Two weeks ago, Peter Kim assembled some Social Media predictions for 2009 from some guru types.  Scraping the bottom of that barrel, he decided to include some of my ramblings, as well.  Hopefully you’ve already read all of that crystal-ball-goodness from the pundits.  I’ll use this space to reflect more deeply on my own thoughts about ‘09…

First up, “The Great How.”  Here’s my original snippet from Peter Kim’s Predictions Project: 

The “best” case studies of Social Media in action,to date, are marked by the introduction of “real” human beings into the customer conversation. As more corporations come to realize the obvious benefits of humanizing their relationships with online communities, they’ll grapple with the “how.”

How many people need to be hired and trained?

How will they measure the success of engagement?

How will the rise of employee’s personal brands be handled, if/when these personalities eclipse the popularity of the corporate brand?  How does a company introduce new voices to the conversation in a way that augments the effort, versus causing consumer confusion?

How does the corporation — by nature a conservative beast — confidently move forward into such a riotous environment, with so few roadmaps to guide them?

All of which is just a roundabout way of saying that in 2009, corporations will increasingly understand that incorporating Social Media into their communications plans is now necessary.  The evangelization is working; the customers will no longer be ignored.  So companies will be grappling with issues related to execution.

I rattled off some questions, above, but there are many more that will be asked — and I think any single one of these tough issues could derail many companies’ ambitions. 

Take this one: “How will the rise of employee’s personal brands be handled, if/when these personalities eclipse the popularity of the corporate brand?” 

Harken back to the rise of Scoble.  He became the public face of Microsoft, rivaling the fame of Bill Gates in his heyday at the company.  Then, he left.

When you think about Social Media today, do you think about Microsoft much?  Me neither.  That’s not to say that Microsoft isn’t embracing the whirlwind: they have thousands of bloggers now; they do a ton of “Enterprise 2.0” stuff internally, etc. But Microsoft is not considered a leader in the space, primarily because Scoble had been such an outsized personality.

And that’s something that any major corporation wrestling with Social Media execution is going to want to think about.  Would they want to create another Scoble?  How would they keep the star happy?  Would it help their brand for the long-term as well as the short-term?  Is there a way to promote a variety of voices, to head-off the Scoble Problem — or would the dilution also impact their chance for success?

Then that raises the questions of staffing, in general.  Should the newly-appointed official corporate blogger be the only one to respond to issues and comments that crop up in the socialsphere of blogs, Twitter, etc.?  Or should a handful of non-bloggers — comprised of a mix of marketers and customer service reps, perhaps? — be responsible for that aspect of the comms plan?  Where are the lines drawn?  Who does what?

In 2009, it will no longer be enough for Social Media hotshots to help companies theorize and strategize.  Especially “in these troubled times.”  It’s not enough to question.  It’s a time for answers. 

2009 must be the year in which we answer the questions of HOW.  2009 must be a year of ACTION.  We’ll know that we’ve paid off on this requirement as we read a raft of new case studies in the months ahead.

Happy freakin’ New Year.  Now, let’s roll!

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