Oy. I can’t seem to get a decent connection to anything anymore. Too many people with wireless connections. They’ve got big-ass routers, but it ain’t helping. Gonna stay offline for reliability.
Presenters: Charlene Li (Forrester Research), Josh Bernoff (Forrester Research)
- Seems to be partly about flogging their book
- Lots of companies coming into social, but how to handle this as a strategy
- The focus on the technology behind Web 2.0 is on technology, which is often wrong (they have a slide on Web 2.0 approach-avoidance syndrome) - Tech changing so rapidly that it’s almost impossible to keep up to date and still keep a business focus
- Groundswell: A social trend where people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, and not from traditional institutions
- Objectives [not technology] are the key to successful social strategy - Question isn’t about starting a community — it’s why you want to start a community
- Four step process to Groundswell:(done in order) - People (assess customer values)
- Objectives (what do you want to accomplish)
- Strategy (what relationship do you want to establish)
- Technology (what do you have to use to make it all work)
- Most of existing business operations already fit into groundswell objectives
- Some basic-level sociam networking material (stuff we already know) - Communities will give you far more detailed (and more valuable) feedback on product ideas if you engage them
- Branding widgets or posts signatures will help generate feedback
- Corporate blogging costs mostly about training people to act in the blogosphere
- Keys to success - Start with customers (who’s out there, who are they, what do they need/want)
- Choose a measureable objective (otherwise, you can tell if you succeed)
- Line up executive backing (e.g. Michael Dell)
- Romance the naysayers (bring them in and get them directly involved)
- Start small, think big (can’t change the company overnight, so pick one thing to gain success)
- Short presentation, seem to be asking for more time for Q&A
- Many of the questions seem to be asking about how to set things up - One point was: Who “owns” the internet at your company? Marketing? IT? Media?
