Archive for September, 2009

From EDA to the most powerful institutions in the world, leaders at every level are knee deep in evaluating  the best ways to engage with social media. Many of us are noticing the same trends, looking at the same issues, asking the same questions, and searching for the best answers on behalf of the communities and stakeholders we serve.

Over the past several months, I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing multiple thought leaders about various aspects of social media. The other day, I happened to turn on the radio as a fellow interviewer was engaging two guests in a discussion on how the Pentagon is thinking about its own social-medial policy.

NPR’s Rebecca Roberts was the host of Talk of the Nation on September 22. During an episode titled Will The Military Friend Facebook Anytime Soon? she talked with Price Floyd, principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs at the Pentagon (considered the US military’s social networking guru) and Noah Shachtman, editor of Wired Magazine’s national security blog.

I was particularly interested in this part of the discussion:

ROBERTS: Do you, Price Floyd, sometimes find yourself having conversations either with people who don’t understand social media, or they just have this sort of knee-jerk reaction that controlling is better than not controlling within the military culture?

Mr. FLOYD: Well, there’s kind of the basic operating – in government, not just at the Defense Department but elsewhere, that it’s impossible to get in trouble for what you say to the media or on a blog if you don’t say anything to the media or on a blog. So if that’s the foundation, anything above that, I’ll take as a good day.

I think that what I find at the Pentagon is… a cultural difference and understanding about what social networks are and what media 2.0 is or Web 2.0 is. A lot of people think of it as a new way to get information out. So in that sense, when we went from blast faxing information to blast emailing, people were so excited you could push one button and reach so many people. And they believed that Web 2.0 is just the next extension of that. And I believe that’s just a fundamental misunderstanding of what Web 2.0 is.

It’s not so much a way of getting more information out, but it’s a way of engaging with the American people, one audience, those overseas. In the case of the military, as well, engaging internally with our internal audience of several million members of the Defense Department. And in that sense, it’s that two-way street, and that’s what Secretary Gates wants. He wants that engagement. He wants to hear back from people. And the new Web site that you mentioned, defense.gov, pentagon.gov, .mil, dod.gov or .mil, some of the features on that underscore his wish to engage with people and not just the typical ask the secretary a question, and he’ll answer it, which is on there, but also what – right now, you know, what are the policy initiatives that are important to you?

And I think that engagement that happens is much more important than a way – much better than just a new way to get more information out.

ROBERTS: Well also in addition to taking advantage of the two-way communication, the culture on the Web has a pretty high BS detector, right? I mean, if you are putting out talking points that are crafted and vetted and edited within an inch of their lives, people online smell that out in a second.

Mr. FLOYD: That’s right. And I’ve never – on my Twitter site at the Defense Department, I’ve never put out a press release or mentioned a press release. I actually ask questions more often than not, and – or I saw an interesting article, and I want their opinion of it.

And I wanted to highlight one thing. When this first – when this news broke about that we’re doing the policy review, and when the Marine Corps made its announcement about blocking access, I just sent a Twitter out saying this is out there, what do you think about it? And it was interesting the response I got because remember, I was sending it out on a Twitter account. And the majority of people, unsurprisingly, said they wanted, you know, for folks to have access, but a minority – but a large minority, actually said they understood why these things should be blocked and that there were security concerns.

And what was interesting about it was I was getting it on a Twitter account. These people were on Twitter saying yes, this should be blocked. So not everyone who uses social networking sites is in favor of having complete and open access.

ROBERTS: Well, Noah Shachtman, you asked cadets, Academy cadets, if they would block access.

Mr. SHACHTMAN: Yeah, I was at West Point a couple of months ago, and I asked a group of cadets who were heading out to be company commanders and platoon commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan if they would allow their troops to blog or get on Facebook. And I would say, like, 19 out of 20 of them said no way, no how. You know, oh my God, they’re going to reveal secrets. Who knows what they’re going to say? Oh, who’s got time to blog when you’re in a war zone. No way, they said.

And then I asked them well, do you think there’s any way of actually stopping that kind of information from getting out? Is there any way to stop these guys from getting on Skype, getting on email, getting on Twitter accounts, what have you, and talking to their friends and family. And they all said, well, that can’t happen, either. And so we’ve got kind of a dilemma here.

As important as social media may be to industries like EDA, our use (or non-use) of Web 2.0 capabilities is clearly not a matter of life or death. Yet we share many common concerns with entities where those are very much the stakes.

I found the common denominators interesting enough to blog about this week, but what do you think? Do you ever find yourself having conversations with people who don’t understand social media? As your own organization seeks to balance the benefits of increased communication and feedback with the risks of decreased security and control, what conclusions do you see emerging?

Tom Diederich is manager of Community Management Services at Lithium Technologies, a leading provider of social CRM solutions. In this role, Tom manages an expanding group of moderators and community managers and helps companies launch, grow and manage online communities.

Tom launched his first blog in 1996 (though he called it his “online journal” at the time) while working in Tokyo as a journalist to keep friends and family informed of his adventures there. Since then, Tom has helped establish and grow online communities at Palm, Symantec, Cadence, and now, Lithium Technologies. In the following interview, Tom shares some of the wisdom he has gained along the way.

Rick: You recently hosted a session for Synopsys’ Conversation Central at DAC titled “Overcoming Challenges of Launching & Managing a Corporate Blog Program.” What are some of the most important challenges to consider before and after launching a corporate blog?

Tom: First and foremost, you must have a blog program manager – I like to call this role the “managing editor” because I’ve learned that you must treat your corporate blog(s) like a newspaper to succeed.

That doesn’t mean that your bloggers should be thought of as journalists, but that the blog program must be run like a newspaper, with an editorial calendar and weekly editorial meetings to review what worked / what didn’t and to assign stories, etc.

In addition, you should bear in mind that for every ten bloggers you recruit – and who appear to be gung-ho on blogging – that only one of them will actually blog regularly. So it’s a numbers game and that means constant recruitment. It’s tough in the beginning so I suggest starting recruitment at least three months prior to the launch of your blogs.

Rick: Based on your personal experience, what are some best practices for blogging?

Tom: The community manager should treat his/her blog program like a newspaper. The bloggers are your reporters (although they are not journalists). In addition:

• Hand out assignments based on product releases, industry events, etc.
• Spontaneous posts are still encouraged
• Build and maintain an editorial calendar to mitigate gaps between posts
• Streamline the approval process (too many cooks…)

Rick: On the flip side of the coin, what insights can you offer about “Worst Blog Practices?”

Tom: I’ve learned most of these the hard way – avoid these common mistakes:

• Ghost blog, fake blog or blog comments
• Using fictitious characters as blog authors
• Heavy-handed moderation
• Too formal and polished
• Regurgitating existing company collateral
• No blogging editorial calendar
• Assuming what works for me works for everyone else
• Long gaps between posts
• Sending blog posts through PR/Marketing for rewriting
• Complicated approval processes

Rick: Finally, in your opinion, what makes a good blogger?

Tom: Someone who is either a subject matter expert in the area they are blogging about or, if they are a general blogger (I call this second type the “roving reporter” because they interview the experts), someone with journalism experience.

A good blogger is also someone who is passionate about what they do and, most importantly, someone who wants to blog. Don’t worry too much if they are not the best writers to begin with – with coaching and lots of practice, they will be fine (writing is like exercise, you get better the more you do it).