of Professional Networks research study.

Vanessa DiMauro, CEO, Leader Networks and I are leading this research as part of our 2010 Fellowship with The Society for New Communication Research (SNCR).

This annual study, explores how social media is impacting business by better understanding how business leaders use social media and social networks to support and inform their decisions. 

When we understand how social media changes professional decision-making, organizations can be more efficient, timely and supportive in how they interact with customers- ultimately leading to better engagement and decision-making in business.

Participants in this year's study will receive a free copy of the results. A link to the survey and last year's findings can be found on the research website.  

About the Research

The New Symbiosis of Professional Networks is an annual research study designed to benchmark the impact of social media on enterprise decision-making.

The social nature of decision-making has increased significantly, connecting generations of professionals to each other—changing the dynamics of customer relationship management, marketing, and communications – forever.

In the first study, we focused on professionals’ use of social media—and it all comes back to the strength of the relationship. Human relationships and peer-to-peer decision-making are inherently interrelated. 

Professional networks facilitate vast interactions, connections, and networks of people by enabling collaboration anywhere and at any time. 

Communities of practice, professional networks, social media, email, and SMS are among the tools that enable multi-channel access for individuals (employees, customers, partners, and suppliers).

In this second study (in the series) we will further examine the role of social media on decision-making among enterprise users and explore the dynamics of trust as well as the value of engagement and collaboration to support decision making and innovation across company operations for internal and external purposes.

The study explores the following questions:

• Is social media regarded as a trustworthy source of information for professionals?
• What do enterprise decision makers value most when interacting with peers through social media and social networks?
• How do enterprise decision makers use social media to gather information, advice and support peer collaboration; and how do they compare to traditional off-line networking and knowledge share?
• What tools and sources of social media are relied upon by professionals to make decisions?
• Will social media change the business and practice of enterprise-level operations (internal and external)?
• How do business leaders use social media for customer engagement/support; innovation of products and service; employee engagement; strategy development; sales and marketing?
• What has changed since 2009 in terms of social media usage and trust among professional decision-makers

The methodology for this study will be a two-pronged approach.  A survey will be issued to gather quantitative data about professionals perceptions and experiences with social media in support of their decision-making. Following the survey, select interviews will be conducted using a semi-structured interview guide among a set of survey respondents who are willing to participate in the second phase of the study. 

The final study report will blend the survey research findings and the interview results to offer a well-rounded examination of the social media for decision-making process and opportunities and essentially helps us all use social media more effectively in professional settings.

We need your help to make this a success!  Please take the survey to contribute your point of view to this research and help us spread the word to your colleauges, fans and followers!

Media Tsunami: How Much Media Should You Produce? How Much Is Too Much?

By Tom Foremski

How much media content should I produce?

As a professional journalist this has been a question that I've struggled with over the past five years since leaving the Financial Times.

I can produce a lot of media content, and hopefully, it is all quality media content. But my concern is that if I produce too much it will cause my readers and subscribers to switch off because there is too much from one source.

I know that if some of my sources are too noisy on Twitter, Facebook, even on their blog or web site, I will switch them off because it is too much -- even if all their content is good. I don't want my readers doing the same to me.

This question of how much media is too much media is not just my concern, it should be a concern for others, especially companies. I've been writing about how every company is a media company, (EC=MC - the transformative equation for business) how every company has to get better at producing, distributing and responding to media content.

EC=SC (Every Company Must be a Storytelling Company)

Guest Post by Kathy Klotz-Guest

Tom Foremski maintains that every company today must be a media company. I believe that to be true, but I also think it’s more fundamental than that. Every company must be good at telling stories in the world of new media. If content is king, stories are queen. We know who wields the power!

All great marketing requires great storytelling. The best stories connect viscerally and humanize. Organizations that successfully tell compelling, authentic, even humorous stories about products, customers, about their values and employees, and, in turn, embrace the narratives of their stakeholders, will be the victors in the changing world of new media. And aiding marketers in telling their stories better is online video.

If every company must be a storytelling company, every company should have a video storytelling strategy.  It’s especially important in B2B where video storytelling has the ability to add a much-needed authentic human dimension to company communications.  With video storytelling, success is often not about production values or huge budget. A Flip camera, for example, is inexpensive and video technology is ubiquitous (in cell phones and smart phones, among other devices). Video success today is not about PR talking points, or a factual analysis of features and benefits. The element of human interest matters most; it’s the basis for any great story as every journalist using social media knows.  That hasn’t changed.  It’s just that video today allows for better, richer and more nuanced storytelling than with traditional media.

Today, online video allows for meaningful two-way dialogue. Unlike traditional media, video storytelling often involves real customers in the story and in the process – that is customers can appear in company videos and they can produce their own videos about the company.  Today, consumers don’t want to just view company content – they want to make their own. They want to be part of the story. There’s a back and forth that changes the direction and tone of the company’s narrative to the outside world. Video changes the narrative from a “brand” dimension to one that is multi-layered.  If you know your customer is using video to tell their story about your organization, you have to be engaged in that conversation.

13 Rules of Leadership for Communication, Influence and Social Media Strategy

By Don Bulmer

For many years I have drawn great inspiration and lessons from leaders of all sorts - political, corporate, social and the like.

A political and social leader who has had among the greatest impact on me is former U.S. Army General and U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell.  In his autobiography 'My American Journey' Mr. Powell shares many stories, insights and lessons learned throughout his storied career. 

Perhaps the most important offering in the book are the '13 Rules of Leadership' that he shares.

I refer to these rules often and each time I look at them I learn something new. 

I would like to share them with you - along with commentary as to how I apply each as a communication professional leading in an environment of constant social and business change.

Interestingly, I found a great article authored by David Zinn in 2000 - where he applied the same rules to coaching in sports.  A few of his insights are woven Into the below as well. 

RULE #1: It ain't as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning. 

The practice and art of managing communication and influence has changed significantly over the last three years driven in large part by the impressive utilization and growth of social media - further enabled by innovations in the development of mobile technologies and social applications. 

The ability for anyone to publish and communicate instantaneously with reach beyond boarders (only limited timezone) has fundamentally changed how communication professionals manage influence and shape opinion.

Communication professionals are often under pressure (sometimes false) to react or respond to issues in the social web in a matter of seconds or a few minutes - rather than several minutes to a few hours.  The pressure to react or respond so quickly to a negative 'tweet' or blog post before it becomes viral can be great.  It can also often make an issue or situation worse if done in hast.

Because of the viral nature of social media - when you react or act you must do so with a sense of purpose, clarity and honesty.  Sometimes this means taking time to gather facts, background and even asses if a response is warranted - or - if the 'social system' will self correct issues of concern.

It is always best to allow time to assess and condition a situation before reacting...because it might not look that bad after thinking it through.

RULE #2: Get mad, then get over it. 

Social media is a tremendous environment for people to channel their emotion and how they feel about a particular issue or situation.  When people communicate via social media it is often because they want to be listened to - they want to be heard.

The media tsunami and Old Spice videos...

By Tom Foremski

At the beginning of 2010 I resisted making predictions but I couldn't help myself and wrote 2010 Prediction: The Media Tsunami Is Coming...

I predicted that we will have tsunami of media in all forms/formats all vying for our attention. Which is why companies need to become media companies, in addition to their base business, because they need to be visible as much as possible. 

The Old Spice videos prove that the media tsunami is much closer than we might think: ReadWriteWeb reported that 87 were made in a single day.

What if every brand in your bathroom did the same? What if every brand in your house did the same? We will be inundated with media. We will face a huge problem: how do we communicate essential information over "cosmetic" information?

What does it mean to be a media company? Does it mean producing 87 videos in one day? How much media is too much media?

These are just some of the many questions we have to answer. The good news is that we can all help to create the answers.

Social Media Is A Relentless Task Master: How and Why To Gain Control

by Vanessa DiMauro

Social Media is a relentless taskmaster. Once you begin participating in a social media marketing or thought leadership effort, it is hard to stop posting -- even for a moment. It is a cognitive treadmill with no obvious stop button.  At least, that’s what so many have been told.

However, sometimes we must pause to regain control -- to buy time to think, to write with quality and assess the impact of what we have to say -- before we actually say it. There are certainly plenty of examples where someone should have stopped to think before sending. Recently a couple of public figures made serious errors when using social media: BP’s CEO Tony Hayward decrying on twitter that he too is tired of the oil spill problem and wants his life back and Sarah Palin’s Facebook blowout blaming environmentalists’ demands for safe offshore drilling as the root of the oil spill crisis. Perhaps Palin’s comments, while misguided at best, do give us, the reader, a deeper insight into her true point of view. However, each made a significant mistake; damaging stock prices and investor relations and taking serious heat in the media, each with a single keystroke. While they gave us some deeper insights into their points of view, we have to wonder: why did they do it?

How to Use Twitter to Understand Brand Perception

By Don Bulmer

For many executives, when it comes to understanding basic stakeholder perception and sentiment towards a company's product or corporate brand in the social web, Twitter is a great and safe place to start. 

People who 'tweet' want to be listened to, they want to be heard.  As such, Twitter is a perfect platform for people to channel their emotions, thoughts, experiences and ideas.

There are a number of free Twitter applications available that allow you to run an infinite number of Twitter queries at the same time - such as TweetDeck. 

As an example, you can start by running the following queries, side-by-side:

• Love [insert your company/product name]
• Hate [insert your company/product name]

This is a safe and easy way to understand the sentiment of people toward your company (brand, products and services) - at the extremes.  You can also conduct the same with your competitors as a comparison or benchmark. 

If you want to take things one step further you can 'engage' with and thank customers who support and love your products/services - by responding to tweets.  Perhaps ask a few questions while at it: "What do you like best about x products?" "How can we improve your experience?"