Interesting comments from the CEO of the Denuo Group (a Publicis company) on the loss of command and control method of advertising (thanks to AdAge).

The big issue for traditional centralised marketing is that it ignores the fact consumers want engagement and participation. Those viral campaigns and 'mash-ups' can tap into the 'mybrand'/'myvoice' generation. A check on the top viral videos of all time will see literally hundreds of variations on the theme.

Check out the interview 23 year old Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook gave to the 60 minutes news programme in the US.

The real power of Facebook is when you link Permission Marketing to profiles of interest. Using a Facebook application like Socialistics you can see who's profile most matches yours in interests, education, hobbies, musical tastes etc. Now apply that to the concept that we trust personal recommendations more than any other form of advice and you can start to see the potential power of Facebook for individuals and businesses.

We already have 'recommendation sites'. I personally use TripAdvisor but I have no idea about the person making the comments. We may or may not have many (or any!) similar interests so how can I really trust what they say? With TripAdvisor I apply the concept of the Wisdom of the Crowds. If enough people rate it highly then it is bound to be OK. But in reality I would trust a 'reliable source' more. In Facebooks case it would be those friends and friends of friends who most match me.

In the same week 3 people who I respect and listen to on different sides when it comes to considering the future.

First Tim Beadle of Marketing Improvement says as one of his forecast for 2008 that...

Web 2.0, or the semantic web or the user-generated content web (choose your favourite term) will be quietly dropped as businesses and consumers recognize the inherent risks of a) linking web systems together and b) telling the whole world about yourself. If Web 2.0 becomes anything, it will become the home of web applications that will work well on a mobile phone. As more and more phones adopt the format of the iphone, why would you need a big, heavy laptop or clunky PDA?

This is in the same week that both General Motors and Coca Cola announcement even greater support for user generated media and social media conversations rather than traditional marketing.

In the same week the head of Intel talks about the 'personal and portable web'. Tim is wrong on the first count. User generated content is here to stay. I do agree with him on the second point. Smart mobiles with customised applications merging the functionailty of PDAs and laptops with location specific filtered information will be available in the next 5 years. I cannot wait for my smart phone to start delivering specific information based upon my Facebook profile and other information when I arrive in a country. Give me some maps. Locations of places to eat based upon known availability (and if reservations are needed) and filtered to reflect other peoples recommendations. The recommendors profiles will be matched and ranked against my profile so giving me more confidence to trust their judgement. To me that is where the real value of social networking lies. Using their generated inputed of experiences and recommendations to influence my decisions.

Now check out what Jeff Jarvis says in his latest blog about journalist training and them having their own personal blogs. Also see what David Brain, CEO of Edelman Europe says about candidates having social media awareness and experience.

This is the new logo that Xerox has just spent a large amount of money on. (Source: B2B Marketing Online)

According to their marketing chief it solves the problem they have had for the last 10 years of wanting "...to shake off the unapproachable tag that we seem to suffer from...and project ourselves as the friendly, dynamic company that we are."

Coca-Cola on the other hand is pushing even further into the realms of social media. (Source: MyCustomer.com). This is what the head of digital marketing at Coke said "...With the increasing sophistication in the digital world and virtual environments, we knew it was time to create a richer, more lifelike experience for MyCoke.com members..."

Read those words again and compare what it shows....

Project ourselves (Xerox) v lifelike experience for MyCoke.com members (Coca-Cola).

Now who is already engaged with customers? Who is in conversation with its community? Who has a community?

Now given the choice of investing possibly millions of $ on a new logo or on social networking communities what would you spend you money on? What do you think would give the best ROI? A new logo or an enhanced experience for a customer?

I know where I would spend the money if it was in my budget. 

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)

One of the big issues about social networking is the fact that not everyone uses the same product. The results are invites from business contacts on Facebook, Plaxo, LinkedIn and others. What do you do? Turn down contacts, keep joining yet more social network platforms or try and convert people requesting a contact to use your prefered solution. Or simply ignore the whole issue.

I use Facebook and LinkedIn. Some contacts are shared on both. Some on one and not the other. And some on neither and I just use old style e-mail and phone to keep in touch.

Charlene Li of Forrester Research has news of the Data Portability Workgroup (members include Facebook, Plaxo and Google) who are working to try and agree common data exchange formats. As Charlene says...

'...Google, Plaxo -- and the big surprise -- Facebook, will be participating in discussion on how users can "access their friends and media across all the applications, social networking sites and widgets that implement the design into their systems."

This will be a tough one to agree and implement. It has obvious user benefits but data protection and privacy are two massive issues that need to be addressed.

A great article in Ad Age on what US based global brands are doing with social media in 2008.

What does it say? Consumer generated content, engagement and conversations through forums, social networks and blogs are all included in the communications mix.

What is funding it? A decline in traditional media advertising.

Is this the start of a trend?

An article in Ad Age today says WPP shop Ogilvy & Mather is to layoff staff due to a downturn in traditional ad revenue. As more and more clients move to digital marketing and social network marketing the ad agencies are finding their commission based revenue model no longer works.

Ketchum PR and The University of Southern California have just undertaken research comparing the perception of communication professionals to consumers. The report is called Media, Myths & Realities.

It highlights the gap between communication professionals who still use mass marketing broadcasting techniques and consumers who are looking for smaller communities or groups of like minded individuals. The report recommends the following key actions to be taken:

• Treat audiences as individuals and not 'faceless' masses
• Put word-of-mouth and search engine optimisation on top of the agenda to address
• Do not rely on the corporate web site

Richard Edelman of Edelman PR has just posted his predictions for 2008.

Number 4 on his list deals with PR agencies and the emergence of social media. Threat or opportunity?

"The digital aspect of public relations will continue to develop apace, but we need to focus on those aspects of Web 2.0 where we have comparative advantage. Ideas with a public service element, facilitating dialogue with third parties, creating authoritative content linked to credible primary sources, and campaigns asking for stakeholder expertise and experience are the sweet spot. We can compete with digital firms and ad agencies but let’s do it from strength. Let’s also recognize that our biggest job is to convert our account staff into Web 2.0 players, to assure that they are sufficiently broad in their reading/viewing habits, incorporating video content into their work and committed to transparency and quality in content provided to the community. PR is a true growth industry because we rely on dialogue, shareholder engagement and relationships, but only if we truly embrace digital." (my highlighting)

The emergence of social media and customer comparison and evaluation sites means that PR agencies must considering the internet as just another communication platform alongside radio, TV and print. The journalists are now 'citizen journalists' as well as online journalists. PR agencies need to identify what is happening in the blogosphere and social media space and learn how to engage in the conversations.  

Pluck has announced via BusinessWire that it will be supplying its software solution to the Guardian Unlimited to allow the development of a social media community. Pluck allows the integration of blogs, forums and user generated content such as articles, images and videos, all within a self contained environment.

Plucks functionality will allow GU to implement 'citizen journalism' as a rich media experience in the near future.  

1to1 experts Peppers and Rogers share their thoughts on what they see as important where social media and CRM will intersect in 2008.

Listen to the podcast. This is how they see the trends from 2007

Martha Rogers: We are seeing a continued rise in the amount of influence customers have over each other. What a total stranger posts on a Web site -- reviewing a book, evaluating a product, or rating a hotel room -- actually has more influence than all the advertising that a company could ever create. In addition to that, we also see a huge rise in the influence of employees over customers and vice versa, not through official channels, but on Web sites and blogs.

More and more we're going to see how important it is for companies to build strong and trusting relationships with their employees, to know that those employees are building strong and trusting relationships with customers, who have such huge influence over each other.

Don Peppers: I think the trend toward consumer self-help is also very important. Consumers are taking charge of their own service, facilitated not just by the manufacturer but by Web 2.0 technologies and by other customers. I think that it's a very big trend that marketing and customer service professionals can't ignore.