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Jeremy
Well said, my approach is to do great work for the people who are cutting the check. The second point you make "It's impossible to divorce a person from their reputation." is another one I have been wrestling with.
If you have worked hard to build a good reputation in the community you are now using your own "reputation equity" to spread the word of your company. Recently I had a serious internal debate because an approach someone wanted to take in response to a blogger did not align with my style.
While on one hand someone is now cutting me a check for to engage on their behalf, it has been important to establish ground rules up front on ways and styles I will and won’t interact.
Look forward to seeing you around.
Dirk
My question is a little different. What happens when an employee's "personal brand" is offensive to some people? I believe that an individual should stay true to who they are, but when it comes to the success of a company, does that mean that it's okay to piss off some clients and/or lose current users? It's something I struggle with as I try to embrace transparency and bring my online/offline worlds a little more closer into alignment.
Excellent question. People who are in these public facing roles should align to the values of the organization they are representing. Some organizations are ok having more audacious people on the front lines, we are a bit more corporate and therefore i must act accordingly. Since taking this role I have noticed that I apply another filter on my personal content, becuase as Jeremy points out seperating reputation from a person is impossible.
This brings up an interesting topic: : selecting your social media spokes people.:
Dirk
In regards to your post, I think the bigger question hinges on the C-Suite truly understanding social media. Companies aren't social and they do not have a personality or identity. A company is only the sum of its employees.
Having strong personal brands is very valuable for companies.
However, Scoble is an interesting example of the unforeseen dangers that face companies who put too much power into the hands of too few social media spokespeople -- the anointed ones. Microsoft enabled Scoble to become bigger than the company in some ways. Unless you are a company founder, you run a risk if an employee becomes the recognized face of that brand — a better paying job can quickly steal the most talented individual from a company.
I believe Dell gets it right. They have a number of employees focused on social media. And as a result, Dell as a company gets the credit for being good at social media -- the credit does not go to a single 'rockstar' employee. A team is bigger than one person.
Companies should focus on building social media teams with a strong bench of up-and-comers.
Agree?
Best, Thomas
Good to see you as well. Always nice to put a face to the avatar.
I agree with the fact the c suite must "Get-it", or least know they need it. If you are in the situation where they know they need it the align to business goals becomes even more critical as a way to communicate value.
The approach of Dell is certainly a much more sustainable one, a single person can not possibly be effective in an organization of any size.
Building teams will be the first step in the organizational maturity to adopt social media. Overtime, I don't see this as small group, but rather a core responsibility of employees across the organization.
Thanks as always for you great insights.
Dirk
I also agree with your point that social media should become a core responsibility of employees across the organization.
Even when/if companies become radically transparent, you will have a core group of evangelists that will be more visible than others. They are the 20 percent of thought leaders in some varying degree at the company, perhaps 70 percent of employees will use SM with some success but never generate a large enough following to ever become really visible. 10 percent don't care and won't use it.
How many of the 400+ twittering employees at Zappos can you name or would actually care to follow?
On the other hand, companies with a large number of product lines or those with very technical knowledge will have a larger number of influential participants in social media. Microsoft and Google have numerous blogs, each focusing on a niche area of the company.
Best, Thomas
Great post. Thanks for opening up your results. Very helpful. I've been wondering about the same things. I just wrote about Prosumer branding... I co-opted the term, but tell me what you think:
http://blog.tippingpointlabs.com/2009/03/zappos...
* Posted 26 links on twitter that received 858 clicks, (Top links were social media related.
* Provided support to customer via Twitter "Thank you for doing the legwork; proof positive that social media is beneficial for customer relations.”
* Published 2 articles on Junta42 a content marketing site resulting in 160 views."
This is nice blog marketing tips.. thanks