It's one of those days when I'm just going to let the highlighted posts do all the talking... Read more
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Last week I posted about hosting a meeting on the Influence Scorecard. The post was testing the water to determine the level of interest such an event might generate, and I was answered by dozens of emails, direct twitters, comments and even some direct editing of the post itself, as I'd hoped! (MarCom Professional allows an author to permit others to edit a post, wiki-style.)
I even received tentative enquiries about sponsorship, so it looks like we are on to something here...
Moreover, the interest was split almost 50:50 between Europe and North America, and it was spread fairly evenly amongst each of the required participant groups.
What is clear from all the queries and interest is that we now need to put some meat on the bones. Here are a few top line thoughts on 'influence', 'scorecard' and what we hope to achieve. Your thoughts are welcome.
Influence
Organisations want to influence the opinion and behaviour of their stakeholders. They do this via the various marketing and communications disciplines and approaches - PR, advertising, branding, community building, conversational marketing, direct marketing, events, product placement, public affairs, sponsorship etc..
Of course, stakeholders also influence each other and some will want to influence an organisation - how ready an organisation is for this dialogue is another matter.
Scorecard
The 'scorecard' is inspired by the Balanced Scorecard, one of the most widely adopted organisational performance management methodologies (generally known as "business performance management" or just plain BPM). According to the Balanced Scorecard Institute: Read more
Marketing communications operates within an increasingly complex multi-stakeholder web of influences, and the way many of us can or will be able to devine how influence goes around and comes around, how reputations get built up and eroded, is to look at it pictorially.
My best attempt to date at explaining this in non-mathematical language is in my post "Can you see it? Making influence visible." Check it out. More widely, my post "Influence... it's a numbers game", lists all my posts related to this topic. Read more
This week's mix of post highlights includes a couple of thought provokers from Brian Solis, one on his work with Anheuser-Busch in creating a fusion of public relations and social media, and another on Friendfeed... is it the new Twitter?
And if anything tolls the bell for a service in the eyes of the influential early adopters, it's the arrival of "celebrity". Stephen Waddington sounds the alarm for Twitter.
And forgive me if I just hijack the last part of this Roundup intro. Marketing communications is a considerably different discipline today than it was at just the turn of the decade. The social web and conversational marketing mean influence is exerted in different ways and robust measurement is coming of age. PR is becoming fully and quantifiably accountable for the first time.
If this lights your screen, if it clicks your mouse, then please take time to read my post on the Influence Scorecard and let me know if you would like to help shape the cutting edge of marketing communications as it takes its place deservedly, centrally and irrevocably at the board table. Read more
When I first decided to write The Social Web Analytics eBook 2008, I had no idea it would attract over 10,000 downloads in 100 days. And why does it continue to be downloaded 1,000 times a month? In hindsight, the reasons are plain:
- Listening to and learning from all our stakeholders is a widely and keenly felt desire
- Acquiring a grasp of the reputation our company and brands have notched up must constitute a key organisational performance metric for anyone
- Understanding how our interaction and dialogue with our stakeholders contributes to the achievement of our marketing and communications objectives helps us quantify how well we are meeting those objectives. Read more
I've been asked at least a dozen times why The Social Web Analytics eBook 2008 refers to the "Social Web" and not "Social Media". In fact, the terms appear to have attracted similar usage according to a quick Google search count today:
- "social web analytics" - Google estimates 18,600 results
- "social media analytics" - Google estimates 20,100 results
Interestingly, however, the term "social media" attracts more than twice the search count estimate as "social web":
- "social web" - Google estimates 8,250,000 results
- "social media" - Google estimates 19,700,000 results
So what's going on? What is social media?
Social media is a subset of the social web. Read more
Optimists might say the cream rises to the top in a recession. What's definitely clear from this week's MarCom Professional highlights is that the effective marketing skillset has changed and continues to change apace, and it's not a great leap to conclude that those that "get it" earlier than others will reap competitive advantage, or indeed simply survive this economic winter.
Andrew Grill, for example, examines an article in the FT painting a dismal picture for the advertising industry if it fails to adapt to the changes in media.
Or perhaps now's your time to write a book? Trevor Young brings an absorbing slideshow to our attention portraying Rohit Bhargava's route to book top-sellerdom for *Personality Not Included.
Lastly, a quick hello to everyone who has joined us here on MarCom Professional in recent weeks, you are most welcome. If you like what you see, please do invite your colleagues with the simple "Invite" feature at the top of all our webpages.
Best regards, Philip and the MarCom Professional team. Read more
A new year is a time for resolutions, many of which will be focused on personal development and growth. That's a critical kind of resolution for marketers in 2009 as our industry continues to change at unprecedented speed, and if the bag of posts below is anything to go by, MarCom Professional remains a great source of insight and learning.
And the occasional fun too.
So despite everything, we hope 2009 turns out to be what you make it. Read more
What a lovely thing to see at the start of the New Year, particularly this one! A photo of a loved tabby cat under the word "Found" rather than "Lost".
And a thank you message to neighbours for the help they may have given in recovering said cat... I knew immediately that I'd take a picture of it and write a blog post.
Why?
Why did the cat's owner feel compelled to go back to her PC, bring up the "Lost" file, edit to "Found", print it, go outside and staple it to the tree? On the face of it, he or she obviously really loves that cat and might not have had anything else to do with her time... but that's being cynical. Oddly enough, I now feel more compelled to check my garden and outbuildings next time someone posts up a "Lost" poster because I've been thanked in advance. I know someone really cares.
It has also made me think about what our company and clients could say to our public, our neighbours, with this unusual case study in mind... with altruistic intent or more simply for 'feelgood'.
How about you and yours?
The last Roundup of 2008 includes a diverse array of pressies under the MarCom Professional tree.
Brian Solis and Ben Matthews scrutinise the Techcrunch embargoe kerfuffle (marking the end of an era?), David Knowles chats about how we might all learn from the latest X-factor, and Stephen Waddington uses any excuse to include a picture of Kelly Brooks... although we agree Quick Response codes might be hot stuff in coming years.
And in amongst the brightly wrapped pressies, one from the US Air Force, courtesy of David Meerman Scott, about their use of social media in their marketing communications. That'll get us flying into 2009.
Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays, whichever you prefer.
Best regards, Philip and the MarCom Professional team. Read more