Alongside my friend Eli Singer of Cundari, yesterday I had the honor of addressing scores of marketers from within the ranks of the FORTUNE 500, at a NYC seminar on Corporate Image & Branding, produced by The Conference Board.
The speech was typical fare: the rise of Social Media, transparency, Social Media News Releases, blogger relations, etc.
Good news: these marketeers are intrigued, engaged, even cautiously experimental. The top-down, command-and-control mentality about “brands” is starting to crumble. Yay!
Bad news: if you’re into all this 2.0 stuff, you are still way, way, way ahead of the curve. The FORTUNE 500 marketers I spoke with yesterday are asking very basic questions.
- Should we blog?
- Who in our company should we ask to blog? How do we train them about what is or is not appropriate?
- Should we pay attention to bloggers?
- How can we determine which bloggers to monitor and respond to?
- Should we moderate comments, if we start a blog?
- How often should we post to a blog? How long should a post be?
Nobody’s asking me about Second Life. No one is curious about how-to use RSS to spur community-building. As excited as I am about the potential to use “social surfing” tools like Trailfire to augment PR practices, it’s just not on the radar screen. Twitter? Whaddat?
I discussed this delta between possibilities & realities 6 months ago, in a post called, “The Dangers of Sprinting at the Start of a Marathon.” Even though so much has happened in the last 6 months; even though 6 months feels like an eternity to us – re-reading that post today, much of it still resonates.
I often kick myself for not moving farther & faster on all-things-social-media. Reflecting on yesterday’s event, I realize that maybe this hare ought to consider embracing his inner tortoise.
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Todd, I had a very similar experience this week. Well, replace “scores of marketers” with “five nonprofit leaders.” I think we do indeed have to remember to “embrace the tortoise.” Nice post. Thanks!
What’s even funnier is some people calling it a fad. It’s a strange time, but I think our business is in a serious time of flux, and yes, you are correct, it’s still early in that period.
Danger, Danger Will Robinson, as a 90s tech bubble bust veteran, it smells like napalm out there.
Tortoise yes in terms of speed, slow down and enjoy it - this communications renaissance we are in.
Add to that speed reduction a dose of cynicism. Question every technology application and identify who is going to use it. My rule is get 10 names, real people that you know who will use it. (That is assuming you know a lot of different people, ages, cultures, that kind of thing. If you live in a milk toast environment then my rule really stinks. )
For example, I’m on Linkedin but I don’t use it much. However, more and more people I know are on it. So I’d better get hoping on the Linkedin thing.
Second Life, I’m on it, but I still am not convinced it’s all that useful. The more I inquire of colleagues, my teenage children’s friends, my music buddies, my corporate network buddies, it’s kind of oh um. I have 5 kids so I don’t have time for a first life let alone a second.
It’s good to see you guys are only take small sips of Kool Aid, me too.