Nice powerpoint Mr Brown, however.

I have been involved in a vigorous direct message exchange on Twitter with @nirvanacable about Gordan Brown’s recent talk on TED.com. In short, her enthusiam for GB’s championing of sustainable development issues VERSUS my somewhat luke warm reaction to it.

It was only after I was challenged directly by @nirvanacable that I began to pull apart my feelings about this particular TED video. I have worked on CSR and sustainable development in the past – so any Al-Gore-type engagement with the TED-watching masses ought to be met with thumbs-on-chins nodding, followed by my own uncontrolled applause.

Although I don’t feel as strongly as Pathfinders on the issue (which is really worth a read), the post does capture the sense of conflict some viewers feel towards this TED talk. It is difficult to reconcile the relaxed, charming, smiling speaker in the video with the political figure we have come to know in the past 2 years. For some voters it might actually be a side to prime minister they wish to see more of.

I have fair deal of admiration for the UK prime minister. I also respect that he has not been caught up in the cult of celebrity – employing a matter-of-fact style rather than media-savvy key messages that we are all used to. Nor can I fault the prime minister’s new found style to promote important global issues. It was after all a great Powerpoint presentation. However, it does feel like a mismatch between ‘content’ and ‘medium’.

Filed under: Uncategorized

A Supposedly Fun Thing I Might Do Again

NB: probably only funny to those who have read Infinite Jest

It’s nearing the first anniversary of the death of David Foster Wallace – one of my favourite authors. In the past few days I have been searching online to see how others around the globe are commemorating the event and stumbled upon InfiniteSummer.org. The phenomena is being covered by various newspapers.

The forum was created by a group of American academics teaching the works of D.F. Wallace [mainly “Infinite Jest”] to mark the first anniversary of his death on Sept 22. Started on June 21, I along with hundreds of others around the world are currently read the novel as a community (it is not clear how many – judging from Twitter, it is a fair few). Observations and interpretations of this complex novel are posted on the forums over the next few months, with guidelines to prevent “spoilers” from revealing storylines and outcomes before the rest of the group.

The I.S. project is interesting on many levels.

Firstly, I had heard of online bookclubs – yet this is altogether different and ties in pre-existing technology with a collective experience quite nicely.

The I.J novel (written in approx 1992) also dabbles in predictions about technology of the future (pre-empting the possibilities of iPhones, video communication and ‘Tweets’). The specter of terrorism is a strong for the characters within the novel. Which altogether makes re-reading of the novel, today, well, spooky.

A lot of the action occurs in the Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment (or 2009). The author’s vision of the future means that time becomes sponsored by corporates, or “subsidized” – a maddening device that requires multiple note taking and up to 3 bookmarks in any one reading session). Given marketer’s desire to rebrand/sponsorship stadiums and major events, ‘sponsorized-time’ is not far from the current day reality.

A book mark offered by a reader in the IS forums

My first reading of this tomb of book was in 1997. I vividly recall finishing the final chapter on a beach on the southern NSW coast of Australia. I travelled through it on my own, without study guides or even clarity about certain outcomes for at least two of the characters.

Needless to say it had an enormous affect on me and introduced to me two other great essays later in his career (A Supposedly Fun Thing I Will Never Do Again, and Consider the Lobster (the sort of thing the ethicist Peter Singer might have written)).

For those interested, The New Yorker published a insightful and extemely sad article on DFW and his struggle to surpass “Infinite Jest”. For me, however, it was his ability to manage complex themes and relationships, whilst always remaining affectionate towards a motley group of characters that were his stand out qualities.

To quote the Rolling Stone Article, “The one thing that really should be said about David Foster Wallace is that this was a once-in-a-century talent,” says his friend and former editor Colin Harrison. “We may never see a guy like this again in our lifetimes… He was like a comet flying by at ground level.”

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Twitter, only as interesting as your interests

Searching on Tweet Deck

The news seems to be awash with a mix of success stories (see KFC in rather good FT article – “Think before you tweet”) and failures (same article). However, judging from the media, one would have the impression that a majority of business people are Twittering – which in not my experience. The majority of PR, HR and corporate comms professionals I come into contact with are not personally engaged with these tools. This is changing, albeit slowly.

I spend a fair amount of time chatting to comms professionals about their “online corporate reputation” and in particular how to manage it. I still see an over-reliance on free tools like Google Alerts (which is a dreadful and time-consuming way of ensuring your inbox is littered with a spam-like gush of emails) and not tools like TweetDeck (also free, but with easy visualisation, a nifty saved keyword search function).

Prior to every new client meeting, I set up search of the clients keywords on Your Web Brand (a paid tool). I also set up a saved search on TweetDeck for the company and its competitors. Between the two I can build a real-time picture of what issues the client is dealing with. An ever increasing amount of traffic is being driven by Twitter (some argue between 20-40%). The increasing inter-dependence of bloggers and Twitter (as a promotional platform) means that if people are commenting about your company it will quickly pop on a TweetDeck search.

Clients openly acknowledge that there is a gap between what is happening online, and their ability to monitor it, engage with it. However, the gap identified might actually be more personal in scope. Many friends and clients that have started a Twitter ‘dialogue’ soon abandon it. Without clear goals or a purpose, the results can be disappointing.

Yet, something like Twitter is only as interesting as your interests. With a vast resources out there and some great advice, I encourage clients to use social media for personal reasons first, before introducing introducing the snazzy tracking tools, and certainly before subjecting a team or an organisation to an online engagement strategy.

Filed under: Uncategorized, Corporate Comms, Online reputation, Social Media, Twitter

Don’t blame IT Departments for everything…

I had a meeting with a client a couple of days ago. Suffice to say it was with the press office of a government embassy based in London. They wanted to chat about online reputation management, so I flipped open my MacBook, plugged in their network cable and was underway with a demo of Your Web Brand.

As I looked up into the top right hand corner of my screen, I noticed this particular embassy didn’t have wifi. “No”, the young press officer lamented, “we don’t have wifi here”.

I mentioned that online reputation tracking tools works well in combination with a good RSS reader (like Feedly).

Young bright press officer – “No, we’re not allowed RSS readers on our systems”.
Myself – “That’s ok, all you need is the latest Firefox and an add-on”
Young bright press officer – “We’re not allowed Firefox in this office”.
Myself – [pregnant pause]. “No wifi, no RSS – so how on earth do you monitor what is going on?”

I don’t want to bash IT departments – there is enough of that in companies anyway. Their jobs are tough enough as it is: IT managers need to create uber-secure environments for staff, prop up firewalls etc. If that limits creativity internally, well, as is the case for many companies, so be it.

Truth is that consumer technology today is changing so fast that we are always going to be disappointed with the capability of an in-house IT department. A work IT environment cannot compare with the sophistication that we all enjoy at home on our smart-phones, smart HD TVs and super-fast desktops.

So who is responsible for the severe lag in technology within companies? Well, the leaders of that company – not the IT department.

Take a look at one company that seems to be addressing the issue. Citrix. I visited them last year in their Silicon Valley office. A company like Citrix knows that it needs to attract bright young professionals (like the press officer mentioned above) but also recognises that these professionals need their iTunes, You Tube, Facebook access. Work life, for this demographic, probably ain’t worth living without it. Citirix introduced the “Bring Your Own Computer (BYOC)” program. BYOC means that Citrix contributes a respectable amount of money to employees to buy their own laptop (any kind). They then provide a dedicated wifi network. Employees use their own secure networks, but are not penalised when they reach the limits of the network, can rely on their own software programs to get the job done.

I don’t think it matters that Critrix is a Silicon Valley based IT company. What matters is that the senior management of this company realised that they need to ‘open up’ their systems enough to keep on attracting the right talent. Corporate Comms & media relations teams, today, cannot fully perform their jobs without proper access to social media tools.
Many in-house comms/marketing teams are battling internally for the tools to do their job.

But it is not the job of IT Departments to work this out. As with Citrix, the most senior managers of a company need to to pave the way.

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“Daddy, I never want to work for someone like you”

I was at the Communications Summit in Brussels yesterday, listening to Soumitra in his keynote address about new technology and the impact on communications professional. The blog title is from one of his anecdotes about an executive who is observing his daughters use of Facebook. In short, the daughter explains to a dad who doesn’t ‘geddit’, “Daddy, I never want to work for someone like you”.

Soumitra’s keynote, “Throwing Sheep for Communications Directors: Understanding and Winning with Social Media” was rather good (and judging the response, relevant to this particular audience). That there is a generational divide between net-gen and the rest, is much commented on. Yet a similar gap exists between professions.

For 12 months I have been speaking to communication executives about online reputation management, social media etc. particularly for the tool that I am working on (Your Web Brand). There are enlightened PR professionals, working often within agencies but not only, participating and taking part in social media – but they (ie. we) are not the true innovators in this area. Often it is the young gen of marketers or web-focused twenty somethings that ‘geddit’ and apply the new technology well.

The “loss of control” that is being talked about today, is not just about vertical organisations losing authorship to citizen journalists. Comms professionals are also losing their influence to the new breed of web-enabled people who probably don’t even regard themselves and PR/comms specialists.

To underscore this point, yesterday’s workshop had Jon Worth talk about his campaign AtheistBus.org.uk. In the time it takes for a company director to book a ‘social media expert’ to come and speak to her/his Board, and for the board to agree, “Yes, this is important, let’s set up a task force”, someone like Jon has run an online/off-line campaign and is on to the next project. I exaggerate for effect, but not by much.

I hope the participants that leave today’s conference reflect on their own work practices when it comes to creating an environment in which young, creative talent wish to work in.

Filed under: Uncategorized, Corporate Comms, Social Media