I’ll be speaking March 6 at Blogout ‘09 in Singapore. Here are 10 questions about social media that my presentation will attempt to deal with. How would you respond to these? Please leave your responses below.

1. The “conversation” is not taking place on corporate web sites. Where is it happening?
2. How much more “micro” will content get? Can we get by with fewer than 140 characters? Can you communicate anything of substance in a 12-second video (by using 12seconds.tv)? What other examples of the microsizing of content are there?
3. Are large companies learning to master social media to regain control of their brands, or is the time for that long past?
4. Are there too many social sites and services for a user to maintain, or has some consolidation made this easier?
5. Are sites like GetSatisfaction offering a genuine alternative to traditional customer support, or are they just a way for companies to release themselves from the responsibility of after-the-sale support?
6. Facebook did it again with its TOS flip-flop (think back to the Beacon debacle), raising concerns among users and advocacy groups that social networks may not be adequately protecting consumers. Do socnet operators have users’ best interests at heart, or are they influenced by the almighty dollar to “do the wrong thing”?
7. Very few attempts at enacting social media specific legislation have been successful. Why is this? Will we start to see social media laws, requiring more transparency on the part of advertisers for example?
8. Do businesses expect to evaluate social media success with traditional measures like revenue, margins and leads, or are “softer” measures like engagement and brand awareness adequate return on social media investment?
9. Is executive blogging passé? Are corporate communicators writing blogs on behalf of CEOs and other senior executives?
10. Do consumers trust social media? With the frequent social media hoaxes, like the case of the fake ExxonMobil account on Twitter, do we need better ways to authenticate corporate social media?

These are some of the big questions I’ve been thinking about. Please leave a response of any length below. If you’re passionate about any of these questions, have at it. Or add your own questions. Consider it an invitation to write a guest post for my blog. You guys are the smart ones. I want to know what YOU think.

Thanks!

Tags: Blogout, Singapore

I was quoted in today’s Launch magazine in Do’s and Don’ts of Using Social Internet Sites for Business. In the article, I offer the following advice on adding and interacting with contacts on various social networks:

“Don’t forget your manners.

While nearly all social networks have rules for participation (don’t post obscenities or copyrighted material, for example), the etiquette for adding people to each network is defined by the mores of those on the network, Postman says. He offers a few guidelines:

• Users should be particularly careful to avoid the appearance of flirtation and inappropriate comments and messages. Use the same rules as you would in the workplace.
• Don’t send blatantly commercial messages. Business networking is OK. Shameless promotion and cold calling is not.
• If the network allows, give the person you are inviting some context for the invitation.
• Do not take it badly if someone declines or ignores your invitation to connect. That’s their option.”

The full article can be found here.

Tags: Launch, Grow Utah Ventures, social network etiquette, Facebook, Twitter

I’ll be participating in Blogout09 in Singapore on March 6, giving my Communications Inside Out (see below) talk, which is based loosely on the last chapter of my book, SocialCorp: Social Media Goes Corporate. I’ll be in the esteemed company of Yongfook, the Ashton Kutcher of the Singapore social media scene, and Melvin Yuan, who is referred to by Kevin Lim (aka @brainopera) as “a ridiculously thoughtful public relations gentleman in Singapore.”

In commemoration of my visit to Singapore, Kevin has created this stunning photo montage:

Note that Yongfook is cited for his good looks, Melvin for his intelligence, and me for giving away copies of my book. This is how I want to be remembered! On the other hand, can either of them drive a Zamboni? I think not! My picture is a composite and the hand with the book doesn’t even belong to me! I appear to be grimacing after eating a bug or something.

Here are a few things you might not know about me:

• I came up with the original concept for Blogout in 1992, but since there was no such thing as blogging then, I had a hard time selling the idea
• The internet IS a series of tubes, and I will prove this scientifically during my presentation
• If you send me $500 by PayPal, I will disclose my great secret of making millions by blogging.

Hope to see you in Singapore!

Communications Inside Out

Now that the social media “dust” has settled, many companies feel like they’ve made the transition to a stable, predictable, Web 2.0 world. Not so fast! I’m going to lead a conversation about a second wave of changes underway or rapidly approaching. Communications Inside Out, based on the final chapter of my book, is loosely structured around five key shifts in perceptions about what social media is, and how it behaves:

• Speed–>Brevity
• Managed Participation–>Chaos
• Letting Go–>Taking Back
• Engagement–>Doing Business
• Wild Wild West–>Civilized World

For example, the attention span of the average person online has grown shorter and shorter, and with it, the length and duration of online content has similarly been reduced. Online videos, once considered “short” at three minutes, are now less than a minute, or even a few seconds in length. Entire “blog posts” have been reduced to 140 characters on sites like Twitter. In other words, while the emphasis in social media was on speed, it is now on brevity. Similar shifts have taken place elsewhere. My presentation will take a random walk through a handful of such shifts, helping participants better understand the nature and role of social media in the future.

Tags: Blogout, Singapore, Communications Inside Out, SocialCorp, Social Media Goes Corporate, Yongfook, Melvin Yuan, Kevin Lim, brainopera

One of my favorite Twitter users is PopeyesChicken. I even complimented the company in my post “Seven rules for establishing a corporate presence on Twitter” for being human and having a sense of humor. (The guy behind the account used to make inappropriate “nuggets” jokes which I really appreciated.)

But a few days ago, my romance with PopeyesChicken ended abruptly when I got a notice from Socialtoo that Popeyes had unfollowed me. I checked my followers list and verified the awful truth: dumped by a chicken. I’ve heard of people breaking up on social networks, but an unfollow has to be the unkindest click of the mouse.

Not long after, I discovered that Kentucky Fried Chicken was also on Twitter, as KFC_colonel. I guess I was on the rebound, so I decided to openly support KFC on Twitter as a way of retaliating against Popeyes for snubbing me. I promoted KFC with tweets like: “People behind @kfc_colonel are nice folks! Let’s help them out with a follow so they can achieve chicken parity on Twitter!” and “Slay the demon that is @Popeyeschicken!”

Keep in mind this was all in good fun. I don’t mind being unfollowed. OK, a little. I weep openly.

I included Popeyes in my updates hoping they would pick it up, and they did, tweeting: “I never quit following @jpostman! He must just want a piece of me. Looks like he’s gone over to the dark side.” Eventually they added me back and DM’d me that they hadn’t intentionally unfollowed. As KFC_colonel put it: “I love a story with a happy ending! Life’s too short to fight. Unless you’re fighting for the last piece of chicken in a bucket.”

I think it’s awesome that two “corporate spokespeople” can provide a useful customer service and have some fun while doing it. So if you’re on Twitter, follow them both if you don’t already. I’m going to chicken out and not say which one I prefer. I’ll just say they’re equally entertaining.

Update April 28, 2009: I just learned from a post by J C Lamkin on the Technically Speaking Radio blog http://is.gd/v8eK that Church’s Chicken is now on Twitter. Let the great Twitter chicken wars continue!

Rian ONeill Named Winner of February Promotion for a Signed Copy of SocialCorp: Social Media Goes Corporate

Comments are still open on this post, but the promotion to leave a comment below to win a free copy of SocialCorp has ended. Rian ONeill is the winner! Congratulations Rian! Many thanks to everyone who commented and especially to @KFC_colonel and @PopeyesChicken for being tremendous good sports and great company spokespeople on Twitter!

Tags: Twitter, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Popeyes Chicken, unfollow, follow, Socialtoo

Notes on my social networking strategy

I use a handful of social networks for different purposes. In many cases, I know people on more than one network. I will accept a “friend” invitation on any network with very few exceptions. When I can spot a spammer, a get-rich-quick scheme, or inappropriate content like racism or sexism, I’ll decline and occasionally block (depending on the network).

LinkedIn is the serious social network (and some would debate that it isn’t a full blown social network) for business networking and career development. It is  the most difficult place to add new connections, and the least dynamic and engaging of any of the networks I use. I have made some useful connections there, and find it useful enough to maintain, but it’s not a destination for me.

Facebook is awesome for communicating with people I know from “the real world,” like current and former co-workers, and people who attended the same high school or university. Facebook also acts as an extended bio/profile to Twitter. I often add someone on Facebook that I met on Twitter so that I can learn a little more about them.

Twitter gives me the most utility. I call it the Automat of the Internet. I have also heard it called a “pointer site,” meaning that so much of its value comes from links to outside content. (It has to with a 140-character limit). I use it as a social network; chat; IM; an intelligent, moderated news feed; and a career and business development site.

If I have a “strategy,” it’s to connect with interesting people, sometimes of similar interests, but it’s also personally rewarding to get to know people I would never have the opportunity and privilege of meeting anywhere else. Twitter, with its simplicity and openness, is the best place for this. A perfect example is Bing Futch, a mountain dulcimer player and collector of folk instruments, who I met through Twitter. Here’s a bit from Bing’s bio:

“He began playing Appalachian mountain dulcimer at Knott’s Berry Farm theme park in 1985, working at a Ghost Town shop for Bud & Donna Ford. In 1986, Futch founded Christian techno-punk band Crazed Bunnyz, a trio that grew popular in the international underground college radio scene.”

How cool is that?

Like most people, my social networking habits are driven by my perceptions of the etiquette and purpose of a particular network; my objectives; and who I am talking to. I won’t go off on a rant here about “the correct way” to use a social network because these discussions are too limiting and too bombastic. The correct way, as long as you don’t seriously offend too many people and/or break the law or violate the network’s Terms of Service (TOS), is whatever way works for you. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a self-appointed (and probably incompetent) expert.

Beyond the big three, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, my social network use starts to fall off. I really like Goodreads for finding out what people are reading, and I had a lengthy romance with Blip.fm, but we’re not seeing each other right now. I’m also on Plaxo because friends invited me. I’m on about 20 microblogging/lifestreaming whatever you want to call them services like Iminta, Onaswarm, Plurk, Fire Eagle, Brightkite, etc., because I wrote a client brief on these services and joined every one I could find when I was doing the research.

I occasionally post links on Twitter asking people to add me on Facebook, LinkedIn or Goodreads. I’ve probably been unfollowed for doing this but that’s OK. I first got the idea from Rajan G. Ramchandani, who posted the update “May I invite you to befriend me?” with a link to his Facebook profile. I thought this was the classiest, kindest request, and while I could never match it, I can aspire to do so.

Which brings me to the social networking full court press (SNFCP), the title of this post. The SNFCP is a strategy wherein someone adds someone on one social network, and then several others, all in rapid succession. Since I invented the name, I can invent the rules. In order to be a certified SNFCP, it must involve at least two additional invites in a 24-hour period. I have been on the receiving end of this strategy and I don’t mind it at all. I have also used it with certain people I felt I might be getting to know well. For me, it usually starts with a connection on Twitter with invites to Facebook and LinkedIn. I have only had it backfire once, when someone added me on Twitter and I added them on Facebook, only to be rebuffed with a Twitter direct message: “I appreciate your invite but I keep my Twitter and my Facebook separate.” I can respect that.

Your strategy, if you have one, could be very different from mine. Mine is organic, meaning it just formed itself as I used social networks, rather than being something I planned. This is the first time I tried to define it and doing so isn’t easy (and maybe isn’t necessary.)

When you get a moment, links to all my social networks are on my blog sidebar. Click freely!

So what’s your strategy, or do you think it’s better not to have one?

Tags: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Goodreads, Blip.fm, Plaxo, microblogging, lifestreaming, Iminta, Onaswarm, Plurk, Fire Eagle, Brightkite