by Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li

Our Webinar was a big party -- over 700 people joined us! Of course, that made it difficult to answer all of your questions, but they were so interesting we've answered them all right here. Every question here came from someone who attended the Webinar. We learned an awful lot from your questions.

In these answers, where we refer to a Forrester report, the executive summary is available to everyone, but the full report is available on to Forrester clients (or you can buy it).

In the comments, let us know if you'd like to see us do another one, and on what topic.

Strategy and the POST Method

How do YOU define social computing?

Applications in which people connect with and draw strength from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations. Similar to the way we define the groundswell.

Do you think people influence each other more through opinions or through behavior (herding)? How does this impact your online media strategy?

Both. Your media has to influence important individuals a lot, and masses of people as well.

Does your POST methodology enable/secure an organization's ability to develop a 'living' and sustainable strategy that identifies, understands and applies the appropriate technologies in an environment of rapidly emerging social media tools?

That's a tall order. The POST method positions you correctly to not be sway with the breezes of rapidly developing technology. The hard part is positioning your company and its thinking. Once you do that, judging new technology opportunities is easier.

In the POST framework, why are people put before objectives? Shouldn't objectives come first?

Either way works well (but OPST is harder to remember than POST). I'd argue that if your customers aren't ready for social technologies, then your objectives will be hard to accomplish with social applications, which is why we start with People. But starting with Objectives can work just as well. It's starting with Technology that will confuse you.

How do you identify what technologies are best when you're trying to launch a new product where there is no previous audience?

We wrote a report on How To Choose The Right Social Technologies. Which ones you choose depends on your objectives.

I missed the T in the Post acronym, please explain. Do you think that by encouraging on line communications you are missing out a large proportion of customers who are not computer literate?

T is for Technology -- choose only after you have decided on People, Objectives, and Strategy. The P will help you with the question you asked -- if your customers are mostly over 65, then don't spend all your money on MySpace, for example. The Social Technographics Profile tells you how much of your audience you can reach with social technologies of various types.

The main idea behind social media is the unintended use of the platform and the unanticipated benefits, locking our vision on a certain set of objectives might limit our openness towards those, I think building social media platforms and empowering community whatever their objectives are is the most important thing, what's your take?

This is an example of what I call Purist thinking. If you don't know your objectives, you may have a community that is vibrant and active but not accomplishing anything for your company. Better to know your objectives, even as you acknowledge that the groundswell itself is in charge of where it will go.

Communities, Social Networks, and Online Video

How do you find out if there is already a community to join related to my industry versus starting a new one?

Google your industry and the word “community” and you’re likely to find it if it's out there. Or search for an answer to a common question or term in your industry. Communities rank highly on search engines.

When starting a community there is only a few users at the beginning (I mean only a few users are posting to forums, blogging...). Isn't there a risk that the new users coming will think "there are only a few users so the products or services offered by the company must not be that good). How to manage this transition period between creating the community and having a large community of users?

Jeremiah Owyang did a whole report online community best practices. He blogged about it, too. Among his suggestions are to invite key influencers in your market to join, participate a lot yourself at the beginning, and use links to drive people to the community at first. Like this one, for our community. 

Where is the line drawn between when a company should create there own social network, or join an existing, successful one?

Jeremiah wrote a report called "Online Communities: Build or Join" that covers this question, and as usual, blogged it. (I swear, I'm not making this up, your questions just happen to match his reports.) His answer is that it depends on your objectives. If the existing network is vibrant and already has a lot of the features you're looking for, better to support or join it than to compete with it. If it's small, or doesn't address what you want, start your own. But you'll have to make sure you're talking about something your customers want to talk about -- a community about your product might not be that popular unless you're making Tivos or iPods.

Do you have any insight/best practice recommendations for how community sites are being tied into companies overall web strategy?

Jeremiah Owyang covered that too. If your community is central to your strategy, make sure to have a prominent link to it on your main Web page. If not, you might want to link it from one or more subsidiary pages. Our Groundswell community is important to Groundswell, but not as much to Forrester, which is why the link is in our menu above. You might also take a look at how Constant Contact does it.

As a marketing associate for an online publication company that provides marketing and sales resources and tools for the professional services industry, how would recommend that I utilize social networking sites, like LinkedIN? What tips would you give me to promote our brand and products?

Linked In's advertising model isn't completely mature yet, but it is a good way to make connections. You may want to create a page for your brand on Facebook and let your fans develop relationships with you.

How are you seeing what companies are doing to get viewers to look at their YouTube placements... and then where are they typically driving them from there?

First you need to have a great video. Then you contact some blogs that might be interested and see if they'll embed the video. It's also good to start them off on digg.com. But it has to be something really fun, like willitblend.com

Is there a typical lifecycle for a social media community or blog? How long should I plan to keep it running? Do they fade out naturally?

If they're successful, the last a long time and naturally spread to variant applications. You need to plan for this.

Specific Examples and Industries

Do you have examples of B2B sites, where companies are successful at seeking ideas/input from business/institutional decision makers?

IT Toolbox is one. Constant Contact is another. The MIKE2.0 Wiki is a third. There are other examples in Groundswell.

Re. the brides.com example: Do you think they're (users) excited about a brand, or just want a cool widget? Does it matter?

The whole point is that it doesn't matter. Brides.com is taking good feelings about weddings and linking it back to their property.

We have heard successful case studies of companies who have leverage social technologies to achieve their goals (e.g., P&G Being Girl). In your research do you have examples of worst cases where companies totally missed the mark by not following POST methodology.

We have plenty of examples of failures in Groundswell. Unsurprisingly most aren't willing to share their names. You can go wrong by targeting the wrong people, being unclear on objectives, ignoring strategic implications, or choosing the wrong technology or technology vendor. Or you can get all those right and go wrong somewhere else.

Is there a similar site [to beinggirl.com] for boys? I have a 12 yr step-son. He would benefit from that.

Don't know of one . . . maybe you should create it! (beingboy.com isn't in use, but somebody has registered it).

Are the Dell blogs and idea storm part of Dell.com, or are they separate sites? Do you recommend linking to blogs from your main site, or making them a separate site? How do consumers find the blogs if they are separate sites?

The Dell sites are on separate domains, but linked in many cases. It depends on how you want to mvoe traffic around, and how closely allied you want your blog to appear to your company. For example, the blog you are reading is a central part of the Groundswell microsite. Forrester.com has links to it (and we have links to forrester.com) but it's not central to Forrester's purpose so those links are not prominent on forrester.com.

Jericho was picked up already by UHD and they're now showing reruns. 

No cable network has picked up the show for new episodes yet, but one of them is likely to do so.

Has Del Monte put the new product into the marketplace? How's it working?

It's out there -- I bought one in a Pet Store recently. Don't know if it's doing just ok or great.

Other than the Dell Share example do we have any examples of any FS player that has implemented programmes e.g. blog resolution programme?

There's is plenty of online activity in financial services. Wells Fargo is very active and Chase did a program with Facebook, for example.

My company works in investments, an industry selling highly intangible products in an extensively (some might say overly) regulated environment. We want to engage our clients in a social context, but it would have to be vigorously moderated/filtered. In your opinion, can this be done? What's an example of success in such an environment.

 

Both Pharma (myalli.com) and financial services companies have participated. It's all a matter of getting legal and regulatory people on your team from the beginning, and setting up guard rails so you don't need them looking in to every single post.

Hello, Do you think the use of social media for product development works for all markets. For example, do you think people would freely talk about their financial needs and desires or should this medium be used only for industries where people have a close relationship with the product? Thank you.

Not all markets, but I certainly think it work in financial services. Schwab got lots of insights from a Communispace community about Gen Xers and their financial services. They used this to create new products like a free checking account.

Within the travel industry, there are more & more social media sites being introduced. Do you foresee differentiation becoming increasingly more difficult in terms of drawing customers to one site over another?

Sure, it's hard to differentiate when everybody's doing it. But there are so many different strategies possible, so we don't expect everyone to end up the same. ;

What sites that focus on delivering branded journalistic content (e.g. NY Times, WSJ, USA Today, TIME, PEOPLE, Sports Illustrated, etc) do you think are doing a great job of using social media tools to help their visitors participate in creating content for their sites?

Check out ESPN.com, where they let readers comment on every story. And USA Today is basically a news site mixed with a social network now.

ROI/Metrics

How do you establish dollar values in the value column in the roi construct

Same as in any other business project. What is your goal, and how much would it cost to accomplish that goal by other means? Alternatively, what is the value to your business in increased sales, profit, margin, or some other financial metric? This is where metrics like cost per lead and equivalent spending on PR would come in.

Does Forrester provide help with metrics and valuation for objectives and social technologies?

Yes. I'm working on a report on that very topic right now.

Hello Josh and Charlene, Please elaborate on the best social media measurement tools, from the most simple to the more complex.

This question itself is complex. I'll be able to tell you more in a month or two -- for now we are still working on a detailed explanation of such metrics. Many of them are listed in Brian Haven's engagement report.

How did you come to determine the $ amount of the value of each of the blog categories. I.E. - Word of mouth - what did you base the value of this on.

Equivalent value of the goal accomplished by other means, for example, paying a PR firm to persuade reporters to write news stories. The details are in our report called "The ROI of Blogging," which we also blogged about.

Can you give some more info on the blog you are describing? How many writers, posts/day, engagement activities?

It's based on the GM Fastlane blog. For details you'll need to see the case study.

Do you have any numbers on how many people come to sites like the site for Dog lovers on the tampons one?

The "I Love My Dog" community was a private community set up for research purposes with only about 300 people in it. Beinggirl.com gets more than 2 million visitors a month.

Organization and Agency Relationships

Is it necessary to re-organize inside the enterprise if the company has a top down (hierarchical) approach in order to create a successful online strategy?

Quite the contrary. These applications work better as small projects out of single department. When you have a bunch of them going you may want to think about reorganizing -- that's what Dell did. ;

What do you think of as the ideal social media agency structure? Is it a consulting model with a project-based scope? Is it an agency model that helps manage a brand over a longer course of time?

Short-term thinking has driven many agencies to look like the former, but an agency that manages brands over the long term is better positioned for the valuable assets that social applications create. My colleague Peter Kim wrote a report about how Agencies Must Build Digital Skills To Survive.

To what extent are these community sites and initiatives created and developed by advertising/marketing agencies, or are they primarily developed in-house?

We've seen both. If they're built by an agency, long-term they may still end up managed by the company. 

Social Technographics

The total percentage on that slide was over 100%. Can you please explain how the percentages were generated?

That's not a mistake. People can be in more than one group -- it's not a segmentation. You could both read some blogs (Spectator), comment on others (Critic), and read others (Spectator), for example. See our explanation of Social Technographics.

How can a company persuade customers to step up the level of social engagement? Is it possible to move customers up the ladder?

That can be very difficult. They will move up, but social pressure from friends is a more likely cause than company activity. Counting on this kind of movement decreases the chances your strategy will succeed.

Competitors and Detractors

In any social network sponsored by a brand, their competitors will take note and become involved - either overtly or covertly. How do you manage them?

Their participation is inevitable in any open community. If they're not being disruptive, you have to live with that. If they start promoting themselves or disparaging you, you can kick them out, although that's easier to do if you've set a policy about it ahead of time.

Does the book talk about corporate responsibility/ethics? what's to stop a company from having an employee(s) from creating negative posts, videos, etc about competitors?

We talk about this in the book, but it's mostly an extension of existing policies. Most companies have policies that criticizing competitors is not appropriate except in certain limited settings, e.g. salespeople talking about features, or designated spokespeople with PR approval. You should extend these policies to the online world. If you're not allowed to stand up a conference and say it, you shouldn't be able to blog it, either.

There are companies that charge $1,000 a month to scour the Internet for your company's name, and 'suppress' the infavorable info with lots of new favorable copy. What are your thoughts on this new industry of 'profile management'?

We quote Grant Robertson in our book on this topic, even as he was quoting the TV show NewsRadio: "You can't take something off the Internet. That's like taking pee out of swimming pool." Better to spend your money on improving your reputation than paying somebody to shoot the messengers.

by Charlene Li

Facebook just announced "Facebook Connect", which they position as the natural evolution of Facebook as an open platform, which started from their initial API in 2006 and expanded with Facebook Platform in May 2007. This is how they describe Facebook Connect:

"Facebook Connect is the next iteration of Facebook Platform that allows users to "connect" their Facebook identity, friends and privacy to any site. This will now enable third party websites to implement and offer even more features of Facebook Platform off of Facebook – similar to features available to third party applications today on Facebook."

Details on the four main feature -- Trusted Authentication, Real Identity, Friends Access, Dynamic Privacy are below in the extended post. Overall, this means that all of the fun stuff that developers are building into apps on Facebook Platform will now be available for third-party developers to build into applications OFF of Facebook.com.

I spoke with Ben Ling at Facebook, and the hypothetical example he used was yelp.com. If I link my Facebook identity to my Yelp identity, I'll be able to port over my profile, my content, my reviews. Also, I'll be able to see if any my Facebook friends are also members of Yelp -- and be able to automatically have our friendships authenticated and visible on Yelp.

This is the beginning of the future I laid out earlier this spring, where social networks will be like air -- everywhere you need and want them to be. Facebook has a distinct advantage in this space, given its vibrant member base AND its relationships with developers who are already creating these social apps. Ben gave me some startling numbers: 24,000 Facebook applications, 350,000 developers on Facebook Platform, and 70 million Facebook users who have installed an app.

So in a few weeks, we can expect to see Facebook leaving the confines of its server, allowing users to take their Facebook experience anywhere they want. Instead of damaging itself and eroding the value proposition, Facebook is extending the reach of its social network through the Web.

With Yahoo! Open announcing and MySpace in the data portability game, it's now a battle not for just users, but a race to see who can open faster -- and more importantly, play well with other sites. Remember Facebook Beacon? That was an innovative program with partner details not very well thought out or implemented. I don't expect Facebook to make the same mistakes and if anything, they are ahead of the game having learned from that painful experience.

I did ask Ben about the timing of the announcement, coming as it does on the heels of MySpace announcing that it was joining the Data Portability Project. He said, "Openness is part of our DNA, We want to be transparent about our intentions, about the type of functionality we will offer to developers. There is a lot of mistaken perception that we are a close community."

So welcome to the race -- and look for a lot of interesting things to happen as the giants in this space - MySpace, Facebook, Yahoo!, Google, Microsoft -- all try to outdo each other in connecting with other sites. I for one am very much looking forward to it -- good bye social silos!

What "dream applications" would like to see developers build in this brave new world of social networks being extended into other sites? And what concerns do you have, especially if you work on a site that could be linked to these social networks? Let me know in the comments below or email them to me at cli at forrester dot com.

by Charlene Li

Josh and I will be doing a free webinar “Groundswell: A Framework For Using Web 2.0 For Business Advantage” on Friday, May 9th at 8am PT / 11am ET / 5pm CET.

We'll be reviewing the core ideas laid out in our "Groundswell" book, going through the frameworks and strategies needed to approach and thrive in the groundswell.

We hope you can join us -- and invite your colleagues if you think they would benefit!

Agenda:

• What process should companies use to create social strategies?
• What business objectives can be achieved with Web 2.0 technologies?
• How should you get started? 

Click here to be registered for the Groundswell webinar

by Charlene Li

There was an audible collective sigh of relief that the Microsoft-Yahoo! acquisition soap opera was finally at an end. For three months, the tech world has been paralyzed by the prospect of “Microhoo”, believing that the deal was inevitable. Sanity prevailed on Saturday, as the two giants couldn’t come to an agreement on price and Microsoft declined to pursue a hostile bid that could have proven ruinous to both companies. (Full text of the Microsoft announcement and the Yahoo! response are available.)

A year ago, I wrote about why such a deal wouldn't work, and also how Google would act as Yahoo!'s savior. An acquisiition may still come to pass in the future, but at a significantly lower price. But the world continues to turn and both companies will have to explain themselves to investors, employees, advertisers, and consumers.

Microsoft must define and deliver on a strategy that shows how they can “win” now without Yahoo! as a search jump start. (Frankly, we were skeptical that Microsoft could have integrated Yahoo quickly and effectively to realize the full value and vision of the acquisition). Rather than continue to chase Google’s dominant search position, Microsoft should redefine the “battle” to one where search is an integrated part of the marketing mix. Microsoft has assets and relationships that GOOG doesn’t have: 400 million users relationships through communication tools like Hotmail and Messenger, the aQuantive acquisition, strong display advertising business, and investments/relationships like Facebook. Moreover, AdCenter is well positioned to service advertisers on both the display and search sides, although actual offeringDeal is offs that tie the two together are still in the works. But the thing they don't have today is a strong search user experience, the root of the problem.

With the Microsoft acquisition threat fading, Yahoo! has been given a reprieve but it must explain and execute on a strategy that supports their belief that the company is worth $37 a share – or face another round of acquisition attempts and shareholder revolt. Yahoo!’s three-pronged strategy of being the starting point, advertising platform for the Web, and openness is sound but it has been muddled due to poor communication and tactical steps. At the core, Yahoo! has to convince advertisers that it still believes in its advertising platform, especially in light of the tests it was conducting with Google’s search marketing platform. If Yahoo! ends up trading in its Panama search platform for higher search revenues from Google, it will be giving up any potential for a workable integrated ad platform.  Yahoo!'s advantages especially in behavioral marketing could strongly tie together display and search marketing and the foundation for new marketing solutions and revenues. And it's new Yahoo! Open strategy could position it well regain the engagement of users.

And let's take a quick look at Google. From any perspective, Google was going to come out strong from this three-month soap opera. A dispirited Microsoft and floundering Yahoo mean Google can point to itself as the safe haven for both marketers and consumers.

What do you think about each company's positioning and strategy -- does each company have the right game plan and assets in place? And if not, what should they be doing?

My previous posts:

May 4, 2007: Why Microsoft + Yahoo! makes sense -- and why it won't work

Feb 1, 2008: Microsoft's bid for Yahoo!: What it means

My pick of the best analysis thus far:

Paul Kedrosky: Analysis of the Microsoft Decision, Plus Yahoo's Hari-Kari

Michael Arrington: Yahoo's Tough Week Ahead

Om Malik: Microsoft to Yahoo: Take A Hike

Kara Swisher: Yahoo's Nightmare Scenario: I'm from Google And I'm Here To Help!

Joe Wilcox: The Microsoft-Yahoo Blame Game

by Charlene Li

Yahoo! unveiled Yahoo! Open at O'Reilly's Web 2.0 Expo today. In a nutshell, Yahoo! is doing the following:

1. Rewiring Yahoo!. They are making it possible to create applications that can be shown throughout all of Yahoo!. That means search, mail, front page -- everything.

2. Open Yahoo! to developers like never before. Third party developers will be able to write applications that appear throughout Yahoo!. That's right -- you can write a mashup that integrates Yelp reviews into search results that appear anywhere -- on search results or even the home page.

3. Making Yahoo! more social. Yahoo! has over 10 billion connections lodged inside its various services -- think about all of the relationships expressed in address books, Messenger buddy lists, and most importantly, Yahoo! Mail flow. You'll be able to have your social graph appear throughout Yahoo! as a results (more on what this will look like below).

For me, this is a significant step forward in the next phase of social networks and the social Web. I wrote about this last month in a post about the future of social networks, where social networks will be like air. It makes no sense that your social connections be locked up in a social network -- when I receive a message within Facebook, there's no way to forward to it my work colleagues, friends, and family who are not on Facebook. And that significantly reduces the effectiveness and value of Facebook to me.

Yahoo! is clear that they are NOT creating another social network. Yahoo! CTO Ari Balogh said in his Web 2.0 Expo speech, "This is about making Yahoo! social in every dimension. Social is not a destination -- it's a dimension and it will infuse all aspects of a consumer's experience on the Web."

I couldn't agree more. Yahoo! is the foundation for hundreds of millions of users every month (Ari said that 500 million people worldwide use Yahoo! each month). But the real potential of this is that the social experiences that a person has on Yahoo! will be ported to other sites. In March, Yahoo! announced that it would support OpenSocial, meaning that applications developed for and on Yahoo! will be portable to other OpenSocial sites like Google and MySpace.

The potential here is that what will become portable is more than just the applications, but also the social graph of each Yahoo! member. There are still plenty of details to be worked out, in particular, control over each person's social graph. But in my discussions with Yahoo!, I'm confident that they will take the appropriate measures to ensure that each person has full control over how their activities and relationships are mapped, expressed, and revealed.

Ari didn't discuss specific timing, but I suspect that we'll see parts of Yahoo! Open rolling out over the next few months. I'm especially interested in seeing how Mail integration rolls out, especially the prospect of being able to implicitly map out my relationships. That's because I don't use Yahoo! Mail -- I use Gmail. Will Yahoo! enable me to reach into Gmail with its APIs and map out the relationships? I believe that they will -- after all, it behooves Yahoo! to bring me back into the Yahoo! network, even if I still keep my feet firmly planted in Gmail. 

The question inevitably arises -- is this a "Hail Mary pass" on the part of Yahoo! to fend off Microsoft? I think not. To Yahoo!'s credit, they have been focused -- as much as a company can be under the circumstances -- on executing on a strategy initiative that started last year. Regardless of how the Microsoft/Yahoo! dance turns out, Yahoo! will be setting a precedent for other portals and social networks to follow.

So it will be interesting to see how quickly the other players -- like Google, Microsoft, MySpace, and Facebook -- answer the challenge that Yahoo! has set down. I don't think it's a matter of if, but rather, a question of when.

I'd like to hear your thoughts about what a completely open, "social-ized" Yahoo! means to you. What experiences would you want? What concerns do you have?

By Charlene Li

Josh and I will be at the Web 2.0 Expo this week, with the hope of meeting as many of you as possible! Below is our general schedule, and in between sessions we'll be roaming the halls and show floor. You can track our whereabouts via our Twitter feeds (Charlene and Josh's feeds, respectively).

And if you have a copy of the book, we'll be happy to sign it (it will be on sale on the Expo floor).

Wednesday, April 23rd

9:40am-10:20am, Conference Session, "Creating A Coherent Social Strategy For Business", Room 2022.

Both of us will be presenting key frameworks from the "Groundswell" book, as well as how technology and business people can and need to work together to create a strategy. You technically need a Conference Pass to see the session, but O'Reilly is including our session as part of Web2Open, meaning that if you have that pass (which is FREE) you can attend our session. When you register on site, use the code Websf08opw to get the Web2Open pass.

10:40am-12:00pm, Web2Open Discussion

This is an open discussion forum following our conference session. We'll facilitate discussions around strategies, tactics, and metrics used by companies -- and turn to the people who are active practitioners to join the conversation. Note that you'll need the Web2Open pass to attend this session as well.

4:30pm-5:00pm: Keynote: "A Conversation With Max Levchin"

Charlene will be running the kickoff Q&A session with Max Levchin, CEO of Slide. If you have any burning questions you'd like to see her ask Max, please add them to the comments or email them to cli at forrester dot com.

9pm onwards: Meet up at Restaurant Lulu, 816 Folsom @ 4th Street

Come meet us for no-host drinks at the bar of this great restaurant.

Thursday, April 24th and Friday, April 25th

Josh will be around Thursday morning before heading back to Boston.

I will be doing some real-time research on two topics: widget marketing and the future of social networks. If you have anything to add to these two research areas, please let me know. Two sessions I'm looking forward to are "Open Platforms" with David Recordan from Six Apart, and "Widgets Grow Up" with Alex Bard (Goowy Media), Tariq Krim (NetVibes), and Hooman Radfar (Clearspring).

Hope to see and meet many of you later this week!

by Charlene Li

In an effort to listen to our readers and to improve this blog, we've created a survey to get feedback on this blog, as well as several other Forrester blogs (Forrester's Marketing Blog, Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang, and Being Peter Kim).

We'd like to get your honest feedback with the survey, and it will take a few minutes of your time. We'll publish the results here, so that you can learn about your fellow readers and also connect via comments.

The feedback will be invaluable to us -- confirming what we think we're doing right and identifying areas where we need to improve.

Please take the Groundswell Blog Survey - we need your feedback!

Thanks!

By Charlene Li

 

Kudos to O'Reilly for organizing a women's networking event during the upcoming Web 2.0 Expo. I'm going to be attending the event (details below) and am really looking forward to it.

 

There's a tremendous need for this -- I attend and speak at many technology events, and while our numbers are growing, it's still uncommon enough that I celebrate each woman speaker on stage or on a panel. In fact, I'm one of only three only woman so far scheduled to appear on the main stage at Web 2.0 Expo (the others are Jennifer Pahlka (CMP) and Mitchell Baker (Mozilla Foundation). There are many women leading the breakout sessions, but we're still a heartbreakingly small number. Simone Brummelhuis details the list -- it's just 20 out of 200, or 10% of speakers.

 

It's also the reason why I support and attend events like BlogHer (now making its fourth appearance), and the upcoming PBWC conference later this month. And if you're putting together a conference, take a look at the links below for ideas of excellent speakers.

 

There's also a need to support especially the small but growing number of women entrepreneurs in this space -- a few that come to mind are Rashmi Sinha of SlideShare.net, Arianna Huffington of Huffington Post, Caterina Fake of Flickr, Mena Trott of Six Apart, Meg Hourihan of Pyra Labs, and Gina Bianchini of ning.com. (If you know or more, add them to the comments or let me know!)

Hope to see you there!

 

Event: Women's Networking Event

Description: Web 2.0 Expo is excited to provide a forum to bring together the women of web 2.0 communities for discussion, debate and networking. Come refresh and connect while overlooking downtown SF

Date/Time: Thursday, April 24th, 6:30-8:30pm

Location: Marriott's View Lounge, across from Moscone West, 55 4th Street, San Francisco

Other relevant links on women and Web 2.0:

Anil Dash's list of Web 2.0 speakers (who happen to be women)

List of Women Speakers for your Conference

Socialtext's Speaker Wiki

Kapp Notes: Great Women of Web 2.0

by Charlene Li

I'm often asked if Twitter is important or not, and while I'm not a major booster, I fall on the side that it's an idea and technology to watch closely. A conversation with a colleague yesterday sparked me to write this post, which has been rattling around in my brain for a while. It shows how Twitter connects people in new ways previously not possible. 

Twitter is somewhat of a new thing for me -- I'm what is described  as a "binge twitter-er", in that I go for long periods when I don't tweet anything. I'm getting a little better, using Twitter to ask questions or to share a post or link. But I do think it's particularly interesting in that it's a unique communication tool, and I thought I'd illustrate it with this example.

I'm in the midst of a launching the Groundswell book and realized that given all of the upcoming travel, that I would really benefit from a Clear pass, which allows me to skip to the front of the security lanes. I'm lucky in that the airport closest to me, SFO, has a Clear Lanes at pretty much every security area, so I can fly through. I have to say, I am absolutely loving it.

During the sign-up process (which I did back in January), I noticed an area where I can enter a discount code. A little bit of searching turned up that I could get a referral code from someone who already had a Clear pass, and we would both get a free month of service.

But how to find someone? I figured there had to be someone I knew amongst my frequent flyer friends and colleagues who had a pass....but I didn't have the time to send out an email, nor did I want to spam everyone. That's when I decided to Twitter the following:

charleneli   Signing up for flyclear.com. Does anyone have a referral code I can use? I think you'll get 1 month free. FCFS. 04:53 PM January 16, 2008

My friend, Christopher Carfi, saw my tweet and replied with the following:

 ccarfi   @charleneli: i think @anildash uses flyclear. 04:56 PM January 16, 2008 

So still in Twitter, I sent a direct message to Anil Dash at Six Apart asking him about it. Here's his response:

anildash i *love* Clear. My referrer code is *********, and i blogged about it here: http://tinyurl.com/2fhf9r 05:12 PM January 16, 2008 

(Note: Clear members aren't allowed to broadcast/publish their discount numbers, so I removed it from Anil's reply)

Now this is important to note. The time between when I put out my first tweet and Anil's response was 19 minutes. That's pretty fast, especially considering that I most of that delay was me getting around to sending Anil the direct message in the first place.

Imagine what it would have taken for me to track down, email/spam my contacts to hunt down that code. So the benefit to me was a month of Clear's $100 service, or $8.33.

I'd love to hear how Twitter has helped you get something done -- beyond sharing links, ideas, or communicating with people in your network.

And if you're thinking about getting a Clear pass, let me (or Anil) know and we can "make" another $8.33 together!

by Charlene Li

In my work, I often find that companies eager to create a social strategy often struggle with how to get started. One of the key recommendations we have in the book is to find the spark, champion, and evangelist within the company -- the person who is most passionate about forming a relationship with your audience, be it customers or employees.

You probably already know who this person is within your organization. It may be the technie who brags that she's been blogging since 1999, or the corporate communications person who loves to talk with customers on external bulletin boards. This person is probably also a bit a thorn in the side of management, constantly agitating for under-represented customers who are suffering some sort of injustice at the hands of management that just "doesn't get it".

As Shel Israel and Robert Scoble put it so nicely in "Naked Conversations", these radicals constantly push against the corporate membrane, stretching it close to the breaking point.

Well, it's time to get these radicals turned into revolutionaries. Let me explain by telling the tale of two Thomas' -- Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson.

Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense in 1776, which advocated for American independence from Great Britain and stimulated colonial fervor toward independence. He was the spark that lit the American revolution. But Paine never really settled down and after the American Revolution was over, he headed off to France and its revolution, got thrown in jail and almost executed. Prominent Americans interceded and he was released to return to the US. Back home, he cast about for a role, but the revolution was over. He was a man without a cause, and when he died only six people attended his funeral. One obituary read, "He lived long, did some good, and much harm." Paine was a radical, agitating for freedom and challenging authority.

Thomas Jefferson, in contrast, was a revolutionary. A writer and scholar like Paine, Jefferson was chosen to write the Declaration of Independence. But it wasn't just his writing skills, but also his ability to forge compromise and consensus that won him the job. Through the hot summer of 1776, Jefferson worked with the Second Continental Congress to draft the Declaration. It took time and effort to put together the framework and the process to bring about the revolution. He forged relationships with the other members of Congress, and brought them to the table to sign the document. There was fear about the consequences, but the Founding Fathers leaned on each other for support. Jefferson went on to become the Governor of Virginia and third President of the US.

I tell these stories because companies are in the midst of a social revolution -- specifically, one being led by their customers and employees. The question becomes how do companies deal with it, but more importantly, how do they tap into the energy of potentially disruptive radicals and channel them into being revolutionaries who can lead positive, lasting change?

This was the gist of the speech I made at SXSW last week (slides are available). I believe that:

Making revolution stick will require frameworks and process

The POST method provides much of that framework and process. It's a blueprint, and starting point for the revolutionaries in your organization. They need to know that executives are bought into the process, and they need to know what the goal is. After that, I suggest that you let them do their thing -- stand back and watch them revolutionize and transform your organization.

by Charlene Li

Today I tried out Starbucks' new customer feedback and idea generation site at mystarbucksidea.com, which is powered by Salesforce Idea (it's the same product that's behind Salesforce's own Idea Exchange and Dell's Ideastorm).  Josh and I feature these two sites in our Groundswell book, as an example of how a company can execute an "embracing" objective.

On these sites, people like you and me can "share" an idea. Then other people can "vote" for them, and the ideas with the most votes float to the top.  People can "discuss" an idea by adding comments, and  finally, to close the loop, Starbucks will provide feedback and status reports on the most promising ideas.

The results: Starbucks "launched" the site on March 19th. The top idea as of today is for Starbucks to offer a "punch card" to provide a frequency discount or free drinks. It has 29,410 points, which means that 2,914 people have voted for it (each vote counts as 10 points). The site's "Ideas In Action" section has a post (sorry, no permalink!) has an entry on March 24th saying that this particular idea is being reviewed and will be incorporated into the Starbucks Card Reward program.

The reason why I was so intrigued with the Starbucks site is that I'm a loyal user of Starbucks, so I have plenty of ideas on how they can improve their service. Just how much do I use Starbucks? It's my default place to work on weekends (the empty office is too depressing and having spouse/kids at home is a recipe for non-work) and my remote office when I'm traveling. As a result, I know where the electrical outlets are at all of my local Starbucks and bring along an extension cord. I also have a list of Starbucks stores bookmarked on my phone browser.

What's impressive is that I'm feeling more connected with other Starbucks fans, especially those craving healthier breakfasts, automatic ordering with my Starbucks card (mine is a simple Grande decaf), and my pet peeve, more power outlets.

But Starbucks, please don't let this engagement end! I want to subscribe to your Ideas in Action "blog" via RSS so that I can find out more about what's new -- and to see if my favorite ideas are being implemented. I want to comment on your blog too, to let me know that I'm happy/not happy about your future decisions. Close the loop, and you've not only got me hooked, but I'll walk the extra block in NYC or drive the extra mile to go to you rather than another coffee house.

Update: It hit me that I'd like to know your experience with Starbucks Ideas. What do you like/don't like about it, and more importantly, what brands/companies would you like to see adopt something similar? I'm curious to see if you would participate and contribute more to personal, consumer brands like Starbucks, or if there's also an affinity to business-oriented companies like Salesforce.

by Charlene Li

Josh is making his way to the West coast so we're going to have an informal, no-host blogger dinner on Tuesday, March 25th in San Francisco. Also joining us will be Jeremiah Owyang (bio, blog). The goal: to have a stimulating discussion around any topic that intrigues us -- in other words, all things social. No pitching allowed!

It’s pretty normal at blogger dinners that everyone pay their own way, and in the spirit of community blogger dinners, we’d ask that you chip in $30 for dinner and we’ll all buy each other drinks. Please RSVP and pay in advance, as there's space for 50 people. Hurry - I have to turn in a headcount by Sunday.

And see below for a list of attendees -- I'll be updating as frequently as I can.

SF Blogger Dinner on Tuesday, March 25th

Dinner
Cocktail style, with a buffet of appetizers (pizzas, crispy calamari, spring rolls, chicken and beef satays, endive spears).

Location:
21st Amendment, 563 Second Street, San Francisco, phone: 415-369-0900

Date:
Tuesday, March 25th

Time:
6-8pm

Cost:
$30 for dinner. Please RSVP/pay in advance and by Sunday, March 23rd at 6pm.

Parking:
There's metered parking on Second Street. Closest lot is on Townsend, just west of Second Street (at least, according to Google Maps)

Update: I've been asked by several non-blogging PR people and vendors if they can come to the dinner. Well, frankly, anyone can sign up and I'm not going to be policing attendees. But realize that you may incur the wrath of dinner participants who are there to develop closer bonds with other bloggers. Not exactly the way to improve blogger relations if that is your goal!

Attendees:

Charlene Li
Josh Bernoff
Jeremiah Owyang
Adam Metz
Jacob Morgan
Sarah Park
Ted Shelton
Carter Lusher
Deborah Schultz
Eric Rosser Eldon
Beth Blecherman
Chris Heuer
Jennifer Jones
Shel Holtz
Justin Thorp
Kevin K. Leong
Esther Lim
Christopher Lynn
Janet Tyler
Samantha Weeks
Wayne Hengesbach

AOL announced that it would buy social networking site Bebo for $850 million. I have several points of view on what it means, and I've summarized some of the key ones below.

• Future direction of social networks. In many ways, I think this deal represents how social networks will develop in the future. That's because as a stand-alone social network, Bebo had no chance of competing against big boys like MySpace and Facebook. But as an integrated part of the larger AOL content and ad network, it has amazing potential to play a role in how social networks develop. With the $850 million acquisition of social networking site Bebo, AOL is finally showing its hand -- a plan and way to integrate the disparate assets and acquisitions its been quietly building over the past year.

The foundation of my premise is that social networks will be like air, integrated into everything that we do. Let's start with AIM and ICQ, in the case especially for AIM, leading instant messaging platforms. Most social networking sites already have IM-like capabilities built into them, but the reverse isn't true. And yet, the buddy list of services like AIM reflect very well a key part of my social graph -- the people with whom I communicate with in a very intimate, frequent manner.

AIM introduced AIM Pages a few years ago, which was a lightweight approach to having a profile attached to an AIM screenname. It didn't go over well and I agree with Saul Hansell/NYTimes that this could be an opportunity to bring social networking into AIM and AOL in general.

The potential is that Bebo members' social graphs and activities are expressed and connected to instant messaging, and that IM use is reflected in the nature and tenor of the relationships within Bebo, e.g. if I frequently IM someone, then that relationship is very strong and should be reflected in my Bebo experience if that friend is also there. 

• Valuation of social networks. As Stacey Higgenbotham/GigaOM  points out, the $850 million price comes out to about $21.25 for each of Bebo's 40 million members. That's a bargain compared to the $27.62 per user price News Corp paid for MySpace back in July 2005. Excepting Facebook's $15 billion inferred pricing thanks to Microsoft's strategic investment (which puts it at roughly $300/user!), we're starting to see a rough valuation for today's social networks.

Will this start a frenzy of acquisitions in the space? I believe so, but not necessarily at this valuation. That's because there's tremendous downward pressure on valuation because of the unproven business model, namely advertising. We're in the trough right now, because while there's tremendous consumer uptake of social networking sites, marketers still haven't figured out how to tap into all of that energy and enthusiasm.

That's why it took so long for Bebo to find a buyer, and also likely why other sites like LinkedIn, Hi5, and Friendster haven't gone yet. My prediction -- we'll see smaller, niche social networks focused on a specific group like Black Planet (by BET), or interest area like Flixster (by NetFlix) or iLike (by iTunes/Apple) get snatched up by companies interested in those areas. They have a clear, focused way to engage a specific social group or go deep into an area of passion -- both great ways to get the attention of marketers.

• Multiple open platform support. I've always been impressed that Bebo has been able to sit in the middle between the two giants, MySpace and Facebook. It has the entertainment, self-expression aspects of MySpace but also the communication and application features of Facebook. And although Bebo was one of the core members of OpenSocial when it was announced, when it launched its own open applications platform in Dec 2007, it made sure that Facebook applications would also work on it.

This willingness to craft a middle road between these two behemoths had been a necessity as  Bebo is a far smaller player in the space. But going forward, I believe it will be a strategic advantage for AOL. That's because it will make AOL much more willing to open up its own site, services, and platform to anyone who wants to tap into it -- and more importantly, to go out into any social networks that would have it.

AOL has already organized its advertising assets, led by Platform A, into a formidable ad network that can serve any site, not just AOL's network of content sites. Look for AOL to be a part of this "opening up" of social networks, by sheer force of it having millions of users.

What do you think? Does AOL with Bebo have a chance at shaping the integration of social networks into more traditional Web sites and services? Or was this simply an opportunistic acquisition that AOL is not in a position to truly leverage? I'd love to know your thoughts, either in comments or via email at cli at forrester dot com.

As you might imagine, we're ramping up our speaking schedule in March and April in support of Groundswell's April release. Here's where you can see us coming up. Please stop by, share stories, interview us -- we want to connect! All times are local -- any of these may require membership in the organizations running them or an admission fee. All times are local.

Sunday, March 09 SXSW Interactive Conference, Austin, 11:30am, central
Charlene will be speaking on "Social Strategies For Revolutionaries", followed up a reading from her upcoming book, "Groundswell".

Wednesday, March 12 Digital Hollywood, New York, 10:45 am, eastern
Josh will be speaking on panel moderated by Ron Grover: Social Media & User Generated Media Economy: The Content, Personalization, Lifestyle and Advertising

Tuesday, March 18, 2008 ETC CxO Roundtable, Burbank, 8:30am, pacific
Charlene is participating in a roundtable on social networking, how consumers are using it, and how it is changing the entertainment experience.

Tuesday, March 18 Public Relations Society of America Teleseminar, 3:00 pm eastern
Josh will be speaking along with technology journalists. Title: Meet the Media: Technology Journalists

Tuesday, April 8 and Wednesday, April 9, Forrester Marketing Forum 2008 Los Angeles
A great marketing event. We'll both be doing a presentation there. More details to follow.

Thursday, April 10, TravelCom, Chicago, 9:00 am central
Charlene will be giving the keynote. "Welcome to 2013: The Changes in Technology and Consumers that will Affect Your Business".

Thursday, April 10, Customer Experience (CX) Innovation Summit, Miami, 9:30am eastern
Josh will be giving the keynote at this Blast Radius event.

Monday, April 14, National Association of Broadcasters, Las Vegas, 3:30pm pacific
Josh will be on a general session keynoted by by John Gage, Chief Researcher and Director of the Science Office, Sun Microsystems, Inc. It’s an age where everyone can broadcast their thoughts, ideas and digital creations worldwide over a variety of platforms. Is this just a passing fad or the start of a new era in broadcasting? 

Thursday, April 17, Business Without Borders: Leveraging International Networks, Toronto, 1:30pm eastern
Josh will discuss the impact of social technologies on business relationships and how these types of technologies can be leveraged to create business opportunities. The event is hosted by the Canadian Venture Capital Association.

Wednesday, April 23, Web 2.0 Expo, San Francisco, 9:40am pacific
We will both be speaking on Creating a Coherent Social Strategy for Business. We'll be presenting the major ideas in the book, and are planning other events around the same time -- the Web 2.0 Expo is our coming out party!

Tuesday, April 29, 19th Annual Professional BusinessWomen of California, San Francisco, 2:15pm pacific
Charlene Li will be speaking with Clay Shirky, and Tina Sharkey on "What's the Big Deal About Social Networking?"

If you'll be attending any of these conferences or events and are planning to see us, leave us a comment here and let us know if there are any topics you'd really like to hear about.