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Shel Holtz’s posting from earlier this week about the United Auto Workers strike against General Motors prompted me to reflect upon the value of social media in a crisis. As large companies go, General Motors has a been a vocal supporter of social media with, not one, but two corporate blogs FYI and Fast Lane.

The strike didn’t last long enough to test either side’s social media resolve but it was instructive nevertheless.

Think back to Monday. 73,000 United Auto Workers at 82 plants walked off jobs and launched the first strike against GM in more than 30 years. Thirty years ago the Internet was still in its infancy, and social media meant having your friends over to watch a ball game on television.

In response to the strike, GM issued the following statement:

Labor Situation

By Christopher Barger, Director, GM Global Communications Technology

“As you are no doubt aware by now, today the United Auto Workers chose to call a national strike against GM. We've seen a number of comments coming in regarding this situation, and we appreciate the interest and opinions that you, our readers, have about this matter. But as I am sure that you can appreciate, these are sensitive times involving sensitive negotiations; a public blog is not the appropriate place for us to be commenting about them, nor do we think it's constructive to entertain a discussion of labor issues here.

“This afternoon, we issued a statement regarding the UAW's decision; to this point, that is our only statement on the topic. Any future comments we have will be issued via press statement, and not here on FastLane. Thanks for understanding.”

By way of comparison, I visited the UAW site and didn’t see a blog.

For this strike, GM appeared ready to forgo social media. The Company had planned to rely on traditional media to communicate its position and deliver updates.

Without taking sides, I am certainly sensitive to GM’s communications concerns, and I probably would have made the same recommendation under the circumstances. It must have been a tough decision, given GM’s well-established record on social media.

Clearly permitting an open forum to debate a strike or discuss labor issues doesn’t always serve a Company’s, and most importantly, its customers’ interest. As for investors, there are clear rules governing disclosure.

It may seem inconsistent to post in the good times and not the bad, but an effective strategy must be situational. Putting aside court order restrictions and laws governing labor negotiations, public discussions may sometimes inflame more and mollify less.

As crisis communications expert and author Eric Dezenhall told me, the most successful communications in a crisis are the ones you never hear about because a resolution was found before the crisis became public.

A lot depends on the Company’s objectives. Was it to break the strike or resolve it amicably? Depending upon its perspective, it may be better to negotiate behind closed doors. At least GM considered the social media option.

Of course, had the strike persisted, both sides may have changed their strategies. In particular, I could see three instances that may have lead GM to consider:

• If the UAW had successfully implemented a blogging campaign that put GM on the defensive.

• If GM had concluded that traditional media had limited their ability to communicate their position.

• Lastly and most importantly, if GM was forced to contend with negative reaction from its customers or the strike had severely compromised the customer experience or raised safety issues, and a public forum was needed to restore confidence or address customer concerns.

If such situations had arisen, I would have reconsidered my initial position with direct input from my legal and HR departments. I would only permit the official corporate blog to do the talking. Given the material nature of the negotiations, it would be unacceptable for unauthorized employees to make comments on their blogs. Following the advice of Erin Byrne, managing director of interactive over at Burson Marsteller, I would only consider responding to blogs that were open to a broad range of opinions that I had assessed for tone and content.

Generally speaking, I see social media as an important vehicle to address customer concerns and not a forum to bash the opposition. I will leave that to the folks waging political campaigns.

Let me get back to you.

Technorati Tags: GM; General Motors; UAW; United Auto Workers; Eric Dezenhall; Crisis Communications; Blogging;

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I had a chance to watch Jeremiah Owyang’s interview with David Parmet about helping companies find a social media consultant.

David, a New York-based PR and social media professional, provided tips on assessing experience, reputation and yes dealing with negative feedback from the very customers you are trying to reach.

Good points, to be sure, but when selecting a media consultant, I point (amusedly) to something that Seth Godin wrote in a Forbes Magazine article.

“Great companies don't push, they lead. The next time a p.r. firm's experts offer to take your money in exchange for their help in dominating the network, show them the door. Hand the cash to your R&D, training and service people instead.”

A little tongue in cheek I hope. PR and new marketing isn’t, as Seth said, something “magical.” All the social media in the world won't help if the product or service stinks. But it can be transformational for an organization that understands that social media is not just a blog and a podcast. It’s an acknowledgement that new media must pervade the organization from the CEO down to the call center rep. A good consultant must be able to assess how an organization's marketing fits with product development, customer service and company culture.

For another perspective, I listened today to a webinar hosted by Charlene Li, a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research. She talked about how a social media strategy must first begin with understanding your target customers' attitudes and behaviors towards social technologies. Charlene also emphasized it’s about relationships, not specific technologies. Even before you go searching for a consultant, you need to understand your objectives (what you hope to accomplish) and strategy (what customer relationship do you want to change).

This may seem pretty straightforward, but clearly the hype around social media can distort a true assessment of your organization’s and your customer’s needs.

Let me get back to you.

Technorati Tags: Social Media; Forrester Research; Charlene Li; Social Media Consulting; Social Technographics;

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What does it take to launch a social network for seniors? The challenges seem daunting.

Just this year, the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that “modern information technology is the province of youth” with those in their 50’s least likely to be the biggest early adopters of information technology. This fact hasn’t discouraged entrepreneurs from trying to reach this group as Matt Richtel’s recent New York Times story reported.

To that point, I was amused to read last week that Retirement Living TV – a cable TV network -- was in “advanced talks” with Walter Cronkite to contribute a weekly segment. Mr. Cronkite (never Walter), that venerable news anchor, was 65 when he retired in 1981. Why is Mr. Cronkite still so valuable a property? For older Americans, he was their source of news and represents their voice of authority. I would be hard pressed to find Mr. Cronkite’s equal today. It is also telling that we are talking television, not the Internet, where more Boomers still get their news.

In time, generational differences over authority will disappear, but it is something to consider as entrepreneurs design Boomer online sites.

I will not make the mistake of lumping all seniors into one broad category. As the Pew Study found:

“This way of assembling the groups conveys an intra-generational pattern to information technology adoption. Not all people in or near their 30’s got online at the same time, and the same is true when looking at people in their 40’s and 50’s…[P]atterns of use among followers, as well as across each wave of early adopters, vary considerably.”

The good news is that entrepreneurs are attempting to reach an underserved market. What’s still up for grabs is how to best reach the AARP set. In the process, creators of social networks will gain a broader knowledge of what makes a good social network, regardless of age or technical ability.

Let me get back to you.

Technorati Tags: Pew Internet and American Life Project; Matt Richtel; Eons; Rezoom; Multiply; Boomj; Boomertown; AARP; Social Networks; Baby Boomers; Boomers; Retirement Living Today; Walter Cronkite;

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Seascape, Greece, 2007
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To view previous photos of the week, check out my flickr site.

Let me get back to you.

 
AV Guy 1.0

For those old enough to remember, schools and offices used to employ the AV Guy -- as in audio visual guy. (It usually was a guy, but occasionally it was a woman.) His or her role was to oversee film projectors, film strips and the like.

In the late 1980s when I entered the workforce, companies were investing in elaborate video studios and leasing expensive satellite time to distribute video or host live interviews and press conferences.

My have things have changed.

From webcasts to podcasts, vlogs and Second Life press conferences, today’s AV 2.0 “guy” needs a much more extensive technical knowledge to help employees around the world with their growing social media needs.

Beyond this expertise, companies need a strategy to manage the growing number of easy-to-use low cost social media tools to help workers communicate with each other and the public-at-large.  In the spirit of social media, we need to ask how these tools should be managed -- centralized under the IT, HR or PR departments or decentralized for product, customer, marketing and IT managers to execute their respective social media efforts on their own?

The answer comes down to how, as Mike Manuel calls it, the “messy middle” is managed.   

“The messy middle is where several historically disparate business disciplines are intersecting; it's the place where marketers, communicators, product developers, customer support folks, and arguably other arms of an organization all meet and mix to maximize their efforts, thanks to the social web.

Enter Mike Mitchell.   Mike is a director in corporate communications and leads up the Cisco Communications Center of Excellence (CCOE) effort.  The Communications Center of Excellence is an internal, centralized knowledge base with self-service capabilities intended to clean up this messy middle.  Housed under corporate communications, it is a "community" of communications and collaboration experts wishing to leverage social media.

Why a CCOE?  Cisco is a big company with approximately 60,000 employees around the world.  Its CEO John Chambers believes that Cisco is entering a second wave of boom times and has a pivotal role to play in helping unfold the social networking revolution. 

The company’s communications needs are only growing.  Two years ago, they did 400 videos a month and 50 live broadcasts.  Today, they do 800 videos a month and 100 live broadcasts, and Mike assures me that his budget has not doubled.

For the increasing number of product launches, Cisco does not have the budget to rent out television studios and movie theaters to assemble the workforce in one place for briefings.  Nor does it have the luxury of time to go around the world and make sure the sales force is up to speed.  That process would take months for each product. 

Less a cost center, the CCOE justifies itself my minimizing travel and reducing the time needed to get new products into the market. Mitchell's team sets up video operations and virtual company meetings using a blend video and telepresence.  He is also working on a self service model that enables employees to leverage social media themselves.

How is success measured?  Metrics are still under discussion, but at a high level, any social networking is an improvement. 

Mitchell has some advice for companies wishing to create a CCOE.

• Don’t Be Afraid to Start
• Get Management Buy In
• Partner with IT
• Develop a Governance Policy

Backyard, Atlanta, 2007
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To view previous photos of the week, check out my flickr site.

Let me get back to you.