Million Dollar Consultant Alan Weiss Says Social Media Is a Waste of Time for Consultants

One of the most animated discussions about social media I've seen is going on over at Alan Weiss's Contrarian Consulting blog.

His blog post titled Blogs, Facebook, Twitter and Chance has sparked, as of this writing, 60 comments, many of them refuting Weiss's contention that social media (including blogs and Twitter) are a waste of time for consultants promoting professional services to corporate clients.

He also contends that "Blogs are only effective if you already have a brand... a blog follows a brand, not the other way around." Hmmm... not according to Robert Scoble.

Weiss is best known as the author of Million Dollar Consulting* as well as a host of other books and is a consultant (according to his About page) to dozens of Fortune 500 companies. He has a distinctive - some might call it abrasive - personality that seems to go over well with his C-suite clients. His over-the-top style is amusing in person (I've heard him speak) but I find his derogatory tone on his blog - specifically, in response to comments - off-putting.

First up to refute Weiss's low opinion of the business value of social media is Seth Godin.

Seth's feedback is followed by push-back comments from Yvonne DiVita of Lipsticking.com (hey nice re-design, Yvonne!), Tim Walker of Hoover's Biz, Paula Thornton of FASTForward, Mack Collier of The Viral Garden and many others whose blogs I was previously not familiar with. (Some are supportive of Weiss's position, noting that one shouldn't spend too much time on blogging, etc.)

It may be that Weiss is deliberately stirring the pot with phrases like "the Web is a good place to do research... but it's a lousy place to find and meet clients" and "I have no idea who Hugh McLeod is or Robert Scoble." The latter is the perfect bait, of course, for those of us who congregate in the social media space. But a good reminder that we are, to a certain extent, in our own bubble.

As he wrote in a companion post responding directly to Seth: "I seem to have struck a nerve, which is why blogging with a brand behind you is really quite effective." 

What do you think?

Which comes first, generally speaking: a brand or a blog? And, the central question, is social media effective at reaching a corporate audience if that's who your intended clients are??

Both the original post and his follow-up, along with the dozens of comments, are worth a read. I left a comment here.

Aside: oh and I heard about Weiss's post through a Tweet from Yvonne DiVita. Love that viral thing...

*Update and full disclosure: While I may sound critical of Weiss in this entry, his Million Dollar Consulting is one of the most useful books I've read about how to sell your services as a consultant. Focus on the value you're delivering. Never count hours or charge by the hour. Make a business case for what you can deliver. Once you've got your client on board, present your "fee" as an afterthought. The client will almost always bite, he contends.

Corporate Blogging: So "Last Year" to the "Experts" But Still Gaining Traction With Companies

One of the mantras in social media circles these days is: "This is not just about blogging."

So true. I couldn't agree more. Whether it's microblogging with Twitter (see marriottpr) or idea generation with evangelistic customers' input (see MyStarbucksIdea), there are many ways that companies can deploy social media to listen and to learn.

Yet the fact remains that many (most? it's most if more than 50%, right?) companies are just waking up to what they could do with a blog -- internally or externally.

An article by Rich Karpinski this week in BtoB Magazine reminds us that only about 12% of Fortune 500 companies are blogging (11.6% according to the Fortune 500 Business Blogging Wiki).

But that companies like Dell, IBM, Kodak, Intel and SAP "are now deep into blogging programs with multiple weblogs, dozens of bloggers and a wealth of expertise and best practices to share."

So while blogs and blogging may be "old news" to organizations and marketers immersed in social media, they are still decidedly a new new thing for many corporate folks.

As intriguing, fun and real-time as many of the social networking  tools are, blogs are here to stay. Bottom line, blogs are next-generation websites. They're not going anywhere.

Useful Link

Beyond Blogs: What Business Needs to Know - BusinessWeek cover story, June 2, 2008

Businesses embrace blogging: Early adopters embrace strategies, new titles for corporate social media marketing efforts by Rich Karpinski in BtoBOnline, June 9, 2008

 

Corporate Blogging 2.0: Southwest Airlines' Blog Re-launches

Take a look below if you haven't heard about the re-launch of Southwest Airlines' corporate blog, Nuts About Southwest, two years after its April 2006 debut. More here.

This is state of the art use of social media by a big company: a blog, Flickr pics, video, polls, news and more. Note the icons for YouTube, FlickR, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter at the bottom of the page. This multi social media platform approach echoes what Dell is doing on its Community page.

This is exciting. And a refreshing change after the Southwest blog was caught flat-footed in March 2008 following the aircraft inspection crisis and threat of a record fine by the FAA. Kudos to the Southwest blogging team!

Why Corporates Should Write Like Bloggers

Seth Godin nails it in a recent post. Short answer: because good blog writing is more engaging and more persuasive than any press release or home page ridden with corporate-speak. I especially like these two tips: use headlines and don't say it all at once. Get the rest on his blog...

1. Use headlines. I use them all the time now. Not just boring ones that announce your purpose (like the one on this post) but interesting or puzzling or engaging headlines. Headlines are perfect for engaging busy readers.

2. Realize that people have choices. With 80 million other blogs to choose from, I know you could leave at any moment (see, there goes someone now). So that makes blog writing shorter and faster and more exciting.

3. Drip, drip, drip. Bloggers don't have to say everything at once. We can add a new idea every day, piling on a thesis over time...

- Seth Godin (April 7, 2008)

Sun's Tim Bray on the Three Components of a Successful Blog

Just finished participating in Bulldog Reporter's Webinar: Corporate Blogging Update for PR. Fellow panelists were John Earnhardt of Cisco and Tim Bray of Sun Microsystems. Our able moderator Jon Greer kept things moving right along. Fun.

Tim has been "online" since, er, at least 1983. That's 25 years. Here's a Usenet posting dated Aug. 31, 1983 from his blog archive: Doesn't Anyone Out There Read Anymore?

Wow. And I thought I was cool. I've been "online" since about 1992. Put up my first Web site in 1995. Here's a peek at my site in 1996, according to the Way Back Machine. Note: I was primarily a journalist back then, before B-school and marketing.

So it was interesting to see Tim's slides and hear his riff on corporate and employee blogging. Spot on.

According to Tim, the three most important components of a successful blog are: 1. Good writing 2. Interesting person 3. Valuable material.

Best to have all three, he said. Sometimes you can get away with two out of three. Less than that, it won't work.

His slide, below, looked exactly like this. Unadorned. The best PowerPoint style IMHO, if you absolutely have to use it.

Are "Shared" Blogs and Social Media "Sites" the Wave of the Future?

Just noticed that soon-to-be-authors Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff have a snazzy new look on their shared blog: Groundswell. I'm wondering if "shared" blogs might not be what's coming in 2009 as more of the bloggerati blog less and Twitter more.

The trend is also to aggregate your social media efforts (Twitter, Facebook, blogging, etc.) so they're easier to find in one place -- or on one page. Charlene and Josh are now calling their blog "a broader site.'

My advance review copy of Charlene and Josh's book, Groundswell, arrived today in the mail. It looks terrific and I'll write more about it later.

Case Study: Southwest Airlines' Corporate Blog and Crisis Communications

I prepared this case study on Southwest Airlines corporate blog for a lecture I'm giving tomorrow to a group of MBA students at Fairleigh Dickinson University. This group has a special interest in Corporate & Organizational  Communications. What other questions should I put to the students?

P.S. I will report back after the class. [Update: See mini interviews with two students.]

Update: see additional questions about the SW blog below.

Case Study for Student Discussion

Southwest Airlines' Nuts About You Blog and its role in crisis communications:

Situation

March 14, 2008: Southwest Airlines, a discount airline that serves almost 100 million customers annually, many of them fanatically devoted, has maintained a spotless safety record since the company was started in 1971.

Southwest was recently charged with violating Federal Aviation Administration regulations regarding airline inspections on 46 Boeing 737s.

The FAA is fining Southwest $10.2 million, the biggest fine ever imposed on any U.S. airline. The airline’s response has been to initiate an internal investigation and put three employees on administrative leave. It also temporarily grounded 44 planes.

Southwest has 30 days to decide if it will challenge the FAA's findings or the penalty.

Response

You are Southwest’s Director of Corporate Communications.

You’ve been responding to dozens of press requests for interviews. The story has been front-page news in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and on the networks. 

You are also responsible for the corporate blog: Nuts About Southwest. The blog, the first one started by an airline, is one of the more popular and active corporate blogs with new postings almost daily. It was started in April 2006 and sold to upper management as “just another communications tool.”

Readers have left thousands of comments on topics relating to SW’s business practices, service and culture. All comments are screened before being posted. Negative comments are allowed.

The blog is staffed by two editors, Paula Berg and Brian Lusk (known as Blog Girl and Blog Boy), and is regarded as a success within the company. Internally it is seen as a virtual focus group, offering instant feedback from customers.

Questions

Questions for Student Role Play as Director of Corporate Communications

What is the role of SW’s corporate blog during this crisis?

Should the blog be breaking news about how SW is handling the crisis?

Or should it lag behind traditional media outreach (press conferences, press releases, etc.)

What do you think of SW's decision to paste into the blog two press releases about the progress of the internal investigation (here with 66 reader comments and here with 69 comments.)?

SW got 167 comments in reaction to the first post about the crisis: We Take Safety Seriously. The entry is signed by Paula Berg, one of their chief bloggers. Do you think this entry was reviewed by SW's lawyers before she posted it?

What do you think about the fact that most of the 167 comments are negative, starting with the first one: "I don't believe you" and signed by "Jack"?

What do you expect to be your biggest headache in terms of overseeing the blog during this crisis?

SW has other established social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, YouTube). How should they be used in conjunction with the blog during this crisis?

How does corporate culture play into the success (or lack thereof) of a corporate blog?

More on the ROI of Social Media: Return on Influence

I found myself using the phrase Return on Influence last week in talking to a reporter about the value of corporate blogging. I didn't invent it. Heck, there's nothing new under the sun these days. See Useful Links below. And thanks to Valeria Maltoni for the nifty graphic.

But the term "Return on Influence" bears repeating and maybe I can give another twist to the concept. Bear with me while I think out loud.

Why should the ROI on business or corporate use of social media be defined as Return on Influence rather than Return on Investment?

Why is it Return on Influence?

Short answer: because the return is soft. The benefits of incorporating social media strategies into your marketing are real (and can no longer be  ignored) but they're not normally measured in dollars. Like PR, you say? Yes and no.

Social media, which includes corporate blogging, is still so new for many marketers that it occupies a niche outside corporate PR or interactive marketing (the latter still a code phrase for online advertising or email marketing, neither of which is particularly interactive).

Second short answer (which ties in with the first)... because social media is a new phenomenon for which we are still developing metrics and measurement. There isn't agreement yet on what these metrics should be. Velocity? Engagement? Conversation index? Reach? Community? Some combination. Whatever you choose, it's hard to compute a dollar or numerical value.

I'll go into more detail on social media measurement (thanks, Jeremiah) in another post. For now, let's stick with the concept of Influence.

(BTW there are bloggers who get into lengthy discussions about the difference between PR and marketing. That's not my purpose here but feel free to check out that discussion here and here and here.)

One more time... what is Social Media?

Some folks use the term digital media as a catch-all. Others say new media. Social media has taken root as the most accepted phrase.

Social media has caught on in the past year as the phrase du jour because it neatly describes what's at the core of this phenomenon: connecting and sharing. It's the same kind of thing you do offline when you're having a good discussion with another person at a party. Note emphasis on the human.

If you're a company, a Fortune 500 or 1000 or even a good-sized SME, "connecting" may sound like a fine idea. Hey, let's connect with our customers. Let's get inside their heads and find out what they're really thinking, what they like and dislike, what they want.

Sharing, on the other hand, is a little scarier. Excuse me, you may be saying... you want us to share our products or services, or our intellectual capital with our customers? You mean offer it freely as opposed to sell it? Er, yes. That's pretty much the idea.

But no, not all of your stuff... just some of it. Companies do not need to reveal all, to strip naked on a corporate blog and spill secrets. But you do need to reveal enough information to make your customers feel like you're having a substantive two-way exchange (aka conversation) with them. And therein lies the nub of Return on Influence.

The Social Media Mindset comes first

The social media mindset means truly embracing the notion that your customers are worth listening to, that they are worthy co-creators (the two-way thing again) and that they may in fact trust and influence each other more than you can influence them.

Conclusion: Return on Influence is a two-way concept

So Return On Influence becomes, as I see it, a fluid concept. On one side, it's how much you as a company (a collection of individuals) can influence your customers' perception of your brand by sharing and listening.

On the flip side, it's how much you can get out of enabling and allowing your customers to influence you. Whether it's an idea for a new product or service (cf Dell's Ideastorm) or a new strategic direction.

'Nuff said. Thanks for letting me think aloud. I know there's more to say on this topic. Please feel free to add your thoughts below.

Useful Links on Social Media and Return on Influence

Robert Scoble on What is social media

Shel Holtz on Business Adoption of Social Media

Kami Huyse's del.icio.us links on measurement of social media

Josh Bernoff (co-author of Groundswell) on Purists vs. Corporatists

Tracking the Influence (white paper by Matt Toll and Jeremiah Owyang)

The new ROI by Paul Dunay

ROI is Social Media's New ROI by Joe Marchese

Return on Influence by Valeria Maltoni

 

Shel Israel's Ten Questions With Dell CEO Michael Dell

Shel, great work on getting this Q & A with Michael Dell.

Shel prefaces the interview by asking, smartly: "Are Dell's increasing stockpile of blogs just the work of middle management or are the people steering the company committed to social media as well. Is blogging a smart play or a strategic initiative?"

Michael Dell's answers are predictably pretty safe but interesting nonetheless. He poo-poos the term "social media programs" and calls it "conversations with customers."

He mentions Dell's other social media initiatives and emphasizes the use of video clips (posted to Dell's blog) to announce new products. He mentions two other Dells blogs: Dell IdeaStorm (where customers can debate and offer ideas) and Dell Shares (for investors but not for first-time announcements of material information).

Note: Dell's home page links to Dell blogs

I noticed in visiting Dell.com today that there is a link to "Dell Community" at the bottom of the home page. It takes you to a page where you can find all of Dell's blogs, forums, videos, etc. Sun Microsystems is one of the few other F500 companies blogging that provides a direct link to blogs from their home page.

And now for a few excerpts from Shel Israel's interview:

Who made the decision to start Dell's corporate blog, Direct2Dell?

Michael replies:

"I asked why we didn't reach out to customers on the Web if they had issues and then, once we had that in place, I asked why we didn't have a company blog to further connect proactively with customers. But all credit goes to our team who really took the initiative to make it happen."

[Note: Lionel Menchaca is the chief blogger on Direct2Dell. He will be the opening keynote at BlogPotomac here in Washington DC on June 13, 2008. Register now, if you're interested!]

What has Dell learned from blogging?

"When we have an issue, we act quickly and we use Direct2Dell as a central point for clarity.  If you look at the battery recall, we shared continual updates on our progress."

Has blogging changed Dell's corporate reputation?

"You'd have to ask our customers. We don't own our reputation we just own our actions. That's something our customers give to us in return for us exceeding their expectations.For me, the question is has it improved our business performance? And the answer is yes."

Will you start your own (CEO) blog or contribute to other Dell blogs?

"Yes. We talk about it often.  Watch this space :) Our team also does a good job of capturing some of my speaking events online."

Read the complete Feb. 2008 interview by Shel Israel here: Dell's founder talks about social media and its impact on his company and customers.

Business Week updates its iconic 2005 blog story with a new title 'Social Media Will Change Your Business'

Full disclosure: I'm way behind in blogging while my offline move to a new house (and office) continues to unfold. Feeling very guilty about it. But it's a temporary hiatus. Or is it? See below for for a few thoughts about Twittering.

In case you missed it, Business Week has updated its by now iconic May 2005 article: Blogs Will Change Your Business. The new version is called Social Media Will Change Your Business.

Writer/editors Stephen Baker and Heather Green spent a month updating the article, re-interviewing some of their sources. In an appropriate crowdsourcing tactic, they also asked readers of their Blogspotting blog to weigh in with suggestions.

Bookmark the updated article and then brew up a pot of coffee and sit down for an online read. Be sure to click on the little blue "info" icons. You'll get pop-ups that give you updates on stats, trends, phenomena, etc.

Here is some of what you will learn:

- There are now 120 million blogs (according to Technorati), instead of 9 million. But only 11% of those have posted in the past two months. Interesting.

- According to once uberblogger Steve Rubel, twittering is a better way to stay in touch and to communicate. He's got over 3,900 "followers" for his 140-character Tweets.

Why Twittering is significant

During his re-interview for the updated article, Rubel tweeted "Sitting with Steve Baker of BW, wants to know why tweet?" Within 10 minutes, 20 responses came in. Baker was so inspired he's now twittering himself.

BTW, I tried to find this tweet (and the responses) on Steve Rubel's Twitter page. But apparently you can't search for past tweets, unless I'm missing something.

Update: Here is Steve Rubel's tweet (mentioned above), written while he was sitting with Steve Baker. I found it through a Google search: "Steve Baker" site:twitter.com

But I don't have time to track down the 20 responses. All by way of pointing out that tweets, technically, are searchable and findable via Google (each has a unique URL). In practice, however, they are ephemeral and synchronous.

It's much harder to reconstruct later the give and take of tweets and responses. At this point, it's easier to "follow" a conversation on a blog, where the comments stay attached to the original post and where they can be posted asynchronously.

Useful Links

Howard Rheingold on Why I'm Hooked on Twitter

Twitter Etiquette