The speaker makes some interesting points on:

• Push Vs Pull learning
• ROI
• How Obama came in under social networking
• The dynamic influencing that social networking can bring out.
  

I certainly believe that greater customer feedback can be achieved through such routes.

Click here to view the embedded video.

To subscribe and listen, head for i-tunes or listen now by clicking on the play button below:

The wonderful sound is courtesy of the amazing Travis Vega

I recently found this image to be close to my thoughts on the potential of business blogging.

In the past we developed the K-Wiki. The concept was to have a home for best practice for e-Learning and media et al.
However, although we had thousands of visits there still appeared no interaction. Maybe the reality is that the web is actually passive and that in order to encourage participation content has to be aligned to business needs rather than information dispersal. For example, discussions can promote dialogue between existing clients and suppliers.

One theory implied by this diagram and my thoughts is that great content can lead to respect but also proliferation of what you are about as an organisation.

In the past I ran a series of video podcasts. Now we reserve them for best practice.

In terms of our audio podcasts I’m planning a radical review of what is issued.

Obama is an outstanding orator. He appears calm and collective and all of these skills are valuable in developing an effective communication strategy. What was just as important was the choice of media, i.e: The electronic dimension and style of the campaign certainly helps to capture people’s imagination.

Hang on! What people are we talking about? Are we talking about ‘Natives’ – i.e.: those that grew up with technology and find it a natural interface to gather news / share opinions or views on line. Or, are we talking about the ‘Immigrants’ – Those described as technologies who have had to ‘port’ / migrate their skills from the mainframe / mini computer generation to Web 2.0 functions like social networking.

Interestingly, some of the Internet strategy was developed by a volunteer: Chris Hughes. Chris is a former founder of Facebook. Taking time off his work on an unpaid basis he took time for no money and volunteered to participate in the campaign.

Millions of Dollars were also raised online, i.e: Raising $200M online with an average donation size of $84.

The messaging adopted, to borrow a term from eLearning was ‘blended’, i.e.: using face-to-face and online communication of knowledge.

There is one more element that was in the mix. That was the use of traditional media, i.e.: Television and Radio.

From a channel outlet perspective, we should map this to the demographic: Young voters of all colours… Interestingly, advertising slots on MTV were purchased to get to the heart of a listening/ watching generation! It is also worth reviewing Barak’s mobile SMS approach – albeit that mobile computing in the European consumer base is developing at a faster rate.

With on line blogs associated discussion threads and an approach that attempted to put the owness on the reader to participate – the motivational mix of the consumer/ potential voter the strategy fuelled itself.

All of these strategies can be summarised for organisations by suggesting online proliferation of ideas, services and products can help with the right New media and supporting organisation to provide innovative ideas and content redeployment strategies.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sure, CEO’s probably love reading about how two innovators developed a jaw dropping awesome application like YouTube. Or, how MySpace was purchased by NewsCorporation for millions of Dollars . Unfortunately, they tend to fail to see the benefits of such innovations for their business. Maybe they are only inspired by the sums involved. Or, the ‘cut to the chase’ attitude. Another way to put it is as follows:

’If I spend X of both my time and money what will I get in return and when’?!

It could be that the definitions and examples given to answer the latter, are simply too complex and technically orientated.

After doing some research and thinking, I came up with the following to help:

Q: What is Web 2.0 and why would I need to change my website?
A: Web 2.0 is not a new version of the Web. Instead, it offers increased collaboration between teams. For example, storing, sharing and enabling synergies between users – leading to potential increases in productivity. Improving your site will also aid in making your company’s marketing more sticky for your existing and potentially new clients.

Q: What is Social Media – sounds like an excuse for virtual water-cooler!
A: Imagine being able to easily share content, for example, video, audio, images journals/experiences (Blogs) and build a knowledge pool – It would be a way of ensuring that your corporation’s knowledge ensures effective communication, consistency, continuity and contingency – and offering opportunities for greater customer service.

Q: There is a lot of talk about Feeds – Is this just not another way to give people updates. Wouldn’t a ‘what’s new’ section on my company’s current site be enough?
A: Actually, no it would not be sufficient. That is because feeds are a great concept for people (internal and external) who are interested in your business to automatically receive updates if they subscribe to receive them. That is not the same as email. Therefore, consider the huge savings in the cost of owning and managing email and their associated attachments.

I assume that the next stage is to build / publish cost benefit models that show current and future prospects.
I recently put together a publisher’s podcast model, i.e: translating an existing rate card for selling space within an agreed episode format.
In that way a direct financial return could be forecast adding greater motivation to both invest and track the performance of the money spent from day one of the project.