www.josschuurmans.com

Fortune 500 blog more than expected

As social media becomes more integral to the business function, one should expect evidence of it in the use of blogs, podcasts, Twitter or other tools.

Today I found part of the answer to my post from April 9, 2009: Have blogs become an essential business tool?

A new study titled 'The Fortune 500 and Blogging: Slow and steady and farther along than expected', by Dr. Nora Ganim Barnes, Research Chair of the Society for New Communications (SNCR) and Eric Mattson, CEO of research firm Financial Insite, indicates that the Fortune 500 are farther along in their adoption of public-facing corporate blogs than previous data has suggested.

“It appears that those companies that have made the decision to blog have utilized the tool well. There is frequent posting, ongoing discussion and the ability to follow the conversation easily through RSS or subscriptions,” Barnes states in an email distributed by the Society for New Communications Research.

“Those F500 companies that have taken the leap into the blogosphere represent all the things that make social media great. They’re diverse in both size and industry, thereby adding a range of new perspectives to the online conversation. They’re enabling their readers to better control and participate in that conversation. And they’re exploring other ways – like videoblogging and podcasting – to communicate with their community.”

“Given that the Fortune 500 stand as a model for business success, it is interesting to examine their involvement in the social media arena," Mattson added.

Have blogs become an essential business tool?

[UPDATE, April 24, 2009: Here is part of the answer: Fortune 500 blog more than expected.]

The abstract of Jeffrey Hill's MBA dissertation from November 2005 reads:

"(...) Although weblogs are being promoted as a potentially valuable business tool in the trade press and mass-market business literature, informal surveys suggest that only a small number of companies are actually using weblogs.

Reliable academic studies about the use of weblogs in business have yet to appear. This study aims to contribute to filling this research gap by investigating the attitudes and experiences of small business bloggers using weblogs as a marketing and communications tool. Qualitative interviews were carried out with fifteen small business bloggers representing a wide range of business activities.

The results indicate that weblogs are being used for many different purposes and that the bloggers believe them to be an effective marketing tool. However, this perception is based more on the bloggers' trust in the benefits of the medium than on any measurable ROI (return on investment).

Moreover, there is little evidence that dialogue is taking place with customers, although the literature tends to advance this dialogue as one of the main advantages of using weblogs. More research needs to be done to determine who is reading company weblogs and what their effect on consumer behaviour is. (...)"

I wonder if anything has changed since? The ROI debate is still very problematic. Then again, if we view blogging merely as taking part in conversation, do we ever measure the ROI on talking with people in the corridor, on the street or in the shopping mall?

What do you think? Have blogs become an essential business tool?

'Transform Your Conversation!' - Enter Cluetail

[While Cluetail's website is in the making, I'm posting this description of our company on my blog - because I want to start reaching out :-)

UPDATE, March 31, 2009: I've put up a brief description of Cluetail in English, Finnish and Dutch, at http://www.cluetail.com (or, until the DNS records are updated, at: http://sites.google.com/a/cluetail.com/transform/)- note that http://cluetail.com does not yet redirect here.]

Cluetail Ltd. is an integrated communications services company which deeply appreciates the value of human conversation.

All transactions - either privately, in business, or in the public domain and the media - are a function of relationships, built on conversation between people.

We exist to create value to our customers by enhancing the quality of their conversations, connections and relationships.

The Challenge

"Choice" is sometimes referred to as the epidemic of the 21st century. During the foreseeable future, information, choice and competition for attention will keep growing at an increasing rate.

Without access to the most relevant information and the right people, no meaningful transactions can be done and business will suffer.

Our Vision

However, Cluetail shares a more optimistic vision of the world: one in which people engage conveniently, instantly and continuously in the conversations most relevant to them, and connect to the people who matter most.

Seasoned in journalism, organizational communications, and participatory intra- and Internet applications, we at Cluetail build processes and tools which maximize the reach, impact, visibility and measurability of your communications efforts.

How We Do It

While harnessing enabling technologies in the realm of participatory media and social software, our objective is to make these technologies as unobtrusive as possible.

First we help you save money by making your communications practices more efficiently aligned with your strategic objectives.

Then we help you make money by more effectively engaging your employees, customers, partners, investors, media, interest groups and the general public in conversations relevant to you and your brand.

Our Services

Our consultancy services include current- and desired-state analyses and road-mapping, process and tool development and implementation.

Our operational support services include technical process and tool support, content and channel management, content creation, media monitoring and business intelligence, training, team building, coaching and mediation.

Coming up...

Through our ASP (Application Service Provider) services we plan offer content life-cycle management systems, online conversation analysis and recommendation systems.

The latter will enable our customer companies to make tacit communications structures visible; to extract business intelligence and trend analysis from online conversations; and to help their people identify the most relevant conversations and build meaningful relationships with the people involved.

By detecting tacit structures and weak signals early, customer companies can faster anticipate a changing business environment, thus gaining competitive advantage over their peers.

Talk Is Cheap

Drop us a line or give us a call: let's have a conversation about your conversation.

  Jos Schuurmans

  CEO & Sales, Cluetail Ltd. (y: 1747348-8)
  Patteristonkatu 2, 50100 Mikkeli, Finland

  +358 50 59 33 006
  <jos.schuurmans@cluetail.com>
  http://cluetail.josschuurmans.com
  http://josschuurmans.com/contact

P.S.: The name Cluetail is an hommage to the Cluetrain Manifesto and the Long Tail, two concepts which, IMHO, are particularly insightful when we try to understand the Internet and where it will take us.

Into the mood

Marko Teräs about Moodstream, by Getty Images:

"(...) Moodstream, which is basically a service where you can tweak different kinds of buttons [which include moods] and the application offers you pictures and music accordingly. As a concept, I think this is a neat way to promote service provider’s image bank pictures and sound bank music by creating this site to play with.

(...) I don’t believe that services like Moodstream can ever be a death of creativity – that designers would just go there and let an application decide for him what pictures and music to use. But maybe as an impulse awakener this could sometimes be useful. (...)"

I agree, this could be a useful tool when preparing e.g. a presentation, a media production or for a brainstorm about design or branding.

As it happens, just yesterday we've started the process of creating - or rather "distilling" - Cluetail Ltd.'s corporate identity. I will be collecting examples of likes and dislikes over the coming weeks.

Since "human conversation" is a central theme to the new company, I've been collecting some imagery from Flickr, tagged "conversation", for inspiration. Now, Moodstream could perhaps help in this process, as well.

Any other useful tools for this purpose?

'Transform Your Conversation!'

[UPDATE: As per January 21, 2009, my firm will be operating under two new names: Cluetail Oy and Cluetail Ltd. It's an hommage to the Cluetrain Manifesto and the Long Tail, two concepts which, IMHO, are particularly insightful when we try to understand the Internet and where it will take us. Cluetail builds on the value proposition listed in this post below. Our office is at the business incubator MikTech in Mikkeli, Finland. Cluetail's website is in the making; more about that later.]

Hi and welcome to my blog!

Panta rhei: everything is in flux. I recently left Nokia's global communications team after six years, for I couldn't hold back any longer on the desire to pursue my own business vision.

I will always feel privileged when looking back at my Nokia years. There was great chemistry in the teams I've worked with, we've set impressive benchmarks for organizational communications strategies as well as process and tool implementation, and of course the whole thing was also a fantastic learning experience.

After a beautiful Finnish summer and spending most of my time with my family, now it's time again to look at the future.

The business of 'human conversation'

In whichever direction it will take me, the business I am in is the business of "human conversation". Human conversation is what drives all business as well as public and private affairs. From media to customer relations, from organizational communications to individual coaching: it is through human conversation that we grow and create value.

Here's to those who share my passion for human conversation: let's link up to create value by living and working that passion.

In concrete terms, I'm open for business. Let me express my value proposition by way of this initial scope:

• Organizational communications auditing
• Strategic communications (re)design
• Process and tool concepts, development, (outsourced) operations, training and support
• (Outsourced) content and channel management
• Content creation
• Media monitoring & business intelligence
• Media research & education
• Coaching & mediation
• Internet service development

Do you see how this offering can add value to what you are doing?

Do you have needs which are within or adjacent to this scope?

Do you want to contribute to extending this offering?

Drop me a line or give me a call!

Jos Schuurmans
http://www.josschuurmans.com/contact

The Live Web Will Be Federated

Under the headline 'Blogging 2.0: Moving Toward Conversational "Flows"', Bill French wrote a piece on MyST Blogsite, in which he observes that conversations on the Internet are increasingly moving away from being contained within blogs, towards being distributed among lifestreaming or micro-blogging services (Bill calls them "flow applications") such as Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter.

He quotes me by saying:

"(...) Ironically, in this comment, Jos Schuurmans equate sthe emergence of social networks with the end of “channels”. (...)"

I subscribe to the view that online conversations will be less and less contained within channels, while more and more federated among and across different platforms and services. To the extent that channels can be seen as walled gardens, the emergence of the blogosphere itself was the disruption that started taking down those walls.

The point I was trying to make earlier, under 'The End of Channels?' and ''Channels' does not sufficiently describe the dynamics of distributed online conversations', is that conversations take place across and between channels, not just within, and that it is therefore less useful to think of the Web in terms of channels. As David Weinberger and Doc Searls have pointed out: the Internet is a place, not a medium.

Indeed, enablers like Jaiku, Twitter, FriendFeed, Identi.ca, Ping.fm, and Facebook are speeding up the trend of conversations being more distributed. But what these services represent most of all is the shift from a more static Web to the "live Web".

Another application worth mentioning in this context is Disqus, an enabler of blog comments federation. If Dave Winer will have his way, something similar is going to happen to micro-blogging as well... And why wouldn't he?

Tags: Bill French, David Weinberger, Doc Searls, Dave Winer, lifestreaming, micro-blogging, federation, channels, conversation

Dugg: How do you cope with negative people? | Christopher Evatt

(1) Listen to them but DO NOT react to their negativity.
(2) Ask "To make sure I have fully understood you, may I let you know what think you said?"
(3) Ask "To make sure I appreciate how you feel, may I let you know what I experienced?"
(4) Ask "Tell me, what need do you have that you feel is unmet?"

read more | digg story

Dugg: Who is Who: Interview with David Weinberger | Ulrike Reinhard

Via David Weinberger:

"(...) Ulrike Reinhard, of WhoIsWho, video-interviewed me on our back porch last week. She asked me about the need for serendipity, what an “open” Internet means, the costs of social networks, the new sense of privacy, user-controlled identity systems, Web 3.0, market conversations, categorization and control, Twitter, Obama… (...)"

Serendipity is a fascinating concept. I strongly believe that the way we learn new things and expand our horizons is through serendipity. In order to discover and, if you will, accept something new, this "news" needs to be presented to us in a familiar, trusted, i.e. "old" context.

We hardly ever buy into something entirely unfamiliar. For example, if we don't know the source, we are less prone to trust the news. In conversations, I am more likely to learn something new from people with whom I have, say, 80 percent in common, than from people with whom I have, say, 10 percent in common. If you get my drift...

read more | digg story

Dugg: Lessons of Silence | Strategy+Business / Bruno Kahne

Bruno Kahne: "(...) As I immersed myself in their visual, intensely expressive language, I realized that through their deaf people had developed certain communication skills more thoroughly than most hearing people, which made them uncommonly effective at getting their point across. (...)"

(Via Doc Searls, who summarized:

1. Look people in the eye.
2. Don’t interrupt.
3. Say what you mean, as simply as possible.
4. When you don’t understand something, ask.
5. Stay focused.)

read more | digg story

Dugg: Blogging as a Form of Journalism | J.D. Lasica / OJR

"(...) Weblogs offer a vital, creative outlet for alternative voices (...)"

When cleaning up my paper (sic!) archive the other day, I came across a printed article in two parts, by J.D. Lasica for the Online Journalism Review (OJR), published on May 24 and 31, 2001. Just before I'm throwing this away for the benefit of the paperless office, I'll quote what I highlighted back then:

From: 'Blogging as a Form of Journalism', May 24, 2001:

'Channels' does not sufficiently describe the dynamics of distributed online conversations

Interesting conversation about "channels" developing here with Bill French.

Totallly agree that people create channels in efforts to create order from chaos. The way I used "channels" in my post on 'The End of Channels?' was with the traditional notion of, if you will, media titles, in mind: TV/radio channels or shows, zines, newspapers, websites, blogs, forums...

I suppose what they have in common is that they all have a name, an address, and usually a more or less defined scope. They are often furnished with editorial policies and they may be designed to further particular political or commercial interests. Also, most often they have a brand identity.

But if we look passed the keeper of the gate and over the garden wall, I am willing to accept that channels - as in "meta-handlers" - are not necessarily disappearing, but rather evolving into new forms, such as distributed conversations connected by tags.

The point I am trying to make is that old-style channels are designed to contain conversations within them. Sure, they are helpful as meta-handlers in creating order. And, agreed, the new meta-handlers are facilitated by social media, e.g. through tags. However, I hesitate to go as far as to call those tag-connected (micro-content contributions to) conversations, ehm, "channels".

In Dutch, we use the same word for channel and canal: "kanaal". So it won't surprise you that I quite strongly associate the word channel with a human-made, one-directional, controlled flow.

Bill writes:

"(...) People tend to prefer the benefits that channels provide - they create the notion of a "meta-handle" that makes it easier for them to understand, know about, and share. (...)"

Well, I won't deny that people find channels convenient. Still, to me, even "virtual channel" or "conversation channel" doesn't quite sufficiently express the dynamic nature of distributed online conversations. These conversations do not have ONE name, ONE address or even a defined scope.

Tags are useful in searching and navigating these conversations, - in particular because they add social filtering to the mix - and "tag cloud" is a metaphor that helps people venture into the Web 2.0 era.

And yet, even tag clouds cannot contain or accurately scope conversations. The Web, and in particular the social media web, makes our culture and economy more "probabilistic", as Chris Anderson puts it in The Long Tail.

So, why not liberate the conversations from their channels and simply call them "conversations"?

(See also: 'www.josschuurmans.com: 'The concept of "conversation" as in the Long Tail of Conversations')

The End of Channels?

Summary: The two aspects of social media that I'd like to view as qualitative departures from the past are: (1) 'The Dilution of Channels' in that online conversations happen all over the place; and (2) 'The Wisdom of the Crowd', social software helping people navigate their way through online conversations.

[ADDITION, October 26, 2007: I've added one more charasteristic to the social media mix: (3) 'Participation'. See also the addition towards the end of this post]

My local professional communicators' association wishes to pick my brain on "social media". So it's about time I captured the concept in writing.

The media have, of course, always been "social". Any form of human communication (where there are messages sent by senders and processed by receivers) is social. The Internet is a disruptive technology that accelerates certain properties of everything social, in particular human communication, including what we call "the media". In other words, to some extent "social media" is a pleonasm.

Also the Internet has always been a social space.

For homework I Googled the term. The Wikipedia entry, Robert Scoble's entry, and some other references I found seem to position "social media" mainly as something that has more "capacity" than "traditional media": online means faster and more immediate, easier to interact with, easy to copy and share, unlimited space...

Quantitative or qualitative?

Are we really talking about quantitative differences only? Or should we make some qualitative distinctions as well?

The concept of "conversation" as in the Long Tail of Conversations

I'm preparing to have a conversation (okay, a presentation) at the MindTrek 2007 Conference in Tampere, Finland, early October. My topic is to do with the Long Tail of Conversations, and how we might connect people to the conversations across the Long Tail distribution graph that matter most to them.

(I was kinda getting there in one of my previous posts: 'Look at the Long Tail for the highest-value conversations'.)

When I submitted my draft conversation (ok, yes, presentation), one of the organizers asked me to elaborate on my understanding of the concept of "conversation". That was really good feedback, because it caused me to realize that I was using the term in different ways for different purposes, and it forced me to think about defining them better.

So here we go, sketchy at best:

Look at the Long Tail for the highest-value conversations

Excerpt: Where do you think creativity and innovation is born? And where do you think that the best-match conversations about the things you are interested in are taking place? The answer is: in Long Tail conversations!

[UPDATE, July 29, 2007: Whoa, I just noticed on Technorati that it's Doc Searls' birthday today. Happy "round" birthday, Doc! (I just celebrated my 40th on 070707)]

Not perfectly sure how and why Doc Searls associates my excerpts from the Cluetrain Manifesto with Ben Peters' talk about close reading of text (particularly since I haven't heard Ben's talk), but I hope he means he can see that I've read the cluetrain closely  :-)

Doc: "1) I haven't read the book in years;"

I was somewhat suprised to read that, although surely the contents of the book are so much part of Doc's being that in practice, he may never really feel the need to go back and look things up. (I do.)

The Cluetrain Manifesto on the rebirth of conversations

IMHO, the Cluetrain Manifesto is still the most visionary book, indeed a feast of recognition, of how the Internet is accelerating the shift from broadcast to search, from push to pull, from controlled messaging to open conversation.

From where I stand, the three most relevant themes in the Cluetrain are:

1. The significance of conversations, and how the Internet is bringing them back.
2. Why and how businesses need to change as a result.
3. The power of storytelling.

Below is my collection of references from the book, with an emphasis on the first theme, the rebirth of conversations.

[UPDATE, July 29, 2007: Doc Searls refers to my excerpts from the cluetrain on The Doc Searls Weblog:  Saturday, July 28, 2007. In response, I submit that we should combine the teachings of the Cluetrain and the Long Tail theory to be able to engage in the conversations that matter most to us.]

Dugg: The porous membrane: why corporate blogging works | gapingvoid

In a very simple and elegant fashion, Hugh MacLeod zooms in on one of the core themes of the Cluetrain Manifesto.

He explains in 15 points how and why a more porous membrane between its internal and external conversation will make it easier for a corporation to align itself with its market.

NOTE TO HUGH: Hugh, I hope you don't mind I copied your diagram above :-)

read more | digg story

We need to learn to let go!

The five-member team I work with (we develop and content-manage internal news and participatory media channels) have decided to (re-)read the Cluetrain book over the summer and discuss it when we're all back at the office.

A colleague from another team the other day requested ideas as to whom we could invite to speak at our yearly global corporate communications days. (The name Andrew Keen came up.)

Even though things have moved on since 1999, to me the Cluetrain is still the most visionary book, indeed a feast of recognition, of how the Internet is accelerating the shift from broadcast to search, from push to pull, from controlled messaging to open conversation.

Many corporate communicators, I feel, are still struggling with the concept, clinging on to an illusion of "controlled conversation" or some such compromise. Well, it won't last, will it? And the sooner we all grok this, the better for all involved: WE NEED TO LEARN TO LET GO!

If I had to suggest a speaker to our communications teams, I'd be humbled should any of the four Cluetrain authors be willing. Perhaps the chapters that spoke to me most were those written by Christopher Locke and David Weinberger.

We're in the finals!

(Photo by Andrew Mason shared via Flickr.com under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license)

Nokia's intranet news service, the News Hub, has made it to the finals of the CiB Awards 2007, by the British Association of Communicators in Business.

We are looking at an award of excellence for 'Best navigation/usability for intranet' (Class 14B).

Thank you RedHouse Lane! Thank you team mates at Nokia Corporate Communications!

As I wrote on April 24:

In the March issue (.pdf) of their Red Current newsletter, communications consultancy Redhouse Lane tell how they worked with my team at Nokia to rebrand and redesign the News Hub, Nokia's global news and conversation intranet site.

"(...) The result is  a striking exhibition of the power of Web 2.0 giving staff the tools to access the information they need, in the way they want - and then encouraging them to comment, contribute and collaborate. (...)"

"(...)The introduction of affiliate program has assisted the small business to run their business profitably as affiliates. The webhosting strategies of famous companies like godaddy cater all necessary attributes with respect to customer’s demand. They can even make a website design according to their customer products and update it with the passage of time. The search engine manager utilizes all strategic techniques of search engine marketing to increase their profits. The rates of internet phone service are very economical along with high speed and quality internet voip. There are different kinds of online website design software or templates to develop website easily. (...)"

Nokia's News Hub: Web 2.0 in action

(Photo by Andrew Mason shared via Flickr.com under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license)

In the March issue (.pdf) of their Red Current newsletter, communications consultancy Redhouse Lane tell how they worked with my team at Nokia to rebrand and redesign the News Hub, Nokia's global news and conversation intranet site.

"(...) The result is  a striking exhibition of the power of Web 2.0 giving staff the tools to access the information they need, in the way they want - and then encouraging them to comment, contribute and collaborate. (...)"

David Sifry's top-one-percent 'Magic Middle'

I suppose Technorati is mainly concerned with the metrics and search side of all things Blogosphere. Technorati helps people find information, rather then helping them create blog content or get their voices heard in Blogosphere conversations.

Still, In the second part of his 'State of the Blogosphere' (part 1 here), Technorati's founder and CEO David Sifry briefly touches upon the challenges that individual bloggers may have in attracting attention. What he offers, really, is nothing less than... hope :-P

He basically pep-talks people into blogging, offering the perspective of becoming part of 'The Magic Middle'. That's Technorati speak for the realm of 155,000 bloggers who have from 20-1000 other people linking to them. By publishing regularly and with consistent quality, this is an achievable goal for many bloggers, David seems to suggest.

Well, it feels like a bit of a Catch 22, doesn't it? The Magic Middle makes up about 1.1 percent of those 13.7 million blogs that we could call "alive" (since 13.5 million blogs out of the total 27.2 blogs that Technorati tracks have been dead for at least three months).

Something tells me that, if enough average bloggers reach the 20-links benchmark, it will be lifted in order to keep the Magic Middle at around one percent of the blog population.

Still, David gives us two straws to clutch at. First, there is a particular quality to The Magic Middle:

"(...) "The Magic Middle" of the attention curve, highlights some of the most interesting and influential bloggers and publishers that are often writing about topics that are topical or niche, like Chocolate and Zucchini on food, Wi-fi Net News on Wireless networking, TechCrunch on Internet Companies, Blogging Baby on parenting, Yarn Harlot on knitting, or Stereogum on music - these are blogs that are interesting, topical, and influential, and in some cases are radically changing the economics of trade publishing. (...)"

Translation: it's worth trying to get there.

The second argument is that, although - yes - network effects and a power law relationship do exist in the Blogosphere, the importance of these mechanisms should not be overestimated:

"(...) There is a network effect in the Technorati Top 100 blogs, with a tendency to remain highly linked if the blogger continues to post regularly and with quality content. (...)"

"(...) [T]he number of new blogs jumping to the top of the Top 100 as well as he blogs that have fallen out of the top 100 show that the network effect is relatively weak. (...)"

Funny thing is, as it happens, I'm not so worried about the amount of attention to my blog. I'm more concerned with the quality of the attention. The way the Blogosphere should really work is that, if your blog entry adds value to a particular conversation, it should surface in that conversation. So it's not about your position on the head or the tail; it's about whether the Long Tail works as it is supposed to.

If your contribution adds value to the conversation and, as a result, the whole conversation moves a little further up the tail and towards the head, then that may be a nice by-product. But for many niche conversations, even this will not be the most pressing objective.

The most promising technology is technology that helps The Long Tail function.

Technorati Tags: Technorati, David Sifry, Long Tail, Magic Middle, Blogosphere, authority