While at DemingHill, I had the opportunity to observe and engage social media from a “non-traditional” perspective (considering my background in risk management), and what I’ve found is that most executives in corporate leadership are fixating on the wrong conversation as it relates to social media risk.  To date, the preponderance of this dialog surrounds the implementation of enterprise-wide “Protocols and Procedures,” an online “Code of Conduct,” and a digital “Policy of Ethics” to minimize exposure and mitigate the risk related to engagement on social media platforms.  While necessary, this OBSESSION with rules and regulations in every conversation regarding risk represents a “glass half empty” mindset – a “damage control” perspective attempting to manage the volatility of this new construct so it can do the least amount of harm.

Glass Half Full

Fortunately, a few progressive firms are beginning to recognize that the “pros” far outweigh the “cons” of this medium, and are discovering ways to not just “endure” social media, but rather leverage it to reduce risk across the enterprise.  “Across the enterprise.”  While those words seem to just roll off the lips, they are – in fact – the secret to effectively addressing risk mitigation.

Transitioning Social Media from a Vertical Silo to a Horizontal Enabler

To maximize the value and ROI of social media within corporations – and to do so consistently and authentically – requires a mandate from senior leadership to fundamentally reorient social media from a vertical component of the organizational matrix (alongside HR, sales, product development) towards a horizontal enabler which spans the enterprise, permeates each of these functional areas, and enables them to perform more cohesively, efficiently, and effectively.  Because the social media construct arrived after most firms had already been established, the tendency has been to simply “bolt-on” these tools to existing marketing, sales, and advertising verticals as adjunct vehicles for market communication and customer acquisition.  At best, the result has been a frustratingly redundant, disjointed, spontaneous, and situational social media conversation – centered around product-specific campaigns – but lacking a consistent, encompassing, and top-down strategy.  And at its worst, social media has become an organizational “hot potato” defined by a lack of ownership, responsibility, or flat-out fear, due to a chronic misunderstanding regarding how to leverage this powerful toolset.

Social Media Reduces Brand Risk

A critical component of DemingHill’s social media solutions involves consulting with firms to methodically reposition social media from a stand-alone vertical into an integrated, horizontal platform designed to benefit personnel and budgets throughout every department. By interpreting social media within the holistic context of the enterprise, and by inviting each stakeholder to participate in understanding and advancing the brand, the workforce is empowered to self-identify with these messages on their own terms.  As a result, these brand messages become a living, breathing part of the daily culture, enabling individuals to fluently speak in a consistent brand voice with any audience, and any market, at any time.  Instead of the brand as a discrete, foreign language spoken by “people in marketing” or “the CEO,” it becomes a firms’ native tongue.  By positioning social media as a horizontal platform to facilitate communication of the brand so completely that it effectively becomes a second language, firms discover (quite counter-intuitively) that brand risk is actually reduced.

How Social Media Mitigates Risk – In Plain English

When done correctly, social media enables effective contact, communication, and conversations with your target market.  These interactions are the basis for creating relationships, and it is these relationships that establish trust and credibility.  Trust and credibility represent the “Holy Grail” of social media interaction because it forms the foundation on which all future, successful transactions occur. And conversely, without trust and credibility, social media can quickly become a waste of time and money.

Trust and Credibility:

While trust and credibility is essential for ANY relationship (not just online), it is especially important for virtual firms to establish as a way to overcompensate for the inherently removed and physically distant nature of social media interaction.

Smart companies are starting to realize that the value of trust and credibility is a truly a two-way street: External and Internal.

External

When trust and credibility is established with a firms’ target audience, the results are pronounced and self-reinforcing.  Their perception as a thought leader increases their brand awareness, which increases their potential for getting “found” and maintaining top of mind awareness with their target market, which in turn builds up the strength of their tribe and community, thereby funneling in a steady supply of inbound leads and ongoing conversations, all of which result in accelerated sales cycles, increased closing ratios, and desirable profit margins.

Internal

At the same time that firms are busy establishing trust and credibility with their audience, their audience is busy establishing trust and credibility with them.  Just like in the “real world,” if you were looking for a responsible babysitter or an honest mechanic, you would seek to mitigate your risk by engaging people that you know and trust.  The relationships created and enabled by social media expose firms to individuals (and their ideas and feedback) that can mitigate their corporate risk in a variety of ways.

Social Media Risk Mitigation: Case Studies

Example A:  Human Resources can leverage social media to greatly reduce the cost and risk of talent acquisition.  By participating in ongoing social media exchanges and conversations around the brand on the company website, Facebook, or other community endeavors, observant HR personnel can identify individuals that are passionate and informed on their products (not to mention their level of proficiency and professionalism) and also those that separate themselves as group leaders driving conversations surrounding the company brand.  Over time, these data points can be harvested to reach out to individuals when a hiring need surfaces, eliminating much of the employment risk associated with bringing on new candidates, as the accumulation of these casual conversations can effectively serve as protracted and rigorous screening process.

Example B:  R&D and Product Development can spend millions designing and structuring traditional focus groups targeting a tiny subset of the market to solicit their feedback on various aspects of a product launch.  By creating and populating these same focus groups online, companies can not only save costs associated with product development (some of which could be done remotely) but it also enables firms to stay in constant communication with their market, and even evolve markets over time as they age and go through various stages in life.  The lifetime value of a customer is tremendous, and structuring these dialogs to maintain contact over years or decades can pay significant returns.   Social media can assist product developers by eventually soliciting the market directly for both their suggestions and their creativity for introducing new product variations or even helping to innovate completely new products.  By engaging the market on the front end, firms are able to reduce business risk by effectively “pre-selling” the community on the final product, in much the same way that American Idol pre-destines the recording success of their finalists by having the audience repeatedly selecting and emotionally supporting the performer they want to win.

Turning Risk Into Reward

At the end of the day, risk management is all about making assumptions, establishing probabilities, and hedging against possible outcomes, and these decisions are only as good as the information they’re based on.  If structured opportunistically as an enabling, “horizontally-oriented” data capture tool within organizations, social media platforms can serve as a catalyst for processing and synthesizing real-time market response, and then applying this direct, authentic, unfiltered feedback to perform pattern recognition and identify trends and opportunities across any number of market subsets, thereby making better-informed, higher-quality, risk-mitigated decisions – while avoiding the ultimate risk of market invisibility, revenue short falls, and going out of business.

Douglas O’Bryon

Chief Content Officer

DemingHill, Inc.


“Keywords Are More Important!”


Keywords RULE!  Keywords are Priority #1 online.  It doesn’t matter what you write, if it doesn’t get found, who cares?  Google, search engines, and autobots run the world. It’s a numbers game and you have to play by their rules.  If you dominate and own your keywords, you own your market, and if you own your market, you win!  Pick your keywords, repeat them millions of times, and eventually the marketplace will relent and beat a path to your doorstep.  If a new article is posted in the blogosphere but nobody finds it, does it make a sound?  No.


“Content Is More Important!”


“Content is king, communication is queen.”  Superior content always wins.  What good is having a bullhorn if what you’re saying isn’t worth saying?  Why do country music stars – many of whom started by performing at church picnics – often outshine American Idol contestants who’ve had the benefit of worldwide visibility?  Because their content was of a superior quality; a lasting quality; a quality so good that it kept people coming back for more, and it was this groundswell of support that pushed them from obscurity to fame.  Content, when done correctly, establishes a voice of authority and credibility through the strategic insights which are shared with the market. Sure, keywords will get you found, but content goes viral – getting tweeted and retweeted – because it is powerful, unique, fresh, authentic, and relevant, not because it has six overused keywords in its title.


Great content speaks the truth, and it is this truth that resonates with the marketplace, prompts conversations, and invites feedback.  But most importantly, great content – provided on a regular basis – prompts the market to start looking for you, on your terms, and without selling out to keywords.  It’s like that convention booth that plays loud music and hires models to give out samples – sure you notice them, sure you FIND them, but you’re afterwards you’re left wondering if their product is any good, because of the lengths they considered necessary to get your attention.  If it were truly a quality product, wouldn’t that quality and industry reputation speak for itself?


Conclusion


After carefully considering the compelling arguments from both sides above, I have reached a verdict. Content comes first – but only by a hashtag.  Eventually everyone will figure out all of the tricks and keyword optimization tactics to skew search results, at which point the game will be even again, and firms and brands will be left to stand on their merit.  Sizzle will give way to steak, and style will give way to substance.  By first focusing on content as a strategic differentiator – and THEN enabling this content to be found through careful keyword selection – firms can maximize their social media impact, populate their marketing funnel through an expending online presence and influence, and accelerate their leads to feeds and their prospects into profits – not just for tomorrows’ search results, but for sustained, organic, long-term growth.


Douglas O’Bryon

Chief Content Officer

DemingHill, Inc.


The crux of any outsourcing decision focuses on the triumvirate of cost savings, resource allocation, and core competency.


Core competency


In today’s global marketplace, successful firms are the ones that have zeroed in on their market, their niche, and their unique product service/mix, and have staffed their organization accordingly. As Geoffrey Moore eloquently noted in his book Living On the Fault Line, all of the activities within an organization can be summed up as either “core” or “context.” “Core” is that one thing done with “differentiating excellence” that separates a firm from the pack to provide a competitive advantage, and is often the singular aspect of the client experience most closely aligned with their brand promise. Think about it – there are plenty of national brands that feature pizza, including Papa John’s, Domino’s, and Chuck E. Cheese’s, but each have a slightly different take on their own “core” attributes. Papa John’s core focuses on using better ingredients and Domino’s has always specialized on the delivery side of their business. Chuck E. Cheese’s? Well, from my experience, their core business is campy entertainment featuring a giant, stuffed rodent, and the pizza is more of an afterthought.


Moore goes on to say that once firms have identified their core attributes, the “context” is basically all of the other remaining activities that exist in support of these core offerings. In the case of Papa John’s, because their focus is on superior ingredients, they don’t need to be the lowest priced (they’re not) or feature fancy merchandising. And in the case of Chuck E. Cheese’s, the reason parents visit with their kids isn’t for the Grade-A pizza or the elegant ambiance, but rather for the games, tickets, prizes, and excitement it offers. Whereas for Papa John’s the pizza is the core, for Chuck E. Cheese’s the pizza is simply context, and entertainment is the core.


When it comes to the consideration of whether a firm should outsource their social media, organizations must carefully consider whether social media is core or context for them. Consultants, authors, and speakers recognize that social media has passed the tipping point, and that it is now represents both an expected part of their mainstream brand presence and an implied barometer of their ongoing relevance and contemporary expertise. The problem is, social media is NOT their core competency. Their core competency is creating and sustaining relationships with key individuals within their respective communities (those who recognize and respect them as a thought leader), and who then leverage this visibility to expand their brand through additional speaking engagements, book sales and signings, and new consulting projects.


In the case of solopreneurs like these, outsourcing social media to a third party with expertise in this arena makes perfect sense for the simple reason that it’s not the best use of their time – which is the same reason that most people no longer change their own oil. For single-person firms, every hour spent on establishing and managing social media is one less hour that could be used doing either project work (at a full billable rate), speaking to audiences to reinforce their voice of authority in the industry, or putting effort into writing a new book or white paper. Plus, by using veteran social media experts they are assured that their personal brand and digital presence are integrated and optimized to ensure maximum visibility and market differentiation.


The one critical caveat to this outsourcing discussion as it relates to core competency is that, although there are great business reasons for outsourcing the set-up, maintenance, and management of social media, the dialog and direct conversations with the marketplace should always be made on a direct one-to-one basis. While the expertise and best practices of an outside firm can be leveraged to quickly establish an integrated social media presence, the relationships and interaction facilitated by social media should transpire without any filters because that is how the best communication and most authentic feedback exchanges occur.


Resource Allocation


Within larger firms, resource allocation is becoming a “hot button” topic because of the game-changing nature of social media and how it has quickly infiltrated nearly every aspect of organizations internally (human resources, corporate communications, R&D, product development, etc.) as well as externally (sales, marketing, PR, branding, community development, recruitment, etc.). Right now, firms are at a pivot point where they are retaining their legacy hierarchical models of how information is exchanged and communicated AND they are expanding their social media ranks to leverage this new communication construct inside and outside their organization. At some point in the near future, there will be a “settling” process once they have fully internalized this transition from old to new media formats, and traditional departments will have realized this transformation in their ranks and in how they are staffed. In the course of this reorganization, progressive firms will take an active role in evolving the job descriptions and responsibilities of existing employees and redirecting them towards redefined roles that leverage social media IN PLACE OF historical activities and models. For example, advertising will determine that social media tools enable them to achieve higher success metrics at a fraction of the cost, and will subsequently redirect their budgets away from traditional advertising towards these new delivery mechanisms.


When it comes to outsourcing social media, established firms have enjoyed success with a low-risk “train the trainer” model in which companies will engage outside experts to educate them on the benefits of social media, create a strategy for social media implementation, and assist in establishing a strong foundation on all of the major networks and platforms, before slowly turning over the day-to-day responsibility to an internal champion, who then either pulls in existing employees or hires fulltime outside talent to maintain and grow these initiatives. This approach offers a true win-win by assuring that social media set up is done correctly the first time, offers an accelerated path to completion, and draws from a wealth of best practices established by working with a seasoned social media industry expert. Plus, it enables firms to leverage their existing talent base and point them towards more ROI-producing activities for reaching and interacting with their target markets.


Cost Savings


From single entrepreneurs to large enterprises, it’s still true that time is money. Firms considering outsourcing their social media initiatives to a reputable organization can realize significant cost savings over doing it themselves because – well, it’s THEIR core competency. Companies that specialize in social media strategy and platform set up have the processes and procedures established to enable the work to get done much more efficiently and effectively because they’ve done it before, they’ve systematized the process, and have the team and the talent to guarantee results. It’s one thing to make rookie mistakes when entering social media domains, but when these mistakes happen on the world stage it’s just too dangerous to risk your brand or reputation over an “oops” moment. Having a veteran social media firm as a guide mitigates the risk of making a costly error or dragging out implementation thereby delaying the realization of the cost-benefits afforded by full implementation of social media initiatives.


Conclusion


Based on the observations above, there is no easy, one-word response to the question, “Should social media be outsourced,” for a truly accurate answer will require more strategic discovery, departmental investigation, and a nuanced consideration of the size of the organization, allocated budget, core strengths, and available resources. If there is a pattern, however, the structural model that appears to consistently outperform the others is a hybrid approach combining the best practices of an outside social media expert with the marketing and communication specialists within organizations who are closest to the brand. This combination offers the upside of quick implementation AND a dedicated staff to ensure the project has sufficient momentum to continue growing after initial implementation is complete.


Douglas O’Bryon
Chief Content Officer
DemingHill, Inc.

Another perspective on social media ROI from within organizations comes from those specialists with a background in direct marking and sales, individuals who typically measure traffic and actual conversions as the primary metric of success.  While this viewpoint is more aligned with upper management’s focus on bottom-line revenue, it too represents only a subset of the overall ROI available through social media.

While we could go on and on listing each department and their business case for social media, the most accurate and elegant answer also happens to be the shortest – it all depends on the business model and the goals of the company.  To say that Google and Caterpillar would leverage social media in the same way would be as crazy as saying that their business model is the same.

In the course of developing industry standard best practices through our Social Impact Quantitative Management Audit (SIQMA™) Program over the past two years, DemingHill has identified a core group of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) as they relate to social media, which we’ve customized and prioritized for each client depending on variables like their market cap, business model, product maturity, price elasticity, and competitors.  KPI can include anything from traditional impressions and traffic, to email opt-ins, mobile app downloads, case sales, purchase volume and dollar amount, coupon redemption, direct social influence, indirect social influence, new revenue channels, customer service cost savings, product development cost savings, marketing and advertising cost savings, HR cost savings, and new members, connections, and followers.

In summary, experience has shown us that the correct response to the short question, “How do I quantify the ROI of social media?” has an even shorter answer “It depends.”  Let the debate begin!

Douglas O’Bryon

Chief Content Officer

DemingHill, Inc.


Quantifying Brand Value:  A Practical Strategy For Brand Preservation


Introduction


Survey any fifty executives and ask them to define “Branding,” and chances are you would get fifty different answers.  Some would describe brand attributes, others would focus on image and reputation, and still others might respond by simply listing examples of strong brands like Google, Coke, or Nike.  But when asked to estimate the value of a brand, or how to protect it, this same group gets as quiet as E.F. Hutton.


Historical Perspective on Branding


The original practice of “branding” actually dates back to the Egyptians in 2000 B.C., as evidenced by intricate tomb murals and paintings, and has been used in some form in every country and civilization since then.  For most of us, however, a more colorful, contemporary, and familiar branding touch-point hearkens back to the rugged iconic era of the Old American West, when an iron rod featuring a unique insignia was placed over an open flame, heated until red hot, and then plunged deep into the side or hindquarters of a piece of livestock.


In those days, a brand was a symbol of ownership – a visible, lasting, and indelible mark – and for the life of that animal, it was forever linked with the family or owner associated with that brand image.  When a runaway was located, the true owner could easily be determined from the brand insignia, and the unique mark enabled any steer to graze freely among other cattle on the open-range, with the knowledge that cowboys could quickly separate the cattle during a round-up for driving them to market.


Over time, however, brands in early America came to represent much more.  In addition to simply marking livestock as personal property, the brand came to stand for the entire operation itself – the ranch, its family, owners, workers, reputation, and even its traditions.  While the actual brand consisted of a simple letter, word, numeral, character, or symbol, it was the entity BEHIND the brand that gave it intrinsic value, and served as a unique differentiator.  Like a coat of arms in the Middle Ages, the Old West practice of designing, deploying, and displaying what has been called the “heraldry of the range” served the enduring purpose of providing a visual and visceral demarcation between people and their unique property.


Branding in the 21^st Century


In spite of the significant intellectual and technological advances over the past 4000 years, the concept of branding really hasn’t changed that much from Ramses to Renaissance and from Range to Rodeo Drive.  While communicating brand messages no longer involves fire, the goal is still the same – to sear into the psyche an indelible message – an overriding, all-encompassing impression or feeling directed towards a specific company, person, or thing.  In its simplest form, a brand is simply a promise – actively promulgated by an entity – and etched into the conscious and subconscious mind of the market or audience, with the goal (like ranchers before them) to establish a positive imprint with such impact that it can be separated from the rest of the herd when driving a product, company, or idea to market.


A perfect example of this was this year’s Super Bowl – the most spectacular advertising, branding, and media event of the year.  Over the course of the 11-hour coverage, viewers were exposed to scores of commercials, each showcasing a specific company, product or message, and each with a unique branding imprint goal in mind.  Just like livestock, each brand presented during this marathon television event was allowed to “graze freely” among other brands – but it was the strength of the brand message, and the company, person, or firm BEHIND that message that separated the winners from the losers in driving mind-share, revenue, and profits to these firms.


Consider some of the best brands around: Lexus, Rolex, Harley-Davidson, Sony, Apple, even McDonalds. While some of these represent ‘high luxury,’ the ‘best brands’ aren’t necessarily the ‘best products.’ The best brands are the ones that have done the best job of establishing an expectation (or promise) in the minds of consumers, and then delivering on that promise.


What is a Brand Worth?


According to a recent study by global research company Millward Brown Optimor, Google’s brand had an estimated worth of $66.4 billion, ranking #1 in the world and edging out other top brands including GE ($61B) and Microsoft ($54B).  Former CEO of Quaker Oats John Stuart once proclaimed, “If this business were split up, I would give you the land and the bricks and mortar, and I would take the brands and the trademarks, and I would fare better than you.”   Clearly this leader understood the inherent value that a brand can command, as historically, the determinants of a company’s worth are comprised of 31% “Book Value” (cash, receivables, real estate, inventory, and investments) and 69% “Intangible Value” (trademarks, perceptions, and brand), and while you can’t cover payroll using “brand identity,” you CAN leverage it to command premium pricing, customer loyalty, realize enviable and sustainable profit margins, buttress against encroaching competitors, and negotiate a superior value during M&A or sale of the company.  The fact that the brand valuation of Coca-Cola was over $50 billion, while the total stock value was less than $40 billion, further demonstrates this phenomenon, and provides even more impetus for protecting this most valuable, yet vulnerable, asset.


You Protect Other Corporate Assets, Why Not Your Brand?


From deadbolts, badges, keypads, and passwords, to firewalls, fire alarms, and surveillance cameras, chances are your firm is already utilizing a growing list of safety precautions to actively protect the physical assets and tangible property comprising the portfolio of your corporate infrastructure (your “Book Value”).  But what about the other 69% (“Intangible”) value of your company?  When you consider:


- The true value of your brand

- How much has already been invested to design, deploy, and display your brand

- The ongoing costs to sustain and advance your brand

- How fragile your brand actually is, and

- How easily your brand can be compromised,


it is shocking to consider how little is done by most firms to protect this extraordinarily valuable corporate asset.


For example, if your supply warehouse was burned to the ground, while the event would be tragic, it would still be recoverable via an insurance claim for replacement costs, construction of a new facility, and ultimately a return to productivity.  If, however, your company were to have its brand diluted, compromised, or tainted by scandal, the immediate damage could be even MORE costly, and the ongoing damage to your reputation, integrity, brand image, and brand VALUE (stock, premium pricing, market share) could be irrecoverable.


One need only rewind two years ago and the media explosion surrounding Michael Phelps to understand the impact of brand degradation, as the “Butterfly Effect” of his exposure in a compromising situation tarnished his stellar personal brand, cost him his Kellogg’s endorsement contract, led to countless potshots from the media and blogging community, not to mention any number of other potential downstream revenue opportunities.  Or consider just a short list of other personal and corporate brands that have suffered over the past 20 years: Bill Clinton, Elliot Spitzer, J & J (Tylenol tampering), Enron, AIG, Lehman Brothers, and yes, even E.F. Hutton.


The brand impact on the people, profits, firms, and families is incalculable, and very often turns out to be insurmountable, as was the case with Riggs Bank, which was fined $25 million for violation of money-laundering laws.  After pleading guilty to charges from a Justice Department investigation and paying another $16 million in fines for violating the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act, the bank and the Allbritteon family agreed to pay $9 million to victims, the remaining family members resigned from the bank Board, the Riggs name was officially retired, and the entire operation was acquired by PNC Bank.  In fact, even in industrial espionage cases like Lubrizol, where a disgruntled employee clandestinely sold company secrets to South Korean competitor SK Chemicals, the impact to the corporate brand can be significant, even though the wrongdoing was via the actions of a single rogue employee.


But rather than simply reacting by spending big bucks on press releases, image makeovers, and other damage control measures, savvy firms are choosing instead to proactively invest in strategic countermeasures designed to aggressively protect their corporate assets and preserve the wealth of their corporate brand.


Leveraging Social Media For Brand Protection: An Innovative Approach


As more and more organizations are recognizing the value and vulnerability of their brand, an increasing number are placing a higher priority on protecting their corporate integrity and preserving their industry reputation and are leveraging social media to accomplish these objectives.   Progressive firms are realizing that brand protection is not a sprint, but rather a marathon – requiring ongoing rigor and vigilance – and this approach requires both offensive and defensive strategies to succeed.


Organizations are embracing the integration of social media platforms to go on the offensive because these low-cost and no-cost tools enable them to efficiently and effectively reach their market anytime and anywhere.   The global reach of social media is unparallel within traditional media, and the transparency of these conversations  (along with the unfiltered feedback between company and consumer) naturally lead to a greater sense of brand intimacy and authenticity, and therefore brand loyalty.  These brand loyalist will often voluntarily assume the role of brand ambassadors and advocates, incrementally aspiring to be even more vocal and influential within their circles, and in the process becoming increasingly valuable to organizations for test market feedback, focus group opinions, and crowdsourcing projects.  And finally, it is traditionally these same people who are the first to intervene on your behalf in defense of the brand should something go terribly wrong.


If something goes wrong, and there is a sudden setback, emergency, or catastrophe (think BP Oil), the speed and scale of social media can be leveraged for brand protection and to minimize brand degradation by quickly implementing damage control measures and “getting out in front” to control (or at least influence) the message, versus simply standing by and watching as the totality of the message is controlled by others.  Having a CEO or corporate leader both on camera and on social media platforms calmly explaining the dynamics of the crisis and the steps being taken to bring it to resolution have consistently shown to go a long way towards bringing back a sense of order, integrity, and leadership – even if it does entail a complete mea culpa with promises to make it better in the future.


Remember, anywhere-anytime-anyone social media channels must be handled as the “nuclear options” that they are, with both the power to reach worldwide audiences with positive messages about your brand, as well as the capability to destroy your brand in a single rogue Twitter post, Facebook picture, or YouTube video that goes viral.


When is the Best Time to Protect My Brand?


Now! In a cluttered cultural landscape diluted by generics, knock-offs, and scams, true brand authenticity demands attention and commands a premium – benefits which must be both prized and protected.  It takes years and millions of dollars to create and build goodwill and positive brand images, and yet much of this can be lost in a single day.  In these perilous times, companies that invest so much time, effort, and capital in their brand on the front end cannot afford to neglect their vulnerability on the back end.  Strike while the iron’s hot! Take steps now to leverage social media to protect your assets and preserve your brand because, as they said in the Old West, “It’s too late to close the door when the horse has already left the barn.”


Douglas O’Bryon

Chief Content Officer

DemingHill, Inc.


Back To The Future


I don’t know about today, but back in the “Roaring ‘80’s” academia was obsessed with putting students into “groups” to work on in-class assignments in an effort to better develop our collaboration skills (and therefore better prepare us to defeat the Soviets). Hogwash.  While the educational intent was noble and altruistic, in reality this emancipated pedagogy simply resulted in entire classes of students developing and refining the very powerful and practical skill-set of “copying.”


In an age when advanced data duplication devices like mimeograph machines were only assessable to faculty and staff, this blatant copying was all done manually (by hand, using writing instruments) and typically followed a predictable, hierarchical, and trickle-down data flow as described in the following vignette.  Once the assignment was given (for example, a chemistry lab experiment), the groups would spend 30 minutes periodically mixing elements on the table and trying to avoid explosions of sufficient size and scale to compromise the integrity of the surrounding load-bearing walls. However, once the class recognized there were only 30 minutes remaining, and they were nowhere CLOSE to being done, widespread panic kicked in and the lobbying and posturing went into high gear.  The smart and nerdy kids (who had usually helped the teacher set up the experiments in the first place) would beg, cajole, and ultimately receive the correct answers from the instructor, and these eggheads would then be strategically ambushed by an intellectually inferior group to copy their answers, and they would in turn have their answers copied by the next group, until finally everyone had copied the answers from somebody else, just in time to turn in the assignment before the bell rang.


Are You Skating On Thin Isotopes?


What I find interesting is that this phenomenon is not limited to a couple of mullet-wearing, Styx-loving, Trans Am driving groupies during the Reagan Administration, but rather this practice is alive and well 25 years later, and is in fact RAMPANT within social media today.  In fact, the situation has become so dire that I am considering the possibility that Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki are the ONLY two remaining people actually introducing original ideas and content anymore, and that the rest of the online universe is simply copying them (except that we don’t call it “copying” anymore, because that would make us feel uncreative and lazy and uncomfortable with the fact that after 5 years of daily blogging we have run out of interesting or new things to say).  So, instead of thinking of it in terms of “copying,” we have invented a lexicon of these wonderfully benign, politically correct, euphemisms featuring words like “repurposing,” which ultimately lead us down that slippery slope to simply Linking or Retweeting what someone else wrote or said, with the selfish hope of getting some kind of halo effect from our community by being associated with a poignant and compelling thought-leadership manifesto.


Leaders LEAD!


In order to establish the essential trust and credibility necessary to establish your brand as a leader in the marketplace, individuals and firms need to commit to generating a steady supply of ORIGINAL content, copy, and messaging that resonates with the specific interests of your audience. These pieces must have a consistent brand voice and maintain an equilibrium – a sense of “give and take” – in much the same way that effective in-person conversations balance speaking and listening to make it beneficial to both parties.  An active and strategically managed editorial calendar can ensure that a steady diet of content is balanced in just the right proportions between industry information, product education, and specific calls to action.  The truth is, active management of brand content will always accommodate occasional references to outside resources or articles, but these should be spontaneous and contextual, rather than a creative crutch to support a cultural and systemic nonproliferation of original thought.


Reading or Leading?


One of the questions Human Resource managers frequently ask of job seekers is, “So, what are you reading?” A valid question, but here’s the reality. My six-year-old daughter could read.  Reading is easy. (In fact, the reason so many Kindles and iPads have been purchased is because they reflect the condition of our society, as they are GREAT for the masses who want easy content CONSUMPTION and DISTRIBUTION, but suboptimal for the CREATION of original, essay-length content exceeding 140 characters).  Instead, when I interview candidates, I always ask, “So, what have you written?” That is the true test of intellect, and the reason it is weighted so heavily in college admission considerations as well as in nationally standardized tests.


So please, I beg of you, don’t Link, Like, or Retweet this piece. Instead, consider it a challenge and a charge to stop copying, sit down, and commit to writing your own content!


Douglas O’Bryon
Chief Content Officer
DemingHill, Inc.

These upcoming changes are not commonly known, however they are already happening and beginning to impact buying decisions today!



Are you ready?


The Bridge to Everywhere


In an effort to bridge the understanding gap between those who “get it” and those who don’t, gurus, thought leaders, evangelists, and experts have unleashed more similes, metaphors, and allegories than the proverbial Book of Proverbs.  Just for fun – and to prove my point – I typed in a Google search beginning with the simile “Social Media Is Like…” and out flowed the following PARTIAL list of the 694,000,000 search results contained therein (with each attached to its own blog article).


Social Media Is Like…


High school

A cocktail party

Water

Going to the gym

A great friendship

Baseball

Spreadsheets

Cocaine

Teen sex

A thong bikini

Online speed dating

My grandma’s rice and beans

A 3D movie

Crossing the street

The cast of “Friends”

Recess

Thanksgiving

A blind date

A freeway

Air

Toothpaste

Baking a cake

The Matrix

Herding cats

Having a dog

Riding the bus

Jogging

A swinger’s club

Punk music

Getting a tattoo on your face

Air guitar

St. Patrick’s Day

A fickle boyfriend

Sharecropping

Country dancing

A salad bar

Training for a marathon

A small town

Getting stoned

A game of Othello

Ghost hunting

A blind date

The royal wedding

A cob of corn

Car insurance

Learning to drive

Vegas

Dieting

A bag of pistachios

The tango

Chuck Norris

Recess

Riding a bike

A loaded gun

…and finally “A Mr. Bubble Pool Party”


Really???  How can social media be “like” ALL OF THESE THINGS?  Or, perhaps a better question is, “If social media is really “like” all of these things, why is it still so confusing for so many people?”  Maybe the answer is that the “explainers” are doing more harm than good.  Have you ever considered the possibility that the people talking and blogging about social media have defaulted to explaining what social media is LIKE because they don’t understand what social media actually IS?


Parable or Parabolical?


Instead of endless similes, perhaps a superior literary device called the parable should be employed.  Used throughout literature, and the teaching method of choice used by Christ throughout the Gospels, a parable is a type of analogy featuring a succinct story illustrating one or more instructive principles or lessons, with familiar examples including The Good Samaritan and The Prodigal Son. As content writers everywhere have discovered (and which is, in fact, the theme of this week’s Content Marketing World summit here in Cleveland) it is mankind’s shared, innate, inborn, and resident predisposition towards the context and prism of STORY that is proving to be the secret to capturing both the imagination and the passion necessary to sustain and grow successful online endeavors.


There is something unquantifiable yet dynamic about the telling and retelling of stories that can’t be replicated using other methods – an emotion which produces a stickiness and staying power beyond what the storyline itself would warrant.  Perhaps it is this universal human desire to share and proliferate stories that prompts people to link, like, retweet, and repost – and more often than not – what gets linked, liked, retweeted, and reposted…. are stories.


Social Media Is


Enough about what social media is LIKE!  Social Media IS:


A human invention

Powered by technology

Enabling the distribution and consumption of thoughts and ideas


Short and sweet…and satisfying.  If only social media PowerPoint presentations were that short, then we could all go back to what’s important – the same thing that’s ALWAYS been important – superior thoughts and ideas.


An obscure writer summed it up nicely by posting the following preamble to a Digital Casserole blog entitled, “What I Believe.”


“I believe in the power of a single idea.  A single GOOD idea, anyway.  Frankly, there’s just not a lot of power in a single BAD idea, like scheduling “Bat Day” when the Red Sox play at Yankee stadium.”


My thoughts exactly.  But then again, I never metaphor I didn’t like.


Douglas O’Bryon

Chief Content Officer

DemingHill, Inc.


The first consideration is simply the rate of change. Since its introduction decades ago, the format and underlying technology for supporting and distributing podcasts has changed rapidly and repeatedly.  With each new iteration, podcasters must decide whether to stick with their existing model, straddle and accommodate user experiences via hybrid solutions, or adapt and evolve with newer, more efficient platforms.  Or, do all of the above.  If committed to the value proposition, podcasters must understand that this is not a static framework and therefore they must be prepared to continually morph and modify their offerings as the marketplace demands.


The second caveat to be aware of when considering podcasting is the sheer number of competing alternatives available.  By now, most people are aware of the accelerating audience fragmentation within standard primetime television viewership because of the increasing amount of viable alternatives, including cable television programming, gaming, and an exploding universe of online content.  Because of this – and the impact of information globalization – it is now more difficult to cut through the clutter and gain traction and mindshare because of the sheer volume of content available to consumers, who are bombarded with even more options with each passing day.  The result is that podcasts must be relevant, timely, enticing, and of a high quality to continue to compete against these forces.


The final caveat for consideration is simply a recognition that – because of all of the reasons listed above – creating great content is hard work, requiring an ongoing commitment (both financially and creatively) to maintain an active user base.  Because of the cost and rigor required for this effort, a number of progressive firms have established a model for including user-generated content for their podcasts.  While a simple, and perhaps “obvious” strategy, this solution is in fact elegant, as it serves to both keep its internal costs down AND foster additional brand loyalty by giving individuals a sense of ownership in the content and/or driving the topics of discussion.   Additionally, the “trickle down effect” is that individuals selected for their content contribution would inevitably share this “honor” by forwarding the link to their friends and family, and over time an entire library of content could be created and categorized as a corporate asset for future reference.


The use of podcasting has increased significantly since its 2004 introduction because of a unique combination of communication attributes which lend themselves to the democratization of content publishing and dissemination.  First, the online nature of podcasting means that it is very inexpensive to create and distribute (particularly when compared with traditional methods of content broadcasting) and the bootstrapping context of this medium means that audiences have grown to expect (and will not punish) occasional lapses in video or sound quality (which again will save on production costs).


In addition, podcasting is very much a “self-serve” experience, providing people with both the responsibility and the authority to determine what content they consume, where they consume it, and when they consume it – giving them the sense of ownership that comes with totally controlling the podcasting experience.


And finally, because they are able to control these consumption factors of the experience, many consumers currently pursue “dead-time learning” by listening to audio podcasts during long commutes and now, if connected to the Internet while in a vehicle, an individual could drive across the country and enjoy national and location-based podcasts at their leisure.


For organizations interested in leveraging this medium, the biggest challenge is often the inertia required to get started, and effectively go from “nothing to something” as quickly as possible.  For firms that have done nothing to date, this can represent a bit of a challenge, because the result is that they are starting from a “zero current audience,” meaning that it would take a commitment to market and advertise the podcast in order to create market awareness for this content.


It takes time, thought, and strategy to implement a social media outreach like podcasting, and these considerations must be made and prioritized in advance to ensure success.  Fortunately for organizations, the technical-savvy threshold required to participate in podcasting has gone down dramatically since its introduction.  With a more refined creation process, simplified mass-distribution mechanisms, and an array of elegant delivery devices, the act of capturing, sending, and receiving podcasts has never been easier and accessible to constituents spanning every demographic.