Here's the description:

Why are some CxO's afraid of social media and social networking? How can they leverage social media for marketing success? This panel will be a combination of forward vision and practical advice from vendors and enterprises that are successfully leveraging social media today for business results. We'll discuss the pros and cons of growing a social media effort from within or hiring a "ringer" to be part of the team. This is a new area for marketing management so the panelists will give their best advice on how to work with a manager who has no social media experience. Other questions to discuss will be: How do you deal with the essential truth that in social media sometimes everyone won't love you and say positive stuff about you? What is the best metric to focus on to gauge success of a social media effort? Does social media contribute to lead and revenue generation directly or indirectly?

Comment here or email me at ymangum at gmail. Thanks!

Yes, it's a good time to be in business service management, with its methodologies firmly entrenched in ITIL v3 best practices. But, beyond BSM, I'd like to prove the power of the conversation by giving you a little snippet to think about.

For 11 consecutive quarters, BMC has met or exceeded estimates. That also happens to be the exact amount of time since BMC Software launched a little social media program called TalkBMC.

Whatever happened to AskJeeves?  I miss that butler.  How search engines work are a mystery to most.  But, I don't think that many would argue that gargantuan amounts of money have been made in bringing order to Internet chaos--and there's still so much more potential in this area.

Search engine wars are past "heating up" -- they are at a boiling point with the recent news that Microsoft has their eyes seriously set on Yahoo, offering some 44 billion and change in their offer last week.  Never mind that Yahoo was valued at 50 billion in May of last year when Microsoft made casual overtures to the search engine firm.  Microsoft is so set on this offer that they announced they were actually going to borrow money to make sure it happens this time.  They mean business.

Yahoo missed some great opportunities in late 2004 and on to catch up to Google.  Why?  The answers aren't clear.  After all, they were the first major contender to embrace RSS.  Their personal portal interface was clean and simple with lots of innovative features long before Google.  And, the coolest little features and apps just keep on coming.  I have to admit I am a bit biased to their Y! logo.  (Just call me "Y", too.)

Google has been more "open" than Yahoo.  And, they seem to be much better at marketing, PR, and generally gaining attention and buzz.  I wonder if it's because "G" comes before "Y" in the alphabet?  That's as much sense as I can make of it.

So, why could Microsoft's offer to Yahoo be a good thing?  Microsoft has never been known for the quality of their software.  And, their search so far has fallen flat.  But, they are incredibly talented at sales, marketing, and business development.  Yahoo is innovative and a very "awake" contender in the search engine market.  They seem to be able to spot future trends and pounce on them.  Since they aren't good at marketing themselves, I think the Microsoft / Yahoo merger could actually work.  In fact, it may be just the thing to propel Yahoo to the forefront of the search engine market.

Or, Microsoft could fill it with Active X and make it virtually unusable on Firefox.

OK, so Microsoft could do some things that might make Yahoo unattractive.  But, why would they?  Microsoft marketing + Yahoo innovation = a good thing.

And, cast your vote!

About Twittervision (straight from their Web site):

A real-time geographic visualization of posts to Twitter. Samuel Morse, meet Carl Jung.

How do I get on Twittervision?

Join Twitter and post. You must have a location and an image defined to appear on the public feed (and to be located on the map).

 
twittervision 3D

Along the same line of thinking, now there is Flickrvision, a real-time geographical visualization of pics posted to Flickr.  And, thanks to David Troy (who's about to launch a video version of all this called Spinvision.TV), there is a 3D version of that as well!

flickrvision 3D

I wonder if, in the future, we'll look back at these little apps in wonder and awe, understanding their power and how they truly changed the world.  Or, maybe Microsoft will buy them.  Since Flickr is already a part of the Yahoo family, that might be soon.  I dunno.  But, be warned that these little things are klugey on a Mac (sorry, Apple-peeps).  And, the 3D version is "iffy" right now on my screen.  Despite the tiny little loading problems, I still come away from this thinking the world feels a lot smaller.  Makes me want to sing Kumbaya.

The circumstance doesn't really matter.  What matters is that you have fans drumming their fingers on the table every day, looking at their RSS aggregator, and noting in their heads that yours says "No Content Within The Last 30 Days".  Heck, even Google Reader's Subscription Trends area has your blog down to 0 posts per day because they don't use that many decimal points.

You know you're not a blogger anymore when you don't blog.  Is it because you think it's too hard to find your way back to active blogger status?  Nope.  Here are a few quick and easy ways to get back in the groove.

1. A picture is worth a thousand words.  Embed one in your blog from your Flickr account, or wherever else you might keep photos online.  Just a title and a pic you know your audience will appreciate.  That's all it takes.
2. Video killed the radio star.  Embed a favorite video from a recent event that you attended, or didn't attend but thought the video was fascinating anyway.  I love the Ted videos myself.  They are "ideas worth spreading".
3. Comments, anyone?  Comment about someone else's blog -- in your blog (with the appropriate links and credit, of course).  It brings the conversation back into your ecosystem.
4. Twitter your blog.  Yes.  All it takes is a single thought in 150 characters or less.  And, it doesn't have to answer the question, "What are you doing at this very moment?"
5. If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?  You can be really smart, but if you don't share your ideas, will anyone really know?  If there's an idea you've been harboring that isn't fleshed out yet, think about sharing the genesis of the idea.  If there is something you're really proud of that you do well, let your audience know.  I've written a personal blog entry where I shared an outline of all the steps it takes to stain a concrete patio.  It's fascinating stuff.
6. Who's the boss?  You think you can't blog what you really think at work.  It is true in corporate blogging -- you shouldn't blog just anything.  But, you're a mature adult.  Surely there's a way you can write a paragraph about what's really on your mind in a constructive way.  Innovation is about collaboration.  And, you can't collaborate very well without conversation.
7. The plane!  The plane! Welcome to fantasy island.  Blogging isn't just about the past or present.  It's about the future.  Can you take one event, product, or service and predict where it's going in 5 sentences or less?  You might think you have the most brilliant ideas, but if they stay locked in your brain, who really knows for sure?

Feel inspired now?  I have many other ideas, so write me if you need a bit more of a shove to get out there and show your stuff.  Blogging is mainstream now, and those who do it well can be recognized and rewarded far beyond those who don't do it at all.  But, you have to stay on track.  Take 5 minutes out of your busy day and make a comeback on your blog.

This process is like taking off a bandaid...you just have to do it quickly and get it over with, so here goes!

So, that's plenty of "little known facts about Y" shared for your entertainment.  Instead of tagging specific people as I'm supposed to (according to the rules of blogtagging), I'm going to tag everyone.  If you have a blog and want to go outside of your comfort zone and share something about yourself that most people don't know...consider yourself tagged.  Just let me know so that I can be entertained!

Best Corporate Blogs

I'd have to give that award to Jeff Bohren, Steve Carl, Ken Turbitt, Peter Armstrong, and Tom Bishop -- who placed in the top in terms of RSS subscription views.  Honorary mentions go to Timothy Harris, Atwell Williams, and Fred Johannessen.  We have many brainiacs at BMC, but these guys put together some gutsy and thought-provoking entries that got quite a bit of attention and/or they consistently posted their brilliant thoughts to feed their starving audience.  Consistency is what makes an audience loyal to your blog, and these bloggers prove that by their RSS stats.

While Whurley didn't make it to the top in terms of RSS views, he was the absolute best at getting people to talk about his blog outside of BMC, with 1,965 Diggs in 2007 and a ton of publicity from Wired Magazine, Enterprise Opensource Magazine, ComputerWorld, etc.  It seems he's always taking a risk and trying new types of mediums to test his audience.  He hasn't written since October, and I'm curious to see where he'll take his blog in 2008.

Some others I hope come back to active status soon would be Tom Bishop, John Albee, and Atwell Williams.  All of our bloggers have wondrous things to say.  They just get busy, as we all do, sometimes.

The great thing about corporate social networks is that they're a bit behind consumer social networks like Myspace and Facebook.  So, while those are now trying to figure out how to stay relevant, corporate social networks are really getting off the ground now.  We've got a long way to go and it will be a fun and enlightening ride.

Memorable Podcasts

I always enjoy chatting with Mary Nugent and Lori Cook.  I've also had a lot of fun and learned so much from Ken Turbitt, Peter Armstrong, Anthony Orr, and Tom Bishop.  There was one podcast where I was absolutely star-struck.  It was from UserWorld Vancouver Day 3, and it was a One-on-One with Sharon Taylor, the chief architect of ITIL v3.  To find any of these, just go to the podcasts page on TalkBMC, or do a search on http://talk.bmc.com on any name I've mentioned above.  They also show up in our RSS feed if you prefer your content to be pushed to you as it is published.

Reminder

All of our blogs and podcast are available free via RSS feed and our podcasts audios are available if you want to subscribe to them through iTunes.

Thanks for tuning in and listening to and/or reading TalkBMC.  My intent is to deliver the best conversations about business service management and technology in 2008.  Send me your thoughts or call me (my direct office number is usually on the podcast audios).  Thanks for your loyalty and support!

I know who I am.  My family knows who I am.  My employer knows me...and so do my friends.  I hope the readers of this blog and the audience who listens to my podcasts understand a bit about me.  But, when it comes to my computer...it doesn't seem to really know me at all.

Who am I to this piece of hardware?  And, how does it relay that to all the sites I visit as I wind my way through a regular digital day? 

I am no one.

No.  Wait.  I am 38 people.  So far.

Between access to Web applications for work, the travel I do, the audio and media I upload, and the site access I need to do personal (but necessary) things like banking -- I've had to build a spreadsheet to keep up with all my usernames, passwords, account IDs, billing numbers, PINs, and etc.  Guess what?  I'm managing 38 different identities.  In a spreadsheet. 

Enough is enough.

It's time that identity became portable and easy.

To quote from the Six-Million Dollar Man:  "Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world's first" portable identity.

OK, that last part was added by me.

I've interviewed several people about Identity Management and related topics.  And, I hungrily consume Jeff Bohren's blog.  It isn't just that he's an Identity Management Expert.  He mixes it up.  He's controversial.  He makes me think.  And, he's the most prolific blogger on TalkBMC in terms of number of entries per unit of time.  Thanks Jeff!

So, solve this problem, but add something else to it.  Add a reputation or authority ranking to that so strangers understand that I have credibility when I meet them.  Think how much this might help (or hurt) political candidates...An authority ranking would allow us to know so much more about the candidates before we have to vote for them.  Right now, we're just watching them kiss babies for a year-and-a-half on TV, with maybe a debate or two thrown in, before we have to go to the polling booths and cast our votes.

Let's stop being strangers.  Portable identity.  Portable reputation/authority.  Now, you know who I am.

Now, I know my son won't read this blog, but he has tried to listen to a few of the podcasts I produce and always seems to have good advice.  Speaking of podcasts, I've recorded about two dozen conversations with industry experts here at BMC UserWorld 2007.  Listen in and enjoy.

This should have been called BSM Next World or ITIL v3 World or CMDB World because those were all the buzz topics of this conference.  Of course, the announcements about the BSM Delivery Model and Service Automation caused quite a stir as well.  People are excited about IT right now and want to learn how to do IT right from a business perspective.  That's what these conversations are all about.  So, join in.

It doesn't really matter how great your content is if your infrastructure won't allow people to find it easily.

His article Fixing Our Fraying Infrastructure is an interesting conversation on a higher level.  It takes me out of my singular business viewpoint.  Enjoy.

Seminar Recap

The Changing Face of Influence: A Wire-Side Chat About PR in the Digital Age

Ynema "Y" Mangum (ynema_mangum@bmc.com), Executive Producer of TalkBMC, began the discussion by stating that most of us live in a Web 2.0 world, in which we focus on enabling conversations via several methods: blogs, podcasts, wikis, forums, online user groups, or videos.

Ynema asserted that we have built businesses effective at keeping smart employees in and customers out. She stressed the idea that these smart employees need to interact with customers and enable conversations about products/services. And this is what Web 2.0 is all about. Y recommends reading The Cluetrain Manifesto, a great reference for anyone wishing to learn more about Web 2.0 and its effectiveness at enabling conversations with customers.

Y also stressed the importance of looking toward “Web 3.0” and how it will affect current methods and practices. Web 3.0 will be about simplification, or enabling others to talk about you/your organization. Y predicts the following will play important roles in Web 3.0:

1. Integration and simplification -- Enabling others to talk about you and your organization. It will be important that customer-relationship management tools easily interact with social media tools.
2. Identity Management -- Authentication and authorization (already we have numerous logins and passwords for many different applications).
3. Portable Authority -- Who has it? Users now have authority to make decisions and judgments about practically anything in online communities (e.g. Digg, Reddit, etc.).

David Almacy (dalmacy@waggeneredstrom.com), Vice President of Digital Strategies for Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, explained the Evolving Influence Model. The “old model” was very flat and one-sided and we replied solely on the mainstream media for information. We issued very basic, plain-text press releases to only a targeted, select group of influencers.

The “new model” is different in several ways, most notably in that after we write and publish information, we put it out there to enable conversations with “untraditional” sources (MySpace, Digg, Facebook, etc.). Additionally, we’re issuing “interactive press releases” with photos and videos – assets that make releases much more interactive than those stemming from the “old model” of influence.

When asked his thoughts on Web 3.0 and beyond, David had the following to say about what’s next:

1. Symantic web – Machines will be able to read websites just as well as humans.
2. 3-D web – A three dimensional web that we can walk through and explore (e.g. house hunting or taking virtual tours across Europe).
3. Media centric web – The web will be able to find dynamic content (i.e. when searching Google for “soccer ball” it will pull up both sites that contain the word soccer ball and sites that contain photos of a soccer ball).
4. The Pervasive web – A Web that's everywhere: On your PC, on your cell phone, spread throughout your home and office.

We are grateful to Waggener Edstrom for providing our speakers. To request copies of Y and David's presentations, please email Shannon Simonson (shannon.simonson@businesswire.com).

I wanted to immediately say, "Heck, yeah!".  But, I stopped.  It really depends on where you are in your social media maturity and whether or not you think like a purist or a traditionalist.

In my mind, a traditionalist approach would be more Web 1.0 style.  Do not have open conversations.  If you do, tightly control the messaging.  The brand voice and brand style must be adhered to at all costs.

Blogging has definitely changed that game, as well as other social media tools like wikis, forums, online user groups, podcasts, etc.  There are more voices out there now having conversations on behalf of your company or about your company, without the traditional marketing marketing messages and devoid of brand voice.

The purist approach is like this -- a Web 2.0 style.  It's about engaging others in conversation and opening up those conversations to the world.  The purist approach is about letting anyone and everyone have their say.

My experience has led me to appreciate a balanced approach.  I have a responsibility to our brand and to the relevancy and incisiveness of the content on behalf of the user community.  I always have to ask myself, what do they expect when they click through to a conversation topic?  Certainly it isn't curse words or spam.  The purist approach  doesn't allow moderation.  In business, the reality is that there must be some facilitation and moderation of the conversation, or the end result is a bad user experience.

But, let me get back to Valeria's question.  Are blogs the new thought leadership?  Well, not quite. 

Conversation is the new thought leadership.

Take any department in your business and add the word "conversational" to it - conversational HR, conversational marketing, conversational sales, conversational support, conversational PR, etc.  Now, imagine the power in treating every communication or piece of content as the beginning of a conversation.

If the thought makes you nervous, you're not alone.  Your business must have maximum confidence to open up communications in this way.  However, the risk of being open is outweighed by the power of the feedback you get from your community.  But, this only works if you have a really good product or service and you are confident about it.  If you don't have this, don't bother being open.

So, if you were able to imagine the components/departments of your business as the instigators and influencers of market conversations, now add "syndicated" to the fray.  Syndication (through RSS), says to the marketplace, "We're open.  Trust us.  Pull our content to you.  Subscribe."  In Web 2.0, it's all about being a syndicated and conversational business.

Are you confident about your business?  Start a conversation and syndicate it.  It's the simplest way to understand and implement Web 2.0.

I’ve come across several inspiring articles in my search today, including incisive definitions of conversational marketing and social media from Reece and Company. Since the first moment I saw it, I loved the notion of the three interlocking rings of sociology, technology and media with the intersection being social media. Sometimes, I just need a visual image to really “get” it.

And, since I know Connie Reece and Mike Chapman from the Austin Social Media Club, I had to read the Blogtoberfest announcement, which linked me to Michelle Wolverton.  I've been immersing myself in Second Life recently to gain experience in business applications, and I enjoyed the experiences shared in her blog.

As usual, Tom Parish inspired me from south Austin, sending me different ways of thinking about podcasting and blogging with screencasting and sketchcasting. I’d love to do “conferencecasting” (something similar to lifecasting) from BMC UserWorld 2007, but I’m not sure we can be prepared in time for that. But, it’s a great target for next year!

Far and away, though, the most inspiring thing was on the Wall Street Journal online. Can you believe it? It completely turned my impression of the Wall Street Journal brand upside down.

Jeff Zazlow, a “Moving On” journalist for the “Personal Journal” wrote an article and moderated a video about Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon University computer-science professor who delivered his Last Lecture.

Last Lectures are commonplace at universities these days, with the exercise asking professors to think deeply about what matters to them and to give hypothetical final talks. But Professor Pausch’s was different. He has terminal pancreatic cancer and is not expected to live more than a few months.

His Last Lecture – far more than an exercise -- was delightfully thoughtful, without morose, and incredibly intriguing. But, I’m most inspired by the delivery mechanism of the Wall Street Journal and their compassionate treatment of this topic. I believe social media has changed the landscape of communications, whether personal or corporate. We’re now delivering news and conversations that are deeply human and provide the opportunity to connect to others in ways that weren’t possible 15 years ago. My applause to Jeff and to WSJ for the Personal Journal.

There are many things converging that are changing the landscape of business -- one of them is social media.  Like others, I am influenced heavily by Seth Godin, John Moore, and the Cluetrain Manifesto.  Here's a quote from the Cluetrain Web site: "Corporate firewalls have kept smart employees in and smart markets out."  That's just not true anymore.  We've reached a tipping point now where everyone seems aware of this conversation / social media phenomenon.  We've stopped boarding the Cluetrain and are now using light rail.  Eventually, we'll get to Maglev.

Let's back up a bit and see where we've been.

Life Before 1.0

Seth Godin likes to say that marketing and PR used to be like "yelling at strangers".  For 100 years, he says, we shouted at the audience through whatever means we had available:  print, radio, and television.  If enough strangers heard the yell, a small percentage of them might buy what was for sale.

Then came the Internet and the ability to email.  And, everyone wanted to build a Web page and yell through a new medium.  The noise was overwhelming.

1.0 and Beyond

Something that came from the almost infinite early noise of the Internet was the concept of permission-based communication.  Spam wasn't just potted meat anymore.  It was junk that filled our email Inboxes without our permission.  Search engines began to grow and aggregate the information we sought.  And, now we were optimizing our yelling through proper tagging and SEO.

It was a confusing time.  The average person or business did not understand the concept of metatags and a large portion of the pages found on the Internet were (and are still) not properly tagged.  People would visit your Web site, but many times you had to drive them to it.  Web pages and email marketing quickly lost their value.  And, that brings me to present day...

2.0:  The Rise of the Conversation

I'm surrounded by really smart people who understand that two-way communication and building a relationship with a customer is critical to the bottom line.  So, we've built portals for people to have conversations.  Today's drive is to get people to engage in a conversation with you, then go away and talk about it with others.  These scaled and stored conversations lead to relationships which lead to revenue.  It's an organic way to grow a business and very potent.  Ever heard of an SMR (social media release)?  It's happening now.  This type of viral PR is incredibly powerful, but difficult to manage and control.  If you fear loss of control, 2.0 is not for you.  These conversations are happening.  Whether or not you are driving them, influencing them, or responding to them depends on you.

The conversations that are happening now are mixed formats: blogs, podcasts, wikis, forums, online user groups, or videos.  There's a whole generation of human beings who are growing up understanding technology instead of being afraid of it, and who are wired and networked across the globe.  Aggregators and mashups abound.  Right now is the time to be everywhere:  Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, SecondLife, etc.

The ability to pull content into individual portals (through the mainstreaming of RSS) has changed the way we view the Internet.  Now, we can designate what content we trust and which content we don't...and only pull the trusted stuff (that we're most interested in) into a customized portal.  I like MyYahoo, but I also use iGoogle.

What Does 3.0 Look Like?

I wish I knew.  Since I don't have a time machine (yet), I can make some predictions.  My first prediction is that there will be some failure.  Why?  I've seen people jump on the social media bandwagon without truly understanding it or the concept of community.  Once a community is born, it is owned by...(drum roll please)...the community.  It's a difficult transition to make and some will never get it.  Add to that the mix of people and businesses still stuck in 2.0 or below when 3.0 rolls around.  There will be some chaos.  The traditionalists and purists will clache.  And, what will be left is a balance between the two.

I agree with Seth Godin in that 3.0 will be about empowering people to talk about you.  Tools are being created right now that are years ahead of the rest in this respect.  One of the new tools that I'm watching with great interest is Kalivo, which treats every piece of content as the beginning of a conversation.  Conversations are not just about blogs.  Conversations can now start with your traditional content like press releases, product pages, and offers.  But, Kalivo goes beyond that in its admin toolset, which allows you to not only serve up a conversation (to a group or to the world), but it also allows you to listen to them.  Have you ever built a Google blog search about yourself and then responded to something that was written about you?  Kalivo uses the same concept, except for business.  And, the conversations all become aggregated in your Kalivo portal.  But, don't think I'm hung up on Kalivo.  I'm also watching Squidoo!

Have you seen a pattern in this history?  Whether you call it permission-based marketing or you talk about trusted content, the underlying theme is credibility.  I think identity management will play a large role in 3.0, whether it's using OpenID or something else, there has to be a system to clearly identify the person who is engaged in conversation.

What About 4.0?

Besides identity management, other trends that might lead us into a 4.0 world include:

How Do I Get There?

Credibility, personalization, and conversation.  Keep those things in mind.  Publish content that includes your unique and original ideas.  Listen to the conversations that are happening around you.  And, participate.  You are part of the community and have a responsibility to your part of the conversation.  What happens depends on you.

Stay tuned for deeper dives into the R&D world at BMC and a whole slew of bloggers from our ESM (or do we call it DSM now?) group.

Just think about it. And, be sure to watch the video.

*Shudder.*

To me, it’s as easy as knowing your vowels. A-E-I-O-U.

A – AROUSE
One of the worst things you can do to someone who provides the enormous value of blogging for your business is to be overbearing or to be a bully. Save your ego for your next job. If you feel the need for massive displays of authority, go hunting. Your job is to figure out how to inspire your gifted and talented blogger.

It’s important to understand how creative minds work. Stifling them deflates and demotivates. This results in fewer and less inspired contributions to content. Since content is king, this tactic is never good for your business. If you feel the need to step in, do so, but not on your blogger’s jugular. Instead, get involved in the community. Figure out what makes it tick. And, start contributing yourself. You can do this easily by commenting on blogs and sharing your ideas with others.

E – Elevate
Some people blog to elevate their visibility in the organization. Some want to be famous worldwide. Others just want to let the creative juices flow and share their thoughts with the world. Still others use writing as a tool to keep them continually motivated.

When managing an A-List blogger, you must know their motivation(s). Understand their goals. Then, you can use your authority to elevate them in the organization so they can achieve those goals. And, you can begin to understand how to use infrastructure, networking, and outside entities to elevate their blog’s status in the marketplace.

I-Influence
Those who “get it” understand that influence is the new authority. Your title no longer matters that much. What you think, who you know, how you share it, and why is a draw and makes people want to know you. Are you relaxed or stressed-out? Do you have an interesting life outside of business? Are you intriguing or boring? Are you authentic and do others want to be around you? Those types of questions and their answers tell you whether or not you can have influence on others.

If you manage an A-List blogger, you are suddenly in a position of very great influence. You must let the person who blogs for your business feel free to express their original thoughts in a powerful, unencumbered way. Yet, because you are their manager, you can influence their writing by becoming involved, by brainstorming with them about content and topics, and by being interested in their subject matter and giving great feedback. It's a simple case of proximity. As a manager, you are well within the "influence zone".

O-Optimize
The most brilliant people in the world are perfectionists and very hard on themselves. As a manager, you have to figure out a way to help them through these times and to avoid them entirely. Spot weaknesses and come up with quick fixes. You know your business and your market well. You're in a great position to brainstorm ways to help optimize this mode of communication.

For example, really successful blogs have something in common: consistency. Search engines rank blogs higher if they are consistently posted. For instance, if you publish every Tuesday at 10 a.m., some search engines will give results in a higher position than if you publish on a Tuesday one week, then a Wednesday the next, then a Monday the next. Get the pattern? Make sure business bloggers put time on their calendars to brainstorm and write every week. It’s now part of their responsibilities and their objectives should reflect this. Help, don’t hinder.

U-Uh Uhs
I mentioned ego before. Overwhelming displays of authority aren’t cool. Bullying doesn’t belong here. But, what’s the very worst thing you can do? Try telling someone to edit their blog after it’s already been written and published. That’s a big no-no. Unless it’s a blog entry that’s just bad for business, there is almost never a reason you would want to edit a blog that’s already been posted. I'd recommend retracting the entry before allowing a 3rd party edit.

I don't mean that bloggers shouldn't edit their own blogs. Sometimes, there is a spelling mistake or something you have to add to clarify the meaning. I just did with this blog and republished it. The point I'm trying to make here has to do with trust. At BMC, one point in our business values (we call our company DNA) is to "hire the best and trust them".  Does your editing suggestion stem from a trust issue?  Because if you have someone on your staff you don't trust, this is a hiring and management issue, not an issue with the social media platform. 

Editing a business blogger is bad for a number of reasons. First, the edited blog will go back out in the feed and trigger attention. Anyone can figure out what the blog said before and what it reads now and do a little comparison. This could gain unwanted headlines for your company. Outside of this business reason, the person who blogs is going to feel emotions like anger, resentment, and distrust. These feelings demotivate gifted individuals. And, your job is to motivate, remove obstacles, and generally inspire and influence.

So, now that you aren’t feeling panic anymore, what are you going to do? Remember, this social media thing is all about community. Come up with a plan with your community, which includes your bloggers. Then, execute it with everyone on board. You’ll all be sailing your ship in the same direction.

Blog anything.

Yes, that's the myth. There are a myriad of examples out there of oopsies in corporate blogs. A couple that come instantly to mind are Whole Foods and Wal-Mart. Beyond these faux paux, I think a lot of people who aren't blogging in businesses keep their chatter idle because they don't want the company they work for to control what they write. But, when you speak to a customer, do you just say anything? No. If you're a great employee who wants to support your business and drive revenue, you're going to have interesting and intriguing one-on-one conversations that show your thought leadership in a certain area, drive awareness of your brand, talk about problems you solve, etc. When you talk to a customer, you have the opportunity to solve their problem and display your brilliance.

Business blogging is about enabling the business. It's not about inflammatory topics like religion or politics. It's not about the deck you're building in your backyard. It's not about anything off-topic, unless you can tie it back to your blog in a relevant and inventive way.  There are certain big life events that are wonderful to share with your audience to make it a more personal experience, but remember that your audience has expectations related to your blog topic.  What do you believe they expect to read about when they click on the link to read your blog?  Remember that question as you write, but surprise them a little every now and then with something that keeps them on their toes. That's why your audience continues to visit, subscribes to your RSS feed, and remains loyal.

One great example of this is our most subscribed-to blogger on TalkBMC, Steve Carl with his Adventure's in Linux blog. He consistenly blogs on relevant topics related to Linux and his own experiences, problems, and solutions. His audience gets downright emotional when it comes to Steve. One young man reported running down the hall and yelling with joy when he found one of Steve's solutions to a pressing Linux problem.

This whole social media thing is about to get a lot more social. Everyone's jumping on the Cluetrain and it's now going at light speed. But, treat your business blog as if it is a discussion with a customer. Be personal, provide a solution, and be brilliant. Don't blog just anything.

Open Source, Social Media, and the Art of Community

BMC Software
10431 Morado Circle, Building 5
Austin, Texas  78759

Building 5 / BMC Software Executive
 Briefing Center, EBC-A and B.

 
Speaker: William Hurley (aka "whurley"),
Chief Architect, Open Source Strategy at BMC Software, Inc.

William Hurley is the Chief Architect of Open Source Strategy at BMC Software, Inc. Also known as "whurley", he is responsible for creating BMC's open source agenda and overseeing the company's participation in various free and open source software communities to advance the adoption and integration of BSM solutions. A technology visionary and holder of 11 important patents, whurley brings 16 years of experience in developing groundbreaking technology. He is the Chairman of the Open Management Consortium, a non-profit organization advancing the adoption, development, and integration of open source systems management. Named an IBM Master Inventor, whurley has received numerous awards including an IBM Pervasive Computing Award and Apple Computer Design Award.

RSVP SOCIALMEDIACLUBAUSTIN@GMAIL.COM

WWW.AUSTIN.SOCIALMEDIACLUB.COM

I'm going to try not to talk to you in acronyms, like "You should install a CMDB for CMP and CCM so that you can more effectively monitor SIEM and your SLM to achieve BSM, but not before you integrate IdM.  Oh, and by the way, what are you doing with ITIL or COBIT?"  However, if a few acronyms slip, please send me a note.  I'll try to do better next time.

Okay -- back to pretending social media is a mainstream and integrated part of your marketing and sales process.  Imagine for a moment you are a CxO (darn, I let that acronym slip).  You have in your hands a revenue report.  This is a futuristic interactive one -- a dashboard of sorts that lets you touch the screen and dig deeper into the details you care about.

You see that revenue has increased 20% this quarter.  Your eyes get big and your heart beats rapidly.  You wonder why.  So, you touch the screen and see that several large sales have taken place.  Interested in knowing more, you choose to investigate one of those sales and tap again.

Up pops a screen filled with activity...all of the activity that occurred prior to the sale.  One line indicates a salesperson called twice.  Another shows 10 individuals emails from the salesperson to the customer.  You scan the list quickly.  There are two downloads of a data sheet, 2 downloads of a white paper, one attendance at a customer briefing, two customer site presentations, 15 podcast downloads on various IT topics, 5 comments the customer left in one of your community blogs, and one discussion started in a community forum.  All of this took place over a 6 month period prior to the sale.

Now, pretend you're you again.  Well, I guess you don't have to pretend, because you are really you.  That's beside the point.  The point is that whether you call it social media, new media, Web media, or Web 2.0, it's really just about touching the customer and getting the sale.  Social media enables authentic and interactive customer touch points.  Period.

So, what is the ROI of a data sheet, white paper, Web page, or a conversation that a salesperson has directly with the customer? Does it really matter?  I say what matters is how ubiquitous your are.  The companies that are going to grow dramatically in the future are the ones that are everywhere their customers are.

Social media simply provides another path to your prospects and future customers.  It also enables free and open communication that allows you to keep the customers you already have.  And, we all know how much it costs to get a new customer versus keeping a current customer happy.  In addition, you can use Web 2.0 tools to build your Web properties with your customer instead of just for your customer.  There is a big difference in value when you have solid input from your community rather than simple guesses at what the audience wants.  That value translates to your bottom line.

Forget about ROI and focus on ubiquity.  Focus on what matters.

Yesterday was my birthday and I received a sweet 80GB IPod.  Who knew I could manage 20,000 songs and 25,000 pictures?  One of the first things I did was download all the podcasts from TalkBMC through iTunes.  It's hard to believe I've been producing podcasts for 2 years without my own iPod.  It's also hard to believe how my 9 year-old son was able to use it instantly.  He didn't like many of my music choices, but he found a way to play games on it and had a smile on his face as he listened to the podcasts. 

Media Post Publications sends out an email called "Just an Online Minute" that summarizes happenings in this area.  The most recent one talked about community revolts on YouTube, Digg, and Facebook.

YouTube went "corporate" and replaced democratic and organic features that allowed users to browse videos by category and easily see which were most active with a little trickery...an "upgrade" that prominently features videos recommended by editors.  Those who helped build YouTube quickly into the Internet monster it has become (ummm....the audience?) were not fooled.  In fact, they were angry.  After much contention from the community, YouTube restored the feature and kind of apologized.

Media Post went on to say that this was reminiscent of other recent revolts, such as the one where Digg had to stop censoring posts when their community virtually took over the site and where Facebook had to revise a new RSS feature when the community cried out that their privacy was now being violated.

It seems that social media sites and their users are completely intertwined.  One cannot change without the other's permission.  At least not easily.  One piece is the brain and the other piece is the heart.  They just can't live without each other.

Enterprise social media is a bit different, yet the same.  I was recording a podcast today with Ken Turbitt and he mentioned that he saw a study where it ranked the most influential people when it came to IT and that he and Peter Armstrong made the top 300.  Although he's steadily built a fanbase with his consistent and relevant blog, he was surprised by how influential he was able to become in such a short period of time.  All the conversations he had before were 1 to 1 or were to a crowd.  Once the conversation ended, it was lost to memory.  With social media, those conversations are scaled and stored.  And, since he can now scale his conversations, he has the ability to influence the market.  Hmmm.  Does that mean conversations = influence = relationships = revenue?

I recorded a podcast with Tom Bishop today as well.  Tom and I discussed technology trends and interesting stuff like the "greening" of the data center and the introduction and impact of the iPhone, but what really excited me was at the end.  He introduced me to surface computing and said that if he could find a way to combine that with the BMC Dashboard for BSM, he would do it in a heartbeat.

The podcast with Tom and the one with Ken will be published sometime in July or August.  Keep listening!

 Technorati Profile

If you just put your blog out there and people like it, you'll want to give them the opportunity to click through to Digg.com and Digg It!  The biggest problem a great post has is when multiple people Digg your post in different Diggs.  Digg tries to give you a way to confirm whether or not you are duplicating Diggs, but it doesn't always work.   Who really wants to take the time to check through all the potential duplicates?

I've seen the experts resolve this problem with a simple solution.  Next time you publish an entry you think