Filed under: Abraham Harrison LLC, Business 2.0, Business Intelligence, Cluetrain Manifesto, Collaborative Intelligence, Corporate Blog, Corporate Partnering, Customer Ratings, Customer Reviews, Customer Service, Information Technology, Internet Applications, Internet Culture, Internet Strategy, Jonathan Trenn, Managing Conversation, Market Research, Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Markets are Conversations, Messaging Online, Metrics, New Media Strategy, Social Meda, Web 2.0

Most of think of social media through our marketing lens eyes. As we should. That’s likely its greatest use. But the reality is that social media encompasses so much. Or more importantly, it will soon touch on most internal business operations.

That’s why I wrote that latest post. We seem, in our attempts to define it, to be actually inadvertently limiting it. Much of our call-to-change, if implemented, could result in ineffective disjointed efforts that lead to disappointment and even failure.

I just read a great report from Aberdeen Research, Customer 2.0: The Business Implications of Social Media. Aberdeen determined from its research that there were three levels of adoption, Best in Class (20%) are those organizations whose practices are significantly superior to the industry standard, resulting in more successful implementation. Industry Average (50%) are exactly that. Average adaptation, average performance. Laggards (30%) suffer from poor performance because of lower than average adaptation of social media. Both Industry Average and Laggards are divided between companies that are looking to improve their standing and those that are apparently satisfied with their status quo or lack the vision to improve.

From the report I’m garnering several trends that are impacting levels of success… Read more…

No Comments » Posted on August 2nd, 2008 by Jonathan Trenn

Filed under: Abraham Harrison, Blog Counter-Messaging, Blog Messaging, Blog Policies, Blog Search, Blog Training, Blog of Personality, Blogger Activation, Blogger Code of Conduct, Blogger Effect, Blogger Engagement, Blogger Ethics, Blogger Gifts, Blogger Influence, Blogger Outreach, Blogger Relations, Blogger Response, Blogger Support, Blogging, Blogging Policies, Blogging Primer, Blogosphere, Blogvertising, Blowback, Brand Advocacy, Brand Promotion, Brand Protection, Brand Reputation, CEO Blogs, Chris Abraham, Citizen Generated Media, Citizen Media, Client Service, Controversial Marketing, Conversation, Conversation Marketing, Customer Reviews, Customer Service, Disruption, Edelman, Facebook, Flogging, Flogs, Honesty, How to Blog, Influence, Influencer Identification, Influencers, Influencial Bloggers, Influentials, Inside PR, Integrity, Mainstream Media, Managing Conversation, Marketing, Marketing Blogs, Marketing Conversation, Marketing Ethics, Marketing Hubris, Marketing Industry, Marketing Language, Marketing Psychology, Marketing Strategy, Markets are Conversations, Media Consultancy, Media Virus, Messaging Online, Microblog, Microblogging, Naked Conversations, New Marketing, New Media, New Media Marketing, New Media PR, New Media Strategy, New PR, New Public Relations, New Technology, News Aggregation Strategy, Old Media, Old PR, Online Brand Promotion, Online Branding, Online Collaboration, Online Communications, Online Communities, Online Community Managers, Online Community Outreach, Online Conversation, Online Engagement, Online Evangelism, Online Facilitation, Online Field Marketing, Online Influence, Online Intelligence, Online Marketing, Online Media, Online Messaging, Online Monitoring, Online Outreach, Online PR, Online Participation, Online Pitch, Online Public Relations, Online Strategy, PR Hubris, PR Industry, PR Tactics, Public Relations, Public Relations Industry, Relationship Marketing, Social Graphs, Social Meda, Social Media Index, Social Media Marketing, Social Media PR, Social Network Services, Social Networking, Social Networks, Social Utilities, Tagging, Tags, Traditional Marketing, Traditional Media, Traditional PR, Transparency, Twitter, Twittergram, Viral Marketing, Viral Media, Viral PR, Viral Propagation, Web 2.0, Web 3.0, Web Applications, YouTube, YouTube Marketing, Youth Market, del.icio.us, marketing tactics

With all the discussion on what social media is, what it’s future will be like, who will control it, I often feel we fail to see the forest for the trees.

I see it as too diverse of a phenomenon to pin down with one easy definition. Its applications go far beyond the neat capsules that can be used to pick a particular department or function that should “own” it. Social media is creating, empowering, and accompanying a paradigm shift in the way we use all media.

Are we fully there yet? Of course not. These are only the early stages, part of an evolutionary process that often comes step by step. But those steps are happening and happening and soon we’ll look back and be amazed how far we’ve traveled. Then before we know it again, we’ll be stepping again and look back again and we’ll be amazed how much we’ve come from that first time we looked back.

Yes, organizations are going to have to harness social media in ways that they can benefit from, to reach ROI. This means trying to create some sort of structure for it without “siloizing” it. Very difficult indeed.

I’ve tried to lay out what I see social media as. Not from a specific definitional standpoint, but from a several miles up point of view.

Interested in your feedback… Read more…

No Comments » Posted on July 30th, 2008 by Jonathan Trenn

Filed under: 2008 Elections, Affinity Groups, Conversation Marketing, Cult of Personality, Managing Conversation, Marketing Conversation, Markets are Conversations, Social Intelligence, Social Meda, Social Networks

Disclosure: I’m a somewhat lapsed cafeteria style Catholic who forgot that yesterday was Ash Wednesday. I’m writing this post based on cultural trends I see in our society, the often monolithic viewpoint of marketers and the media, and the results of good ol’ fashioned grassroots appeal. My own religious views have nothing to do with this since I generally disagree with the religious views of a couple of groups I’m writing about.

When I kept on hearing from professional political pundits that the GOP race for president was now down to two people, John McCain and Mitt Romney, I knew that it was happening again. They were conveniently overlooking the strengths of a third candidate that they ignorantly thought was washed up. Mike Huckabee. Mike Huckabee went on to win five states on Tuesday. Most pundits were predicting that he’d capture just one: his home state of Arkansas. Some of these same pundits were saying that Huckabee winning these states was on the Super Tuesday’s major stories.

The actual story was that these same pundits didn’t see it coming.

In AdAge today, Ken Wheaton points out how the supposed experts misjudged this, just as they had misjudged the appeal of The Passion of the Christ a few years ago. So yes, once again we had a yet another example this past Tuesday night of how supposed pundits and experts both misunderstood and underestimated the power and influence of evangelical Christians and, to a lesser extent, conservative Catholics. In other words, deeply conservative people of some sort of Christian faith.

Why is this important? Because I largely see many in the advertising, media, and entertainment industries as having the same socio-cultural mindset. And when it comes to marketing, it’s a major problem. Too many seem to feel that everyone else (at least those that are intelligent and/or hip) think just like them.

By the way, I’ve written about this before here and here.

It concerns me when I hear those in social media marketing say “you need to engage the community” when I fear that they come to the table with the same assumptions and biases. That’s because social media is that more personal. It’s that more tangible.

I see the social media space as being populated by mostly twenty and thirty somethings. At times, I’ve seen the same stereotyping of certain demographic groups as I have seen from those that are older or are of the same age but are in traditional advertising. It’s my hope that all of us seek to understand not just the bare bones individual that we look to influence, but the cultural factors that make them tick.

Even if we can’t relate to it.

No Comments » Posted on February 7th, 2008 by Jonathan Trenn

Filed under: Affinity Groups, Altruism, Authenticity, Blog Messaging, Blogger Influence, Book Reviews, Brand, Brand Advocacy, Brand Ambassador, Brand Intelligence, Brand Promotion, Brand Protection, Brand Reputation, Branding, Branding Online, Business Intelligence, Buzz Marketing, CRM, Consumer Generated Media, Conversation, Conversation Marketing, Customer Ratings, Customer Reviews, Customer Service, Customer Supprt, Guerilla Marketing, Honesty, Influencer Identification, Influencers, Influencial Bloggers, Influential Brand Advocates, Influentials, Integrity, Internet Culture, Managing Conversation, Market Research, Marketing Conversation, Markets are Conversations, Media Virus, Memetics, Messaging Online, New Media, Online Advocacy, Online Brand Reputation, Online Communities, Online Community Outreach, Online Conversation, Online Engagement, Online Evangelism, Online Messaging, Online Monitoring, Online Outreach, Online Participation, Online Reputation, Online Reputation Management, Online Reviewers, Online Reviews, Online Virtual Communities, Reputation Management, Social Intelligence, Social Meda, Social Networking, Viral Marketing, Viral Media, Viral Propagation, Word-of-Mouth, Word-of-Mouth Marketing

The culture of participatory social media is having some surprisingly significant effects on both the way satisfied customers play a role in contributing to the marketing message development of products and services. And it is also playing an increasingly important role in defining the key touchpoints that customers use in the deciding factors one what to purchase. What makes this all the more noteworthy is that much of this is rooted in offline purchases. I’m putting this together from two recent studies…

Read more…

1 Comment » Posted on December 2nd, 2007 by Jonathan Trenn

Filed under: Abraham Harrison LLC, Advertisements, Behavioral Targeting, Blowback, Brand Promotion, CRM, Controversial Marketing, Corporate Intelligence, Corporate Partnering, Corporate Responsibility, Cult of Personality, Facebook, Facebook Apps, Guerilla Marketing, Internet Culture, Internet Strategy, Legal Issues, Managing Conversation, Marketing, Marketing Conversation, Marketing Strategy, Markets are Conversations, Messaging Online, New Media, New Media Marketing, New Media Strategy, Online Brand Promotion, Online Communities, Online Community Outreach, Online Conversation, Online Engagement, Online Evangelism, Online Marketing, Online Messaging, Online Participation, Online Privacy, Online Strategy, Privacy, Social Meda, Usurp Marketing, Web 2.0, Web Ads, Web Advertising, Web Applications, Web Apps, Web Strategy

I keep on trying to legitimize the reasons that Facebook is using to justify their new marketing program, “Facebook Beacon”. But it’s just not happening. It keeps on coming back to user relationships, user privacy, and user benefit. You know, the USER.

If you’re not sure what Beacon is, it’s basically this. Facebook is setting up agreements with online retailers that aren’t part of Facebook to have the retailer directly send information of what people buy on the retailer site to their “friends” on Facebook. The user is first supposed to see a notice on the retail site for which they need to give the thumbs down if they object. So the system is supposed to be opt out. But there’s been some circumstances where the information is just automatically sent without approval or even notification of the buyer. That means the next time you buy a book from Amazon or an item from Overstock.com, the retailer could end up letting your friends know what you bought unless you explicitly stop it.

Read more…

18 Comments » Posted on November 24th, 2007 by Jonathan Trenn

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