Jun 08 07
Social Media and the Evolution of Corporate Communications
This week our guest is Allen Stern, the founding editor of CenterNetworks. We discuss the newly developing role of social media in today’s business communications environment.
Click here to listen to the podcast
Full transcript after the jump
Renn Vara: On this edition of More Than Talk, we speak with Allen Stern, Founding Editor of CenterNetworks.com. Allen has worked with companies like IBM, Georgia-Pacific, and Clinique. He now offers his service as a private consultant with expertise in communication strategy and social media. Allen, tell us about CenterNetworks and what you are trying to accomplish there.
Allen Stern: Sure. CenterNetworks I started in September of 2006 to help industry professionals understand more about what is going on in the Web 2.0, social media, and social networking space. We have a focus on helping web startups create better startups, whether its information about how to do a better job of promoting yourself and your company. So I have tried to focus some of my content articles in that direction.
In a more broad sense it would be covering and use my own opinion and insights along with some other writers that I have and conference coverage and interviews. So we go out of the interview, we have about 60 so far. We interview companies of all sizes, large and small to find out what is working for them. When I go out and do the interviews rather than just asking about the company which everybody does, I try to find out more about what’s working for them, what’s not working for them. Why is it working and how can it be applied to somebody else?
So I think that is what’s really more important, nobody cares what your company is doing. They can read that on the About Us page. What they really want to know is, how did you get to be so big. What was the formula, two parts of this, and one part of that, share that formula so that somebody else can apply it to their company.
Renn Vara: How are the tools you are utilizing at CenterNetworks applicable to the internal stakeholders that enterprise is responsible to?
Allen Stern: Definitely something that I haven’t seen enough usage of frankly. During my time in Georgia-Pacific, I think we had a lot of push back from a lot of different constituents through out the company. I have spent a lot of my time and education, because I think that’s one of the keys of an internet marketer is being able to educate the people who are the decision makers so that they are able to make a decision that’s based on facts and data rather than just, “Oh my God, we can’t do that, it’s the Internet.”
So, I think that education goes a long way, but I think what happens is you have the legal ramifications of opening up information whether it’s internally or externally. And then you have, a lot of times, monetary or budget constraints. Sometimes putting in some of these systems can actually cost money. And they can take infrastructure that the company may feel like that infrastructure is better put towards something else.
And now we’re at a time when companies are starting to talk to each to other about what they are doing. Three, four, five years ago, I had to sell and sell and sell, now I can take people to an event that we can talk to other companies and what their doing in their space and then that leverage starts to help as well. So, I think there’s a tremendous amount of potential in companies that is not being utilized.
I had a conversation with a guy a couple of days ago about just sharing information between people, about how to get the answers that you need, is something that’s not being done. Imagine you have a problem with a product that you are making. And you don’t know who to go to. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a wiki or a blog or a message board where somebody also have already asked that question, and somebody else have already answered that question. And now you found the solution in five minutes versus pulling out a company directory or going around the office trying to find out who knows the answer.
The other real benefit I think, which is something that I don’t think is talked about a lot, is that people leave the organization. And when people leave an organization, a tremendous amount of information is lost. When I left Georgia-Pacific, they lost a tremendous amount of information that had there been a system in place, that information that I have now, could’ve been dumped in somewhere. So that the next person who replaces me could pick up that information without having to start from square one. I think there are a lot of benefits all around and I think we’re just at the beginning stages of using that.
Renn Vara: Allen you raised a really interesting point. So if I’m an enterprise incorporating these tools you talked about, five years from now for instance, am I going to see a tangible return?
Allen Stern: That’s typically one of the hardest things, is how do you quantify the ROI on any of these projects? Sometimes could take years to show them, but yes. I mean think about if you are working for a Wal-Mart or GM or Siemens in Germany, with thousands and thousands of employees and every kind of fashion of the company, think about all that information that’s lost when those people leave.
What’s the one thing that companies don’t enjoy is having to train people. So if you can send those people to a resource to handle the information, think about how much money you’re saving.
Renn Vara: More and more we’re seeing a new generation of professionals in the corporate world. These are much more open to social media and its business applications. What impact do you see this having?
Allen Stern: What’s happening now is that you’re starting to see people move into the executive role that actually understand the power of what the Internet and what technology can offer. And I think you’re starting to see lines blur. Whereas the CIO used to control technology, I think now you’re seeing the executives control technology. I think that’s a good shift. I think we’re starting to really see how the systems can really provide benefit and the server itself doesn’t matter. It’s about the information that’s on the server and I think its just a fabulous time, information revolution is here.
What’s great is that everybody can do it. Today you have smooth systems that ties everything together. You have widgets that can be placed anywhere. So, I think it’s just unbelievable that the companies and the programs and the projects and the services that are coming out today - just an unbelievable time.
Renn Vara: What we’re seeing with our customers is this: everybody thinks they are connecting with their customers all the time, but in fact their not. Now social networking has the potential to connect C-level executives with their stakeholders, which is where I see the true potential of these systems. Would you agree with that though?
Allen Stern: Yeah, I would say I think it’s definitely true. I think that what happens is that companies sit there and say, or their PR firm comes to them or their internet marketing firm comes to them and says, “You should do a blog.” So they start up a blog and they post the same stuff that they have on their About Us page or close to the same thing that’s in their impressive press release, big deal.
I think the purpose of these tools is to make you feel like you’re a part of the company. There’s nothing better than taking a product at a major company like Sony, pick Sony and the Walkman. Open it up and say, “Customers, come talk to me. I’m the President of the Walkman Division, come talk to me. Tell me what things frustrate you.” And start to get that dialogue where it goes direct from the end consumer who is using the product directly up to the person who can actually make a difference.
Because what I’ve seen overtime is all these different steps involved between the customer and the person who can make the difference when it comes to the product, that message gets changed so many times, like the old folly game when we were kids, that the message is never the same.
We have to get to a place where the people who can sign the check are understanding what we’re trying to do. And I think that part is still missing to some extent, right? You come in and you try to sell somebody, and how do you explain to them while you should be doing the wiki. They don’t get that.
So I think as we start to get younger and younger executives moving up the ranks, it’ll become easier and easier. So I think you will need to look out, three, four, five years. That’s when I think really were going to start to see some huge advancements. And now were starting to see some from companies that are led by people who are forward thinkers and who are open to being the first.
In my time in working with all these different companies over the last 15 years, I have seen that most of them are afraid to be the first. They are willing to be the first when it comes to putting a product to market, but their not wiling to be the first when it comes to using technology. And I think that that’s kind of a disadvantage.
Renn Vara: Any parting advice for our audience? What would you like to tell people who are starting to break in to this new sphere of communications?
Allen Stern: I think the biggest key is think, think, think, before you hit that submit button. What I’m seeing a lot of, whether it’s the Wal-Mart fiasco, the Sony fiasco, is companies who say, “I got to get in this so quickly that they don’t think about what their doing.” And the way the Web works today is when you click on submit, everybody in the world can see what you just did. And if you don’t think about it, you’re going to wind up having so much bad karma that you may never be able to overcome it. So my advice is move as quickly as you can, but make sure you think about what you’re doing.
Renn Vara: That was Allen Stern, Founding Editor of CenterNetworks.com
[...] Last week I had a chance to speak with Renn Vara from the "More than Talk" podcast series. The podcast is ten minutes in length and covers mainly using social media within a large organization. [...]