It’s people, not tools, dummy
March 24th, 2008
Sometimes all you can say is that you can’t have said it better yourself. Case in point is Mack’s new post up at The Viral Garden. He recaps his panel at SXSW (The Future of Corporate Blogging) and in his observations, he has a couple of nice, juicy nuggets:
The key takeaway I had from the panel is that it’s not about these social media tools, but it’s about the conversations that these tools help facilitate.
Amen. Amen. And a-freakin-men. Companies can get so focused on that blog or this viral video that they miss the point. Tools belong in a toolbox that holds them all. And even if you have all the tools in the tool box, you have to have the knowledge to know when to pull each one out and how to use it. In other words, you USE tools to DO SOMETHING bigger than the tools.
It’s also about putting a human face on an organization.
This almost made be cry (for joy). People don’t necessarily connect with companies. They connect with people. Starting a community and not having some sort of human element is a disaster. Besides, a company is only as good as the people that work there. Connecting your employees with your customers makes both sides feel valued. Yes, it’s scary as hell, but effective.
Great post, Mack. Thanks for the food for thought.
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Dick Carlson says:
Eggggg-zachtly. I was in Portland Oregon last week speaking to a bunch of Professional Meeting Planners. They were all excited about wikis, and wanted to have a “master class” after my keynote to learn about how to make it work.
We spent about ten minutes on setting up a wiki, and the remainder of the two hours on the hard work of getting your community to engage, build, write, share, update, contribute, argue, talk, comment, archive and generally play nice on a wiki.
At the conclusion, there were a few who were ready to dive in. And many who were ready to run the other direction.
March 24th, 2008 at 9:43 amMack Collier says:
What I also thought was very interesting (and powerful), was how well thought-of both Lionel and Mario were. One day I was walking through the halls of the Austin Convention Center with Lionel, and literally every other person was stopping and saying hi to Lionel, or yelling ‘There’s the rockstar!’ as they walked by. Then later that night I attended an event that Dell and the Social Media Club helped co-sponsor and everyone was wanting to know why Mario Sundar wasn’t there?
The point is, these real people working for big companies had made real impressions upon so many people. You can’t tell me that because Lionel and Mario are so good at connecting with their customers that it doesn’t transfer favorably to the companies they work for. It has to. And I wonder how much their competitors are spending on ‘market research’ that Dell and LinkedIn got for free because Lionel and Mario got to spend a couple of days actually talking to real live customers, face to face.
I’ll apologize for the near-tears, but share in the joy, I think there’s exciting days ahead.
March 24th, 2008 at 10:43 amCara Keithley says:
The reason many people run in the opposite direction is not necessarily because they don’t want to do the work, but because they can’t get their organization to go with it. It can be incredibly hard to actually convince the rest of the organization that things need to change. Whether it’s priorities, the way you relate to customers, etc. When you are the doer rather than the head honcho, how do you change the overall company?
Sometimes it is easier to turn to a tool and hope that as the results trickle in that people will buy in to what you honestly believe is the way to go. I know it’s not necessarily the best order, but sometimes change doesn’t start from the top down. It happens from the side door and the bottom up.
I guess the challenge for the person instigating the changes or using the tools is to make it more important than just doing something new or flashy. To focus on long term results, like building relationships with your customers. I know this seems elementary to many of you, but for others of us it’s still a day to day adventure.
March 24th, 2008 at 10:54 amLewis Green says:
Spike,
It’s always about the “who” not the “what” no matter the business. Many of us have been preaching that for decades. I bet I say it at least 100 times in my newest book, and 20 times in every presentation I make. Put people first and business will thrive (assuming we have good to great products and services and an appropriate marketing plan).
March 24th, 2008 at 11:08 amSpike says:
Dick, I feel your pain, brother. Thanks for the comment and the heavy lifting you’re doing out there.
Mack, I’m a big Lionel fan ever since I met him face-to-face. That’s a great face to put on Dell. And a man I can believe in.
Cara, great points as always. Long term is where the vision comes into play and leads. You can’t have a long term that are made up of short terms. That’s a losing strategy.
Lewis, I hear ya, brother. That’s exactly what our own Cordell said back in February at the company meeting - “When it comes to creating powerful identities that become movements, it’s not about the ‘what,’ it’s about the ‘who.’”
March 24th, 2008 at 12:00 pmAdam Landrum says:
Amen, Amen and Amen.
It’s extremely frustrating to see the prospect (I’m in the web site world) focus on the MEANS and not the END. Like Lewis says, no matter how often it’s brought up, I struggle to get the prospect’s focus off of the TOOL. “Ooh…shiny.” [dribble, drool]
One thing that we do go up against is that alot of our competition promotes the “tool.” They make it about the tool. The media (i.e. Inc., Fast Company and Wired) also mostly makes it about the tool–making it all the harder to communicate to our market that it’s NOT about the tool.
But instead of beating up the prospect, saying “Bad prospect! Bad prospect!” I’m going to take the blame–or at least part of it. I need to do a better job positioning our services so they understand it’s not about the tool, but about the customers the tool can serve. If I can communicate that better, then maybe–just maybe–this wouldn’t be such a problem.
March 24th, 2008 at 3:13 pmJustine says:
Yes everybody talks about people - people are our greatest asset. It’s all about people. People make the brand.
But we don’t even call them people.
We call them
consumers
customers
employees
I understand the utility of words - but this is one of my pet peeves. I think the language marketers use can, and does, reinforce a transactional, marketing tools mindset.
March 26th, 2008 at 6:11 am