And we humans claim to be advanced mammals.

Social Media Screw-ups

Will we ever learn from the mistakes of others? Why do we continue to nod our heads and mutter “I know that’s right, um-hmm” while bashing stupid people tricks without ever holding up a mirror to our own company <waves hi to reflection>? Check your own house, people. Yes, slip-ups and gross errors in judgment can happen to you. And to your team. Admit you’re fallible, then figure out what can be done to mitigate future risk.

Crisis plans are an absolute necessity. A well-planned protocol created by cool heads with the luxury of time and the foresight to plan appropriate responses and contingency actions can mean the difference between getting singed and flaming out. But I think real due diligence begins way before a social media manager gets active in the field, and certainly before a crisis ever hits the Twitter stream.

It happens long before a new hire gets plugged into the social media manager slot.

After your company spends several hundred dollars in advertising (or thousands if there’s a headhunter in the mix), and six weeks evaluating resumes and interviewing candidates to select the perfect social media manager, it should keep investing in the Chosen One in the form of training before she’s ever given the user names and passwords to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, WordPress, YouTube, and the like (go ahead, give her the keys to MySpace. Who cares?).

Readiness to handle the social media reigns

The fact that she has 742 Facebook friends, a 6-month old blog and wracks up 2,000 texts a month does not constitute readiness to take over the brand reigns in a very public (and often volatile) channel.

What does constitute readiness in my book is deliberate employee onboarding that layers the technical with the cultural, the experiential with expectations, and the external with the internal for a holistic view of the brand and its stakeholders.

Prepare the Social Media Manager for success

Pros train and run drills

Every company is different; different culture, organizational dynamics, products, process, resources, and certainly different levels of concern regarding risk in social media. The items listed below should serve asthought-starters to setting up your company’s own framework for onboarding and preparing employees on the front line of social media.

Brand bible:   Should have full knowledge of guidelines involving identity/logo use, typography, approved lifestyle and product photography and illustration styles, content tone and voice, primary brand messages, and current published assets like reports or papers.

Brand immersion:   Actual classroom-style training discussing: founding pillars, values, mission, vision, history, executive bios, organizational chart, annual strategic plans, investors reports, press center, reviews of recent failures, reviews of recent successes, tour of factory, call center, warehouse, introductory meetings with cross-functional department heads, staff or status meetings, testing products/services, reviewing customer feedback from surveys, observing inbound customer care calls, overviews of prior and current marketing and advertising campaigns, details about any strategic partnerships or alliances.

FAQ:   Reference documents outlining essential policies and procedures, standard language glossary, contact information, mock scenarios and appropriate resolutions, escalation procedures, methods for documenting or reporting issues, product specifications or data sheets, etc.

Product or service training: Hands-on, in-depth instructional training on the company’s salable products or services.

Social media guidelines:    Pam Sahota gave some great examples of social media policies in a recent oneforty post.

Crisis plan: Mock scenario run-throughs, putting elements of the crisis communications plan in place in a controlled environment. Drew McLellan recently wrote a good post reviewing some basics to remember.

A good social media manager lives the brand through word, tweet, and deed. How well prepared is your company’s social media staff?

Author’s note:  I first published this post, titled “Social media training is about preparation, not tools,” on the Oneforty blog June 10, 2011 as a contributing author. I’m cross-posting here so that Insights & Ingenuity readers might also learn and enjoy.

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?

We might add other subjective filters like “Will this be a ‘me-too’ RT?”  Sometimes you can really like something for its own merit but don’t want to be caught up in a wave of adoring fans.  A direct message might have more meaning.

Mark W. Schaefer, with his friend Dr. Hanna, added another layer to being effective on Twitter.  Dr. Hanna gathered statistical data about achieving optimal effectiveness with tweet volume, time of day and even tweet format.

Both of these interesting posts got me thinking about why we choose to follow certain people.  When I gain a new follower, I take a look at their profile description and tweets.  Do they sound like someone I could sit next to on a plane?  Are their tweets one-sided or robot-like?  What kind of stuff are they into and does it interest me?  Do their links help me discover something new?

Do you follow me?

To help make some sense out of the “To follow or not to follow” question, I offer this simple graphic.  Starting at the top, what we share/do comprises our Twitter profile.  From that activity (tweets/content), someone can figure out why you’re there. That leads to the pieces written about in Mark’s post before branching off to general personal characteristics (which probably apply as much offline as on, further demonstrating our online life is merely an extension of who we are IRL).

Why do you follow those you follow?  A sense of obligation?  A desire to be in the midst of things?  Education?

Thriving corn field

Typically, I’m not one to let important things slide. And while I wish I could say that my reduction in blog posts was by design – a test of some sort – its not. That’s not all that’s lacking, either. I haven’t dived thorough those great feeds in my reader in a good long while.  I’m still tweeting posts and articles about marketing, advertising, technology, and other material I think my followers might enjoy. But I’m not at the same level of 2-way communication (the word ‘conversation’ is starting to feel very cliche to me) as I’d like to be. With all I’m trying to help accomplish at work (rebranding, marketing, and publicizing a small company), I just don’t seem to have the time. It’s been over two weeks, and I don’t even have all of my vacation photos up on Flickr yet. My sister is driving me nuts wanting those pics. Shoot, I haven’t even pulled out my Flip since the last of this year’s band concerts concluded.

Did you hear what I said? I haven’t had much time to be involved in new media and online fun stuff these last couple of months. And I likely won’t for a few months yet, either.

Does this mean that creating a blog was a flight of fancy for me? That I may have jumped on the Twitter train just to claim a space? Or that I don’t appreciate the intelligence and generosity of 70 talented blog owners to whom I’ve subscribed?

No, it doesn’t mean any of the above. It does mean, however, that my blog site traffic is down. That I have fewer, if any, comments, so I’m missing personal exchange of viewpoints. I’m not reading posts of gold and growing from someone’s thoughtfully written insights. It means I’m not throwing out a few of my own opinions into the mix, either.

In the big scheme, these things don’t matter a tremendous amount. My post writing is mostly an outlet for my passion, anyway. And I could mark all my feeds as ‘read’ and start fresh tomorrow with a more manageable load. It shouldn’t be too hard to find a good topic going among those I follow on Twitter and jump in. I’m just one person with a day job and a personal interest in doing these other things wherever I can pack them in. I’m not a self-employed pro relying on new media to gain personal exposure or positive impression. Nor am I a company that decided we needed to “do” social media and stuck a few gratuitous irons in the fire (can you tell I have an opinion on “Me! Me! Me! brands?)

But what if I were a freelance marketing consultant, or a member of the internet marketing division of an agency (their term, not mine) and Twitter, Facebook, blogging, and YouTube channels were all tools and channels I decided were important to my business (I’ve received enough “SM strategy experts” followers and seen enough PPC Facebook ads for the same to be frightened about the general public’s threshold for mediocrity)?

In those cases, not having enough time really wouldn’t work, would it?

See, that’s my point. My personal involvement in new media can ebb and flow as my daily circumstances necessitate. I still have connections with people, but there’s some understanding of fluidity. But for organizations that have decided to be involved on these platforms and be accessible to audiences as well as initiate discussions, well taking time off for other projects just won’t work. A waning or lack in proper care to online presences won’t be an easily excused change in events for customers.  Just like the all-gratuitous tweets and Facebook wall posts, absence makes those organizations seem disorganized. Uninterested. Uncommitted and poser-ish.  Given one of the beauties in these spaces is self-selection (choosing our friends, feeds, etc.), its especially affronting to be let down after opting in.

It’s all been said before, probably more eloquently and succinctly. But let me encourage you (and your marketing director!) to give serious thought to your objectives, cultural commitment, level of financial support, personnel resource capacity, and tactical goals (customer service? price/item promotion? topical resource or knowledge guide?) before considering becoming involved in new media.

There’s nothing dishonorable in leaving the land bare this season (we can’t all be farmers). Or even in planting a partial plot of a new crop just to see how it goes first. But it sure would be a shame to buy the land, prepare the soil, and plant the seeds in the entire field only to become neglectful (maybe even mismanage) and lay waste to what may emerge.

I had the opportunity to partner with Successful Blog author Liz Strauss, and let me say I’m darned lucky. Not only is Liz the fairy godmother of relationships and conversations, but she can identify kernels of ideas and say big things about them.  Things that get her readers thinking.  And you can be sure, they’re always listening to Liz.

The post I co-authored was published today and is titled “It’s so easy to get stuck repeating what we already know.” And you guessed it, it’s about making assumptions, not being in tune with your audience, the misapprehension of academic intelligence and practical intelligence, and a few other things too.

(More) Magic Happened

As you can see from the screen shot below, Liz announced the post this morning on Twitter. Some loyal followers checked out the post, then visited my blog and Twitter page. Voila! Cool stuff happened (Heather pumps fist in the air, yells “Score!”).  This morning, I gained about 27 new followers who likely wouldn’t have otherwise discovered me.

Celebrate! New peeps!

A Bigger, Better Following

Having people’s interest is really great, and on some level validating. But I’m not overly concerned with the number of folks in my Twitter sphere.  What I AM jazzed about is the new opportunities that were given to me today, as a result of the increase in followers.

Blessed with a larger network of friends, I can now bounce ideas off more people, my chances of discovering new links and tools has improved, I’ve  gained insight into new fields and strengthened insight into fields held in common.  There are more people for me to discuss things with, more people to be inspired by and learn from. Not to mention challenged, and even humbled, by. Like my own advisory council.  How cool is that?

Partnering With Peeps

Yeah, this “new followers” gig is a sweet one (for me). The trick is to honor their new interest by sharing the best I have to offer.  I sure will try.  Together, we’re as good as greater than the sum of our parts. Isn’t that the essence of social media?

Thank you, new followers.  Separately, we’re good.  Together, we’re great!

I’m talking about “So why do you do all this Internet stuff, anyway?” kind of different. What-planet-are-you-from kind of different.

Which is interesting, considering I’ve been married for 14 years.  I understand him better than he understands himself. How can he not know why I do this?

And while my husband could tell you my most hated animals (there are two, and thanks to my friend Angie insisting that bats are not a bird there may now be three–way to add to my neurosis) and my favorite flower (he can never find them), he doesn’t know why I blog or connect on Facebook or Twitter. He doesn’t get it.  “So you write and put it out there and then what? Maybe someone reads it, maybe they don’t?  What do you get out of it?”

Well to put it succinctly, I guess he’s right.  My fragile writer’s ego would like to believe that at least SOMEBODY besides myself checks out my material and finds it useful (I can’t even claim my mother as a frequent site visitor, much to my chagrin).  But my feverish hope does not a following make.  I’m no Jeremiah, or Lee, or Chris, or Brian or…

So why do I do it?  Or, considering the blogosphere (gazillion new blogs added per minute and bajillion estimated Twitter universe), maybe the question really should be “Why do WE initiate (write) or participate (witty rejoinders or sharing)?”

I’ve got this theory, and I believe in it strongly.  Here goes:

Throughout history, mankind has used technological advancements to unite and progress the interests of our people, those within our spheres.  We used fire to warm and feed ourselves, industry to grow and develop our reach and influence, and (skip a few years) now microprocessors, fiberoptics, satellites, and other gizmos to bring Grandma to a computer screen near you.

Hold that thought.

Increasingly, we (consumers) are using technology to filter marketing and advertising messages. We use spam filters to block junk email, Caller ID to block telemarketers, TiVo to short-circuit TV commercials, XM to listen screaming car-ad-free, and RSS to strip out ads.

Whew.  That’s better, right?

Circle back to that thought-on-hold, the one about technology historically bringing people together. So what happens when a society deviates off its hundreds-of-years-established autonomic response? When it veers off its predetermined course?

It self-corrects. (cue glorious Alleluia! music, lights, white doves)

We deployed countless filters that succeeded in mitigating the amount of unsolicited, misdirected, and downright annoying messaging (yes, I call myself a marketer, an agency gal no less, and I dare say these things).  But these filters effectively removed our known connection points with brands, and by extension, each other.  We were not feeling the love.

Enter blogging, microblogging, social networking, social friending, ad nauseum. We’re now using technology (once again) to unite, to support, to protect, to inform, to design, to solve, and to share. Like the Tinkertoy metaphor I used in an earlier post (Social Media is a Child’s Toy), these modern technologies and platforms are enabling us to stay connected.  To get connected.

So what I’m saying here is:  Early days-technology connected. Recent days-technology filtered, left void. Current days-technology connected.

Case in point, each day I see on Twitter an @reply from one significant member to another along the lines of “…so glad to have met you at the blah blah conference..” These are folks I know @ Tweet each other already. Comments like these are further evidence of how technology enables like-minded people to connect, share, commune, and bond–authentically–often without a human physical connection.  Simple fact, humans want to join.  We want to relate and commiserate. We want to be part of something bigger than ourselves.

So I tell my husband that yes, actually I get quite a lot [of satisfaction and pleasure] out of blogging and networking. Blogging gives me a creative outlet for my writing that is different than that I use at work. It lets me work through my “bunny trail” thoughts and express them, if only to the Cloud. Networking gives me a platform for sharing and learning…I just love checking out the links that get recommended around Twitter. I’m smarter for every shared link I’ve followed.

How would you answer the questions, “why do you blog? what do you get out of it?”  Share a comment. I would really like to know your motivations and interests.

Like this post? Find it funny and insightful (self-promotion pitch)? Then join the 3 others that receive Insights and Ingenuity’s RSS feed and be part of an *elite* crowd!  No, seriously–thanks for your eyeballs!

I had a notion strike me, likely spurred by my informaniac-like consumption of written material (articles, reports, posts, papers, editorials, presentations, webinars, books, cereal boxes, the list goes on.  It’s like a compulsion).  Lately I’ve been pondering the aggregated net effect of one’s involvement (commitment is implied) and participation in UGC (user generated content).

Where does it get you?  What does it give you?  Maybe moreover, What does it create? What does that mean for your brand, and the appeal it might have to others?

We’re familiar with “Google Juice” and the concept that algorithms are a strange, tantalizing, and sometimes elusive gossamer veil that can surround your digital presence (assume it starts with a blog or site) and make faerie magic happen. Throw in analytics-a mind-numbing if thrilling cloud of pixie dust–and you now know the “how” and “where” (and maybe some idea of the “who,”  and “when,” too).  Still pining for the “what.”

By extrapolation, when other “connector pieces” like Twitter, Facebook, Social Vibe, Flickr, Slideshare, StumbleUpon, etc. are factored in, the picture in my mind starts to resemble a Tinkertoy creation.  The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.  Now we’re mixing juices, pomegranate+cherry.  Cranapple+grape.  Strawberry+raspberry+pineapple.  De.lic.ious. and Digg.

Less Nutritious Alternatives?

What are the implictions when your UGC or social media reach is, say, a 3-Tinkertoy creation instead of a 9-Tinkerytoy creation.  There’s less to work with.  Is your involvement–or lack of, maybe more accurately–hampering your brand appeal?  Not available, findable, “in the stream”? Think what it might mean in traditional marketing  sense–fewer spots, infrequent rotation,  restricted print runs.  What might this mean to your reach, impressions, or message reinforcement?

For certain it means one message, fewer connectors/channels in which to mirror the rosy glow you had going on.

If your expectations are in line, then I say not attempting to go full-bore is just fine.  I believe you’ll get out of online branding what you put into it.  And once the resources or time are in place, then those efforts can always be stepped up (you def don’t want to step down, could cause some bad feelings).  I’ll bet in a short while, you’ll start seeing the fruits of your labor (sorry for the pun).  I know I did–Just by participating in some Q&A’s on LinkedIn that interested me, and Twittering more often, I saw about a 50% increase in traffic to my blog.  Now my bounce rate is higher than I’d like, but since the magical calculation doesn’t handle blog landing pages very well (those where stories are laid out in continuous timeline on a single page), I’ll balance that with some of the other criteria points.

Daily Supply of Vitamins

To get back to the question on hand–what does your conversation participation create?  What does it do?  What does it mean for your brand?  The answer is simple, really, and already outlined above.

Vitamins are not a substitute for good nutrition.  They are called “supplements” for a reason.  And I believe that one Tinkertoy connection supplements–compliments–another.  The more connectors you have, the greater the exposure points to potentially great people, resources, companies, ideas, and news.

So do a little, do a lot.  Be a joiner or a follower (def don’t be a lurker) or even a leader! Build your creation in any fashion you want to.  Just do it with passion, enthusiasm, an eye for detail, and  a vision in your mind.

Your personal brand will be strongest when you’re participating (or leading) consistently and authentically.

This is a busy weekend in Las Vegas.  At the risk of sounding oxymoronic, let me quickly add that I’m referring to BlogWorld & New Media Expo 2008, the convention for connectivity.  I’m workin’ the laptop, and my TwitterFox keeps catching my eye – so I invariably check out the new Tweets and read all about the after parties, the panelists, see the Flikrs.  Good times had by all, it sounds like.  Although I’m here and they’re, well, there, the stream of updates and photos and even fresh posts has me feeling like I’m a partygoer.  It’s like being included without all the slot machine noise and long line hassle.

So to connect the bunny trails, there’s the idea about inclusion without borders/distance.  And I’m pairing it together with an 9/15/08 AdAge article about General Motors’s historic branding and advertising strategies.  And where this mashup leads (at least me, anyway) is a space full of opportunity for a brand whose lineage of positioning demonstrates tremendous success at building community through customer affinity.  Only now there’s the element of viral.

Connecting with Customers – Then

GM is celebrating their centennial, 100 years of invention and innovation, and the 9/15/08 issue of AdAge is chock-full of great articles even marketers who are non-GM fans should read.  I’ve found the chronology of positioning and message particularly intriguing because at my age I can recall a good number of those campaigns, and by extension they resonate with periods of my life.

Author Nick Lico (“Chevy takes value, volume message, and wraps it in flag.”) shares a graphic with the caption “Campbell-Ewald advertising draws a line from America’s pastime to America’s car in this mid-1970′s campaign.  Chevy’s US unit sales topped 3.69 million during that 5-yr span.”  The graphic – I’ll bet it rings a bell – pictures a baseball, a slice of pie, and a loaded hot dog.  Yes, I’m referring to the Americana-esque campaign from your childhood that suggested Chevy’s were as genuine and authentic as our country’s favorite pastime, home-baked goodness, and nitrate-laden fun friend food.  These trucks have long been a crucial element in Chevy’s product portfolio. And American cowboys, firefighters, farmers, and construction workers – the elemental backbone of the country – were central to the campaigns.

Advantage Lost Due to Change in Clime

Consider that same iconic brand and today’s tumultuous political, economic, environmental space.  Legislation surrounding manufacturing, the rising cost of gasoline, an unbalanced national budget, consumer debt/spending woes, natural disasters (think Ike and refineries), and the dire urgency to conserve non-renewables.  That’s the makings of a marketing quagmire.

Enter brands like Toyota and Honda, with reputations as dependable and reliable.  Their primary product foci have been (and continue to be) cars, which undeniably achieve higher fuel economy than their larger truck counterparts.  The comparison may involve fruit, but certainly not fruit borne from the same tree (car vs. truck).

Connecting with Customers – Now

The necessity of focusing and promoting  gas-friendly Chevy choices rather precludes the line of trucks because it lacks a ring of authenticity and credibility.  While there are 8 Chevy vehicles that achieve over 30 miles to the gallon, the truck certainly isn’t one of them.

The same message – and means – for reaching and connecting with prospective buyers just isn’t applicable to those in the truck target set.

That’s the Weaknesses and Threats (the W and T of the academic SWOT analysis). Let’s consider the Strengths and Opportunities before Chevrolet.

Find Them Where They Live

Okay, so the green and efficient message gets worked over for GM cars.  GM trucks, not so much.  However the greater market may swing, there’s still a very real need for quality workhorses.  How might GM  reach and message these prospects and potential evangelists?  And what do they need to consider?

• Be authentic, be frank.  Be real.
  • These are key personality traits that consumers associate with the brand.  They must be maintained.  There’s enough “duck & hide” going on elsewhere in the news.
• Self deprecation never hurt anyone.  In fact, it could engender consideration and trial.
  • Trucks have and will consume greater amounts of fuel/energy than cars.  Talk about that.  Not the kinetic mechanics, but the reality that trucks are what they are.  And for a reason.
• Share a long-range vision.
  • Realities shared, what about a peek into the possibilities of tomorrow?  There’s room for improvement, and I’ll bet somebody smart is figuring out some opportunity areas right now.
• Reinforce smart decision-making.
  • It’s okay to need, or even want, a truck.  Undeniable reality is that car’s aren’t appropriate for every body, every task, every locale, every family and its dynamic.  If you’re gonna buy, Chevy is the right place to look.
• Embrace the mediums that will encourage and cultivate connectivity
  • The warm fuzzies of yesteryear have worked so well for Chevy, there’s no need to completely abandon the implied invitation to join their proud and stalwart group.  That group needs to be nurtured and community fostered through careful planning and management.  Huge potential for leveraging SM platforms to link up like-minded individuals, and foster the affinity.  Link up those with specific models, those with oldest models, those who have pimped out their wheels.  What are some of those amazing stories just waiting for a forum?
• Continuity and sustainment required
  • Like anything in life worth having, an active and vociferous social community takes time, attention, parenting, defending, and maintaining.

I’m looking forward to seeing what General Motors, and its agency partners, whip up.  Things may look tough for the US automaker right now, but my bet is on their ability to stick it out, suck it up, and come out with guns blazing.  For their sake, for ours, and for the planet’s.

Timeline of Compelling Campaigns

1975  “Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie and Chevrolet”

1986  “Heartbeat of America”

1991  “Like a Rock”

2003  “An American Revolution”

I found out about the project last week from Shel Holtz when reading his blog (he wrote about inclusion).  I’m a little apprehensive of throwing my hat into the ring, given the esteemed company, but the maverick in me decided it was worth a shot (i.e., “embracing my Inner Maverick”).  I’d like to grow the insightsandingenuity readership and following, and this Project is potentially one way to do that (assuming, of course, that the blog doesn’t get puked on).

Nervous glances and throat clearing aside, here is my contribution:  I suggest social media platforms (particularly blogs and communities like Facebook) are founded on equal parts Control and Self-Expression. And before you snarkily commence with witty repartee like “Well, yeah! Duh!” please note that I believe this is true for both sides of the interaction equation – the content contributor (blogger) as well as the content participant (blogee).

Modern society places the consumer at the center of myriad of pressure points, from an economic group pressue, to societal pressures, to political pressures, to technology pressures, ad nauseam.  Those pressure points (in my opinion) affect common, shared values (like Control and Self-Expression), and drive the proliferation and adoption of goods & services associated with those values.  Consumers use their own personal filters to determine what role and priority the value(s) has in their own life.

For those persons who place a high value on Control, they are just as likely to want to produce and distribute high quality Web content (perhaps out of frustration for that Web material that they cannot control) as they are to want to selectively parse and filter available or found content (think of the measure of selectivity that tools like iGoogle and other aggregators provide).

Similarly, for those valuing Self-Expression (yes, sometimes the value outcomes overlap) may see Facebook and Twitter as a way to imprint their personalities, preferences, and opinion upon others.  A Tweet can encourage those following to “Join me!” or merely serve as a podium for a rant.

Example:  Control
A) As someone who enjoys writing and marketing, I’d like to contribute the conversation and ideally influence its direction.
B) As someone monitoring the marketing blogosphere, you have the ability to filter out my conversation at will.

There, you have it.  Simple Control, exercised by both sides.

I believe the “best practice” element becomes instrumental when considering precisely what niche you (the content author) want to claim for yourself.  A measure of control can keep your content focused and your authority quotient respectable.  Conversely, I suggest authors temper their ability (free reign?)  to control content by reflecting on the potential value gained by referencing specific brands or other proper nouns.

In some cases – as with my recent post “Dear Valued Patient(s),” nothing could have been gained by calling out the name of my physician’s practice.  The point lay with the paradigm (“Dear patient” greeting with “…it’s been a pleasure and a privilege to serve you…” claim).

So where might this project lead?  I’ll tap Sam Meers, Matt Dickman, Mack Collier, and Seth Godin to continue carrying the torch (hey, I aim high! and *sigh* I only personally know one of ‘em.  no sense putting on airs!).