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Who still hates social media?

Some have been vocal in suggesting that the principles are right but the execution is worth only throwing out and replacing with “something real”.

In Jeremiah Owyang’s recent blog post following the Forbes CMO summit in Florida, the former Forrester analyst and now strategist for the Altimeter Group claimed that this group of chief marketing officers had “elevated” the social media discussion.  Despite the prospect of shrinking marketing spend, he says, the marketeers had seen opportunities to “innovate with inexpensive channels” and not a moment too soon, as they were facing something new: a loss of power to the empowered consumer.

Owyang points out that social media in particular was “on the lips of nearly everyone”, with a focus on how it could apply to changes in influence, reputation management and be integrated with existing activity.  One example he cites from the companies represented at the event is that of Ritz-Carlton hotels, whose hotel managers apparently review online chatter about their hotel before doing anything else of a morning.

Overall, 70% of CMOs polled by Forbes said they’d be doing more work in social media next year, now comfortable that it offers real value, though measurement was still in its infancy.

So how does the picture look in the UK?  There is some caution but big organsiations have been listening and in some cases joining the conversations too.   Retail is one sector where business understands the need for customer dialogue.  It was more of an old fashioned PR stunt but Debenhams used social media to good effect with a twitter assistants day in September.   Habitat was an early adopter but got off to a false start with the hashtags debacle, in which they attempted to piggyback serious stories like the Iran election protests in order to flog lampshades.  ASDA’s new Aisle Spy and Your ASDA blogs are examples of a much more considered approach to long term engagement.

Twelve months ago the attitude of big business to social media ranged from cautious interest to total disregard.  Now, in the UK too, the sound of consumer chatter is gaining an audience in the board room.

Minutes ago, Forrester analyst, Jeremiah Owyang, (pictured) concluded his presentation at the Dutch social media conference, CSN 09, leaving no-one in doubt about the future of social media.

And though I wasn’t lucky enough to be in Amsterdam myself,  through the magic of Twitter and the tweeting fingers of various attendees, we can all share (in an oh-so-social media fashion) some of the insights that Jeremiah gained from the recent research project, The Future of the Social Web.

Points picked up at the conference included:

- Social is inevitable: everything will be social

- The needs of the (online) community must come first - brand second

- Put the most popular part of your corporate website on social networks where they can become social

- Products and services will be rated by online communities, like it or not

- Make your online content social and aim to share it on the right platforms (yes - that means “fishing where the fish are”)

- When selling social media to your company, focus on the C-word: customers

- Communities take the driving seat when it comes to buying

- (Imposing) registration online is for one thing only - to allow marketeers to bug you and bug you again 

(Thanks to Tweeps for the Tweets: @marcvanderput, @AmazingPR, @RobertLommers, @csnconference, @evr)

Twitter turned three years old this weekend and those who are now converts/addicts must wonder how we ever lived without it. And while Marshall Kirkpatrick over at ReadWriteWeb has taken the time to hail its significance to social media, Forrester analyst, Jeremiah Owyang, is describing how companies are starting to ask questions about Twitter that suggest it’s now considered a serious business tool.

But how is it working for companies and their customers in the UK?

Travel writer, Mark Hodson, has been tasked by the Times to vet the Twitter performance of various travel companies , and interesting reading it makes.

And taking the example of each travel company in turn provides a handy illustration of some of the better principles of using Twitter. So…

Easy Jet - A real human being makes good customer service accessible and fixes problems.

Lonely Planet - Gathers useful/interesting travel tips from real people and makes them easily searchable via a hash tag.

Brittany Ferries - Shares good deals with its Twitter followers.

Mr & Mrs Smith - Is responsive to customer queries.

Black Tomato - Is conversational rather than salesy and drives people to other content online.

Visit Britain - Shares useful ideas.

Thomson Holidays - Communicates to customers’ concerns in a crisis (in this case, flights to places affected by Swine Flu).

Hodson also takes a look at some travel Twitter feeds distinctly underperforming - namely Virgin Atlantic and London City Airport - which share a similar problem: seemingly having no clear idea of what to do on Twitter or why. 

But his appraisal of Butlins’ Twitter feed seems a bit harsh. After all, it provides offers; monitors and responds to discussion of its brand (including Hodson’s piece in the Times); finds and re-uses positive, third party mentions of Butlins; provides teasers for new openings; directs followers to other content online and handles customer complaints openly and sympathetically. Maybe Mr Hodson just doesn’t like Butlins; or maybe I’m still overwhelmed by my 1975 visit to Butlins at Bognor Regis that’s never been bettered.

OK, I exaggerate…

(Thanks to @adrian_johnson for bringing the original article to our attention)

Sorry Twitterfolk, our secret’s out now.

What was - in Facebook terms - very much a worldwide minority pastime is now gracing the pages of Times2.

Though unconvinced by Facebook or - to be precise - its “status update” function as counter-intuitive behaviour for uptight British people, journalist, Sathnam Sanghera,  is now addicted to Twitter. He says: “The banal thoughts of complete strangers are surprisingly comforting and compelling: it’s like following a thousand mini soap operas”. But when he quotes a Twitter user, @foodiesarah - someone I know personally - I realise how small Twitter world has been.

But elsewhere, the migration to Twitter is not being welcomed. Writing on web news site, Mashable, Dr Mark Drapeau is keen to see brands banned from Twitter altogether. He questions whether “one dimensional organizational brands” fit with the Twitter way of working, and concludes they don’t. As he rightly points out, people on Twitter want to talk to real people who use a recognisable identity and photo or avatar, not @DunkinDonuts.

I recently posed the question  - in response to Jeremiah Owyang’s blog post on HP Labs’ Twitter research - about how businesses could work with Twitter, as we have pulled Twitter-based ideas from PR proposals for being inappropriate to the social medium.

And that’s something that businesses should be willing to do before they feel the chill wind of Twitter derision wafting their way, which can’t help but spread online. Social media may be the latest thing, and highly tempting for organisations to get involved in. But don’t dive in without testing the water first - or getting good advice about what might be lurking below.

Pic credit: humble thanks to Rob Cottingham at Noise to Signal for use of the most apt cartoon.

Buying decisions are increasingly in the will of the Web, according to new research by Gartner.

Jeremiah Owyang, Forrester analyst whose Tweet alerted me to this research has given the findings a broad thumbs up, which is a recommendation in itself.

In fact, the research suggests that by 2012, half of what we buy - including offline purchases - will be directly affected by the Internet in the form of seeking recommendations on blogs, comparing prices, etc. We may end up buying from a bricks and mortar outlet, but the impetus will have come from from the digital world.

But, as the article from Gartner goes on, companies should beware of rushing headlong into using online social networks as part of the business plan in the belief that just being there will generate sales.

Still, Gartner predicts a flourishing of Web-based customer communication in any recession as a cost-effective way of keeping relationships alive. 

Figures from Nielsen Online reported on Mashable show Twitter to be taking off like nobody’s business, with users growing 422% on last year and sticking around on the site for 7 minutes on average (a veritable lifetime online).

Still, Jeremiah Owyang refers to this (unsurprisingly via Twitter itself) that in the context of social media networks, Twitter’s 2.3m users is small beer when compared to the hulking 100m registered Facebook users.

So, as a Twitterer myself, I now know what it feels like to be in an official minority and a growing one at that. Makes you want to pick up a placard and demand your rights!

 STOP PRESS: Robert Scoble (again, on Twitter) says he’s seen Twitter “all over CNN”.

It’s official: the job of handling conversations online is a REAL JOB!

Social media guru, Jeremiah Owyang has started a list showing the emergence of people filling the roles of Social Computing Strategists and Community Managers in the larger corporations.

And ok, it may look US and tech industry-centric now, but the Web knows no geographical boundaries (erm, well maybe China) and the conversations about you and your business can be happening online anytime, anywhere.

The trick is knowing a) they’re out there and b) how to handle it.