Interview with Robert Scoble on social media tools and their use in monitoring and supporting online brand reputation.

Shel Israel has posted that the book he co-authored with Robert Scoble has just turned 2 years old.

You may want to check out my interview with Shel about his book that I did last year.

The book is a great read. It is now showing its age as many more corporations have joined the social networking and blogging community. The initial uptake by companies may have been a bit slower than many thought (including the authors) but without doubt a real momentum is building up. 2008 will see much of what Shel and Robert wrote about come to pass.

(Photo: Thanks to Buzz Bruggeman)

Shel Israel, co-author with Robert Scoble of the best selling book 'Naked Conversations:How blogs are changing the way business talks with customers' has just become a fan of Facebook.

Robert is too!

So what has been happening in the last few days?

Over on Scoble I think we are seeing a new trend. Senator Edwards used ‘A List’ bloggers and the blogosphere the other day together with traditional media to announce his run for the 2008 US Presidency. At the recent Le Web 2.0 conference in Paris the second day had a number of presentations by French politicians participating in their Presidential race.

My prediction for 2007 – blogging will become a mainstream communication tool for UK politicians. Why? Bloggers are mainly aged 16 – 35+. This is the group that is least likely to vote and most immune to traditional marketing communications (TV and press adverts, party political broadcasts and posters). But is most connected by the use of social media. Smart politicians know that. To get them engaged and active in politics will pay dividends at the next election not only for the system generally but for whichever party wins their ‘hearts and minds’. One interesting aspect is the ‘long tail’ and its relevance to party funding. Will an active blogging strategy mean new potential funding sources or ‘e-foot soldiers’ to mobilise the vote?

The big unknown - will blogging become 'mainstream' for business? My prediction - no - but well on the way to becoming so.

Check out our podcast interview with Shel Isreal. Shel is the co-author with Robert Scoble of the book, Naked Conversations - the top selling book of corporate blogging.

In the interview Shel compares progress in the US to Europe. In the US the take up of blogging has not been as fast as they both thought but he does point out that in whilst in February 2006 only 2 Fortune 500 companies were blogging - by October 2006 that had grown to 36. But this still means that over 90% are not blogging.

He sees traditional marketing and communication practies as the causes of delay but feels that the pressure from consumers will force a change of attitude.

For the second time in a week I have had the same conversation with some Corporate marketeers. They say they understand the opportunity and power of blogging but they will not be doing it. They give two reasons:

• Fear of negative comments (or a 'Ratner Moment')
• Unclear of the ROI benefits

Having served my time in Corporate Marketing I can fully relate to the first one. When you have had to face a class action suit because a senior manager has said something 'off-script' you can get very nervous of uncontrolled comments from within a company. I have spent many hours with the finance, legal and PR teams in the past preparing scripts for senior management to use at earnings announcements or press interviews. An off-the-cuff remark or response to a questions can have a massive impact as Gerald Ratner and his company - and the shareholders - found to their cost. Many in the blogging community, quite rightly, champion transparency and openness. The converse is the risk of legal liability. Can a company avoid legal liability by putting a 'not company view but personal' on every blog post and distance themselves?

The other comment has been - 'looked at it but too much effort compared to the benefits'. Without understanding the company ROI model it is not easy to comment but from the conversation it seems they are looking at having people 'police' the blogs and issue and maintain policies and that are just too much management time and effort compared to the 'small number of people blogging'. But have they considered the advantage of 'early warning' it can give on issues consumers maybe having about their products or services? When a crisis hits every hour is important. As the saying goes 'A stitch in time saves nine'. Blogs can help. Companies spend vast money on market research. Blogs are a great two-way communications tool that can be used to get feedback on all sorts of areas including operations and product development. Blogs can also be used to supplement call centres which increasingly seem to be areas of mounting frustration for customers.  Have they factored is these areas to their ROI models? Maybe they would do well to read Naked Conversations by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel to see how some organisations have been using blogs.

Corporates who have looked and made a decision to not go ahead will do well to keep monitoring the situation. Blogs are here to stay and will keep growing in importance.