Transparency

This is perhaps the most important of all things that businesses who interact with people online need to understand. You cannot be deceptive or purposely deceive someone because the consequences can be quite severe (if not terminal for your job). Always be honest with those you are interacting and show them that you care about their needs. According to the Word of Mouth Marketing Association’s code of ethics, one of the basic tenants relating to new media etiquette is to show honesty of relationship. This means that you should always say who you’re speaking for. If there’s a conflict of interest or if you’re getting paid to blog or write about a particular product, then you should be upfront and say that. This holds true especially if you’re creating a brand on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter or happen to be on a forum about your industry/product/topic. Do not hide that you work for XYZ company when you’re talking about a XYZ company product – for if found out, you’re not being transparent and depending on the severity of the infraction, people may spread the news quickly that XYZ company is not being upfront and transparent and that looks bad for your brand.

Honesty

Are you honest about what you’re saying? Have you been interacting with customers and given them the truth and nothing but the truth? This trait goes along with being transparent. You need to be honest with yourself and also with others. Say what you believe is the right thing and don’t lie about it to your customers. Again, if they find out, the situation can change pretty quickly and public perception about your brand can go from positive to negative. You should also be honest if you’re being compensated or if you’re compensating someone who is promoting your product in the web space.  Bloggers who you are hiring should be disclosing any form of compensation that they’re receiving from you or your company to write about your product. Honesty goes a long way towards making the conversation that much smoother and worthwhile.

Respect

It’s not just an Arethra Franklin song. Learn to respect those that comment and have opinions. It’s a free world so both supporters and opposers are allowed to voice their own respective opinions about various subjects. If someone is writing or posting something online negative about your product or brand, you are able to react to that comment but do so respectfully. Learn what their product is and offer your response, but be accepting of the negativity. There’s no such thing as having a 100% positive rating or impression so don’t be mistaken for having the perfect product – because it doesn’t exist.

However, be accepting, of course, of positive comments people make online. Respond to their favorable thoughts with acknowledgment and continue the conversation. Don’t just leave it there as this is an open opportunity to gain some additional insight. But still be respectful.

Use Proper Attribution

When you’re using information from another source, remember that it’s not your work. It’s someone else’s work that they have given you permission to use for a singular or multiple purpose. For lack of giving credit, you have essentially plagarized or worse: stole their idea and that makes you dishonest. This applies to presentations, photos, video, music, and any other form of multimedia that exists online. Do NOT attempt to lift this material without sourcing it back to the original author. While there may not be any safeguards, it looks bad for businesses who are trying to establish a great reputation to have a photo on their website that they simply lifted off of Flickr without saying where they got it. Do your homework and ALWAYS attribute your material (where appropriate & applicable).

Admit your mistakes

When you have done something wrong or made a mistake, then you should be upfront, honest, and transparent about it. If you’re trying to avoid accepting responsibility when it actually IS your fault, then you have something to hide. That will result in people online criticizing you and forcing your reputation further down a dark hole you don’t want to be in. Just look at the KFC debacle and how KFC has not accepted responsibility but rather tried to downplay the issue. Yes, your PR people will tell you otherwise and you might want to listen to them, but the world of the web demands action quickly so don’t wait to craft a message, but rather just issue a response to let the people know what you’re doing to help remedy the situation. Make sure in the response that you admit your mistakes as well. Be explicit and show you care. The other rules of new media etiquette work in these situations as well. Don’t be afraid of owning up to your mistakes. People will respect you and your response and help heighten your brand perception online.

These are just some of the fundamental rules towards having an engaging new media conversation between yourself, your company, and your customers. These rules were presented to me by Jennifer McClure of the Society for New Communications Research and information about the Word of Mouth Marketing Association’s code of ethics can also be found here.

Use these rules as building blocks towards setting up a great new media platform and you’ll be able to harness the power of the web and have great conversations.

Over the past couple of months, I have been to several conferences, but never have I’ve been to two at the same time. But while you might think it would involve a bunch of running around and conflicting agendas, you might be surprised to know that these two conferences were very similar in nature and topics covered, but for a slightly different audience. Just what events am I talking about? This past week I attended the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) New Communications Forum (NewComm) and also the Inbound Marketing Summit (IMS) in San Francisco. Both of these events were co-located to help make it easier for people to meet with each other and to take in the different agendas.

Why have two different conferences and what makes them so different? I liked how while the topics were similar, the entire agenda was focused on different audiences. SNCR’s NewComm Forum was geared more towards those in public relations and those in communications while the Inbound Marketing Summit seemed to be energized towards those in marketing. Of course each event had their own all-star cast, including Chris Brogan, Shel Israel, Charlene Li, Louis Gray, Loic Le Meur, Tim O’Reilly, Geoff Livingston, Charles Best, Brian Solis, and Network Solutions’ own Shashi Bellamkonda.

Another key difference that I’ve seen between the two conferences that interestingly enough seemed to be complimentary was that while attending the sessions at the NewComm Forum you were engaged to learn about topics and analyze its potential use in daily business life, but at IMS, you were thrusted into more case studies and discussions. From hearing about the effect of Twitter on daily life to how social media has played a crucial role in helping fund educational projects to understanding how we can bust through the noise and still be a player in the marketing game, both the NewComm & IMS have provided ample resources, tips, ideas and research on how to help evolve our strategies and tactics.

So what are the takeaways here? Let’s look at DonorsChoose.org for a second. Created by Charles Best, this initially started out as a website where teachers could put up their project needs and donors could submit their donations, but has since evolved to multiple schools and is basically an “online charity that connecting you to classrooms in need“. The fundamental platform that houses DonorsChoose.org is a great one but Best has indicated that it is scalable to handle other types of charity causes. The success of this program has also been tied to incredible partnerships by other organizations and looks to be growing.

Other presentations that stood out from these two conferences include hearing about Tim Street of Ape Digital who helped show us how online videos can become viral and what are some key elements needed to help make them a success (e.g. Star Wars kid, Susan Boyle, “Leave Britney Alone“, etc.). Louis Gray’s presentation on how to break through the noise gave an intellectual discussion on how companies can effectively monitor what’s being said about them online and how you can respond. But while you might think that these conferences only focus on the for-profit scene, think again because Raquel Krouse of IPG Emerging Labs spoke about how social media can be used for conventional cause marketing. And of course, we can’t forget about Shashi Bellamkonda’s presentation along with Geoff Livingston on how Network Solutions has evolved its online presence and the future of social media within the company and how it’s changed the customer service relationship.

For three days, these two conferences offered a slam-packed agenda that kept you on the edge of your seat and offered an enormous amount of information. Thanks to the organizers at the Inbound Marketing Summit and also at the Society of New Communications Research for a great event. Photos of both events have been posted to my Flickr page and hopefully the slides/presentations will be made available soon for sharing. Looking forward to the next time.

He and Geoff Livingston will be leading a session entitled, “Online Reputation Management – Best Practices & Lessons Learned: Orchestrating a Turnaround Through Monitoring and Response.” It’s a case study on how Network Solutions used social media monitoring, communications tools (including this blog and the @NetSolCares Twitter account), to get ahead of the curve, address customer complaints, and affect positive changes in the way NetSol does business and is perceived in the marketplace.

Granted, there’s always more work to be done. But that’s why we’re still here.

Anyway, if you’re going to be in the Bay Area next week, check it out — say you’re a friend of Shashi and get a discount:

$100 discount if you use the discount code SNCRFRIEND, or a $200. discount off of a Full Access Pass to both NewComm Forum and the Inbound Marketing Summit with discount code NCFCOMBO2
A one-day NewComm Forum FlexPass is available for $395. Register at NewComm Forum ‘09

If you’re not going to be at the conference, don’t fret (I’m not) — this stuff isn’t secret, and if there’s one thing social media types like to do, it’s share. I’m sure we’ll see lots of blog posts, Tweets, some streaming, and presentation slides from the event.

Meanwhile, some other social media goings on (primarily focused on the DC area):

* eDemocracyCamp2, Sunday, April 19 at the Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet at George Washington University in DC (in the Media and Public Affairs building). It’s a free unconference focused on participatory democracy in the digital age, transparency, and Government 2.0.

* DC Media Makers April event, Wednesday, April 22, at the NPR offices in DC. April installment of this regular meetup, with post-event socializing.

* 2009 Milblogging Conference, Saturday, April 25, at the The Westin Arlington Gateway in Arlington, VA. Spend a day hearing from and talking to milbloggers, that particular set of Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Airmen, civilian employees, journalists, family, friends, wonks, and more who blog about military issues and military life. $50.

* 3rd Int’l AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media, May 17-19 in San Jose, CA. I won’t be attending (I went to the first one in 2007), but it was on my mind, after my entry on Resources for Faking Your Way Through Social Media Metrics –it was very useful to see how social scientists were looking at and studying social media.

* WordCamp Mid-Atlantic, Saturday, May 16, University of Baltimore Thumel Business Center, Baltimore, MD. Focuses on “everything WordPress,” the blogging platform that powers many of the most popular blogs around (inlcuding this one.) More info here. $25.

As usual, I’m just cherry-picking events I’ve heard about or seen on DC Tech Events, Gary’s Guide DC, and other places. If you’ve got your own event that I’m missing, either in the DC area or the world outside the Beltway, please leave a comment.

And if you ever see me or any of my blog cohorts at an event, say hi.

Dr. Nora Ganim Barnes, Ph.D. along with Eric Mattson from The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research recently conducted one of the first statistically significant, longitudinal studies on the use of social media in corporations.  

Nora is a dynamic and passionate speaker.  She discussed how the study found change in social media use between 2007 and 2008 in INC 500 companies.

Top take aways for me:
 - INC 500 companies have adopted Social Media aggressively  
- In 2008 77% are using at least one form of social media ( Wiki seems to have gone down in usage)

- 60% are monitoring Social Media.  Among reasons for using Social Media :

- Another way to communicate

- Connect with customers    

Given that previous research shows that just 11.6% of the Fortune 500 have a public blog, it is astounding to see that 39% of the INC 500 are blogging. The 3.6% increase in Fortune 500 companies participating in the blogosphere pales in comparison to the 20% increase in INC 500 companies after the same time period.

 

How do these INC 500 companies measure success?
 - Number of hits/Page Views
 - Awareness
 - Customer Satisfaction
 - Feedback/comments
 - Lead Generation
 - Revenue, Sales
 - Word of Mouth

Why some of them do not use Social Media:

- Do not have a desired need
- Media does not match audience
- Do not have the resources/ Time constraints 

 The New York Times covered this study in a June article 

The Executive summary and abstract of the study is below

Also, Network Solutions is a Finalist for New Communications Award of SNCR and I am waiting eagerly for the ceremony today.

We have been recognized for this and we not just talking “happy about it and cheering in our cubicle” proud, but like “bouncing off the walls, giving hi-fives to complete strangers” proud.

This is all because you like us, you really, really like us.

We have been notified that Network Solutions is a finalist for the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) 2008 Excellence in New Communications Awards program. Our entry is in the ‘Online Reputation Management’ category.

What this basically means to the non-PR buzzword people (which is about 99.98% of you) is that not only have we provided a resource for our current and future customers, we have used this blog and social media services like Twitter to communicate with people about issues that are crucial to their use of Network Solutions as your service provider. When it comes to reputation management in today’s environment, bad rumors or news can circulate fast so there must be a way to quickly communicate news and/or responses to customers.

In 2008, Roy Dunbar took the helm as CEO of Network Solutions and put a premium on communicating more clearly and openly with stakeholders.

As a result, the social media team at Network Solutions was given the important task of building a bridge with an ever-growing net-savvy audience is an important goal. A plan has been put into place to communicate with customers & work towards changing this perception. This is being accomplished in a number of ways including providing excellent customer service on Twitter & elsewhere on the web.

Society for New Communications Research is dedicated to creating a bridge between the academic and theoretical pursuit of these topics and the pragmatic implementation of new media and communications tools and methodologies. They offer research, education, events & information on best practices.

The Society’s Symposium & Awards Gala will be held on Friday, November 14th at the Hotel Marlowe in Cambridge, MA. This event will feature the presentation of the Society’s Fellows’ latest research projects and winning case studies from around the world through the Society’s awards program. Attendees will hear about the latest research on new media and communications, social media, ICT and mobile media. Later that evening, the Society will hold a gala dinner to honor the winners of the 2008 Excellence in New Communications Awards. Each year SNCR presents these prestigious awards to honor corporations, governmental and nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, media outlets, and individuals who are innovating the use of social media, ICT, mobile media, online communities and virtual worlds and collaborative technologies in the areas of business, media, and professional communications, including advertising, marketing, public relations and corporate communications, as well as entertainment, education, politics, and social initiatives. In addition, the SNCR Fellows will honor their choices for the SNCR Visionary of the Year, Innovator of the Year and Brand of the Year.

Detailed program agenda information & online registration is available at: http://sncr.org/symposium08/