Everyday Influence

Back to the Future: Social Media at Shell

On February 15th, 2012 Shell launched its first globally integrated Facebook page, representing a significant milestone for the company and its commitment to open communication and community engagement.

In many ways, the learnings and experience (in the first 10 weeks) have clarified our viewpoint on what community and social engagement truly means for a company like Shell. I call it our "Back to the Future" insights and learning moments.

The Need to Engage.

Shell's senior management endorsed the company's progressive entry into social media (starting with Facebook) driven by a need to engage with people in a way that reflects the realities of the world that we operate in today.

Energy is a complex industry that affects every person on the planet.

There are many socioeconomic, environmental and geopolitical issues surrounding the energy industry that require a great deal of education and exchange with people of all ages, cultures and in all countries, to progress.

Although Shell was not the first energy company to embrace social media, we have been the fastest growing and are now leading all others by measure of followers. As we enter the tenth week with our Facebook effort, we have surpassed 900,000 followers and are on track to reach 1 million in the first three months.

We are learning daily as to "why" people are following and engaging with us.  The learning and insights have been tremendous.

Back to the Future.

Modern day public or community relations (circa early 1900s) was famously founded and put into practice by Edward L. Bernays, Ivy Lee and other early public relations pioneers.

The principles were rooted in the need for companies and government to engage with citizens and stakeholders in local communities to make progress on very complex social and economic issues that existed in the U.S. at the time.

The many technical and professional innovations introduced to the world in the 100+ years since (e.g. advancements in radio, press release, telephone, television, facsimile, Internet, email, social media, etc.) have increasingly made communication with people and communities easy and scaleable but arguably less personal.

This has tested societal trust in "the message" as the content that many organizations create has become increasingly generic, technical, fragmented and detached (from everyday people) to compensate for the desire to reach the "masses".

Corporate marketing and communication professionals have worked hard to adapt by tapping into the social phenomena of "word-of-mouth".  The fixation to develop strategies to drive influence with and through specialized audiences of consumers, professionals, voters and citizens (from within) have brought about a more purposeful but vulnerable level of engagement. 

Fast Forward.

The recent advancements to communication through social media has, in many ways, taken us right back to where we started over 100 years ago as a profession.

Social media and its implementation through blogs, and robust communities like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter (among other social media peer groups) is one of the greatest advancements and innovations to the "new" modern day public and community relations profession. The principles introduced over 100+years remain the same.

Back to Basics.

There are many "back to basics" realities that companies must employ to be successful, today.  Early lessons from our work at Shell reinforce that success (in part) is driven by leadership discipline and conviction to:

• Understand and acknowledge the difference between audiences, influencers and stakeholders and how to communicate with each. There is a big difference between them. Here is a great articulation of the difference. 
• Seek to understand what your general or specific stakeholder audience cares about and adapt your message to relate to them. In doing so, it's important strip away corporate, technical and/or buzz words that often annoy and turn people away. 
• Invest the time and human resources to support constant, active engagement. Simple gestures of responding to someone is sometimes enough to move them from concerned, to informed and to advocate.  We witness this on a regular basis. 
• Minimize the complexity of your organizational structure in how you represent yourself to the world. The general public does not see you for how you're organized, rather they see you for your behavior (past and present) and the impact and value that your products and services provide to them. 
• Provide simple and easy ways for people learn and experience (or share experiences) with your brand. 
• Create shareable moments, experiences, view points and insights associated with your brand (products and services) that allow people to engage and develop informed viewpoints. The shareable moments should be visual and allow people to be informed and inform their own perspectives. 
• Don't be afraid of controversy or adverse view points from the public. Trust and progress happen when you accept contrary viewpoints and adapt or take action accordingly.

These are just a few of the lessons we have used to guide the design of Shell's social media strategy to build and sustain a community of followers (not just "fans"). We are constantly learning, testing and adapting the content and practices to increase informed view points (two-way) and build authentic advocacy, loyalty and social-economic results.

New Perspectives and Research on The Social Mind

Numerous research studies have shown that people don’t want to be marketed to in social media.

However, in business, many brands seek to build robust fan bases in both large and specialized on-line communities to support marketing, sales, advocacy and influence efforts. 

Some companies use gimmicks and creative offers to attract "fans" - which is more about marketing tactics than a desire to build relationships or loyalty.  Other companies use compelling information to add value to people based on issues, concerns or topics that they care about. 

The latter is something that I relate to.  

The value of communities like facebook (for me personally) is the ability to build and maintain relationships and stay informed about "what's happening" in the lives of friends, family, colleagues and even companies or causes that are important to me. It’s through these relationships that I learn, engage and share information about issues, news and events.  It’s an important and influential channel for me.

Build it and they will come.

There's a very profound and fascinating notion that information (if important or relevant) will find you through your network.

I was exposed to this idea when my boss shared a conversation that he recently had with his teenage son where he suggested (to his son) that he should read more newspapers.  The response that my boss received was "if information or news is important, it will find me."  My bosses initial reaction was "well, that's arrogant" but then realized that it makes a lot of sense...and it does.  His son has been brought up in an era where people are so connected (through devices and social media) that information and news is circulated, filtered and curated in a way that if relevant it will indeed "find" you. 

This speaks to an important dimension of social media and trust that extends from our relationships. It's something that most people often forget in a business context when looking to adapt to managing communication and business in a new world.  People are inherently influenced by others in their network and to information/things that they can relate to.

The Social Mind Research Study.

Without a doubt, interrelationships between individuals, organizations, thought leaders and influencers are evolving in new and previously unforeseen ways. This shift represents a major communications innovation in all markets, and is radically changing the way people and organizations engage and behave on-line.

In order to explore this topic Vanessa DiMauro, Peter Auditore and I are conducting a new study called The Social Mind as part of our fellowship with The Society of New Communications Research (SNCR) .   

The Social Mind research project is designed to explore and understand these interrelationships and how they impact the consumption of information across social media channels and influence flow. Our hope is that the findings of the Social Mind research will enable B2B, B2P, B2C or Cause marketers to understand the importance and relevance of content - and - its ultimate impact and influence on behaviors, beliefs, decisions and actions.

To this end, we are endeavoring to identify key characteristics and insights into the engagement behaviors of individuals and how organizations can maximize reach and influence to execute on what we call the new Principals of Engagement In the Millennium. 

We invite you to participate in this study by taking a brief survey.  We will share the full results of the research with all who respond. We also invite you to forward the survey to a peer, retweet it, G+ it or share it however you see fit.  This is an open study intended to bring full value back to all who respond.

Thank you very much for supporting The Social Mind research project!

About SNCR.

Through The Society of New Communication Research (SNCR), we are endeavoring to contribute to the industry learning and best practices with much needed research data. 

We are a group of researchers and practitioners who come together to help further the understanding and best practices of social media, social business and social influence.  We volunteer our time to further the industry and help raise awareness of social media function in business and society.

Influencers to Brand Advocates

I had the great opportunity to participate in a panel discussion this morning, hosted by BrightTALK in coordination with Think Influence. 

BrightTALK is a San Francisco-based company that specializes in providing online events for professionals and their communities. Think Influence is a grassroots community of peers (across industries) focused on the exchange of ideas and best practices on the role of influence in business.

The panel discussion was focused on the topic of 'influence' with particular focus on what influence is and how to identify, create and harness it in a world heavily dominated by all things social (social media, social networks, and social business).

The panelists included:

• Don Bulmer (me), Vice President of Global Communications, SAP AG
• Guy Kawasaki, Co-founder, Alltop
• Michael Fauscette, Group Vice President, Software Business Solutions, IDC
• Moderated by Barbara French, Senior Director of Analyst Relations at Juniper Networks & Co-founder Think Influence

Many thanks to Barbara French and Morgan Cantrell at BrightTALK for organizing and hosting the  panel and breakfast reception.  Below is a full video replay of the discussion (60 min).

 

Research Findings Highlight the Evolution of Social Business

I am proud to release the results of the 2nd annual New Symbiosis of Professional Networks research study by The Society for New Communications Research (SNCR); a benchmark on the impact of social media on enterprise decision-making.

The study is a result of collaboration between me and Vanessa DiMauro as part of our fellowship with SNCR.  My colleague at SAP and Senior Fellow at SNCR, Peter Auditore, also contributed to the analysis.

In the first study we focused on professionals’ use of social media—and it all comes back to the strength of the relationship. Human relationships and peer-to-peer decision-making are inherently interrelated.  Professional networks facilitate vast interactions, connections, and networks of people by enabling collaboration anywhere and at any time. 

Communities of practice, professional networks, social media, email, and SMS are among the tools that enable multi-channel access for individuals (employees, customers, partners, and suppliers).

In this second study, we further examined the role of social media on decision-making among enterprise users and explored the dynamics of trust as well as the value of engagement and collaboration to support decision making and innovation across company operations for internal and external purposes.

Specifically, we sought to explore the following questions:

• Is social media regarded as a trustworthy source of information for professionals? 
• What do enterprise decision makers value most when interacting with peers through social media and social networks?
• How do enterprise decision makers use social media to gather information, advice and support peer collaboration; and how do they compare to traditional off-line networking and knowledge share?
• What tools and sources of social media are relied upon by professionals to make decisions?
• Will social media change the business and practice of enterprise-level operations (internal and external)?
• How do business leaders use social media for customer engagement/support; innovation of products and service; employee engagement; strategy development; sales and marketing?
• What has changed since 2009 in terms of social media usage and trust among professional decision-makers?

The study was supported by quantitative data gathered via online survey of 114 professionals to understand their perceptions and experiences with social media in support of their decision-making.

Key demographics of the research:

• Close to two in ten (18%) respondents identified themselves as the CEO of their organization, with close to half identifying themselves as a “Director” (20%) or “Manager” (24%).
• Company size ranged from less than 100 to over 50,000 full-time employees.
• Age was well distributed with the greatest proportion in the 36-45 range.
• 10 countries were represented, with 76% of respondents living in the US.
• All respondents were either the decision makers or influenced the decision maker.

Below are key findings of the research.  A presentation of the detailed findings can be found here.

Four key findings from the research include:

Open Registration for Think Influence Panel: Influencers to Advocates

I am very happy to be part of a dynamic panel of marketing experts and thought leaders, gathering in San Francisco on March 17th, for an active discussion about influence and advocacy in a world of social business.   

The panel is a joint production between BrightTALK and Think Influence. 

BrightTALK is a company that provides online events for professionals and their communities. Think Influence is a grassroots community of peers (across industries) focused on the exchange of ideas and best practices on the role of influence in business.

Barbara French is the inspiration behind the Think Influence community of which I am fortunate to be a founding member.

Below are details about the panel and how to register.

WHAT: Social media has enabled business professionals to quickly grow large spheres of influence in targeted industries. These power users hold the key for marketers trying to gain access to their niche audiences. The question is how to identify who the key B2B influencers are, how do you rise above the noise to capture their attention, and how do you encourage them to become advocates for your brand.

 

WHEN: March 17, 2011, 8:00-8:45am PDT. Also available for replay.

PARTICIPATE: Participate from anywhere, by watching the live streamed video webcast and posting questions/comments via Twitter. Or watch the replay. Register at http://www.brighttalk.com/r/kZS

Attend onsite in the panel audience or for a breakfast reception afterwards with the panelists. By invitation only. Space is limited. Join theThink Influence group on LinkedIn to request an invitation.

PANELISTS:

• Don Bulmer, Vice President of Global Communications, SAP AG
• Guy Kawasaki, Co-founder, Alltop
• Michael Fauscette, Group Vice President, Software Business Solutions, IDC
• Moderated by Barbara French, President & Managing Editor, Tekrati & Co-founder Think Influence

COST: Free, however registration is required for the live webcast and replays. Onsite event is by invitation only.

SPONSORSHIPS: Contact Barbara French for info on sponsoring Think Influence events. Contact BrightTALK for sponsoring their Social Media Marketing Summit.

ABOUT: This event is a joint production of Think Influence and BrightTALK. Think Influence is a grassroots community of peers discussing the role of influence in business.

Placing Value on Social and Online Media Buzz

Is it really possible to measure the impact and quantify the monetary value of 'buzz' generated through social and online media channels?

A few weeks ago, a New York-based company called General Sentiment released a report that attempted to do this.

Below is a graphic from the report where General Sentiment equates the value (in USD) of media mentions and buzz for 20 global companies, measured from October to December of 2010:

 
General Sentiment is a technology company that provides research to help businesses evaluate their brand performance in the media (social and online).  

Among other things they claim to have developed a system that automatically determines the volume of mentions and sentiment regarding a brand, company or person. Combining this data with website traffic and online/news readership figures, they determine the purchase equivalent value (in USD) of brand exposure for each company across the Internet.

I came across the report from a post written by Philip Elmer-DeWitt at Fortune online. Comments on Philip's post range from high skepticism to pure absurdity on the ability to place a true monetary value on the impact of social and online media buzz to a company and its brand.  You can read the story and comments here.

I give General Sentiment credit for taking on the very difficult challenge to develop technology and research to provide such measures, assessments and data points. 

These are important data points (in part) to support decisions associated with communication and social business program investments.  It is amazing how many business leaders underestimate, undervalue and misplace the importance and power of communication in the era of social business.  

What is buzz and can it really be measured?

Every Company Is a Media Company: SAP’s 2010 Influencer Summit

This year’s SAP Influencer Summit was not only a successful model for influencer engagement, but an excellent example of Tom Foremski’s quote: “Every Company is a Media Company.” SAP’s amazing team of communication, marketing and business professionals just wrapped up their 2010 Annual Influencer Summit in Santa Clara, California.

The Influencer summit is a marquee event for SAP that dates back to 2001.  And when we started the event (in 2001), the core audience was a small group of elite IT industry analysts representing many of the top research firms in the industry. Over the years the event has evolved tremendously – in scope, size, audience and importance to SAP and now includes a wide range of industry influencers.

The reason for the increase in scope is tied directly to the changing nature of influence in our industry.  People who make decisions to purchase business software and other IT related hardware and services increasingly rely on multiple sources of experts/expertise in the industry to support, inform and shape their opinions - that ultimately influence their purchase decisions. 

Equal to this, the disruptive nature of social media and advancements in collaboration and mobile technologies have drastically changed the way that decision makers access, consume information, engage and collaborate with their trusted sources in the industry. 

The adjustments that we have made to our influencer relations program over the years are tied directly to these forces of change.

A bit of traditional…

The Influencer Summit is one core component of SAP's overall influencer relations program. 

It’s important as it provides us with the opportunity to bring SAP’s top executives, customers and partners together with the most important thought leaders and ‘truth seekers’ in the business software industry.  The core audience of this event represent the most prominent individuals in the IT analyst, academia, media, blogger, business consulting, customer, partner and SAP mentor communities.  Our estimate is that the people who attend this annual summit represent channels to the market that have an estimated $45 billion impact on business software purchase decisions.  It is an audience we respect and value very, very much.

Through the event we are able to provide these important industry professionals with the information they need to better understand SAP’s strategy (as it evolves); the progress we have made in delivering on the strategy (throughout the year); and highlight what we will deliver over the proceeding 12-18 months.  It is an event that has helped to keep SAP honest, accountable and focused.  It is also an event where the influencers ask (with great encouragement) very tough questions and challenge SAP.

…mixed with a whole lot of new

Because of the great advancements and effiencies of social and collaborative technologies we are now able to expand the scope and ‘influence’ of the summit without a dramatic increase in cost.

In 2010, SAP’s marketing organization made tremendous investments to co-develop an online virtual event platform with our partner vcopious that we used to support the summit.

If Facebook Were a Country…

By the numbers, Facebook is well over 500 million members strong.

As a community, its members spend over 700 billion minutes a month and share over 30 billion pieces of content (per month) in the Facebook environment (via status updates, comments, videos, links, etc.).

If you compare Facebook to the populations of the largest countries around the world it would rank 3rd behind China and India.  

Like China and India, Facebook is an ‘emerging’ economy that business professionals are trying to understand.  It has its own social norms, privacy issues, cultural sensitivities and community rules that govern how business is done and how its members engage and derive value.

Unlike China and India, however, the ‘Facebook Nation’ has no borders (with amost 70% of members outside of the U.S.) and is growing at a rate that will likely eclipse China and India over the next 3-5 years - in terms of population. 

The rise of Social Business.

Online social communities like Facebook have reached a level of maturity in that their value is more than just about ‘connecting people’ or helping people manage their relationships.  The power and impact of communities like Facebook, Twitter (175 million members) and Yelp (33+ miilion members) have reached impressive milestones over the last 18 months on a number of socioeconomic, business, and political levels. 

From a business perspective, just as business leaders are actively looking to emerging economies like China and India for opportunities to grow and expand their business; they must also take time understand the opportunities of doing business and managing their corporate presence in any of the growing number of powerful social communities (like Facebook) - beyond maintaining fan pages and advertising/sponsorship campaigns.

A Shift in Perspective.

Business leaders must shift their perspective on social media to think more in context of social business and how principles of social thinking can help them be successful and more competitive in this new environment.

As I have written before, I see that there are essentially three fundamental principles of social thinking that business leaders must align to, in order to be successful in a social business environment.  You must:

Managing Experience and Influence in a Social Business Environment

“Influence is like water.  It is always flowing somewhere.” – Gary Hamel

There is amazing truth to Gary Hamel’s observation when associated to the hypercompetitive and social business environment that we live and work in today. 

Over the past two years we have seen new ‘sources of water’ or ‘pools of influence’ form in and around our companies and our respective industries at an extremely rapid pace (fueled by the affects of social media tsunami).

As a result, many marketing and communication leaders (and their agencies) have struggled to make the right adjustments required to help their companies navigate the new realities of managing influence and doing business in a social environment. 

The truth is, we live in exciting times.

Old communication and marketing platforms and the 1:1 relationship models that we have all come to appreciate have been disrupted - to the point that mainstream media, industry analysts, NGOs, etc. are no longer the primary sources of information available for our customers and the market at large to draw upon to inform and shape their opinions and decisions.

Social media and online social networks provide us with instant access to a wealth of rich information for insight, education, advice and shared experience to support our decisions - be it to purchase, vote, endorse, etc. 

The key word here is experience. 

Experience is the most important and credible factor of influence that affects any individual or community to take action.

As consumers, we rely on our own experience (with a company or issue) as well as the shared experience of others to support our decisions and/or shape our opinions. 

Good or bad, experience is authentic, extremely credible, trustworthy…and very hard to buy.  

A bad experience shared on the Internet can travel at a velocity that can reach millions of people over night. 

As people begin to identify with or share their own similar ‘bad’ experiences - the impact on a company’s reputation and sales can be dramatic.  This alone should be enough to cause concern for any business leader. 

Perhaps more important though, is that every bad experience exposes a root issue (e.g. product or service quality, sales experience issues, etc.) that if ignored or not addressed in a timely manner can further expose a company to massive short and long-term business challenges.

In today’s social environment, the spark that often ignites the flame comes via a tweet, a blog post or a status update to a social media peer group.

In this regard, experience is perhaps the most disruptive factor of influence to companies in a social business environment. 

So how do you manage or generate positive experience?

Social Media Has Changed The Business Buying Process...

By Don Bulmer and Vanessa DiMauro

But how?

We are pleased to announce the launch of the 2nd annual New Symbiosis of Professional Networks research study.

Vanessa DiMauro, CEO, Leader Networks and I are leading this research as part of our 2010 Fellowship with The Society for New Communication Research (SNCR).

This annual study, explores how social media is impacting business by better understanding how business leaders use social media and social networks to support and inform their decisions. 

When we understand how social media changes professional decision-making, organizations can be more efficient, timely and supportive in how they interact with customers- ultimately leading to better engagement and decision-making in business.

Participants in this year's study will receive a free copy of the results. A link to the survey and last year's findings can be found on the research website.  

About the Research

The New Symbiosis of Professional Networks is an annual research study designed to benchmark the impact of social media on enterprise decision-making.

The social nature of decision-making has increased significantly, connecting generations of professionals to each other—changing the dynamics of customer relationship management, marketing, and communications – forever.

In the first study, we focused on professionals’ use of social media—and it all comes back to the strength of the relationship. Human relationships and peer-to-peer decision-making are inherently interrelated. 

Professional networks facilitate vast interactions, connections, and networks of people by enabling collaboration anywhere and at any time. 

Communities of practice, professional networks, social media, email, and SMS are among the tools that enable multi-channel access for individuals (employees, customers, partners, and suppliers).

In this second study (in the series) we will further examine the role of social media on decision-making among enterprise users and explore the dynamics of trust as well as the value of engagement and collaboration to support decision making and innovation across company operations for internal and external purposes.

The study explores the following questions:

• Is social media regarded as a trustworthy source of information for professionals?
• What do enterprise decision makers value most when interacting with peers through social media and social networks?
• How do enterprise decision makers use social media to gather information, advice and support peer collaboration; and how do they compare to traditional off-line networking and knowledge share?
• What tools and sources of social media are relied upon by professionals to make decisions?
• Will social media change the business and practice of enterprise-level operations (internal and external)?
• How do business leaders use social media for customer engagement/support; innovation of products and service; employee engagement; strategy development; sales and marketing?
• What has changed since 2009 in terms of social media usage and trust among professional decision-makers