Being Peter Kim

Social Media Mythbusters

Last week I was at Web 2.0 Expo in New York. You can read a summary of the presentation at Portfolio.com and see the slides below.

Social Media Mythbusters

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The Power of People #et11

Last week at ExactTarget Connections 2011, I delivered this presentation to kick off the final day of the conference. The hand-drawn illustrations in the deck were made by Dave Gray from his forthcoming book The Connected Company.

The Power of People

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To share or not to share

Sharing
via Lars Plougmann

Last month I delivered a session at SXSW. Immediately after came the inevitable requests that follow a public presentation: "when are you going to post your slides?"

My session topic was "social media mythbusters," intended to examine commonly held beliefs around social media and behaviors that are assumed as givens. One that I didn't cover in the session but that's appropriate to explore now: content - especially that which is presented at a conference - should be shared.

Really?

Why do most social media efforts fail? A lack of clear objectives. Initiatives materialize too often without purpose and support. Effectiveness lies within a simple Covey idea: begin with the end in mind.

So the same lesson can apply to speaking at conferences. What motivates a speaker? Reasons vary: monetization, brand building (company and/or personal), perhaps skill development/mastery. All of those reasons can apply to a single instance, but avoiding conflict may mean staging different value capture activities over time. For example, the largest industry conferences rarely pay speakers, so you must weigh monetization vs. brand building.

I'll eventually distribute my SXSW 2011 content, but not by posting slides straight up to Slideshare or similar; I'll remix things a bit to share in a more blog-friendly format. But the question remains - and the answer isn't the same every time. In fact, as the social "industry" evolves, increasing evidence points to the fact that it must be the money.

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SXSWi 2011: Your Turn

I've spent a week sharing panel proposals from Dachis Group based on our experience.

I'll end with two final ideas for you to consider:

• A joint proposal by Sam Ford and me, focusing on corporate infrastructure.
• A solo session to revisit some of the most popular myths that built social media.

Now it's your turn. What panels should we be attending next spring? Leave a comment below with a reason and a link.

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SXSWi 2011: The Biz of Buzz

Kate Niederhoffer joined Dachis Group early on, having built up Nielsen Buzzmetrics, one of the most important service companies in the early social computing market. She intends to share her knowledge through the South by Southwest 2011 panel The Biz of Buzz.

Her thoughts in brief: What do we know from being in the business of buzz since the early days? What can we learn about where we are going by analyzing trends from way back when Listening was referred to as social media monitoring to today where social media is primarily a vehicle for personal brand-building and promotion? With a combined 21 years working in social media and monitoring "buzz" these panelists have learned to separate the hype from the truth and will share top trends and lessons learned from working in the trenches of emerging media.

Kate's session will address these questions:

1. How do social media monitoring tools/ listening platforms really differ?
2. What are the top themes in social media that have emerged over the past 6 years?
3. Are things like engagement and influence really possible to capture?
4. How do you rely on social media to make business decisions?
5. Which social media metrics are meaningful?

If that sounds interesting to you, I encourage you to give a thumbs up toThe Biz of Buzz.

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SXSWi 2011: Activating Business Social Graphs

Peter Fasano is a Dachis Group engagement manager with deep experience in making social business work for big brands. Like The Coca-Cola Company.

Peter's panel proposal is In the Hive - Activating Business Social Graphs. Let me know if this sounds familiar:

The state of now for you is a game of whack-a-mole. You are looking for a future state of scalability for you, your team and your business. Social Media Marketing, Servicing or Communications has matured through your enterprise and so must your integrated approach to becoming a socially calibrated business. Your internal band of rockstar marketers, service agents or PR teams have risen from the early days of passionate workers and social media hobbyists to the formal or informal social media leadership of your organization.

You have engaged your community on nights and weekends to meet their growing demands and growing numbers. Your social outposts have grown to include private or public communities, social networking sites, blogs and the works. Your communities are diverse and have moved from self-policed to moderated. Communities have moved beyond your “official outposts” to Twitter posts, blogs, or YouTube channels about your business – to keep up with the growing voices you have now activated Listening Services to keep track of conversation on your “owned” social outlets and then to the “outside” voices. Your efforts have earned additional resources and the attention of the Marketing or PR teams that want to push messages through status updates.

Has the organic collection of people, process and technology reached its limits?

Peter's panel will address these questions:

1. Does your org chart map to your knowledge chart?
2. How to identify and map your knowledge centers?
3. What are the incentives needed to activate your business graph?
4. How do you optimize information flow through the enterprise?
5. What is the business justification for this resource shift?

To learn more, give a thumbs up to In the Hive - Activating Business Social Graphs.

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SXSWi 2011: Social Media Middlemen

The main office finally wants to activate social business programs - great. Now, are the front lines ready to follow through?

Dachis Group consultant Tom Cummings has proposed a panel for South by Southwest 2011, titled Leveraging Social Media Middlemen. Tom has worked with clients to structure social business operations and will share that experience in this panel.

In Tom's words: For B2C companies, almost all social media strategy and advice is aimed towards how the corporate brand can leverage the unprecedented opportunity to interact directly with consumers. But as adoption of social tools increases - and new applications like Foursquare and Yelp combine online and in person interactions - corporate brands will need to make sure that all employees who engage with consumers are familiar with and understand the implications of social media campaigns. The frontline employees who interact directly with your target consumers will have to be increasingly familiar with social tools. They will be your social media middlemen. This panel will help you to identify them, train them, and develop ways to best leverage these employees who your customers will go to for help when their online and offline worlds begin to merge.

His panel will address these questions:

1. What are social media middlemen?
2. How can you identify your brand's middlemen?
3. How will leveraging middlemen increase effectiveness of your social media campaigns?
4. How will leveraging middlemen increase the effectiveness of your traditional media campaigns?
5. Why are social media middlemen the critical missing link for all future successful social media campaigns?

If that sounds interesting to you, I encourage you to give a thumbs up to Leveraging Social Media Middlemen.

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SXSWi 2011: Collaboration at Work

We're spending more and more time using social tools for personal entertainment and productivity. So what about work?

Dachis Group's head of partnerships Bryan Menell has proposed a panel for South by Southwest 2011, titled Work Should Be Social Too. Bryan works with our technology partners and a fundamental element of social business design is the belief that communication should happen as work, not for work.

Here's what Bryan will cover: Collaborating with friends is easy with today's public social tools. They require no training, and make the fun things in your life seamless to organize. So why is it more difficult at work? Join us for a panel consisting of executives from some of the leading collaborative tool companies, as we discuss some real corporate case studies, and the social barriers to sharing at work.

His panel will address these questions, answered by the experts:

1. What is the business case for being more social?
2. What other businesses have seen benefits from enterprise social tools?
3. What social technologies have crossed over from consumer to the enterprise?
4. How can you pitch your superiors on embracing social tools?
5. What are the people issues surrounding social adoption at work?

If that sounds interesting to you, I encourage you to give a thumbs up to Work Should Be Social Too.

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SXSWi 2011: Social Media Policy

You're not still using a social media policy that you found on the internet and ran a find-and-replace using your company name, are you?

From our work over the past two years, I can tell you that there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to social media policy. Based on our client advisory work, Ellen Reynolds and Kate Rush Sheehy are proposing a panel for South by Southwest 2011, called How Social Policies Affect Company Culture. If selected, Ellen and Kate will share their experiences with you that they've gained across multiple client engagements while assisting with policy creation and launch.

They will cover:

• The importance of having a defined social media policy.
• The non-negotiable points that all social media policies must cover.
• How to successfully create, approve and enforce your social media policy.
• The importance of accurately reflecting your unique company culture in your policy, and how to use your policy to encourage the right level of internal and external participation.

They'll answer these questions from a client-side perspective:

1. What information must my social media policy cover?
2. Who should be involved in the creation and approval process?
3. How can I make sure my social policy is a good fit for my company/company culture?
4. How do I make sure that my policy is encouraging participation rather than hindering it?
5. How often do I need to revisit my policy?

If that sounds interesting to you, I encourage you to give a thumbs up to How Social Policies Affect Company Culture.

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SXSWi 2011: Social Business Center of Excellence

Interested in learning more about how to build a social business "center of excellence"?

Two Dachis Group consultants, Brian Kotlyar and Cynthia Pflaum, have proposed a panel for South by Southwest 2011, called Social Business Zen: Finding Your Company's Social Center. If selected, Brian and Cynthia will share their experiences with you that they've gained across multiple client engagements this year while constructing social business centers of excellence.

Their description: Large companies don't turn into social businesses overnight - they evolve toward an improved state of collaboration and transparency. One of the key steps in that evolution is establishing a center of gravity from which policy, process and technology guidance flows. After this presentation you will know the answers to these questions: what is a Social Business Center of Excellence? Why do I want one? How do I build one? What do I do with it once I've got it?

They'll answer these questions from a client-side perspective:

1. Do I need a social business center of excellence?
2. How do I start a social business center of excellence?
3. How should I structure a social business center of excellence?
4. What responsibilities does a social business center of excellence have?
5. What does a social business center of excellence do?

If that sounds interesting to you, I encourage you to give a thumbs up to Social Business Zen: Finding Your Company's Social Center.

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