John Cass, on his PR Communications Blog, recently wrote an excellent critique of The Cluetrain Manifesto. Now that the book is 10 years old, and we are living in the midst of this messy web of connections and conversation, John refers to some of the “95 theses” in the book and discusses them in the context of today’s reality.
In my professional life, I work for a large non-profit organization, and am challenged by choosing the “right” level of involvement in social media strategies across the board. Are we better served by telling everyone who works for the company to go out and hold open, free-wheeling conversations about us through their blogs, facebook/myspace accounts, etc., or are we better served in a controlled environment where we empower a few folks to do this giving them ample resources to be successful.
If we choose the “free-wheeling” approach, is it worth the risking the reputation of the company through that “blurry line of social media” – if someone uses poor judgment somewhere along the line. Alternatively, is this really any different than a personal Friday evening happy hour where the employee of a company talks about work, home, and uses poor judgement all the way around?
On the other hand, if we do choose to impose some level of restriction on these things – are we missing out on broader reach, opportunities, and success? If we want to create a “tipping” point for around our organizational mission, shouldn’t we have as many people talking about it as possible?
Both approaches have promise. Both approaches have risks. This is truly a journey where I will try a few different things to see what works.
Definitely worth a conversation, though. What do you think?
Filed under: Social Media, digital future | Tagged: business, conversations, Internet, reputation, Social Media, the tipping point, web 2.0
Thanks for this post referencing my original.
You raise a different question regarding the “free-wheeling” approach than I asked in my post. I did not question the value of encouraging people to use social media because I was concerned about risking the reputation of the company. Though I think that is a factor, one that can be dealt with through company wide communications training. There is also the well-documented case of an intern for an agency insulting Jeff Jarvis because of his critique of a Dell webpost. Despite Dell’s efforts at restricting which employees’ blog, or the employees of vendors, people will use poor judgment. Rather I thought that the risk the in using the “free-wheeling” approach is that employees would not be motivated to participate. Coverage for products and departments would be spotty if left to the free-wheeling approach, while a dedicated approach would cover everything that needed to be addressed.
You asked the question, “shouldn’t we have as many people talking about it as possible?” I question if in the freewheeling approach whether that would actually happen, while with the dedicated approach if enough resources are committed, people empowered, and paid, then yes as many people as need to talk about a company will do so. I suppose it is the difference between volunteering, and being paid to do something. Volunteering requires passion, and those that do are rare individuals, far better to motivate the typically workplace and people with resources and passion.
Thanks for stopping by! I absolutely agree with you that it would be hard to motivate a larger group of folks to venture out into the world of social media on behalf of the organization (or even at all). I too have found that it is difficult to find those passionate and inspired enough to do this. What we are struggling with is an overall approach. On one hand I am fighting a traditional bureaucracy that is trying to make me go through seven layers of approvals before having a conversation online, and on the other hand we have an extremely controversial topic that does warrant some oversight – all this while trying to make my organization understand the importance of having these conversations in the first place!
Wish me luck.
Best of luck with the process, you are going down a path many other companies have ventured. I was thinking about some of the other companies that have gone through this process before, when they involved the bureaucracy early in the process of building a mechanism for connecting directly with customers on the web, they often gave more leeway.