Live Blogging at the DMAW: Part 3

The home stretch, the final sessions. The tracks follow the same headers of New Media Basics and New Media in Action. I’ll be taking advantage of both this time, hearing IBM’s Mark Cleverley and Ogilvy’s Stephen Marino.

Mark Cleverley started off track one with a presentation titled “Reaching them where they live: blogs and beyond”.

Before he began his presentation he revealed this rule of thumb: the sum of the expertise of the people in the audience is far greater than the sum of the people on stage.

The Role of the Internet

Mark’s view on blogs starts with the fact that the majority of the world is connecting using “social software” which makes things far better and faster. But, what happens when we have these connections – why does it matter?

90% of these connections have cultural, social and business implications. For example, 90% of Koreans in their 20’s are on Cyworld – so if that is your demographic, then that is a key area to become familiar with.

The internet is now the number one daytime medium and the number two medium in the home for those between the ages of 18 and 50. It’s a qualitative change in use, with 80% using it – 44% every day. 40% claim that the internet has played a crucial role in making decisions. Think about it, you most likely use the internet to research a car, a school, find a house or purchase clothes and pretty much anything else you can think of.

Mobile Growth

And still there are new ways of accessing information and services. 60% rely on non-phone features (camera, clock, calendar, messaging, music ringtones) and one in eight people would pay $10 per month for constant unlimited mobile television access.

Rich media interfaces are beginning to predominate. Think about Google pictures and audio. Mobile video is growing in use, just think about the opportunity for the iphone to become a true PDA – including phone, video, web (and wi-fi), music and everything els at your fingertips.

Web 2.0

There is no such thing a Web 2.0. (A bold statement for this crowd!)

But what’s really changing? According to Mark, workers are appropriating the means of production. The barriers to entry are minimal, which causes a change and increased number of users.

Some statistics on users:

• 200 million on Myspace,
• 8 million on Second Life,
• 22 million on Facebook,
• 2 million articles on wikipedia,
• 200 million blogs,
• 65,000 videos on Youtube and
• 8.5 million photos on Flickr.

Staggering numbers.

Collaboration and co-creating are becoming the preferred ways to engage. Whether it is between individuals (IM, blogs) or among companies, experts and communities (wikis will be mainstream in 50% of companies by 2009).

Web 2.0 is however, about connecting people. Social and participatory business models are what is important. Content creating and sharing, community and collaboration are key to developing an effective Web 2.0 community.

Conversation on Web 2.0

If consumption becomes participation – does marketing become a conversation?

Readers comment on your blogs, rate your products, change your wikis, create blogs of their own, create hate sites (hah!) and basically mashup everything that is created on the internet. Therefore, is nothing safe on the internet? Is everything subject to change and criticism?

If conversation is important, how do you hold one? And WHO HOLDS IT? It’s a forum, a conversation – through product ratings and reviews, social bookmarks (Digg, del.icio.us), blogs which provide personal and authentic opinions, wikis which provide group consensus on a subject, podcasts and web feeds.

Through all of this information, where is the cutting edge of conversation? How do you hold collaboration and meetings?

Social Software Examples (it’s not just blogs)

Retailers (Circuit City and Sears) are setting up virtual retail environments on Second Life. Users can mock up their own house with the latest and greatest products from those stores. It’s easy to see the market benefit there. It can also be an internal collaboration tool. In IBM China there was an employee town hall meeting, in the Second Life Forbidden City site in Beijing, China.

The government also uses Second Life. NOAA has a Meteora Island where you can see what happens to a climate when a hurricane or tsunami comes through. It serves as an education tool through a virtual learning classroom.

The public sector has a role too. The CDC trains and rehearses procedures and provides a way for collaboration among emergency medical workers. UC Davis has a schizophrenia site so you can see what it’s really like psychologically to suffer from that.

In addition, social software helps to manage high volumes and many types of constituent comments for multiple purposes, such as at the Flight 93 National Memorial site. It allows government to talk to people when you most need to – connecting with a constituency when emergencies require it – reaching them quickly “where they live.”

Younger users are taking part as well. Think.com is sponsored by Oracle, and there are sites like rate my teachers which offer valuable sharing information.

Sharing all of this information allows constituents to use your data. Counties can integrate information for residents – tax information etc.

The idea that things get more useful and relevant the bigger they get is also important. Use the wisdom of (big) crowds. Conduct online digital brainstorming sessions with a large audience (example: HabitatJam.)

Benefits of Social Software

All of these ideas help companies deploy things faster. It also reduces the cost of reach for companies, offering a generally free and very effective way to reach out to the masses. Social software also allows people to help themselves.

For example after Hurricane Katrina (3 days after to be exact), two guys developed a giant visual geo-located database to find and track people in need. Speed of deployment, participation of users and the value of this program helped make this a success. People design the answers when they use social software, they are creating the conversations and overseeing the debates.

Inside IBM

IBM is dedicated to creating strong connections. They feature Profiles, a kind of super directory of employees, Communities (currently hosting 700) which serve as a forum, Blogs (more on that later), Dogear, which is a social bookmarking (200,000 links) site, and Activities which is like an internal management system. This creates shared activities that can be activated globally.

IBM has 100+ blogs over a wide range from a diverse community. There are subsets for developers, partners and early adopters. Everybody can learn something, and anyone can comment. 300,000 people are blogging with IBM, more than 10% of the company.

DeveloperWorks has experts from anywhere, with custom communities and a variety of tools to harness the collective, social expertise for better business execution. 6 million members globally take part in this.

PartnerWorld is a one stop shop for education, service and networking with other partners. Includes blogs, forums, feeds, live chats, events, webcasts, podcasts and Second Life.

COBRA – Corporate Brand and Reputation Analysis. This advanced text analytics on huge amounts of unstructured data – web, blogs, bards, forums, wikis , groups, news, etc… It finds trends, relationships, patterns and issues fast. Social visualization tool (ManyEyes) allows collaboration.

Alphaworks tries emerging software and collaborates with other developers. Includes non IBM code, a Techtionary – rateable wikipedia entries focused on emerging technology terms, a reputation system for rating users, and an incentive system.

Four Things to Recognize with Social Software

• Powershift to citizen/consumer
• Adaptable technology models
• Collaboration inside and out
• By 2008 most Global 1000 companies will have adopted several technology aspects of Web 2.0

Externally? Create a buzz.

• Syndicate your news
• Share your data
• Lead the discussions
• Reach them where (and when) they live

Internally?

Enterprise 2.0 is the use of emergent social software platforms within companies, or between companies and their partners or customers. Social software “inside the firewall” enables new levels of collaboration.

Specifically?

Treat people like adults – especially the young. Open up to relevant external social tools. Give everyone open access to internal social tools. Spend more time on policies than on policing. Encourage your early adopter and see mentoring as two way.

As Geoff just twittered, companies need social media if they intend to (keep) recruiting employees under the age of 30.

Bottom line: Build your sandbox (or they will build it for you).

Up next: Ogilvy!