I had a couple of interesting experiences this week that gave me insight into part of the new internet world that is developing.
The first was a comment in the New York Times about the US Election.
It has rewritten the rules on how to reach voters, raise money, organize supporters, manage the news media, track and mold public opinion, and wage — and withstand — political attacks, including many carried by blogs that did not exist four years ago.
From which I infer that many parts of my lift – business, social, political – will start to be organised in the same way.
And the second was a VRM conference, Unlocking the See-Saw that I attended on Monday. The host, Adriana Lukas, described herself as having 'lived online' for the past 5 years. And from the panel session, it was clear that there are people like Antony Mayfield and Lloyd Davies who are pretty much paper-free and as digitally enabled as they can be. Impressive.
And a third was with Enya, the schoolgirl I'm teaching marketing to. She sent out a newsletter for Rowperfect this week. All her own work (except for the text which I wrote). What impressed me was the fluency with which she grasped how to handle WordPress, an online mail merge service, uploading databases and adding links to text. All easy-pesy from her experience base and skill-set. What did surprise me was that she hasn't learnt how to explore the web for subjects about which she is passionate (rowing in this case). And so I did show her some sites where she was a newcomer. But maybe that'll come. Many of us learn best by being shown or recommended sites rather than pure exploration.
The Rules have been Re-written. It's up to us to implement them in our sphere of influence.
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I was fortunate to meet Richard Stacy at a Social Media Cafe prototyping event before Christmas. He’d just left a top agency and was “repurposing” his former existence into a new format designed for corporate communications online. He described it as a journey of discovery.
Seems he’s come to some conclustions.
Read his excellent blog post on Social Media: four simple things every organisation needs to do
- Uncover your digital identity
- Create a credible story
- Start creating ‘off site’ digital content
- Create a space to engage with your stakeholders
This is a perfect summary of your online public profile as a business. If you are yet to make the switch (or develop a parallel online / offline programme) this is a fabulous guide. It’s also a very good “self-check” mechanism for your business development efforts.
Richard summarises
Ultimately, the most important thing to remember about this whole transparency issue is that trust is shifting from institutions to visible processes. Simply put, people will no longer take or trust what you say about yourself (your institutional claims to trust) at face value (even if it it true) – they will need to be able to understand the processes that guarantee this. The best way to do this is to create the opportunity for them to become part of this process. It is worth remembering that your harshest critic and most loyal customer or supporter are often the same person – provide them a channel for this energy and it is far more likely to be directed in a mutually positive direction.
Many agencies are TERRIBLE at developing their own online profile / persona. If you read their ‘who we are’ statements – they are virtually all the same….. and few have any backchannel where customers and staff can communicate in public.
Anyone brave enough to comment on how they are doing on the four actions Richard summarises?
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