Who’s holding you back on social media implementation? I bet it’s not the IT guys.
Maybe I am biased. I write about technology, and often see why it is so easy to blame techies for all our Marcom and media issues.
Here’s my spiel –an interview with British communications group, Simly Communicate.
Guest Blogger Rohit Bhargava Reports:
Last night we had a chance to have a moment like that as part of a blogger meetup we organized over Twitter for a few local bloggers in Beijing and some of our athletes participating in the Lenovo program. We ended up having dinner with two Namibian cyclists, both of whom were competing for their country – Mannie in Mountain Biking and Kris in Road Cycling.
As we sat there and listened to their stories of making it past the trials and what it took to be the ones their country sent, it was easy to remember why the Olympics are the most powerful global event in the world.
Mannie competes on the second to last day of the Games, but talking to Kris was a great reminder of just how much every athlete trains and struggles just to be part of the Games, and how proud thousands of people none of us can see will be of them when they return home. Erik realized a personal best and finished 22 out of more than 100 of the finest road cyclers in the world after riding for over six hours.
This is what the Olympics are really about. Not the hurdler who conquers personal tragedy and cancer of the kneecap to win the Gold. That’s the Hollywood version. The real life story is about the guy who beats his one biggest competitor to be the sole athlete in his sport that his country sends to Beijing. The one who misses marching in the Opening Ceremonies to rest so he can compete at 9am on the first day of the Olympics. The one who rides his bike in hot and humid weather for more than six hours among the best cyclists in the world. And the one who beats the odds to finish a personal best of 22nd so that he can go home a hero.
Thousands of years ago, our ancestors communicated across vast distances by beating out messages on drums. Today we relay messages across the world on Twitter, using our thumbs.
The 2008 Beijing Olympics combines both these communication impulses in a country that is seeing this dramatic shift from the analog and digital. The balance and alternation of signals is a powerful metaphor for much of what we do, no matter where we live.
The visually lavish opening ceremony with its human tableau set on a digitally created scroll was just the start. Bamboo scrolls gave way to print; and in a striking opposite effect, 2008 drummers played out a digital spectacle with their choreographed beats made to look like a LED screen which spelled out the count down. That too in Roman and Chinese numerals. How much richer could we get?
One Daily Mail journalist summed it up this way: “This was a feast for the eyes cooked not from the books of ancient culture so much as the latest Microsoft manuals.” I don’t think this is accurate. It was a feast for all our senses, cooked from a user manual that’s a mashup of the Little Red Book and Microsoft manual.
A few millenia after the drum and the torch, here’s how we send and receive information:
From today I will be featuring a guest blogger Rohit Bhargava an influential thought leader and blogger covering digital strategy.
Bhargava, of Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence, is in Beijing as part of the Lenovo sponsorship.
This widget is one more example of how news is distributed from a world event by an organization that used to represent mass media, and now embraces social media.
I didn’t have to drop it in here on the blog. I simply added it via the NBC site, while registering for text updates -a more personalized opt-in method of grabbing the news as it happens.
[clearspring_widget title=”Latest Olympics News Video and Photos” wid=”4812279165b55abb” pid=”489f079ec276d62d” width=”300″ height=”400″ domain=”widgets.clearspring.com”]
”He went from being this renegade making films that were banned and an eyesore for the Chinese government, to kind of being the pet of the government.”
In addition I have offered to send the MAD Magazine Editor a $20.00 Circuit City Gift Card, toward the purchase of a Nintendo Wii….if he can find one!
“Wait until Bob Garfield sees these new ads.”
“More Americans died from pandemic flu in the 20th Century than died in World War I. It will happen again. Prepare now.”
“At the moment the channel for reporters to use the internet is fully open.”
“Never before in an election cycle has so much attention turned to the youth vote…”
“But what the clueless HR team doesn’t realize is that the manager community will find a way to shorten it for them – simply by hitting the “delete” button when they receive it.
“The new Delicious is just like the old del.icio.us, only faster …”
“Beard was supposed to shed her clothes and denounce the wearing of fur, but why anyone would wear fur in the summertime in Beijing is beyond me.”
“Where is the protest against surgeon who remove big part of your brain?”
Poor Amanda. She may mean well, standing up for other creatures in the water and outside, on behalf of PETA.
But someone should have told her that when you plan to pull off a media stunt, it’s best to keep things under wraps until the final moment. Especially since nudity was going to be involved. Especially since PETA has had its sights on China and vice versa.
Like I said before, Beijing is going to be a venue filled with many controversial stories. It’s already begun, with the U.S. cyclist team apologizing for what was not exactly a stunt but a bad PR move. In this context, a swimmer planning to show skin outside of the Water Cube is not exactly a smart move.
Maybe she gets it, now quoted as saying “PETA is a little more risque, a little more out there …That’s not me. That’s not my tactic.”
Really?
Nice move by Coke in Beijing, to use hotspots, mobile phones and opt-in.
McDonald’s has an interesting online experience, “The Lost Ring” which is a sort iof immersive game, featuring one Eli Hunt, via podcasts.
It’s enough to send shivers down a CEO’s spine.
This story about Circuit City, following closely on the heels of the unidentified Exxon Mobil Twitterer tells us all we need to know about the futility of command and control tactics in corporate and marketing communications.
As MAD magazine sketches go, the details in the fake Circuit City ad are hilarious. Especially if it’s not your organization. (There’s a slight nod to the iPhone –in the copy about dropped price.)
With the maturity of social media, PR and reputation issues are gathering steam.
The list goes on…
There was a happy ending for Circuit City, where it came back fast, joining the conversation to retake the story. On the MAD magazine site, someone posted a comment about Circuit City’s lack of humor. In about two hours, someone else (Hmm! I wonder who?) posted a comment and a link to the story how Circuit City had apologized.
CPR is not what you think. I will get to that later.
Common sense tells us that the time to start monitoring a brand is long before the sushi hits the ventilator. But social media always blindsides us. It’s called a Brand Hijack for a good reason. Brand Hikacking, described as “the consumer‘s act of commandeering a brand from the marketing professionals and driving its evolution,” could be “the employee‘s act of commandeering” as well.
Interesting to see how Exxon Mobil will handle what appears to be an employee micro-blogging without been anointed by the PR and marketing department. Someone going as Janet has been sending Twitter updates, but the blogosphere, including Shel Holtz figured out it was not an official Exxon Mobil tweet.
Jeremiah Owyang has been in touch with Exxon Mobil, whose comments, as they seem to wrestle with way to handle this, are enlightening. Especially if you are doing top-down CPR (Communication/PR) in the organization. I am reminded of Alan Jenkin‘s observation that “The shelf life of any “tweet” is about 20 minutes. But tweets are carved in stone.”
The bottom line of course being the need constantly to monitor your brand in the blogosphere.
Hoipolloireport 