Back in 2004, I was intrigued by the “blogosphere,” not a blogger myself at the time I wanted to learn more.  In 2005, I felt I had something to share via a blog, and thus, fusedlogic.blogspot.com was started.  Struggling with finding my blogging voice, and not being a natural writer, I stretched and pushed myself to get better.  Along the way I met other bloggers online, such as Hugh MacLeod, owner of the unique “gapingvoid” blog.  We’ve had exchanges in the past and he was the first to introduce me to Twitter in a manner of speaking.  That aside, Hugh is often rude and abrasive in his approach and that’s exactly how he and his audience like it.  He’s also quite ingenious in the way he’s built his business model – living on his own terms, and being true to who he is, regardless of criticism.  I find these types of stories fascinating, especially those that centre around how daily struggles of business passion turn into business success.  The blogosphere is filled with these stories…your stories have been my personal inspiration over the years to learn more, experiment more, and deploy within the social web on our behalf, and that of our clients. Your stories have formed the foundation for our stories.  We listen, learn and create our own solutions based on our interpretation and input from the outside world, in that way, I think we’re all connected.  It’s this connectedness that drives the social web in many ways, and it’s that connectedness that drives our company.  Everyday we’re striving to be better, everyday we look to perfect our sole purpose for being – social web engagement.

We stand for taking on challenges, we stand for “thinking digital first,” we stand for the best customer service we can possibly provide, we stand for exceeding expectations, we stand for high quality.  We stand for honor and fairness and respect.  We stand for educating ourselves and those around us, we stand for having a plan and for having flexibility in that plan, we stand for change.  We stand for being leaders in our own way.  We understand there’s risk in business, we stand for powering through that risk with knowledge, we stand for overcoming fear.  We stand for “fail forward fast, we stand for learning from our failures.  We stand for all night thinking on a client problem, we stand for “where there’s a will there’s a way.”  We stand for our community, we stand for giving back and for sacrifice, we stand for you and for our clients, we stand for success.

Often it’s clear that you’re not sharing your stories with us here on our blog, rather you’re simply observing us and that’s ok too.  I’d like to inspire you to share what you and your organization stand for, here, or on your blog, on Twitter, wherever it suits you.  Knowing why you do what you do, and what you stand for is important.  We’d really like to hear your story.

We do this work because it inspires us and yet we were passionate before we started.  We do this work because it’s focused in learning about people, communication, speed, collaboration and yes technology too.  We’re a part of a special and ever growing tribe.  A digital tribe, a social tribe, a business tribe, an inspirational and passionate tribe, and we love it.

The challenge is similar in the private sector.  There are senior vice presidents of marketing and communications who are completely out of touch and working within large organizations.  Fearful of the big, bad, negative, waste of time social web.  Those who are inching towards entering the global digital conversation because the peer pressure walls are closing in on their brand are looking for simple ways to “bolt on” a Facebook fan page here and a Twitter account there to appease everyone.  Well that’s not enough for me.

How to change processes internally is through leadership.

Understanding the current objectives of an organization or government is critical to effectively integrating social into everyday processes while closing the gap between the government and citizens. That said, most leaders act like stubborn, ignorant mules who won’t move an inch no matter how much you pull on the rope.  To those political incumbents and executives I say the following.

“Lead, follow or get the hell out of the way.” – Walter Schwabe, modified from Lee Iacocca.

As senior leadership, you may think you’re leading (conservatively) by resisting the social web.  You’re not, you’re simply acting as a mule. The tone of this post isn’t designed to be a hostile rant, rather a bit of encouragement for those struggling, patient and persistent internal evangelists within your organizations.  I’m really speaking to them.  Rise up people!

As elected officials, you need to look right into the eyes of those administrators who are afraid that citizens will expect social media to be the norm in your government and say, “bollocks!  You’re too late!”  To the administrators, I say this.  One day you’re going to wake up and be working for a Mayor and Council that will stand-up to your stubborn mule like behaviour and if you resist, you’ll be gone.  Don’t think it’s possible?  Pick up Escape Velocity when it’s published and read the story about how one newly elected Alberta mayor did exactly that.  For you, a socially enabled candidate like this mayor, (or as was encouraged last week – someone like me) would be a nightmare.

Municipal election candidates are not exempt, you need to be ready for this Open Government reality as well. Chances are, you are not going to be elected without strong social credentials, nor should you be in my opinion.  To all those government and business leaders without computers on their desks, I’d suggest retirement is looking pretty good right about now.  If you did’t need the hassle of learning new fan-dangled technologies like keyboards, mice and emails on a screen rather than printed off, then Open Government must really be sending you for a loop.  Oh what am I saying, you haven’t heard of the term or the movement in general anyway.  Yup.  Go golfing.

To the rank and file, those of you who have drawn the horrifying images of social technology frustration and social access imprisonment – Rise up!  Create a project that you feel will benefit the government you work for.  Don’t call me scared for using a picture when no one knows who you are, it’s time to “cowboy and cowgirl up!”  Many start anonymous blogs so they can vent and snipe, twitter accounts that criticize their government bosses 140 characters at a time.  Rather, I encourage you to think positively.  Just like the gladiators of old Rome, get the crowd on your side, this includes citizens and colleagues.  Create ways for residents to communicate with your government transparently and out in the open, no matter how simple or small.  Let the complexities of building strong sustainable digital community relationships come later, that’s a discussion for those already in the game.  Am I suggesting you should proceed without a plan?  Quite the opposite, think things through, you’re about to change the world.  Need moral support?  Call us, our lines are open so that you can bark at the moon.

Create a small and simple example of success to build on.  Sometimes that’s a grassroots event, sometimes that’s one single social profile or account.  Be innovative and creative.  Tell real stories and be brave.  If you feel comfortable, create a tactical team to help you but do it!

Go off the grid!

Last week I interviewed LTC Gerald Ostlund, Office of the Chief, Army Reserve, Army Reserve Communications, Webmaster and Chief, Social and New Media for Escape Velocity, which I’ve been working on since last year.   He explained that there was some heavy resistance regarding the use of social technologies internally within his organization.  This resistance came from several directions.  The only way to accomplish what he knew he needed to do, what the US Army Reserve needed to do, was to go off the official network.  I’m talking about the official defense intranet.  He works in a place where when I get emails from LTC Ostlund at the end of every subject line it states (UNCLASSIFIED).

LTC Ostlund explained, “we went out and purchased laptops and aircards with our own money.” This was the only way access could be gained so that the work of integrating social into Army Reserve communications could begin.  What was the risk to LTC Ostlund’s career regarding this brave move I wondered, so I asked the question and his response was immediate. “What are they going to do send me to Afghanistan or Iraq?  Been there, done that,” replied LTC Ostlund.  The conversation continued and it wasn’t that LTC Ostlund didn’t consider all the risks to making this move, he and his team just felt so strongly about what needed to be done they took personal initiative despite any potential negative career repercussions.  When compared to working within a hostile theatre of war, I can easily see why this was basically a no-brainer.

Access Granted!

The result of all this effort and perseverance?  A nine month study was just completed to see if allowing access to social networks such as Facebook, Youtube and Twitter would affect operational capacity of the US Defense Department’s networks.  On the basis of this study, access was granted just weeks ago.  Way to go LTC Ostlund, you and your colleagues are an inspiration.

Are you looking for a way to start something interesting in your government, department or business?  Why not run it by us?  What’s the worst that could happen?

Can you measure buzz and awareness?

Absolutely, several different ways in fact.  This is where the use of social media is a no-brainer as a starting place.  In the case of the City of Edmonton and the upcoming Open City Workshop (register here space left is limited) my opinion is that increased awareness is critical.  Sharing ideas, listening and educating new audiences as to what Open Data is will be one of many messages I expect to come out of Saturday.  Further, software developers local and non-local alike are no doubt excited to hear about upcoming announcements, the vision in general and how they may play a direct role.

Magnify the effect through sharing

One of the fundamentals of Government 2.0 is participation.  The social web, in particular the government 2.0 segment of the social web is already responding to what the City of Edmonton is doing.  By agreeing to share the live bilingual webcast feed (a first for the City and very progressive by anyone’s standards in government) with anyone who would like to embed the feed on their site, it’s already opened up new communications doors for the City of Edmonton brand.  Not the least of which is GovLoop.com out of Florida.  With over 25000 Gov 2.0 community members having the stream featured on the home page of this site is important for the purposes of building international credibility and awareness for the Open Data movement and the City of Edmonton.

Here is another example on Mashable.com of the buzz potential surrounding what’s happening here.  Evan from our team made sure to mention in the comments what we’re all up to, nicely done Evan.  One never knows who may choose to watch and participate in the online discussion as a result and where that will lead, only time will tell.

Further, the media is also getting into the act and so you can expect to find the feed on one or more major traditional media websites on Saturday too.  In fact, the Edmonton Journal has authorized me to let everyone know that they’re excited to be carrying the feed, it’s so great that they’re participating and helping to spread the word about Open Data.

The bounce

What can we expect short to mid-term out of this effort on behalf of the City’s IT and Communications collaborative efforts?  In politics and other circles it might be called the “bounce.”  I predict that Edmonton area companies, the Alberta and federal governments, more than one post-secondary institution, as well as, countless folks outside the region will definitely see all kinds of opportunity coming out of Saturday.

I also think City Council and administration in Edmonton (and others whom I know are watching closely) will be able to witness first hand just how much the City of Edmonton is quickly moving towards being a strong model for Open Government.  Saturday will prove yet again that working in real-time with citizens can be extremely beneficial and not something to be feared but embraced.  That sharing our plans with the world outside our region is progressive and it too will benefit the local economy and attract new people, business and brand awareness.  The Edmonton area (I’m in Sherwood Park) is a great place to live, work and play.

Our work and experience suggests that many brands struggle with understanding the dynamics of how consumers might interact with them via social media ahead of time.  That lack of a social media calibrated plan then leaves them to find this out publicly while they put their brand at risk.  If crowd-sourcing was the plan from the start that’s one thing.  Evidence present within the project itself would demonstrate key elements had been considered prior to launch.  However, the truth is typically the brand is ends up with an unintended result and it’s not always positive.  Evidence that the brand was not properly prepared internally to address changes in consumer digital behaviours and left unchecked could continue to produce poor results.  Here are a couple of links of public social media failures many of which you may already be aware of.

Social media campaign failures:

- A list of well known failures on thoughtpick

- Another great one by Jeremiah Owyang.

It could be said, the social web is not about brands so much as it is about the “individual.”

That is simultaneously it’s power and also the pitfall for brands operating within it.  Has social media impacted how the consumer interacts with brands?  The short answer is yes!  In my continuing research to learn more about this issue I found a great study which I’d like to share with you…

2009 Digital Brand Experience Study by Razorfish is very interesting. Here is an excerpt:

- 65% of consumers report having a digital experience with a brand that either positively or negatively changed their opinion about a brand.  Of that group, a nearly unanimous 97% say that their digital experience influenced whether or not they eventually purchased a product or service from that brand.

Razorfish concludes – Digital is not only a place to build a brand: it can also make it or break it.

This study suggests that consumers will hold a digital dialogue with a brand especially if there’s a deal at the end of it.  These interactions online should further be supported by the ability to personally interact when requested.  Your brand must have personality, a human side if you will.  Why is that important?  Because “connected consumers are now the new mainstream.”

I hope you found today’s post helpful and the study itself as interesting as I did.  If you have thoughts about this or would like to express something about your own digital brand experience I’d love to hear about it.

There are many different characters and organizations in this massive theatrical play we call the social web.  Below is a fun, tongue-in-cheek look at some of these audience types.

Here’s a few main categories of how organizations break down where social media is concerned:

Totally oblivious – these living in the stone age, status-quo critters are asleep at the wheel and heading for the ditch.  You mention “facebook” and they stare back at you as if you’ve just said something in original Klingon.

Frady cats – believers that the risk of leveraging social media is so high, it’ll be catastrophic and all perceived barriers are impossible to overcome.  They’d rather just stick to the “prudent” traditional course of action.  The order of the day is to remain void of any innovation or change in process until such time as all the competitive advantage is sucked dry out of the opportunity.  All of which makes their unimaginative brain trust jump for joy, exclaiming that being last to the party means zero risk.

The cynic – they’ve heard it all before and they’ve seen it all before. There’s nothing, not a single thing new here to learn.  Social media is old hat, you’re just selling to customers afterall.  They believe the newspaper delivered every day is actually the perfect portable content delivery device.

Today’s expert – this group has taken in a presentation, workshop or attended a conference.  They’ve loaded Ubertwitter on their blackberry and  launched a blog.  They now profess to explain the virtues of social media to anyone who’ll listen.  They know just enough to be dangerous and produce little of value beyond pleasantries and idle digital chit chat.  Real world experience delivering social media within their organization or anywhere else equals zero.  That said, if someone was to say otherwise they wouldn’t stop them and that’s because they know enough buzz words that the “totally oblivious” see them as the social media second-coming.

Innovators – these guys push limits, they are looking for one thing – separation from the competitive pack and see the social web as one key way to achieve their goals.  They recognize that true innovation is a collaborative effort and love the mass-collaboration possibilities within the real-time web.  They’re not afraid to take action, commit budget and resouces.  Making mistakes will happen and they celebrate failure as a chance to learn.  These dynamic people move fast and expect everyone except their competitors to keep up.  However, they’re smart enough to realize that competitors will eventually follow too which just fuels their fire even more.

Cautious learners – this group sees some potential within social media and are open to learning more about it.  Unsure as to specifically how they may engage they intend to take their time to observe, study, listen and learn.  This suits them just fine as things move slow in their culture.  They are in no hurry regardless of the potential upside and frankly should they engage in social media it would be like an experience driver behind the wheel of a Model T racing a F1 Ferrari.

Quiet observer – organizations here are keeping themselves informed within the social web and participating only to the point of having a presence.  They produce little if any content and hardly if ever respond publicly.  There is no clear plan or strategy to emerge from this state and despite accumulating vast amounts of data they have no idea how that knowledge may be turned into a competitive advantage.

Digitally-engaged – this digital citizen uses multiple online technologies, not for the benefit of the organization, rather it’s all about them, their interests, opinions, ego and life.  Should you interact with them you simply provide them with more validation and perceived credibility.

Rogue evangelist – receiving little to no support they branch off on their own skirting the parameters of their job, hoping not to offend the decision-makers.  Looking to generate some small social media win via their efforts in the hopes of one day getting the call to launch a well-funded campaign with increased responsibility.

The committed – this organization sees opportunity and they’ve decided to ensure they take advantage.  The proper planning and implementation is their goal and they are ready to move.  A common sense and progressive business style comes to the table with them from the very beginning.

The groupie – this person or organization hopes to draw attention to themselves by attaching their brand to an individual or audience type they feel will make them look the most savvy by association.  Having no history in the industry and not interested in learning or really driving business results, their perfect day includes being attacked by the social media paparazzi.

Johnny come lately – Yesterday they sold something else, today they sell social media marketing.  A few changes to the website list of services and they’re all set.  Sticking with the technology and adding a profile here and a group there, these guys sell the rest of the enterprise or industry a bill of goods that they know what to do and how to do it.

Non-believer – Facebook is a fad, there’s no way to prove any of it works and this is simply a matter of media hype.

Genuine – Always striving to be a trusted source in their particular industry, continually learning and experimenting.  This group recognizes that there is no such thing as an expert in social media yet, only people striving to keep up and make sense of it all.  Not out for a quick buck this is where sound business building and top customer service meet a new level of human dialogue and potential for growth.

If you’d like to add another category please feel free to leave a comment and join the fun.

It’s not ready for public consumption yet, and the iPhone app will be available through iTunes.

The program seems to be an internal social media tool and with project management elements. It will be interesting to see the final product. I think it’s something that could be quite useful for most companies.

Edmonton social media community expanding

We started out our discussion about social media in Edmonton by watching a CTV story about Twitter, with several Edmontonians featuring prominently in the story.

Media interest in Twitter has grown substantially in Alberta, particularly in Edmonton lately. Many media organizations have jumped on board and are now experimenting with the medium.

With this media interest there has been curiosity among its viewers and consumers, and according to Mack Male, the number of Twitter users in Edmonton has grown by 50 per cent over the last month. Nice!

Social media community changing?

Edmonton has a vibrant social media community and we’re quite friendly. There was a question whether this will change as time goes on and the community grows. One thought was that instead of meeting as one large group as often happens, people will begin to gather in smaller groups.

There were some comments about people joining Twitter and billing themselves as social media experts or social media gurus. Typical hype. Kind of hard to bill yourself as a social media expert when you’ve been on Twitter for a week, nobody’s following you and you’ve Tweeted a couple dozen times.

One person who could legitimately bill himself as a social media expert in Alberta is Walter Schwabe (@fusedlogic). There aren’t many in Alberta, but the number is growing across Canada. Mack Male’s another one here in Edmonton.

Mainstream media and social media

My favourite part of the discussion was also one of the more contentious ones. Recently mainstream media organizations have been going through a lot of difficulty due to the recession. There seems to be some glee in social media circles about their difficulties.

Mainstream media in Alberta is beginning to join the social media community, and Edmonton’s media especially. It’s obvious they’re quite new to the medium and are having a few growing pains. Who hasn’t though? I’m willing to give anyone new to Twitter the benefit of the doubt, except for spammers or the instant social media experts.

My only observation is that Alberta media organizations seem to have jumped into the game without much of a social media strategy. I could be wrong. I they think they could use an effective social media strategy to cut their learning curve and increase their social media impact.

Continuing the discussion about social media

We again made our way to Brewster’s Pub in Oliver Square for drinks and discussion. I had reserved for 15 people but we had many more people than that. Not bad for a Monday night!

We were lucky to have Alberta MLA Doug Griffiths join us at Brewster’s. He’s also on Twitter as @GriffMLA. The Alberta government has made a strong push to get involved with social media. It was good to hear Doug’s perspective on it. He said he’s had lots of good feedback on the Alberta government’s social media efforts. On a side note, I thought it was interesting that he was on the CBC show The Week the Women Went.

Randy described how he started Runningmap, a map site that allows you to plot your jogging routes. He delved into how the software worked and I think everyone was pretty impressed. I think a few people were surprised that he used Yahoo for his maps and not the seemingly ubiquitous Google.

Yahoo got nothing but praise from Randy for their approachability and willingness to work with him to make changes to their software, something that Google might not be so willing to do.

Looking at his software from a user perspective, I can see why people would like it. It allows you to easily draw up customized route maps and view the elevation and distances. I haven’t used the software (not being a jogger) but I plan to tinker with it. The social media element to the software is that you can share the routes and upload photos.

While I may not be a jogger, I don’t see why you couldn’t use this same software to plan walks, hikes, mountain climbing, cycling, automobile trips and more. Why limit it to jogging?

It sounds like there are some interesting plans afoot for this cool site. It is definitely worth checking out.

Smibs ringing the Doorbell

Peter Urban gave us a demo of his Doorbell software, explained what Smibs is all about and gave us all a copy of his “unbusiness plan.” Peter’s approach to everything seems a little unconventional which, when you’re trying to grow your business, can be a good thing.

It’s kind of a collaborative tool that is useful for keeping track of what you have to do every day. I like the idea of being able to keep track of projects in one spot. I’ve found it to be a bit of pain working on different projects simultaneously because everyone uses a different project management tool.

There’s a lot more to it, and I plan on exploring it. I’ve signed up and haven’t had a chance to really tinker with it. It’s in public beta, so check it out. I’m curious what you think of it, and I’m sure Peter would love to get your feedback too.

NAIT

I almost forgot to mention the great location for the Meetup. This time it was at NAIT’s HP Centre. It worked really nicely because it seems like it’s only a five minute drive for me. That’s not the only advantage. It was a good, central location, though the weather didn’t seem to be cooperating. Parking, my eternal frustration, was certainly not an issue at NAIT.

Not sure where the next Meetup is, but I’m looking forward to it. It’ll be nice to get out in January and try to avoid cabin fever.

Alain Saffel

Broadcasting live from St. Albert!

Last night was the second Social Web Meetup. We were out in St. Albert, the guests of Inside and Out Naturally.

They’ve got a great facility out there. Unfortunately a few people had some difficulty finding the location due to a Google Maps marker error. With so many coming from Edmonton. where the grid system rules, the curves in the road were too much for some of us. I got lost too, but a phone call to Inside and Out put me on the right path.

The guys from somethingtv.net were there doing a live broadcast. It was interesting watching it. They interact with their chatroom but I’m not sure if they’re used to a live crowd. They were mostly talking about politics and the recent U.S. election, so that was good. Some of us are suffering from withdrawal!

I just checked and the video from the episode is up on the site. It streams nicely. It’s definitely worth watching. It was great to be there seeing it live and checking out what happens behind the scenes in one of these productions.

As usual, there was some great food and really interesting conversation about social media. Using social media is a lot of fun and I really like it when I can get out and meet the people I talk to online. My social media of choice is Twitter, but I’m also a fairly regular user of Facebook. LinkedIn is another good one, especially for business people.

Every attendee at the Meetup was even treated like an Oprah guest, receiving a free radio from Brittney of iNews880.

The next Social Web Meetup is scheduled for December 4. I will definitely be there, unless we have a blizzard. It may be time to get set up with some snow shoes and make sure there’s plenty of hot chocolate available at that meeting.

See you there!

Alain Saffel

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