It’s a new year, and now more than ever it seems we still need great, affordable events to learn about social media best practices.  BlogPotomac 2009 will be held on the second Friday of June this year (June 12) at the State Theatre again.  Like last year, 2009’s line-up features seven sessions from some of the sharpest minds in the business including this year’s keynote Shel Holtz. 

Here’s the full line-up…

Morning Sessions

• Author Shel Holtz will deliver our keynote
• Ace Political Blogger Shireen Mitchell on Government 2.0 and political blogging
• Ford Social Media Lead Scott Monty discusses integration of social media from a corporate perspective

Afternoon Sessions

• SOBCon Organizer and Successful Blog Author Liz Strauss will kick off the afternoon
• Social Media Consultants Aaron Brazell (Technosailor) and Altitude Marketing’s Amber Naslund will be on a two person panel discussing personal branding versus organizational social media
• Network Solutions Social Media Swami Shashi Bellamkonda will discuss how social media has changed the world by requiring immediate response (disclosure: Shashi is an LComm client).

To get a little more unconference-like this time, our seventh and final session topic will be determined by attendees in a month-long open voting session starting on April 1.  In general, our modified format will remain the same.

Debbie Weil and Viget Labs are continuing as advisory board members, and I will chair the event this year solo.  Both Debbie and I will co-emcee BlogPotomac 2009.

Over the next couple of weeks, we will be updating the BlogPotomac site to reflect speakers bios and pictures, the new agenda, as well as the new dates. Tickets will go on sale January 19 at a cost of $95. Like last year, we will limit the amount of tickets to 150, and any profits will be donated to a charity once all costs are paid.

by Beth Harte (cross-posted on the Harte of Marketing) and Geoff Livingston

Our original post “Top 25 Ways to Tell if Your Social Media Expert Is a Carpetbagger” was really meant as a silly riff in reaction to the sudden rush of folks offering social media services in the wake of the economic crisis. The post was never meant to be anything more than half rant/half humor, but the 180+ comments on both of our blogs indicate that we touched a much bigger nerve. Since it’s a prescient topic, we’d like to offer a more serious, positive post to help marketers make a good choice in consultants (image by tigermatt).

A couple of precursors. We’re just starting the list. Feel free to add, balk, or digress.

Secondly, not having a few of these isn’t a death sentence. Social media communications is still a really new industry, and there are no silver bullet experts or methodologies. To help separate the wheat from the chaff, we are sharing these general suggestions, but if many qualifiers are missing in your potential partner’s offering, as a marketer, PR or communications professional you should probably be concerned.

Lastly, we’ve cited examples. This is not an echo chamber or buddy list (sorry to our buddies not on the list, we only wanted to list one per qualifier). In some cases, we’ve never met said examples, but we know their work.

Finally, there are many qualified SM consultants/agencies. In the case of larger agencies, we can’t vouch for them, but can safely recommend individuals. It would be impossible to list all of the many qualified social media partners. Instead, we refer you to Charlene Li’s Altimeter Wiki as a starting place. We also invite you to give hat tips in the comments section.

OK, here we go again:

1) Believes in the generous web and practices cross-linking in their blog (example: Kami Huyse)

2) Highlights others’ work in their blog (example: Chris Brogan)

3) Integrates social media as part of larger marketing strategy(example: Razorfish)

4) Doesn’t pretend to be an expert in all things digital; instead simply focuses on what he/she/they do best (example: Common Craft)

5) Gives away best practices in an effort to educate, grow social media in general (example: Todd Defren/SHIFT Communications)

6) Understands that Radian6 and other monitoring tools are vastly superior tracking tools in comparison to Technorati (which really isn’t an indicator of much these days) (example: Fleishman’s Matt Dickman)

7) Will tell you that there is no magic bullet for determining social media ROI and that you need to go further to accurately monitor, measure and determine the effectiveness of social media. (example: K.D. Paine).

8) Understands that social media is an important part of the larger word of mouth marketing principles (example: Ogilvy’s John Bell)

9) Others cite this person/agency’s work (example: see the many here and here)

10) Realizes that search engine optimization represents an absolutely crucial part of social media (example: TopRank’s Lee Odden)

11) Understands that social media expands beyond search engine optimization tactics that lead to Diggs, Stumbles (StumbleUpon) and link baiting (example: Key Relevance’s Li Evans)

12) Integrates brick and mortar events with social media activity (example: Voce’s Josh Hallet)

13) Has and continues to work on notable social media projects (example: Andy Sernovitz)

14) Understands that conversations are the starting place and not the end game. And though ROI is critical, knows that without conversation you’re not going anywhere (example: Paul Chaney).

15) Understands that social networking and conversation is more than collecting followers and subscribers (example: Mack Collier)

16) Listens to you when you are discussing your challenges (example: Connie Reece)

17) Helps and guides clients so that they can understand the benefits of social media and implement it properly (themselves) (example: Amber Naslund)

18) Knows that social networking works best when they are conversing, sharing, and being human (i.e. doesn’t self-promote) (example: Jason Falls)

19) Educates clients on understanding that they no longer own or control their brand and educates them on how to create customer evangelists (example: Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba)

20) Won’t act as your social media ‘voice’ or ghostwrite for you (example: Laura Bergells)

21) Understands the difference between social media tools and communications strategy (example: Ogilvy’s Rohit Bhargarva)

22) They won’t recommend blogging as a first step into social media (example: David Armano) and when you are ready to begin they consult you on how to be successful (example: Drew McLellan)

23 Doesn’t allow clients to be affected by Shiny New Object syndrome (example: Beth Kanter)

24 Understands that social media is more than just creating and delivering content or regurgitating existing promotional copy Joseph Jaffe

25 Understands that social media isn’t the sole terrain of marketing or PR and helps clients educate internally to other departments
(example: Media Badger)

Idiots and gossip represent the biggest danger to idea markets and networked intelligence, says MIT Media Lab Professor Alex Pentland in his findings, “Honest Signals.” Of particular note: In large groups behavioral dynamics can cause for less than stellar results via bad ideas introduced (idiots) and shared sources that repeat the same information over and over again (gossip). Anyone who has questioned the 2.0 echo chamber or wisdom of crowds can identify with these issues, yet Pentland demonstrates networked intelligence is superior to the individuals.

Honest Signals reveals findings from a new technology called the Sociometer that measures human behavior, including overwhelming proof that humans do not make rational, logical decisions, instead opting for a base networked form of primal signaling amongst ourselves. This empirical evidence proves collaborative use of body language and other signals are more important in communications and decision making than theories of messaging and big-man management. Further, the findings bulwark the collaborative trends we are seeing in the social web, which brings us back to idiots and gossip.

Anyone who has participated in Twitter or a highly engaged wiki environment can see this networked intelligence at work. And often the wisdom of the crowd can go astray in a bit of a frenzy or simply put, bad group-think. So the question becomes how to improve idea markets for better collaboration, performance and use, something the Media Lab, Intel and Hewlett-Packard are all actively trying to solve.

The idiot factor — introduction of bad ideas — can easily be weeded out by performance. Someone who cannot deliver good intellectual capital simply loses credibility (idiot image by Geoff Greene).

The gossip factor seems to be much tougher. While “me, too” may count as approval, the sociological problem lies in a variety of societal pressures (cliques, etc.) and subjective mental quirks. One idea spread across many is not many ideas, rather it’s still only one alternative and its popularity may be temporal.

For those who lament the echo chamber, we have to be discerning in large distributed environments and community idea markets like the blogosphere and Twitter, respectively. It’s important to source ideas and understand which ones come from independent sources and which ones are simply, “me, too” theories.

A couple of tips from Honest Thinking include 1) tight social groups rarely have multiple unique ideas and 2) make sure you use different sources of information than some other friends/acquaintances in the echo chamber. Number two is something I manage diligently in my Google Reader, quickly purging blogs which start miming other voices. You’d be surprised how many top bloggers actually present “unique” posts that in actuality seem to trailing other lesser known, more original thinkers.

Other Findings

Perhaps more relevant for the general communicator are the base sociometer findings, “that a great deal of human behavior is either automatic or determined by unconscious processes.” Many, many people in sales and marketing subscribe (including me) to what can be called a emotional sentimentality to decision making. But there’s never been a science to it, instead positioning, messaging theories, sales training or “positivity” memes.

Ever walk out of a meeting where you picked up on a piece of information conveyed to the group that was crucial for a decision, but that teammates missed? These “sales skills” or what others have even called voodoo actually demonstrate a sensitivity to the honest signals people are conveying, according to the sociometer’s findings.

“If we think about expert poker players again, we see that they are good at recognizing what patterns of play are unfolding, as well as predicting how likely future draws of cards are favorable.” - Alex Pentland.

These signals translate across one-on-one meetings, workgroups, and friend circles all the way to large enterprises. Consequentially, great decision making really represents an unconscious ability to digest and extrapolate the signals across diverse groups of people and situations. The “decision maker” is simply tapping the broader experience of the whole rather than sitting atop an ivory tower.

Honest signals also impact our use of communication toolsets and technologies. Pentland argues many of our tools have yet to be designed for the trues signaling we engage in as human beings, and that hopefully in the future, they will evolve to better harness our idea markets and networked intelligence.

This book is simply fascinating. I could (and may) blog quite a bit more on it. I highly suggest any business leader or communicator who wants bleeding edge intelligence read this book.

A special thanks go out to Ben Waber, MIT Media Lab doctorate student and cousin via marriage, who handed Honest Signals to me on a recent trip. Thanks, Ben!

With the sun rising on 2009, all of us at Livingston Communications wish you a happy, prosperous New Year.

After much thinking and several conversations with the LComm team, I’ve decided to embrace the personal brand marketing theory. And, based on that theory it is evident that I need a new image for 2009. I mean, who needs value?

Thanks for the great year of interaction and discussion on the Buzz Bin. From all of us at Livingston Communications have a fantastic holiday season, and we’ll see you in 2009.

The recent “web 2.0″ boom of the past few years has changed the dynamic of the workplace, in many ways for the better. At the same time, it has brought an era of dramatic privilege, a sense that employees should do what they want, whenever they want, and that employers should work to fulfill those desires if they want to keep said employees. And in my opinion, that change in work ethic proves the point that some things don’t change for the better.

Nothing typifies this more than the crazed directions the personal branding phenomena has branched into. While many purists debate with me about semantics — feeling that personal brands really mean an individual’s reputation — it’s clear that the movement has become something much more akin to Internet fame and rock stardom.

Lately, you’re not hearing that attitude so much. Millenials are now realizing their first economic downturn, and a more sober attitude seems to be arising from the general web 2.0 crowd towards works. The common statements of the day are “I’m grateful we’re busy,” or “I’m happy to have a job.”

That’s not to say that some of those gains should be turned away. In a world where you move from job to job or project to project in periods of years and months (rather than decades), it’s only natural to seek work in areas of interest. But being satisfied with a non-fulfilling job — even just for today — is OK, too.

One almost surefire result of America’s most difficult economic time since the Great Depression will be a return to old fashioned work ethic. This ethos, something that got drilled into me by my father and mentors in my twenties, revolves around good stewardship. While the nature of jobs have changed dramatically within a much shorter window of time, the principles of good stewardship still apply.

Good Stewardship

For the purpose of this discussion, let’s define stewardship as the successful execution of the management another’s property or financial affairs; one who successfully administers anything as the agent of another or others. So when someone pays you to do something — a.k.a. a job — they are financially compensating you for acting as their steward (Image: Working Class Hero by Jurek D.).

You don’t see fulfillment or building personal brands in this definition. Far from it really. What is evident is an underlying attitude of service. Rather than preach, it seems best to put down ten of the standards I try to apply to my own activities past and present:

1) I am responsible for my actions.

2) As part of my job (either full time or as part of a consultancy) I am paid to perform a service. I will do this, even if I only intend to stay for a year (or the project is for a couple of months).

3) Sacrifice is required at times. I make those sacrifices, even when it affects me personally. I did this before I owned my own company, too.

4) That’s because a job is not about accepting status quo, instead taking the baton and moving it further.

5) Success means passing the baton on so the next guy can take it and run, with a real opportunity to do even better than me.

6) By being a good steward, I will build a good personal reputation as well as benefit the larger brand. But selfish motives in day-to-day activity will actually reap the opposite reward.

7) In that vein, I succeed when my boss/client/company looks good as a result of actions taken.

8) Agreement with my company/client is not something I need to perform my responsibilities. If I voiced my concerns and I’m told to do something a different way, then so be it. I’ll do such activity with the best attitude possible.

9) When I make mistakes, I try to own them and when appropriate make amends

10) Perfection is not possible, but progress is. Therefore, I seek to evaluate, analyze, explore weaknesses, and build. More progress is always attainable.

I’m interested in your thoughts about shifting work ethic attitudes. Here’s another thought from Bonnie Parrish-Kell.

The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy seeks to improve the lives and future prospects of children and families. The organization strives to ensure that these children are born into stable homes and raised by two-parent families. The National Campaign’s goal is to reduce the teen pregnancy rate and unplanned pregnancy among young adults.

Lawrence Swiader is the Director of Digital Media at The National Campaign and relays responsible values and messages to obtain their goal by using social media, games, mobile devices and the Web. Prior to The National Campaign, Lawrence worked at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for ten years where he established an award-winning Web presence for the Museum.

BB: What was your biggest achievement on the social media front in 2008?

LS: Having just joined The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy in October, 2008, my biggest achievements would have to be described as working on the small things. This included making sure that our blog, Pregnant Pause , was listed on all the right directories and that my colleagues felt ownership for writing into the blog.  In addition, a presence for The National Campaign was created in Twitter , Facebook , Delicious , YouTube and other important Web destinations.

BB: Tell us about your organization’s marketing/communications strategy for 2009.

LS: The National Campaign’s marketing strategy for 2009 emphasizes new outreach to young adults, 18 - 30, to prevent unplanned pregnancy.  Over half of all pregnancies in this age group are unplanned.  This is a big problem and a large, national group.  We believe that the way to reach our audience is to invest some time in a destination site, yes, but also to create small products (there are a lot of group producers out there) that can be marketed effectively via social networks.

BB: What big hairy audacious social media goals will help you achieve your objectives next year?

LS: Our biggest social media goals next year will be to leverage the tools to create an audience from scratch around some new audio and video series.  In addition, with a new administration, a big goal would be to affect new the health policy by including family planning issues.  Social networks can be used to bring some awareness to the issue.

Social media will also allow us to bring people together around sexual health and birth planning issues to allow the newly-formed community to learn from one another.

Bad reaction to a form of birth control?  Tell the community.  Someone has had that problem before.

You’re not alone.  What’s even better is that once people start sharing information, we can feed aggregate information back to the community to help it make better choices.

This kind of information sharing and data mining is why people like Facebook and how Google predicts when the flu might hit your area.  There is no telling what insights await us of we can just gain access to the information and think creatively about it.

BB: How do you plan to integrate your social media efforts with the rest of your marketing mix (e.g., direct mail, email marketing, mobile, media relations, etc.)?

LS: The little things help us to integrate our social media efforts with everything else we do.  For example, including a “follow me” link to our Twitter account on all correspondences,  inviting partners to guest blog, and doing stories in print and online publications about The National Campaign’s social media work are ways to “shuffle the deck.”  Instead of building a landing page where, in the past, we would have accepted comments via an invitation sent via an electronic newsletter, we will invite people to comment into a blog thereby raising awareness to that outlet and avoiding reinventing the wheel.

BB: What is one challenge you face when executing new, social and/or digital media strategy? How are you overcoming this hurdle?

LS: The main hurdle I see is that many people still don’t understand social technology though they believe we have to be involved in some way.  Social networking activities are not hard but they are complex and time consuming.  To post a good Tweet or blog entry, one has to be a decent writer, know the topic, and study what others say on the Internet.  Making the case for dedicated staff to “do social media” is not easy and needs to be done time and again.

BB: What will be the final measure of success for your digital plans?

LS: For The National Campaign, there will be various levels of success.  On one level, it will be measured in terms of eyeballs and ears as the first big challenge is to raise awareness.  A higher level will have us evaluating whether some information is imparted and kept via the various online initiatives.  Last, we aim to reduce the rate of unplanned pregnancies in young adults through better sex education, raising people’s ability to have good relationships, a commitment to personal responsibility, and good state and federal policies regarding family planning.

BB: Do you foresee any particularly enticing opportunities that can help nonprofits/causes reach their social media goals in 2009? Any advice for how to take advantage of related trends?

LS: For nonprofits, the opportunities abound.  Never before has it been so easy, without the help of a development team and/or the media gatekeepers, to get your message out and create a network of people that care about your issue.  A good example is Today’s Meet . Excellent for back channel conversations, it can be set up in seconds and serve as a space for conversations that two years ago just were not possible.

by Beth Harte and Geoff Livingston

The bad economy has brought to bear one unwelcome change.  With a desire to use more cost effective communication forms, companies are looking to social media.  As a result, there are many, many companies, agencies and consultants rushing to offer social media services. Unfortunately, they don’t know what they’re doing (Image: Rifle Expert by Randy son of Robert).

Companies need to turn a discerning eye onto their potential social media partners. Here’s a quick list of some ways to vet potential social media experts.

1) When asked about listening, gives you a blank stare.

2) Converses at people instead of with them on social networks 

3) No tangible past experience delivering return on investment either for themselves or others

4) Doesn’t understand how social media integrates into larger corporate communications or business strategy

5) First recommendation is to blog

6) Believes in delivering messages

7) Will ghostwrite blog posts and other social content for you

8) Is willing to impersonate you online in social networks

9) Trots in “social media expert” for sales meeting

10) Their blog is less than six months old or has no comments

11) Blog only has links to traditional 1.0 media sites

12) Cannot host conversation without constantly interjecting self into said conversation

13) Talks about cultivating your personal brand

14) Will not allow employees to participate in larger conversation

15) Will guarantee results without any prior experiences

16) Just added new social media department

17) Recommends Facebook Group as first tactic

18) Defines social media as only tools (Facebook, blogs, Flickr <INSERT SHINY OBJECT HERE>) as opposed to conversations with communities

19) First campaign involves a contest without a strategy

20) Doesn’t know what Technorati is

21) Talks about applying mass communications theory

22) Posts less than five times a month on their blog

23) Thinks social media is about creating content

24) Suggests publishing promotional copy as social content

25) Believes social media is the sole terrain of either PR or advertising

What would you add to this list?

12/20 Update: Andrew Vascellari shot an absolutely hilarious video version of this post on his blog. Check out Andrew’s riffing on the 25:

GlobalGiving connects you to the causes and community-based projects you care about through their online marketplace. Joan Ochi, the Director of Marketing Communications and Robert Dubois, a Marketing Associate who provides support to the organizations online social media strategy, share how GlobalGiving uses direct marketing to encourage people to donate to the causes they support.

Both Joan and Robert have experience in marketing-communications. Prior to GlobalGiving, Joan provided marketing support for clients such as Fannie Mae and HP. Robert worked at Burns Marketing, Colorado’s fifth-largest marketing-communications agency.

BB: What was your biggest achievement on the social media front in 2008?

GG: Being a part of America’s Giving Challenge - an initiative spearheaded by the Case Foundation earlier this year. The objective of America’s Giving Challenge was to inspire Americans to use online tools such as widgets to participate in a fundraising for a cause - either a project on GlobalGiving or an organization on Network for Good. The Challenge ran for about 6 weeks and attracted over 130 “fundraisers,” more than 13,000 donors, and generated approximately $364,000 in donations. Interestingly, many of the top fundraisers who participated in the Challenge relied not just on social media tools such as widgets and blogs, but used traditional outreach vehicles such as phone calls and email messages as well.

We continued to experiment with other social media tools (Facebook, our own blog, Second Life, etc) as well, and learned that every tools is not right for every organization. Participating in and maintaining a presence on social networks is time consuming and resource intensive, and we found that merely having a presence on social networks has for the most part not been effective in developing online communities or building relationships with new or potential donors.

BB: Tell us about your organization’s marketing/communications strategy for 2009.

GG: Going forward, we are focusing on both acquisition and retention by creating a more engaging website experience - one that will motivate people to return regularly to take advantage of and participate in the more community-oriented features on GlobalGiving. Some of the functionality under development include fundraising tools (which would allow individuals to come together to raise funds for a project in which they have a common interest), tell-a-friend features that enable viral marketing, online discussions between donors and project leaders, and enhanced donor profiles.

BB: What big hairy audacious social media goals will help you achieve your objectives next year?

GG: Once again, we feel that community – oriented features – the ability for donors to connect and interact with project leaders, as well as with other donors – are becoming increasingly important. For example, if I can see what projects my friends support, I might be more likely to support those projects, too. We want our donors to feel connected - with projects and the people that run them, with other donors, and with the broader GlobalGiving community in general. Today, we enable donors to add comments to reports posted by progress leaders - we’re working to make this more dynamic and hopefully turn this “back and forth” into interesting, lively, and educational conversations. And of course, we’ll continue to promote widgets and integrate more video and audio (e.g. podcasts) into our site.

BB: How do you plan to integrate your social media efforts with the rest of your marketing mix (e.g., direct mail, email marketing, mobile, media relations, etc.)?

GG: We typically use email communications to encourage individuals to visit gg.com and engage on our site. Traditional media/public relations also tends to be very effective in driving qualified visitors to our site. Our goal is to create a unified/consistent user experience, so we employ landing pages that are customized based on where the person may be coming from - e.g. if we place an ad, we’ll direct viewers of that ad to a specific landing page that might leverage the same look/feel/messaging, etc.

BB: What is one challenge you face when executing new, social and/or digital media strategy? How are you overcoming this hurdle?

GG: Being a small organization, we have limited resources and therefore a very long wish list of desired features and enhancements - and of course, we can never get these features in as quickly as we’d like - so prioritization is especially important. In addition, it’s hard to evaluate how much time and resources to put into a new (and perhaps unproven) social media tool. We have to ask ourselves “is this the next best thing, or something that may fizzle within the next six months?”

BB: What will be the final measure of success for your digital plans?

GG: Put simply - meeting and exceeding our goals, usually around donation volume as well as other more standard web metrics such as conversion, bounce rate, repeat visitors, etc. As we expand our community, we will implement goals related to community participation and engagement, referrals, etc.

BB: Do you foresee any particularly enticing opportunities that can help nonprofits/causes reach their social media goals in 2009? Any advice for how to take advantage of related trends?

GG: There’s so much out there that it’s tricky to stay on top of all the latest developments. Reading blogs like this one :-) and taking advantage of the myriad of opportunities out there - from Google applications and seminars, to resources like Progressive Exchange, Net Squared, TechSoup - and you’d be amazed of the tips we get from Twitter, too! It’s important not to try to use every social media tool at once - figure out what your organization’s needs are, and then identify the tools that you think would best meet your specific needs.

PS. Could 2009 be the year that mobile actually breaks through as a social media tool in the US in a big way???

Because of the nature of our work, I get to see lots of curriculum for training sessions as well as partake in many conversations about social media communications best practices.  Unfortunately, blog first, then engaging in social networks remains one of the most prevalent trends one finds. This ironically is probably the worst thing a company can do (Image: Walk of Fame by Mot the Barber).

If you do not participate in a community, if you are not engaged, pushing one way content at people will more than likely fail. It also flies in the face of what many of the best bloggers teach.  Great social media begins with research and listening, then participation. Only then do you determine how to create content (see open source social media content process on Now Is Gone). 

Look, starting a corporate blog was a big deal three or four years ago, but now it’s anything but a big deal.  In fact, what most people are interested companies that can participate in the community and provide meaningful interactions that impact their lives. Not publish canned BS on a “new” platform called a weblog.

If anything, what last week’s blog discussion showed is that many, many companies are failing at blogging. And there are some very tangible reasons why: The marketplace has become inundated with social media content, and most of it is lousy.  Regardless of what Blog Council PR Rep Michael Rubin says, 86 percent fail because they cannot dedicate themselves to the effort and produce meaningful content regularly.

Like David Armano said, blogging requires a ton of hard work:

If you’re scratching your head wondering why your social media initiatives aren’t the bright and shiny object you were sold—it’s time to realize that there is a truth here that goes beyond social media all together. The fact is that it’s hard work to produce something of value. It’s really tough to do something that gets people talking (in a good way), and no amount of strategy can produce trust. Trust comes with time, interactions and has to be proven.

Unlike most agencies and consultants, I don’t think it’s a good idea for people to start with a blog.  This was something that Rohit Bhargarva also said when we interviewed him for the Network Solutions Solutions Stars video conference.  And an 86 percent failure rate means a company really needs to understand the time and valuable thought leadership commitments blogging takes before engaging.  I’ve seen several clients really struggle with these commitments over the past couple of years.

So in my mind, blog last!  It’s a recession and many companies needs successful pilot programs to show social media will work.  To do that first figure out where you can play, participate, maybe guest blog or provide some other valuable contribution, and learn your community.  After a few months a company will know whether blogging can really offer a meaningful way to regularly participate. 

Strong Criticism for the Blog Council

When the Blog Council launched, I voiced my reticence. One year later, I see very little value in this organization’s efforts.

My feeling on the Blog Council is that it’s an overpriced, exclusive networking group for big companies.  These guys pay tens of thousands of dollars to talk in private about, umm, blogging and social media best practices.  Right.

Every time I talk to a member, they say the find value in it. I ask them what’s the value.  They say access to other corporate social media types in big companies. OK, so other than providing high dollar networking, what does the Council actually do?  Publish basic guidelines and flack on behalf of big blogs?

Last week, when the Forrester report came out Blog Council Staffer Michael Rubin proceeded to comment on my One Dimensional Corporate Social Media Sucks post in a rather interesting fashion, and of course, we had a nice back and forth (starting here).  His primary argument is that people won’t trust corporations no matter what they do.

I disagree.  Like Armano I think their communications stink, and there is no reason to trust them until they do a much better job of engaging stakeholders on a consistent basis. Since then, I’ve been told by several folks that the Rubin-cited Rubbermaid case study is in actuality a good one (see Josh Bernoff write up).

Sorry, as someone who makes recommendations to people on how to spend their marketing budgets, I see 10, 20 or even 30K for participation in this group as a waste. I’ve told several folks who were considering the Blog Council this, too. Anyone can network with these accessible social media types (I do and so can you).  I want to see much more public value from the Blog Council before it merits anything but a thumbs down from me.