So over on the Voce Nation blog, I just posted the news that we’re sponsoring WordCamp SF (it’s taking place later this month, get on it!) As far as I know, we’re one of the few PR firms to get behind a WordCamp event in this sort of way, at very least, we’re one of the first to get behind the SF event. Regardless, it makes a *ton* of sense for our business right now, both in terms of how we’ve been using WordPress and related tech with clients like eBay, PlayStation, Yahoo!, and others, but maybe more importantly, with publishing and networking platforms like WordPress MU and BuddyPress now gaining momentum, the ways we can bend and stretch these platforms for communication and marketing programs feels at times damn near limitless. Anyway, we have some very cool WordPress-related projects in the works, some of which the team may be sharing at WordCamp, others we’ll be talking about later this summer. Hope to see you there later this month.
Updates from April, 2009
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Voce’s Sponsoring WordCamp SF
mike manuel
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Community Platforms vs. Community Consultants
mike manuel
Alright, as if there wasn’t enough confusion in the marketplace right now regarding community-building tools, techniques and technicians, we now have the platform makers up-selling ‘community consulting services’ with their wares, and that has left many a company scratching its head and asking…
So, uh, what exactly is the difference between a platform provider’s consulting services, versus, say, an independent consultant’s?
A few months ago, in an effort to help a client of mine find this line and answer this question, I took a crack at a version of the following comparison chart. Was it helpful? Yeah, I think so. Is it exhaustive? Nah, frankly, I think it’s really just scratching the surface of things, but let me know what you think and what your experience has been on either side of the chart here, and maybe it’s something worth iterating further….
Update: A great related post on community managers, and that thing they do, from Brian Oberkirch.
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The Perception Warp of Customer Chatter Online
mike manuel
Alright, so there’s all sorts of assumptions companies make about social media these days, one of the most dangerous of which is the assumption that the feedback, opinions and insights people share online are absolutely representative of their customer base.
Be careful about walking into this particular perception warp, it’s very easy to fall into and terribly difficult to escape.
Yeah, there’s a ton of valuable customer feedback to be gathered and analyzed on the web, however, more often than not, that feedback is coming from what’s best described as, well, a vocal minority. The perception warp is believing this group of customers online reflects the opinions, attitudes and experiences of *all* your customers (e.g., the much, much larger silent majority).
I was reminded of this recently on a client project where we were analyzing commenter registrations on the company’s blog. Our WordPress admin page showed thousands of comments and thousands of registrants, but as we chopped up the user data, we found that about *40* commenters accounted for nearly a third of the total comments.
I’ve seen very similar patterns on other projects, and generally speaking, I think there’s plenty of evidence to support the fact that the ratio of writers to readers online is wildly disproportionate. And unfortunately, once again, it’s one of those unique challenges that falls onto the laps of those who manage social media programs to determine just how much weight to put on the collective customer feedback culled from the web; also I suppose, how influential (or not) your vocal minority of customers are to your silent majority of customers.
[cross-posted on Voce Nation]
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Two Quick Tips for Corporate Participation Online
mike manuel
Alright, so here’s the deal, what we call “corporate participation” online can be incredibly valuable, and hell, at times, even a little fun, but it’s a messy, messy art. A few recommendations to consider if you’re a marketer about to dig into the new trenches of business:
First, remember, it’s about the purposeful conversation.
Too many bloggers, too many book authors and too many expert speakers have over-inflated the value of the proverbial “online conversation.” For that, I’m guilty too. The plain truth is that some conversations are indeed important for your business, but let’s face it, many of them are not.
As social technologies and tools saturate every corner of the web, you’ve got to be painfully realistic about calculating where you spend your time, energy and money — and making sure you’re purposefully investing it in those conversations where you’ll likely see the best return. For some, that return is a relationship formed, for others it’s the substantiation of a position or the change of an opinion. You have to decide.
Second, it’s about finding contextual conversations.
Over the last several years, I and many others have advised folks to simply seek out conversations about their clients, companies or products, and to watch and engage in this dialogue as appropriate. Do I still think this is a good practice? Yeah, sure, I think monitoring for mentions is pretty important, but I think we all need to take a step forward and look at conversational contexts much more closely.
Finding on an on-topic conversation is very, very easy, nowadays, however, determining which conversational context will *likely* illicit a desired action (e.g., a purchase, a recommendation, etc.), is much, much more difficult, but critical for those companies who want to squeeze the most value from their efforts.
For example, if you’re a consumer tech company, I’d be looking at the context of brand-related discussions and reviews on Amazon with *a lot* more interest, intensity and priority than, say, most of the random posts and comment trails that might surface across the web. Why? Because the conversations happening on Amazon are far more likely to influence opinions and perceptions and ultimately, the decisions of would-be buyers given the context and purpose for people visiting Amazon in the first place (i.e., they’re researching, they’re shopping…)
Again, keep in mind, participating online is a messy business, and navigating the mores takes a lot of time and patience and most importantly, a steady focus on what you’re hoping to accomplish. Sadly, most companies aren’t capable of throwing a lot of weight and resources behind these efforts (right now), which is why focus is so important.
Also, remember, there’s no single way of doing this successfully, but hopefully this gives folks in the trenches a little something to chew on….
Update: Rich Reader writes: “A guideline that Sylvia Marino shares is that the right time to jump in to the rightly purposed conversation is when your contribution either solves a problem or relieves pain.”
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Happy Birthday, Mike Driehorst…
mike manuel
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Young PR Pros Go ‘Forward’
mike manuel
A few weeks back, at the NewComm Forum, I had the opportunity the chance the pleasure of meeting Erin Caldwell, one of the many student PR stars at Auburn University. Erin mentioned she had this pet project in the works that was a community site for students and young PR professionals that would enable them to connect and share information with each other (a peer network) about careers in our industry. Erin’s project, while still in its early stages, quietly launched this week, it’s called “Forward.” Erin shares more on her blog:
“This is a hugely collaborative effort of several Auburn students, plus some folks from far away (i.e. Paull Young from Australia). We’re working hard to build a place where young PR people can interact with both their peers and seasoned professionals — because much can learned from a conversation involving both. Forward aims to help provide students and young practitioners with the tools, knowledge and confidence to go Forward in their careers.”
Congrats to Erin and her growing team of contributors. This has the potential to be an amazing resource and at very least, it’s great to see a new wave of young, forward-thinkers that are actively re-shaping the industry.
Also See:
PRblogs.org (free blogs for PR practitioners, educators and students)