And while I have no doubt that engaged audiences occur, I think we digital marketers gloss over some important nuances in our haste to examine other marketing communications functions of which audience engagement is a part.

Things you hope your audience is doing:

• Observation:   See the product in context in a native environment and in organic situation or intentional placement. Imagine – grocery store shelf, home kitchen use, as a paid product placement in a movie. This creates context.
• Collecting information:   Learn of others’ experiences with the branded product. Consider current status of the brand (new packaging, improved performance claim, sale pricing, new celebrity endorsement, recent buzz/PR, external implications or policy, etc.) to form next-step thoughts. Gather mental bits about the product’s use by others, their perceptions, potentially have own perceptions reinforced or openly questioned (which could stimulate a debate).
• Reacting:   Take an action subsequent to observing and collecting brand information within one’s own accessible sphere (recognize that proximity creates variance in opportunities for impression (frequency) as well as availability). Synthesize data learned, then decide to buy, determine a use/application, make a mental note to mention to a well-informed friend, etc.

It may sound like I’m splitting hairs. Engagement, heightened brand interest, what’s the difference, eh? Engaged audiences have more skin in the game. And there are fewer of them than your boss cares to know about. Don’t start packing up your desk yet, though. There’s a lot of potential left in those with a heightened awareness of your brand.

I think it’s important to recognize that sustainable engagement (itself a misnomer, given the cyclical nature of human favor, but speaking relatively) isn’t necessarily illustrated by, for example, the number of blog comments a brand receives or how often its content is shared across the interwebs. Good to know, but not absolutely definitive.

There are a vast number of consumers who don’t read blogs (or other online content), disfavor putting their thoughts into written words, never learned how to type, or aren’t on Twitter (heresy, I know). These people might lean toward traditional word of mouth at Little League or share a few personal thoughts at the conclusion of their call to Customer Service (must activity be positive in order to qualify for “engaged audience” status? Idea for future post). This may be where heightened interest gets a longer look.

Furthermore, the Creators, Conversationalists, Critics and others (read: Forrester Social Technographic study) have adopted an ever-evolving pattern of online behavior. Simply put, we run the risk of giving too much weight to likes, shares and retweets because of weaknesses regarding a) intention b) social influence and c) zero barrier to entry.

Social media activity doesn’t irrefutably tell brand managers about the person’s intent, motivation, or whether their activity was prompted by a personal desire to belong or be seen (or saw the RT as a self-serving way to achieve another end). Plus, a monkey could hit the RT button (humans are, quite possibly, lazier than some species of monkeys. That’s what I heard.).

Before throwing that tomato at me, take note: I’m not suggesting that there isn’t value in some of the things we’ve been measuring. There are certainly a bevy of tools with rapidly-growing functionality and a number of smart measurement people figuring out ways to connect dots to produce more meaningful and useful pictures. Neither am I suggesting all RT’ers are monkeys (I, myself, have RT’d. And I hate monkeys).

So what am I saying?

Heightened brand interest among real-world, non-digital ladder steppers is achieveable. (Deliver remarkable products in ways that best suit the customer.). Those people matter, and their deeply entrenched values and filtering systems matter. They may demonstrate their mindset in different ways, though. Is your brand capturing that at all? If they are, is it tucked in an isolated system somewhere gathering dust? Sure, it’s difficult to find it, and even more challenging to evaluate it in context with what you may see happen online. Give it a go. Then improve on your process.

The term “engaged audiences” should be used more judiciously when referring to a digitally-inclined audience subset. You might presume too much by skipping over the “heightened awareness” holders if social media indicators are your only source of data.

• Are you giving love and praise unconditionally?
• Are you generously sharing the bounty of your talents so that others might learn and grow?
• Are you holding fast to the promises your brand makes to its customers?
• Are you committed to doing more, even when no one is looking, even when no one specifically asked?

Such things will be the measurement of our lives. They’ll determine the course of our businesses.

As Danny Brown demonstrated, the degree to which a company serves its customers isn’t limited by the constraints of contracts or terms of service. Those boundaries represent obligations, and as such define minimum expected behaviors. We give you this tool, you pay us x dollars. It’s what’s required. Leaves you feeling a bit cold, yes? Maybe even of transitional (read: subjective) importance, good while it lasts.

While transactions form the elemental basis of commerce, it doesn’t define the relationship. Not the trusted relationship between seller and buyer, nor the fragile one between teams and leaders developing the goods for sale.

Definitely not the relationships that social media – the mindset, the channel, and its tools – can enable among users hoping to add value, experience more, and receive knowledge.

Yes, the overused R word

Relationships are a balance between vested parties that can transcend market flux, a tactical bungle, or a CMO guard change. Relationships make things happen. A relationship sometimes means saying “I’m sorry,” or “That was a bad idea” and mustering forward with a healthy self-awareness and mutual respect. Relationships stick. They flex and adapt, and take on the shape of their environment. And I’m convinced they can’t be measured. There’s no time box or scale.

Relationships can’t be measured, not in the terms of social voting as a factor establishing some meaningless position of social rank.

Some measuring sticks deserve to be broken, to splinter apart like dry kindling. These sticks harm like emotional weapons when they were wielded during tender high school years.  Yet we can’t escape the measuring stick of popularity, the golden gloss daintily painted on the “in” crowd even as adults.  The stick is smuggled into the hiring process and baked into our Twitter “follow back” criteria, and serves only to distance people, to maintain a proper spacing between the elite and the (as yet) unrecognized.

Those measuring sticks are superficial, narrow-minded, and misleading at best. At worst they create a caste system that has nothing to do with talents and skills or work product. Let alone aptitude or commitment.

Hook a developer up with an eager entrepreneur-type anxious make a TechCrunch and you’ve got one more way to measure social influence. Or so some say.

Me? I say tools like this one – and use the term loosely – do us all a disservice. They plant the seed of separation and a hierarchy that has nothing to do with true worth.

Nothing to do with the measuring sticks that matter.

Vanity parlor tricks

Someone I’m connected with on LinkedIn triggered the invitation to join Mixtent. The language was ambiguous and I wanted to see just what it was I’d been voted on. Amazingly, this tool pits one person in your network against another (“Who would you prefer to work with, A or B?”). Your choices help determine rank and suck you in to try to advance your own position. It evokes a sense of competition through a leader board. It gamifies personal endorsements, circumventing a lot of critical areas. And it’s horse pucky.

No sour grapes, I’ll tell you straight up that my score was low. And I’m entirely OK with that, so far as Mixtent’s scoring system goes.

It has nothing to do with the measuring sticks that matter.

Today we’re going to look at one by Guy Kawasaki and another by Scott Klososky.

Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions

Gotta say, I’m a Kawasaki fan. I’ve read Reality Check and The Art of the Start, and enjoyed them immensely. I had high hopes for Enchantment and it didn’t let me down. The author systematically built a well-supported thesis for the power of magical moments between brand experiences and those who are enveloped within them. That kind of power evokes disruptive change from status quo transactions.

Put another way, Kawasaki examines the soft, irrational, and emotional reasons why we align ourselves with a product, a cause, or a movement. Moreover, the art of enchantment isn’t so much a marketing strategy as it is a commitment to learn what your audiences are thinking, feeling, and believing. While knowing these things will undoubtedly help  marketers craft winning messages that helps stuff sell, the kind of insight gained through the commitment will lead to better-performing, more relevant, and useful products. Enchanting brands surprise and delight.

In a lot of ways, Kawasaki tells us how to get back to the business of connecting and serving people, without all the high-falutin salesmanship stuff clogging the path to relationships.

I liked this book for its content, its readability, and the injection of real-world examples from big-name brands and little-known organizations. It’s written with humor and clear language. And the quotes? Great punctuation throughout the story.

Enterprise Social Technology

I struggled quite a bit with this book, I’m sorry to say. On the tactical side, it just wasn’t very readable to me. It’s lengthy and dense with long “preachy” paragraphs, two traits that seem incongruous with the image I hold of social media and multi-channel connectivity. There were no visuals to support key ideas or concepts.

The book was crowdsourced, and harnessed thoughts from many different sources to construct individual chapters. I read a reference that many hours were spent editing to ensure consistent tone, voice, and style throughout the book. Unfortunately, I think the heavy editing squashed the unique quality an array of author voices would have brought to the table.

Maybe its a by-product of multiple authors (in that case, perhaps something the editing should have weeded out?), but I also felt message threads were repeated, annoyingly so. Is the book for a newbie or experienced professional? The repetition says “newbie” but I sense the book aspires to be much more lofty than that. In my opinion, other social business books have done a much better job at covering the shifts in culture required when a company commits to forging and maintaining direct relationships with customers.

Lastly, I was troubled by the repeated use of the term “social technology” and “social tech.” It felt contrived and intentional. I just don’t think we need another term to muddy the waters.

But maybe I’m not the right target for this book, or perhaps put off early by a few things that prevented me from receiving the intended messages. If anyone else read and liked this book, I’d love to hear your thoughts to learn what I missed.

Side note to PR reps, publicity folks, and publishing people

Just a thought, but when you send out a book (they’re not cheap!) to a blogger, include some sort of documentation along with it. A simple letter explaining why the author felt it important to write about his or her topic, a bit of background on the research and writing process, etc. Links to multimedia resources – images, infographics, videos, etc. – that help illustrate key points can help the interested blogger learn more about the topic and the author’s passion for writing about it.  When you send a book in a box with nothing else, and no follow up email, I can’t help but feel like the author’s been let down by his/her representation. Why bother if you’re just going to drop the book in my hands and then leave me to my own devices? This is even more remarkable when the book in question is about social media.

Editors note: I was sent these two books by their respective publishing houses free of charge. I did not solicit the books, nor did I commit to providing favorable reviews in exchange for compensation of any sort. I simply got a book, and in exchange made no promise to read, much less write a post about, said book.

What needs to happen is a crossing of communication streams (a la Ghostbusters) to produce a more powerful solution, one that informs customer service departments, product teams, and the monitoring arm of the marketing department. Can Talkwheel do that?

About four years ago I was with a software development company. We had around 50 employees spread over two floors of a sprawling office building. As busy tech-y people will do, we used several software platforms to keep the myriad of project managers, developers, product owners, and designers running in synch. We were the original App Store, I tell you. Some client info resided with our proprietary time tracking system. Other info lived within our project management system. There was also company email and IM. Near the end of my tenure some of us adopted Yammer, but it didn’t really take off. Social media was still scary stuff (for my boss).

Fast forward through the mainstreaming of social media to Twitter and Facebook, the white-hot YouTube explosion, and the mercurial mayorships of the Foursquare ilk. We’ve experienced information overload in our personal and professional lives. You want info, you got terrabytes of it. Mostly in disparate places, though.  Messages – standard internal email, customer service form submittals, press inquiries, vendor solicitations, logistics updates – abound, richocheting around the four corners of the office, warehouse, retail store, and outside salesman’s Avis budget rental.  Tablets and rugged handhelds are surfacing as yet additional tools enabling the creation even more information, delivered faster.

All this knowledge only serves to tangle us up if the proper information systems, taxonomy and accessibility isn’t baked in.

Spokes Without a Hub

Separate lines of communication can be hard to maintain, and harder to scale. By function of the channels, they remain independent (email serves one purpose, Twitter another), not part of a collective body of resources. No way to clearly see downstream connections or dissemination. In real-time business, communication silos (which often happen to be data silos, as part of a larger CRM) can cripple. Breakdowns can lead to loss of time, reputation, and money.

Today some enterprise-level solutions exist in Yammer (different from the version I trialed way back when) and Salesforce.  While I haven’t used either in their current release form (and cannot speak to pros or cons), a new alternative has emerged with San Francisco-based startup Talkwheel.  Talkwheel (group discussion platform) team member Patrick Randolph gave me a high-level overview earlier this week, and I was definitely intrigued.

Conversation Visualization

Visual learner that I am, the notion of using images to express complex relationships and ideas gets two thumbs up, right off the bat. And as I understand from Patrick, the premise of Talkwheel is to map messages (conversations) from disparate internal and external systems into categorized groups, permit the application of filters (like permissions, workflows), and centralize the information along with related documents (PDFs, spreadsheets, etc.). Voila! Enterprise users then have a command center with threaded messages, RSS feeds, tweets, and the like. Future iterations of the software are supposed to have sentiment analysis and intense analytics. With this kind of information display, there are fewer chances for the “squeaky wheel” to drown out a valid albeit possibly less vociferous customer inquiry.

Contiguous Conversation Flow

I look forward to learning more about Talkwheel as the platform matures. Their spanking-new partnership with ZeroDesktop (content unification in the cloud) could up the ante. As for my firsthand knowledge of the platform, I think the demo could have been a little more fluid, and I would have liked to have seen (or played with) a functioning working model over the partially built-out model containing mock conversations. But I think I’ll have a chance to create an account in the next few days and try things out.  There’s great potential there, although I think the road is steep in terms of mass adoption.

From a marketer’s perspective, I long for simple, clear infographic-based sales support to create a compelling case for adopting the platform (we all know new tools can sometimes take an act of Congress for the bespeckled guys in IT to allow under the firewall).  This is a case for “Show me” not “Tell me.”  Talkwheel’s “Why use” page has some good support language, but I think the visitor has to work too hard to connect the dots and translate benefits to their real-world communications problems. After all, we kind of just accept the fact that corporate email is separate from twitter mentions. Talkwheel needs to help prospects understand how the platform can actually enable faster, more informed discussions and knowledge-sharing.

Have you tried  Yammer, Salesforce or Talkwheel? What do you think? Do any of the platforms reframe the way your company receives, shares, and stores critical messages? Or do you see this as another unnecessary social media tool?

Several high-profile brands gained attention recently as a result of social media snafus. The interwebs buzzed about Red Cross and Chrysler; the former serving as a good example of what to do when a certain type of crisis hits. In contrast, the latter spawned much negative discussion over the actions of the iconic auto maker, the agency managing its social media participation, and the person assigned to operate the Twitter account.

The Red Cross incident got us laughing. A new phrase (“getting slizzard”) was coined to describe relaxing and having an adult beverage (or two) with friends.  Handled with aplomb, grace, and self-deprecating humor, dare I say the venerable institution suffered no longer than a nanosecond in social media years due to the errant tweet.  The incident even took a positive route when citizens began donating blood to carry on the hashtag meme.

But the Chrysler debacle raised several issues for some folk:

1. Chrysler’s decision to use an external agency to tweet on behalf of the auto maker
2. The flavor of the off-brand tweet itself
3. The creator of the unfortunate tweet possibly skirting responsibility for his unfortunate actions
4. The agency’s decision to terminate the twitterer
5. A glaring paradox. Elements of the tweet (use of profanity and rude attitude to Detroit) suggest the person tweeting was unfit for the social media role and as such, poor representation of the Chrysler brand. Yet Eminem, celebrity endorser for Chrysler’s recent “Imported From Detroit” campaign, built a multi-platinum career on his misogynist attitude and profane lyrics. It might seem the commercialized,  immoral potty mouth you know is more acceptable than the blind-tweeting, angry potty mouth you don’t.

Then there are the conversations that started in the wake of these snafus which pontificated where social media should live – in marketing, corporate communications, or  shared organizational ownership – as though some other arrangement would have precluded the gaffes. As though a different nexus of control would have provided a cushiony buffer from blunders and placed its members beyond reproach.

I Fail, You Fail

I call B.S. Here’s the thing I think almost everyone’s forgetting – we all make mistakes. And sometimes we even have inadvertent help in our failings. Those T-Rex size errors can cause significant damage to timelines, relationships, or budgets.  And as damaging as they may be, I think what we should be doing is looking at root cause, not last-man attribution.  So yeah, the youngling made a really stupid tweet. He exercised poor judgement, probably fresh from a frustrating ride into work. But did anyone stop to look at how the pivotal moment when he clicked the “tweet” button came to be? Until those steps are examined, this type of snafu will continue to happen. Social media governance will only get stronger when we bake learings from these “a ha!” moments into our guidelines.

Brand Immersion

I don’t know anything about Chrysler’s social media policy, New Media Labs’ training protocols, or the tools and methods employed with their client accounts. That said, I’m betting that hands-on employees (like the 25-year old who made the career-altering tweet about Detroit) receive little by way of brand immersion when they’re handed the keys to the accounts. At best, they may get some type of dry brand standards manual that does little to help them inculcate and absorb key brand values.  We remember best that which we experience with all of our senses – these people should be touring factories, examining auto spec sheets, reading customer survey feedback, test driving vehicles, interviewing sales people, and anything else necessary to successfully represent the brand online.

I wonder what information may have been shared with the rank-and-file with regard to Chrysler’s “Imported From Detroit” campaign. Did they see the final polished spot on the big screen, same as the rest of us? To someone unfamiliar with the fundamentals of brand positioning and core messaging, the long-term strategic objective, that commercial may have simply been a hot ad. In the absence of knowledge about what made Eminem so significant (to Chrysler), someone might have mistaken the celebrity endorsement as tacit permission to carve a more raw edge with tweets and updates.  See what I mean about having  inadvertent help when we fail?

Everyone Needs The Knowledge

Bottom line? If a branding idea is important enough to warrant a series of briefs and months of creative development, then consider the ways the idea will touch every employee and agency partner. Better yet, develop agency partnerships built on mutual respect, trust, and a shared set of objectives. Invest in the relationship with 360 degree brand immersion. Have the frickin’ conversation about what it means to represent your brand!

Remember ~ Brand stewards don’t always carry employee badges; sometimes they sign the visitors log.

What’s your opinion – did the right thing happen when the young man was fired? Was it enough? Too much? What could or should have happened differently?

That is, unless you win a free book (and I have one to offer some lucky duck). But you’ll probably want multiple copies, so you still need that shiny green card. Share the knowledge wealth.

Once you dive into Jay and Amber’s book, you’ll be flooded with warmth.  The clouds will part, and someone, somewhere will sing.  You may even be bathed in golden light if you’re sitting near a south-facing window.

Euphoria will bloom because you will have found the social business book you’ve been waiting for. The one you hope your boss reads. And takes to heart.

The authors deliver an incredibly readable discussion (we expected no less) about the state of business today and the radical changes – mindsets, tools, policies, channels, expectations, and procedures – ahead, the likes of which we’ve only glimpsed the past 3ish years (is that all its been?).

This isn’t a book about how to get more followers or friends, or design the snazziest background or custom tab.  It’s a holistic look at the reorganization of business operations, the restructuring of process, and the re-engineering of attitudes, assets, and strategies.  It’s a frank acknowledgement that the world we operate in, the place where we manage people and their activities, is evolving in response to and along side of a rush of enabling technology and shifting consumer expectations.  We can’t mistake what’s happening as a passing fad or fancy, or chalk it up to something our 16 year-old niece does when forced to attend family functions.  This isn’t about Facebook, people. You’ll miss the point and be left holding steadfast to a rapidly shrinking market.  Perhaps still surviving, but certainly not thriving.

The duo’s book, titled The Now Revolution: 7 Shifts to make your business faster, smarter, and more social is one every executive,manager, and rank-and-file should read.  If you’ve spent much time in the workforce, then you’ve likely seen the changes technology has brought about in the way people communicate, collaborate, solve problems and nurture new ideas.  Beneath a tweet or a status update, check in or sticker, a fabric of information, accessibility, and reach is being woven.  This new connectedness unites peers and friends; it also influences service delivery, marketing dynamics, internal culture (which translates out to brand identity and position, and shapes offerings) accepted doctrine and so much more.  Toss out the old business plan template, there’s a new game in town.

The arrival of personal computers, email, fax machines, web sites and PDF files was straight out of Wyle E. Coyote; the boulder tipped over the edge and began to gather steam downhill before anyone  computed its path, distance, force or trajectory. In the 90’s, we thought we gained a few fancy machines and a new kind of Rolodex, but it was really so much more.

Businesses gradually purchased or instituted those newfangled means, but it took longer before their widespread use and implications fully filtered through all the layers of people and remixed indoctrinated processes.

Social business is kind of like the same story all over again, but with new twists and flavors. And you eat it family-style, along with everyone else.

Consumers will change how you operate your business

The book covers the implications consumer adoption of the tools – where lines run deep behind forerunners Facebook and Twitter – will have on how business enterprise is organized, roles and responsibilities are defined and dispersed, and the manner and speed in which digital communication enables and empowers. Are these internal shifts in response to external drivers?  Or is the changing business environment fueling further market innovation as well as consumer expectations? Both, I think.  The marketplace isn’t a vacuum, although enterprise may resist the cries for change based on fear, lack of understanding or appreciation for the opportunity brought by their publics.  Resistance or rejection is futile, a path that only leads to obsolescence.

But I’m out of control here.  You should read the book and think about how you’re going to help reshape the company you own or the place you work.

How to win a free copy of The Now Revolution

If the book is so good, you might ask, why am I giving it away?  Because I snagged a spot on the book review team.  Nanner, nanner.  Don’t fret, though. You could share in the goodness, too.  I have a copy to give away! Many thanks to Jay and Amber for sharing with me.

Head on over to the Insights & Ingenuity Facebook page and click ye ole LIKE button.  I promise we share good content links. While  you’re there, post a message on the wall covering these two things:

• Describe the biggest business challenge you face today.
• Tell us what you’re doing to change it.

Zuckerberg doesn’t give you a lot of room to post on the wall before the message gets truncated, so parse it carefully.  Bonus points to anyone who can cover both items in 140 characters or less.

You have through end of day Friday, February 25 to “like” the page and post your message.  I’ll choose the best answer and make the announcement, then get that book over to the winner pronto.

Good luck!  My next book review will be Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki.  Keep an eye out on your RSS feed so you do’t miss out! What? Not yet an RSS subscriber yet?  Better get on that!

Over on the Social Media Explorer blog I recently wrote about the role of social media in achieving customer satisfaction.  Part technical tool review, part examination of socially-enabled communications, the post took a look at Groubal ( the “complaint as a petition” platform) but begged a deeper look at brand image, customer relationship-building and new business imperatives in our digital marketing era.

Creating and maintaining customer satisfaction

While preparing that post, I had the great fortune to interview PR pro Arik Hanson and market research expert Frank Martin.  Both gentlemen are business owners and recognized within their respective industries.  I looked to these guys to add some dimension to this new reality of customers using online channels and social tools to share personal stories and experiences with others about brands.  We talked about:

Public relations -
What risks do brands now face in this hyper-connected, always-on, volatile environment?  How can a brand lessen the impact caused by negative sentiment expressed online?  What options do brands have for getting in front of potentially contentious topics in order to participate if not steer the course of current discussion?  How can we save a carefully built brand image from getting tarnished?

Market research -
What means does a brand have for better understanding consumer perception?  How might those learnings be used to gain insight into operational inefficiencies, ambiguous communication or under performing products?  How does online reputation monitoring and sentiment analysis fit with other, more traditional research methods?

I worked my thoughts up into a 9-page opinion paper titled:  The Rant Heard ‘Round the World:  Can We Find Satisfaction on the Internet?  You can also read it below.

In writing the paper, I learned a little about what it must feel like to write and publish a full-on book.  I could have added more depth to the topic areas or branch out into important related tangents, but I tried to stay focused on the central idea of customer satisfaction – creating it, maintaining it, and maturing a business along with it.  Inside the paper there are lots of links to great material written by others, so be sure to check those out too.

As always, your thoughts and opinions are encouraged.  What did I miss?  Where am I right?  Again my thanks go out to the very patient and generous Arik and Frank.  Any errors are my own.

Rant Heard Round the World.heather Rast

Mitch Joel wrote this line in a recent post on the Six Pixels of Separation blog: “You have to believe in yourself and what you’re doing.”  The premise is that it’s OK to project an air of confidence while gaining the real-life skills and experience required to produce good work, provided the assignment is a stretch and not a leap.  The road to success doesn’t offer up shortcuts.

Stretching is about being familiar with basic concepts, reading articles, and maybe even picking up some pieces from team members here and there.  Absorbing the bits. Your skills are a 4.5 on a scale of 10.

Image courtesy Geoff Livingston

Stretching is when you respond to an RFP knowing that yes, you really could deliver if selected for the job.  You might not sleep much and you’ll definitely overshoot your hours (and owe some friends some pizza), but you’ll gladly drink three gallons of Red Bull and eat the overage for the chance to get something like that in your portfolio.  Because that’s the direction you want to go, if only given a chance.  You want to take what you’ll learn and build on it.  You want that project to shine.

Leaping is different.  Leaping is when you think “I’m just gonna go for it.  It can’t be that complicated.” You use charm, personal relationships, called-in favors or voodoo to get a project in a service area that’s too big for you.  It’s not really in your sphere of experience; you’re not there to learn.  Your eye is on the bottom line (big budget!) or the big fish you know you’ll be exposed to.  You want that project to get you somewhere:  a seat at the table; an introduction; a stage.  Leaping is a disingenuous shortcut to the spotlight.

It’s OK to see yourself one step ahead. Even two.  But you can’t legitimately get there from here without some solid ground under your feet.  For the love of Mike, don’t use a Twitter background that says you want to “help people” if what you really want is for sycophants to help you.

Stretching is good.  Leaping is lame.

Have the courage to stretch yourself a little every day.  You’ll grow and become stronger (gain experience) because you were driven enough to test yourself every step along the way.  Your success can look and feel very different than what others have in their minds.

Leave the leaping for the losers and posers.  One day the canyon will prove to be much bigger than they bargained for.

But you will have already built your bridge. <waves from other side>

A fellow contributing author on SME, I’ve enjoyed Mark’s posts and deeply appreciate his visual thinking skills.  He has a talent for translating an idea or concept into a visual design that’s simple to grasp.  Don’t let the clean-looking infographics fool you; the concepts are still issues business and digital marketing professionals are trying to master.

The video Mark shared was a compilation of 19 of his idea designs, each prefaced by best-practice edicts like:

• “Understand the importance of strategy.  Tools and tactics are just the tip of the iceberg.”
• “Build a solid business infrastructure to support the weight of social media.
• “Interact first.  Sell second.”
• “Build relationships to help float campaigns, not the opposite.”
• “Embrace the new empowered customer.”

I believe they’re all spot on.  I’d also like to see a couple more “best practice” ideas explored (were I only as talented as Mark!), and I mentioned as much in my comments on his post.  While one or more of his existing infographics may imply these two ideas, their significance has deeper meaning and broader impact. These ideas should be brought to the surface lest they be missed.

More social media best practice ideas:

1. Flexibility – “Be nimble.  Adjust accordingly.”
2. Continual Improvement – “Do more than ‘be there’ in social media.  Fuel something.”

Flexibility has to do with how, when and why a business might deviate from a plotted course.  The overarching strategy would likely remain the same, but objectives and goals might be refined as a brand gains practical experience, learns more about their market, notices shifts in user habits, etc.  And if you had to fight hard to get your pet social media project approved by the C-Suite, be certain to have regular report milestones in place so that he/she stays informed of your efforts (we can hope it’s not simply a project, but…)

Continual improvement is simply a business imperative, made more real-time by the reach and immediacy of social media. Businesses have to be dedicated to turning disparate data sources into a cogent format.  Findings, while sometimes nebulous and often spanning a wide range of sentiments, have to be filtered and sifted.

What remains must be channeled somewhere to benefit some aspect of the business.  It could be product development, procurement, fulfillment, sales, training or service.  If your business just observes and collects social signals, it’s doing nothing more than lurking. Plus you risk being seen as a shadow puppet by your customers – they can see that nobody’s really home behind that Twitter handle.  That sound you heard while you simply observed? That was your credibility tanking. Your customers have the power.

Thanks again to Mark for his thought-provoking work.  Would you add any best practices to the list?

Compared to some like iFroggy, the communities I manage are tiny.  But my work and the communities in which I participate compel me to list some real opportunity areas for the community-centric organization:

Provide a clear RTB

• Why does your community exist?
• What are the primary objectives for the program or site?   (what does success look like?)
• What do you offer participants or visitors?

Whether you choose to list this information in clear-cut Q&A format on a FAQ page or weave it throughout in descriptive text, these signals may provide new visitors with affirmation they’ve found what they’ve been looking for.  Internally, use responses to these questions to ensure program activity and codes of conduct support these defining pillars.

Identify a contact person or two

Invariably, someone visiting your site or with knowledge of your community will have a question which hadn’t been anticipatedwhen the site or program was originally planned.  That’s a good thing.  But do you want that person to spend their time trying to A) figure out precisely whom to contact  and B) digging all over the interwebs for Susie’s contact information?  Could be a frustrating experience.  The professionalism or legitimacy of the community could even be questioned (yes, we’re skeptical of a poorly planned and executed web presence.  We wonder if anyone’s actually paying attention).

Naturally, you may receive some spam or solicitations if you post this information in a prominent place online.  Yet it’s more community-centric to filter out 63 pieces of spam and hear from 4 interested constituants than be completely unreachable because you couldn’t be bothered with the hassle, or mistakenly thought “everyone knows who we are and how to reach us.”  Because some people really don’t, and others want the passive permission to reach out that well-placed contact info offers. What happened to basic premises of customer service?

If your face changes, tell people

Anyone who knew of Richard@dell knew when he left to join Visa because the information, once public, flowed readily in multiple channels and outposts.  When the face – however recognizable – of your community departs, be sure to push out messages that explain what participants can expect by way of changes, if any.  What does the change mean to them?  Offer assurances.

A sub-point on this one, if you have authors who contribute to the community blog, be sure they’re advised of any administrative changes like, say, how to submit future posts (a new email address and name would be nice).  Keep the community train moving.  Otherwise you have passengers milling about at the station aimlessly.  Doesn’t take much for them to catch another train.

Offer the courtesy of a prompt response

We live in a world of instant gratification.  Like it or not, we all want to have our needs addressed promptly, or at least get some sort of progress indicator.  The blasted hourglass symbol or swirling arrow tell us that something is in the works, and we’re [semi] satisfied with that knowledge because it means our query or command was submitted.

The same needs come into play when we’re trying to participate in a community or interact with a web site.  We need signals that it’s picking up what we’re putting down.

If you have a form on a page, make sure completion of the form triggers a thank-you message of some sort.  If you have a generic email box, consider an auto-reply message that clearly indicates the process and approximate schedule for human replies.

Community members may not pay monetary dues, but they’re giving your site or program something of value – their time and interest.  Reward their attention with simple courtesy and you may reinforce the community-centric reputation you’re trying so valiantly to build.

Give them every opportunity, and then one more

You can list a toll-free number and email address on every page.  You can feature sharing buttons for Yelp! and Get Satisfaction.  These are good steps, but more can be done to really impress upon visitors that your community is there to serve, how can you help?

I believe Freshbooks is community-centric.  In addition to providing a well-designed product and good experience for a reasonable fee, the company practically begs users for raw, naked feedback.  Freshbooks seems to want to know your pain and your joy.

After logging in, there’s an unobtrusive invitation on the top of the site to complete a 30 second survey.  I love that they recognize my time is valuable and that taking surveys suck, so they define right up front what it’ll cost me.  Since I give Freshbooks twenty bucks each month to organize my business finances, I want to be able to give them feedback freely and am glad they’re interested in serving me better.  What I really like is the closing message that populates the page after I log out.  They push out a form, just ripe for typing.  ”Here I am,” the form whispers, “let ‘er rip.”  The form includes a phone number (with hours of availability!) if I’m a talker.  Freshbooks really, really wants to know what they can do to make my accounting crap easier.

These are 5 of 10 immutable laws for the community-centric organization. Stay tuned for my next installment which covers 5 more truisms as I see it.  What would you add?

Freshbooks log-out screen