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Leadership

Dude – like social metrics, momentum and stuff

The launch of the latest interim board for Social Media Club has been an interesting thing. The traction has been pretty good and the numbers, while they may or may tie out in the press release to exactly 42 – they are directionally correct. So here is the “Social Media Dashboard” for the market launch:

  • 59 new members signed up since the press release
  • $2,000 in member revenue
  • 35+ comments of people wanting to be the 42nd interim board member, plus 7 private messages
  • Some folks think 41/42 are too many people for a board
  • A significant retort on Nuking the Fridge
  • Revitalized chapters and new requests to form chapters

With the email distribution of the “dashboard”, some of the board members have started their lessons learned phase and improvement iteration already. I suspect each member in their own way is executing something in the context of the “do goood” governance model – posting, actioning feedback and identifying a path forward. This is starting to look like a business and just like a business this dashboard information is a limited and latent view of the ongoing evolution of the conversation around the new board.

The conversation is all over the place – pros and cons. I thought I would spend some time to provide a little context to the metrics and information above for those of you who haven’t decided to get involved YET or may never get involved.

Increased momentum

The release and follow up content is establishing an initial inertia which previously didn’t exist for the social club. More content the better -right? There is no such thing as bad publicity, so I encourage @AmandaChapel to crank up the “hyperbol-ic” satire machine and go. Afterall, it is all upside. Even the group’s lemonade solution of the press release miscount, “the search for member 42”, has been reasonably fruitful and hopefully folks that want to be on the board push it well beyond the 35+ comments of interest.

In general, volunteer groups need more members and the social media club go some in the past week. So it appears the formation of the interim group is building the membership and awareness consistent with it’s corporate speak goes.

Size Matters?

While the momentum math is a little fuzzy, if you consider all the tweets and board member posts is considerably larger than represented above and it appears to be how you size the impact of an event in social media, increasing the share of voice. Without a large interim group, the reach would have been less and board size provides for increased skills coverage and redundancy for task execution. The whole concept about the board is do the work, whatever that is. That’s where the board is going – task groups, execution plans and exits. To that end, I think the use of the term interim is the correct adjective for the noun, the board.

Upon a little reflection though, these headline numbers, while interesting, may not be actionable at this point. This mirrors some of Kelly Feller’s key messages on the importance of metrics, deliverables and transparency in business around social media. As a business guy, who blogs both as an individual and as a member of a corporation, I couldn’t agreement more. Even with Eloqua, Google Analytics and WordPress stats – tough stuff to establish an increases revenue R factor.

<aside> I think overtime social media will move post the transaction and ultimately may not be a demand generation engine at all. Wouldn’t it be helpful is there was a standard based model/approach for social media metrics which could be generally accepted by businesses? </aside>

Metrics matter and is the biggest gap social media marketers have. Don’t get me wrong, metrics are available, but the one’s I’ve been watching for almost 2 years suggest that community is about customers, not prospects – at least in the B2B space which is where I exist.

If all you have is a hammer – everything is a nail.

Jumping the Shark?

So I clearly remember the jumping the shark episode from Happy Days and even recall thinking it was dumb when I saw it as a kid, the same with the Indy flying fridge, but I struggle to find a parallel to the board and based on these high level metrics this appears to be to be the general theme. That being said, putting Nukked the Fridge in the title does make for a killer headline. I think we have all seen enough copyblogger clones like “the 10 irrefutable laws of _________”, so I’m super groovey with the post on that level.

Delivering an ROI

The conversation is social media’s share of voice, old school PR – yuck.

The whole social media ecosystem centers on the key construct of conversation. A conversational approach  is essentially the key differentiator from a market approach for new media folk and consumers in the channel. Just to let you know, it isn’t that easy to define or to develop a business justification document against conversation as a deliverable.  I know – old school business – yuck.

Even the market metaphor is innately noisy. With increased adoption, diversity of voice and new use cases some of these things will work themselves out. The most interesting factor in impact is typically time oh but if only you could cube the future. Overtime the market participants we become more diverse in their focus, capabilities and the message will morph which will aid in developing more traditional business approaches on how to achieve a tangible benefit.

Diversity is a good thing. Ultimately, if there isn’t enough diversity in the social media conversation, then the risk is we’ll all continue to drink our own Kool-Aid. We’ll continue to distribute our Purplesaurus Rex on our blogs, friendfeeds and tweets with limited awareness, minimal credibility and acceptance. So perhaps the general goals of the Social Media Culb of awareness and adoption will help diversify the predominately “everything is cool, build it and they will come and rainbows and unicorns messaging platform”.

There is definitely the risk of the social media marketers to plateau as the deadhead equivalent of a marketer. At this point, the social media’s value prop is at best the revenue equivalent of “Kind grilled cheese & veggie pitas made with love for only a $1”, which trust me doesn’t scale and can’t be sustainable in the current energy market.

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July 13, 2008 by
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A Group of Conversations: Social Media Clubbing

I’ve struggled with posting on a customer experience I had with the Social Media Club since Kristie was SOO nice in her follow ups and a group of commonly held interests is a good thing and I really like my t-shirt. This is essentially a tale of a $250 transaction which in a REAL business would have been approached a different way with me, but since a person I trust vouched for them and Wells was super cool in the notes, I chose to ignore it until now.

It was a very interesting set of interactions. The most interesting thing is during the whole 3+ month ordeal which included over 10 emails, most which Chris was on, he was silent on the conversation. A recent twitter exchange between my favorite social media antagonist, @amandachapel, and @chrisheuer made me start to think, that maybe I could write about this experience at this point and not feel bad. I still was a little hesitant, but I now feel I can do it without issue, thanks to the following tweet:

I’m not sure I have an ethical issue, but it is close to one. From my experience this whole transparency, accountability and other reasonably important social media core values may actually not be commonly held/acted on by the founders of the Social Media Club, which in my world could be interpreted as hypocritical. So with this concern, the recent exchange below and Kristie’s post today about the biggest ethical issue in social media, I thought it was acceptable to do this post.

I appreciate the effort and passion which Chris has and I think he is probably a good guy, but repeatedly I see him just failing to make a reasonable argument for things he believes in and failing to execute, at least for the things I’ve been involved in or have had visibility to, which admittedly isn’t that many, but the guy is batting zero from my vantage point.

So here is an exchange which started thinking about this post more seriously and was pushed over the edge with today’s SMC post…..

Team/he/she/it/them @amandachapel’s retorts:

So here is the story/response to the question in a powerpoint:


Uploaded on authorSTREAM by spatiallyrelevant

My Dad always said: “Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it”.

June 29, 2008 by
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BIG Idea – Give me money PLEASE?!?!

It is so refreshing to be able to have the time to write something. I’ve been working on a few guest posts which haven’t materialized to help keep the content flowing, but NOPE. So my first post back in the saddle is really a set of reflections around being pitched a bunch business plans over the last couple of months.

The last couple of weeks I’ve been just crazy busy with work, but I’ve also been pitched several technology projects to participate in from a labor perspective or to throw a little cash at. After sitting in these sessions, I have 5 things to consider when pitching a business plan. I’ve been pitched more projects in the last 6 weeks than in the last 6 years – just a little weird, since I’m having a crazy fun time in my newest role which puts me back into a formal marketing gig, which I just got rolled into in the last 10 days. Same company, but just a great team of professionals which makes it easy to be excited about.

So while I may not have the level of experience of a REAL VC person, I’ve looked at 20-30 NewCo plans and gone down the path on 3. Ultimately I didn’t join 1 at the final decision point (still in business doing break even at $20M in a mature market – ouch) and am silently sitting back watching another product gain momentum in the market place (faster please). Oh yeah, the other one was solely my idea which just flamed and got nowhere, but I am making $35 a month on Google ads now. I’ve also seen probably another 50 pitches from other folks trying to get their business sold or bridged to another place, so while not an expert – I do think I can provide a couple ideas which might help you if you are pitching something for funding, disposition or just to get someone involved.

Expense to Revenue Ratio

Business plans are fun things to build, I’ve built many on cocktail napkins which never go anywhere, since good ideas are a dime a dozen and I’m far more creative than I am actionable. Some ideas however do merit the next leval of effort and it is effort. Research, positioning and prioritizing who, what and when.

From cycle from idea to funding is no trivial task, but some folks just don’t think it out all the way. Many authors put together business plans or pitches which are 95% technology and expense. In all fairness, most of the folks which have pitched me in the last couple of months, the general idea was for me to build the revenue plan, but it is a little difficult to offset the private jet and 47 floor office in the heart of Buckhead when the core solution is “all about Social Media and community”.

From my perspective it’s fairly straight forward: start small, give equity for expertise and get to a prototype as soon as possible. I’ve seen some really good paper prototypes, but they are really hard to demo and even more difficult to get funded.

The first expense to consider is equity – real and sweat. I know it is YOUR idea and YOU should keep ALL of it, but 100% equity in a project with zero funding is zero and if you need other skills, greed isn’t a good thing. You may need to build a team to do the work. Walk before you run, do some work before you start asking for real $$.

Steal a page from Paul’s approach at Source Juice – be a tortoise and take some time to figure things out and test the idea, not sexy, but smart.

Location, Location, Location

You have to go somewhere to pitch someone, so it is important to think about where you should do it.

So I’ve been pitched at my home, at the person’s house who is pitching and various other places from Starbucks (don’t show up early and drink 3 venti’s) to the neighborhood bistro. I actually like the home pitch, not at mine – theirs. Not only because it means I don’t need to clean, cook or apologize for my crazy dogs, but because it has a practical side – getting to know the person, if you don’t really already.

Going to someone’s house provides some REAL insight into who they are. What kind of style they may or may not have, are they practical or extravagant. Are they tolerant of clutter or some other insight which you can’t get without going to their house. For example, Mickey Mouse posters framed in the living room or their collection of Star Wars action figures can certainly tell you something about the chance a person has a commercial bone in their body. “I keep them in the box so they retain their value”

Staging the event at your house, also gives you more control of the evening. A well prepared meal and orchestrated evening can certainly help make an impression and hosting at your home is the easiest to script. You can also do a group pitch better when not in public. There are other equally interesting/valid places to do it as well, but you need to think about every aspect of how a given location will work.

Dinner and drinks out in a neutral location is probably the best approach for all interested parties, personal preferences aside. Just think of your audience, for example the local Irish pub isn’t a good idea, either is the over the top steakhouse if you are approaching your credit limit. I absolutely love a good steak, but when the person pitching goes to pay has their credit card declined for a $600 meal, it is a big red flag for cash management skills. Also, if you are paranoid that someone might steal your GREAT idea it’s not a good idea to go out and then expect the person you are pitching to speak in hushed tones, especially if you have a some less than well thought out parts of the plan.

Tip: If the person you are pitching has to pay for the meal and you have actually sold them to get into the gig, they should get an extra 7%. I’ll actually pick up the check on a good idea in hopes of an extra 5%.

.5% of Huge Market

I’ve seen some interesting market analysis over the last couple of months, some good – some not so good. The first warning sign of bad market sizing and opportunity analysisi is “All we need is 1 half of 1 percent and we are like gabillionaires”. I know it worked for the clapper and the George Foreman grill, but not really the correct way to look at a technology play.

Market definition and segmentation is one of the most important things to look at when looking to be seen as credible by an investor or expertise provider. The other mistake on market analysis which seems to keep popping up is the assertion that “there are NO competitors, so there is no way to fail”. No matter how cool your slides, you still need to work on a solution which addresses a need and not all needs require a solution/product. If there is no competition, it just might mean that there is no market or there is a substituion which address the need because the pain just isn’t big enough. There is also the outside chance that the idea guy or gal hasn’t used this thing called Google to find the competition. Nothing is more uncomfortable than explaining that there are 3 other BIG companies doing what was asserted to have NO competition. Oh how an iPhone and a Google search can quickly change the mood from jovial/optimistic Manhattans and martinis to esspresso and “the check please”.

Happy Thought: It takes more muscles/effort to frown than to smile, so turn that frown upside down and get into your office bright and early to code for the man.

Social Media isn’t a Business

I’ve been lucky enough to see 4 different community pitches in the last couple of months. “Twitter for Business” or “Facebook for Corporate Intranets” or insert some other inane concept based on reasonably visible brand for a highly specialized user class which would require an ad spend which is astronomic to get anywhere. I’m at the point in social media business plans where the energy industry is with alternative fuels. It’s not like there aren’t a lot of alternatives/opportunity – just hard to make an alternative profitable.

Perhaps I’ve missed a good one along the way because I’m just a little cynical and protective of my time and money, but with Jive, Sharepoint and other collaboration tools for inside the enterprise social media behind the firewall is a bad idea. Social media outside is a good idea, but who really wants to join another community or use an unproven platform? Oh how I wish I was a consultant…. seven slides on conversation and quotes from books only geeks have read, positioned as though it was revolutionary thought. Trust me, listening to the customer isn’t revolutionary — it’s what we call good business.

Their isn’t a social media market per se, it is a channel for communication – a placement option or a platform for a expertise. Or as many see it, a platform for espousing their would be expertise. I wish more experts would be willing to put their resumes online as part of their about page, instead of letting me know how many cats they have. Or if you could provide a ROI model for the projects you have completed with references which didn’t count users or post, but showed reduced spend or increased revenue.

Leave Your Politics At Home

So my most recent pitch on Friday was with a couple of staunch repubilcan’s I had known for a while, so I worn my Obama T-Shirt to have a little fun. Little did I know it would goof up the whole evening, apparently Buckhead has some fairly vocal folks who have no respect for a person’s dinner or ongoing conversation.

My wardrobe selection was more of a sanity check on my part for the folks I was meeting with, but it did goof up the tempo of the night thanks to an over abundance of SEC graduates. Problem was, we kept getting interrupted by folks who just didn’t like my shirt. Weird, but it validated the idea we were working which effectively was about extending access to information and providing an egalitarian approach to localize political content which, at least seemed to gain more traction as we interacted with an uninformed populus. Perhaps our core assumption that people WANT to know is flawed. I know completely vague, but have to be – NDA’s are what they are.

The night was a great nonetheless, we just didn’t get to where we want to be. We all paid for our own way and just brainstormed over beers, wings and Golden Tee what might be the right next step on the idea.

Grain of Salt Please

At the end of the day just take a little time to plan out your outreach and funding strategy is all I’m saying. It is not a enough to be a technologist or to have a good idea. Business plans have to provide a RETURN, not just make you feel like an expert or a genius.

In the end, whatever works for you is the best approach to take. If you aren’t comfortable with revenue, feel best in a Pub or just want to get your idea out – do what you have to do and be prepared for brutal feedback and requests for equity which you don’t have on the table. If you are looking for dollars, you need to think equal or minority equity.

Just remember to think about your audience and try to overcome your passion and enthusiasm with facts. It’s called a business plan for a reason and it’s just business.

June 29, 2008 by
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