On October 6, 2006, A.G. Lafley, then CEO of consumer products giant Procter and Gamble, ushered in the age of corporate social media when he told attendees at the Association of National Advertisers conference, “Consumers are beginning in a very real sense to own our brands and participate in their creation. We need to learn to begin to let go.”

Thus formally began a four-year industry-wide transition that ended December 27, 2010, with the announcement that Big Fuel, a social media marketing agency hired by General Motors a few months ago, will be soon be doubling its Detroit staff to 30 people to support the GM account.

With investments like that made by GM in Big Fuel, the corporatization of social media is complete. In addition to validating the influence and power of social media, and bringing GM and consumers closer together, social media efforts like this will more and more come under the heading of “business initiatives” not “special projects.” Social media marketing is increasingly subject to business oversight. It is measured for effectiveness, and programs that do not generate sales leads, subscriptions, revenue or whatever else they set out to do will be terminated, with some of the people responsible possibly being subject to the same fate.

I’m not saying any of this is entirely new. Hundreds of large companies have made substantial investments in social media already, many of them in-house. But the fact that a company as large and traditionally conservative as GM is making a commitment of this size is significant. The Big Fuel/GM story is a meta story that solidly confirms the transition is done. Maybe it was finished six months ago, or a year ago. But it’s definitely done now.

Tags: Procter & Gamble, A.G. Lafley, GM, social media, General Motors, Big Fuel, corporate

What does the future hold for social media? Tell me YOUR predictions and be entered to win my book, SocialCorp: Social Media Goes Corporate, or a Socialized t-shirt.

A year ago today I wrote about my predictions for 2010. What do you think the future holds? I’m interested in ideas not only about Facebook and Twitter, but social media in general, and not only about the tools, but social media law, privacy, marketing, ethics, measurement, etc.

To enter, leave your prediction(s) below in the comments section, and on December 31 I will randomly select a winner. Please use a valid e-mail address or Twitter ID so I can notify the winner.

So enough with the intro already…predict away!

It’s a tough world out there, and you, as a regular user of social media and social networks, have the chance, every day, to make a difference in someone’s life. Here are just five suggestions for how to do that:

1. Leave a comment on a friend’s blog. Commenter identity systems have made this a little harder than it used to be, but it still takes less than five minutes. Just take the time to read your friend’s blog post and offer a relevant comment or reaction. And it’s the gift that gives back, because generally you can leave a link back to your own blog or web site.
2. Like or comment on a Facebook status update, RT a tweet on Twitter, Digg or Stumble a blog post. There are over 200 million people on Twitter. How many have never had an RT? How many bloggers have ever had more than five Diggs? It’s a very inexpensive holiday gift.
3. Respond back to an @ on Twitter. Often I ask a question on Twitter for a piece I am writing, or because I need help with a client, and I get a handful of replies. I’ll sometimes engage people and other times not. I believe in interaction on Twitter but not chit chat. Because of my work, I want my timeline to be free of tweets that are of no use to others. Tweets like “thank you,” “lol,” “for sure,” and “I agree” are meaningless to anyone who wasn’t in the original conversation. One solution is to say “I agree with you, there are certainly some companies who should not be on Twitter,” so you are responsive to an individual and you express your opinion in a tweet that stands by itself. Another solution is to say “Screw it. I’ll just be nice to someone without considering how it makes me look.” It’s nice to let people know they matter, and that you appreciate their contributions.
4. Give credit when linking. If you refer to someone else via your blog or Facebook (or anywhere else character count isn’t an issue), link to them and identify them by name. Link to their blog, or their Twitter I.D. Name them. Extol and praise them. Instead of writing “according to one blogger” write, “according to Kevin Minott’s excellent Komverse blog.”
5. Praise publicly and freely. Correct privately. If you feel someone deserves a compliment, give it openly. If you see a typo or fact error in a post, and you genuinely think it matters to the person who posted it, send a DM, IM or email kindly pointing it out. This is considered helpful. To do so publicly is rude.

So there are a handful of ideas on how you can make the online world a better place. Do you have any suggestions? I’d appreciate your comments. And please link to your blog or Twitter ID.

Facebook users were recently “challenged” to change their profile picture to that of a favorite childhood cartoon character to show their solidarity with the work of NSPCC a U.K.-based organization that fights child abuse. Unfortunately, it turns out that NSPCC was not not behind the campaign, which must have started (one assumes) when a well-meaning person posted the idea on his or her Facebook page. An alternate suggestion, sick and scary, is that the idea was originated by a pedophile, who reasoned that by posting an image from one’s childhood, the “campaign” actually helps pedophiles identify young children.

This pseudo-campaign is the social network equivalent of the chain letter. It follows the same protocol and carries the same value. You “receive” a poignant plea from an online friend via Twitter tweet or Facebook status update urging you to pass it on. There may even be an exhortation like “I know only a few people will do this. They are the ones who are truly committed to fighting this terrible disease” or whatever. This is peer pressure and guilt at work. Just like the chain letter, if you don’t participate, you’re not committed, you’re not a good person.

Ultimately this is an example of the erosion of trust and credibility that can be caused by social media. In a world of pass-along information, it is often impossible to verify the source and the accuracy of information. This has been called the “post-fact era” by some, in which all information is subject to a vigorous debate in the community. But by discarding the idea of “facts,” have we left ourselves open for deception and disappointment?

There is another aspect to this that is of equal concern. Copy-and-paste activism is too easy. I know I will be criticized for saying this, but “real” activism helps those in need with a cash donation, a few cans of food, or a helping hand to build a home or clear an irrigation ditch. Awareness is all very well, but not that helpful to the truly needy. Snopes (thanks Kimberley Broyles for the reference) has a great term for this — slacktivism:

“Slacktivism comes in many forms, but its defining characteristic is its central theme of doing good with little or no effort on the part of the person inspired to participate, through the mechanisms of forwarding, exhorting, collecting, or e-signing.”

So what can be done about the social network chain letter? If you’re posting a plea, add a link to the original source to allow verification, and if you’re thinking of responding to one of these, do a little homework. I know this particular idea was appealing to parents, and perhaps it was harmless, but perhaps it wasn’t. And shadow campaigns like this may dilute the real work of these organizations.

I don’t claim to be altruistically perfect, far from it. I’m just sharing some thoughts on this and hope to hear yours as well.

Guest Post: Scott Huiras, SVP - Claims at SECURA Insurance*

Social media is a growing area that we see a lot of our policyholders involved in. It is a pure form of communication where users tend to be very open, sharing publicly where they are, what they are doing, what they purchase, who they are with, etc. This information can be vital to claims fraud investigation.

The vast majority of policyholders and claimants are honest. However, sometimes claimants exaggerate injuries to get more money from insurance companies. When we suspect this, we investigate the issues to find out whether the claimant is exaggerating or whether the claim is justified. One of our newest ways to investigate claims is through social media and other online outlets.

We found that as part of our investigation process, it helps to use social media to learn about our claimants. We can check Facebook and Twitter to find out what a claimant shares publicly that may be related to the claim. If a claimant is telling us he cannot ski because of an injury, and he tweets about a recent ski trip, we can use that information to show that the injury is clearly not affecting him the way he said it was. Using social media for claims investigation is just a small part of the claims fraud investigation process.

We’re now recruiting for a Social Media Claims Investigation Intern, a paid position, that is more a claims role than a social media role. The Intern will be using social media as a research tool. As a new position, we are still exploring how much time and depth of knowledge in social media a good candidate will need. However, because the intern will not be engaging with others in social media, it is fitting for an intern who will be trained in various facets of claims, and who could possibly move into a full-time claims position with SECURA.

As an aside, SECURA has an experienced full-time Social Media Specialist (SMS) who works in the marketing department and handles true social media activities for the company. The SMS engages with our agents and policyholders, and directs social media-related tasks and training for the company.

* SECURA was kind enough to provide me with a guest post in response to my November 26 post on Social Media as an Investigative Tool.