The Society for New Communications Research Recognizes SAP’s Industry and Influencer Relations Program with an Award of Excellence!

I just returned from a quick trip to Botson where I attended the 3rd Annual Society for New Communications Research Symposium & Awards Gala to receive an award of excellence, recognizing the success of the Industry and Influencer Relations program at SAP!

The Society for New Communications Research or SNCR (www.sncr.org) is a leading global nonprofit think tank dedicated to the advanced study of new media and communications tools, technologies and emerging modes of communication, and their effect on traditional communications, business, culture and society.  The membership of SNCR includes the industry’s top practitioners (corporate and nonprofit) and thought leaders in communication research, design and execution.

On behalf of each and every valued member of the Industry and Influencer organization at SAP that I have the opportunity to lead, I want to thank SNCR for the great recognition and for the opportunity to showcase our program and share our experiences with peers and colleagues in the industry.

I encourage all communication professionals to visit SNCR’s website at www.sncr.org to access and contribute to their research and thought leadership. They are contributing greatly to advance the education, design and best practices associated with new communication in the industry.  Membership is affordable and the access is priceless!

In preparation for the awards ceremony I was asked to share a few insights or lessons learned about how communications programs need to change given emerging new channels and blurred boundaries betweens the many roles influencers play today.

Two insights that I identified to be most relevant are as follows:

1. The first is to design your communication and influence programs with a business purpose in mind.

Given the current conditions in the marketplace it is more important than ever before to understand the objectives and business challenges that your company is facing.  How has the competitive landscape changed? What are the opportunities or adjustments that your company is making to become more competitive (e.g. delivery of new products/services; entrance into new markets; etc.)? What issues or trends are affecting the industry and how can your company advance or influence them in an effort to support larger business objectives?

With an understanding of these fundamental issues you can more cleanly identify the right influencers (thought leaders, industry experts, or communities) to engage to collaboratively advance a larger market agenda to support your business and external stakeholder groups.

2. The second deals with managing the sense of ‘loss of control’ when communicating in a Web 2.0 world.

The reality is, if you want to control your message these days, you should advertise.  What is unnerving for many marketing and communication professionals about managing influence in a Web 2.0 world is that social media forces you to play by what I call ‘crowd rules.’ And crowd rules dictate a fair level of transparency, authenticity, agility, honesty [you can continue to fill in the blank] but most important crowd rules require you to LISTEN.  No longer are the ‘house rules’ of marketing and communications effective where you can create a message or position and expect it to automatically resonate or stick in the market.

If we look at Word of Mouth (WoM) as an example.  In the old model of WoM, if a customer has a good or bad experience with your company’s product or service, they might share the experience with a neighbor, friend or colleague at work. In this old model of WoM the collective community experience with your brand would eventually create a community reality in a viral fashion over a ‘period’ of time.

The affects of this in a Web 2.0 world are much different.

In a Web 2.0 world if ‘a’ customer has a bad experience with your company’s product or service and they share that experience in a blog or other form of social media (like Twitter) this experience can reach hundreds, thousands or millions of people overnight – around the world.  This can cause great brand destruction and turmoil if you are not prepared to address it.

Now, even in ‘crowd rules’ not everyone expects a company to be infallible.  You just have to listen.

If you have good sensory awareness and respond to negative issues quickly - if for nothing else than to show corporate humility - and engage with a negative blogger or disgruntled customer/community to understand the issues, you can quickly turn an adverse situation into great opportunity by 1. Fixing the product and service issues that can help to advance greater business opportunities and 2. You have the opportunity to turn a negative blogger or customer into a net promoter – which is the greatest form of advocacy/influence you can hope for.

Social media changes the rules of the game in an era of new marketing and new communications, by forcing companies to be more accountable.  I personally think that this is a great thing.

If you understand and learn to work within the crowd rules of Web 2.0 in an authentic and agile way, you will increase your company’s brand value and overall experience in the industry.

I would like to thank SNCR again for the great recognition!

Comments

[Michael F Kelly]

Don - Congratulations on getting this recognition for your work in Advanced Influence (or maybe Enlightened Influence) at SAP. I've personally thought your work is the best I have seen in enterprise software and beyond. Your great summary points above bring up one issue I wish you would comment on: how do you get a whole company to adopt this process? Can you give some insights or links if already discussed?

Thanks,
Mike Kelly CEO Techtel Corporation