Are Twitter templates only reflecting a fading era?

Hands up those who read newsletters mailed from your local politicians.

Ha! I thought so.

Now, who reads government advertisements in newspapers?

Hmmmm.

That second question should probably have been “who still reads newspapers”, however the point of all this is still the same.

Bureaucrats simply transferring their old newsletter and marketing ‘thinking’ to the micro-blogger, Twitter, seems to me like two steps forward and one-and-a-half steps back.

The Twitter templates unveiled this week by the UK and US governments underwhelmed me, despite their complexity.  Fair enough, they get top marks for acknowledging that the times are a changing around them (governments here in Australia are a lot slower to see the bleeding obvious)

However, I believe that both the UK and US boffins either missed the point or refused to recognise that the change is largely about a new type of consultation – placing real and effective power in the hands of citizens, not simply maintaining a status quo via a new tool.

It will be great to see institutions Twittering, but not with an odour of red tape and unsubtle spin. For example, ‘clearing’ individual tweets to ensure they push the current positive message and reinforce the day’s media releases, may quickly destroy credibility and render the Twittering pointless.

One of the reasons we have something like Twitter is because the power of the digital age allows people to have a say  - and not just at election time.

Systems like Twitter are helping connect digital communities  of people with different interests, backgrounds and ages.  The hope of many is that the resulting conversations will bring greater resources, energy, aspirations and thinking to some of the social challenges that currently are proving either too big or too hard to solve.

Am I being unreasonably idealistic here – or is the reality that bureaucracies everywhere say only what their masters want to hear.

The changes being rung by social media are too important to become tangled in the business of government.  And, one way or another, the bureaucrats will need to accept that this is not something that they can control in their traditional way.  In fact, it’s all about releasing control.

I’m keen to see what you think?

Ian

Will government need to be dragged into the new reality

In the past, politicians and bureaucrats generally saw themselves as deciding what services the public needed – and then arranging to have those services delivered, either directly or through outsourcing.

In a ’social media’ environment, that role can be defined as simply ‘meeting the needs of the community’.

The difference is subtle, but extremely important.  However, I fear  it may well be beyond the grasp of much of our current bureaucracy, even though the public increasingly ‘gets it’.  Many elected representatives and unelected bureaucrats  believe they automatically know what’s best for the populace.  With a few notable exceptions, it’s called delusion.

I started thinking along these lines after  one of my favourite bloggers, Carl Haggerty, recently suggested that social media would require the public sector to allow local people to determine how resources should be delivered”.  The key words here are “local people” and “determine”.

Another excellent writer on the subject, Paul Clarke, said that government would need to engage and listen to the public so it could  find out what was really needed to serve a community.

Paul admits that there are financial hurdles, as well as “an enormous amount of established practice and ‘habit’ to address.

“It’s not easy to throw everything in the air and start from the beginning.

“It takes a seriously sensitive hand to guide and shape services without reverting to pale, top-down reflections of what was really needed.

“It might not involve the services as they’ve traditionally been delivered. It might not involve some of the services at all. It’s very likely to involve some that haven’t even been designed yet…

“Aim to deliver a set of services, and you’ll do just that. Perhaps a little better each year, perhaps with a few innovations, but by and large you’ll always do what you’ve always done.

“Aim to serve a community, and things really could change…”

It’s not rocket science but, unfortunately, our bureaucracy rarely seems to contains Obama-style visionaries. For many of them, the old untargeted marketing of ‘messages’ lives on, despite a changing, connected world.

The great wall of bureaucracy

 

 

PR versus marketing debate is also outdated

Recent discussion about whether in-house marketing should answer to the public relations function, or vice versa, seems pointless.

I agree that the old style of public relations is clearly reputation management and is therefore a ‘whole of operation’ function.  However, it’s also the bleeding obvious that the PR role cannot be achieved without  marketing, the old style of which  is undeniably a commercial ’ selling’ process .  Graphic design, logos, advertising, customer sevice and the like are important in any reputation management.

The  problem I see is where companies or organisations attempt to experiment and save money by either trying to get PR to do everything, or vice versa. Attempting to be all things to all people in this way simply doesn’t work and will fail — if not today, then certainly tomorrow.

But, another reason why it is a pointless debate is that, the behavioural change that is currently dubbed ’social media’ is rapidly making all these titles redundant anyway. What’s the point of relying on media relations only, or focusing strongly on advertising when the public is fast abandoning traditional media models and treats advertising with more wariness than ever.  

No matter what the size of your logo  …. ignore the writing on the wall at your peril.

Attempting to roll together PR and marketing

Why look for websites when you have an iPhone and Twitter

The evolution of digital communication is continuing apace, with websites rapidly losing their significance as destinations.

Social media and mobile delivery are changing the landscape so much that content is now coming to us when, where and how we want it – without the need to go looking.

And, in turn, this is diminishing the value of static websites and has virtually consigned the term “surfing the web” to the dustbin of history.

The way we find information has changed so dramatically in such a short time, that the advent of real time searching and micro-blogging has caught large areas of both business and government by surprize.  As they struggle to understand that traditional one-way marketing concepts are out of touch with a connected populace, tools such as corporate websites that present so-called key messages look more and more like relics of a bygone era.

As leading blogger, Jeremiah Owyang, said recently information and connection is coming  to you dynamically and within your personal context.

Jeremiah said  social components were emerging in areas such as e-commerce and entertainment platforms.  He predicted that even solitary digital applications such as Word would soon be forced to operate with social functionality.

Another blogger, Neil Perkin,  adds that content owners need to reach out and engage their audiences wherever they are.

 Neil says that it’s easy to slip back into old ‘destination’ thinking about attempting to put information on a website and then attempt to draw people to it .  But, communities already exist, so the job instead should be to think about how you can help that community do what it wants to do.

Fashions come and go within the new media e.g. Twitter continues to soar in popularity;  women now make up more than 60% of all Facebook users;  teenagers and 20-somethings increasingly show no loyalty to any particular social application; and newspapers still have no idea how to keep interest in their off-line products.

However, one thing is abundantly clear amid all this – what is broadly termed ’social media’ is truly one of the biggest behavioural shifts of our lifetime and, as in the case of one-way marketing, the change is claiming some casualties that will not be greatly mourned.

Ian

Social media takes aim at traditional power structures

I’ve usually believed that cynicism to social media is primarily caused by a lack of understanding.   Perhaps I’ve been too kind.

An article by respected research analyst, Caroline Dangson, recently suggested that fear rather than ignorance may often be the key factor behind executive opposition to social media.

Writing for ZD Net, Caroline said the cultural change involved in social media is still seen by some as disruptive, because it challenges traditional power structures – no one person gets credit, no one person has power.

“Corporate culture has everything to do with adoption of social media,” Caroline wrote. 

“I believe the number one factor preventing full adoption of social media is the lack of executive trust in employees.  This culture is about control.”

Caroline went on to predict that organisations and companies that resisted the social media movement would struggle to keep energetic employees, regardless of economic conditions or enticements.  She said the problems that this caused would be exasperated by the fact that “20% of US executives, administrative, and managerial employees would retire in the next five years”.

And, with Australia’s ageing population, don’t expect it to be much different here.

Caroline went on to add that embracing social media would help keep workers interested and invested in an organisation or company.

“Talent attracts more talent and keeping these workers is a key business objective.”

(Caroline Dangson is a research analyst covering social media with IDC’s Digital Marketplace team)

Twitter is UK’s quickest growing website

Social media’s impact on the web has roared past a significant milestone, with news that Twitter is the United Kingdom’s fastest-growing website.

Traffic on the “micro-blogging” website has risen 22-fold in a year, faster than any other site, according to the internet analyst Hitwise.

The soaring interest has propelled Twitter from its position as the UK’s 969th most-visited site last year to 38th today. It was the 84th most popular social network in 2008; now it is ranked fifth.

A report in the Independent on Sunday newspaper, quoted Eden Zoller, an analyst at Ovum, as attributing Twitter’s soaring popularity  to the fact that “it is easy and effective”

The report continued:

“Twitter was founded by Biz Stone, Jack Dorsey and Evan Williams in 2006, but 2009 has been its breakthrough year, Hitwise said, with 93 per cent of its growth coming since January.

Robin Goad, director of research at Hitwise, added: “It hasn’t suffered from going up against Facebook like MySpace and Bebo. If it has carved out a big enough niche, Twitter could certainly grow this year and maintain its position after that.”

The problem facing the founders is to change the site from a social networking phenomenon into something that actually generates revenue. It has so far rejected the advertising models used by rivals including Facebook.

Mr Goad said: “Given that Twitter has yet to settle on a business model that will take advantage of its huge, loyal user base, this is an issue that needs to be addressed if they are to make the service a financial as well as a popular success.”

What a story!

As the move toward greater inclusion of citizens in government and business continues apace, it is worthwhile pausing to marvel at one of the big success stories – Twitter.

In three short years, the micro-blogging sensation has caught the public imagination in ways never considered, while leaving critics floundering. And Twitter’s growth rate means that the story is far from over.

But, for those who still  believe that a picture  tells more than a 140 character tweet, take a look at this from Manolith.

Ian

A few days we may long remember

Regardless of the outcome of the protests in Iran, we may look back on this time as a watershed for social media.

During the protests, social media – especially Twitter - has again proved itself to be an important source of real time news and information.  The way in which Twitter has outstripped both traditional media and other social media has been remarkable.

And just as importantly, the US Government has admitted that Twitter’s role in the issue has identified it as an agent for strengthening democracy.  Strong stuff indeed.

I have a feeling that, irrespective of how things pan out in Iran, the past few days have truly been significant for all of us.

Ian

Restricting the clicks is pointless

A smattering of knowledge can certainly be a dangerous thing.

Several times in recent weeks, I’ve  listened to someone waffle about the importance of reducing to the bare minimum, the number of mouse clicks needed by a website visitor.

What a load of bollocks!  That type of thinking is hopelessly out of date in our broadband era and reminded me of the ‘three clicks’ rule that web designers obeyed religiously in bygone days.  So, I did a search on the subject and quickly found this excellent article that spells it out nicely.

It’s kinda lucky that I’m well mannered and therefore respect someone’s right to a stupid, ignorant opinion.

Government needs to get real about engagement

When the Obama administration announced, earlier this year, that “government does not have all the answers and public officials need to draw on what citizens know”, it was one giant step for democracy.

But as US bureaucrats have started appearing on Twitter and other social media outlets to engage directly with the people, it has only highlighted the deficiencies of government here in Australia.

Politicians, some government agencies and even local councils here have followed the move to social media, however in reality it is little more than tinkering around the edges.  When all is said and done, our government at all levels, remains firmly rooted in its tradition of tightly controlling what the masses are told. By their very nature, our bureaucrats are too risk averse to readily relinquish control over a community conversation that inevitably must slip from their grasp in an increasingly connected age.

The declining use of traditional media means that marketing messages via advertising is fast becoming pointless.  A large proportion of people now get their news online yet blogs largely remain a mystery to our bureaucrats. And, an increasingly empowered populace is generally not interested, or even wary, of glossy newsletters, flyers or websites that seem little more than electronic brochures.

As in America and the UK,  the public here wants to engage directly with government in a shared conversation that can only strengthen our democracy. Like those two countries, now is the moment for our government and its bureaucrats to change their corporate culture into a new model  where people, conversation and community are genuinely at the heart of everything they do. 

Ian