Times are changing

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This is a guest post by Bob Walsh of 47hats.com

Neil's latest post, BoS digest: why you can't just trim the fat, I thought was a good one, but it neglected the 14th principle of the Toyota Way: Become a learning organization through relentless reflection (hansei) and continuous improvement (kaizen).

Put another way, that means stop ignoring and resisting the ways the world has changed. I've noticed that established ISVs have extreme difficulty in understanding some of the fundamental changes that have happened in the last several years, especially when it comes to social media.

Today, because so many of your customers connect with each other online, your market is a conversation you do not control. Furthermore, much of that conversation is happening on networks you don't understand. But because of internal politics, inertia, and that few C*O's are technology early adopters, this shift is someone else's problem and the can gets kicked down the road to the next meeting.

If at this juncture you don't understand that interrupt advertising is broken, that the old ways of doing business are broken, you have a serious problem. Yes, there's plenty of hype in the social media world - but dismissing social media as something unimportant at this point misses the point.

Here's a little test:

1. Do know what getsatisfaction.com is and actively participate there?
2. Do you have a Chief Community Officer?
3. Do you and your other execs talk with customers via your robust company blog?
4. Do you and your other execs understand and use Twitter, Facebook and other social media?

If you don't at least get 2 out of 4 of the above, how do you expect to survive the next 24 months?

No one expects or wants your company to become a social media powerhouse that transparently converses with your customers overnight. But the time for sitting on the fence regarding social media is up. And since social media is an intensely disruptive force to traditionally organized hierarchical entities (read - your company), this is not a matter to be taken lightly.

Time is not your friend right now.

Bob Walsh is by turns a consultant, blogger, developer, microISV, startup, author and podcaster. Too much free time on his hands is not a problem he has.

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Comments

[ben]

Do you really think that facebook, twitter, getsatisfaction and company blogs are going to make the difference? I call bullshit.

The research suggests that even "the best" company blogs aren't trusted, poorly used and aren't adding anything to the business. A chief community officer? Please! Show me some research showing that a company presence on a social network or twitter actually adds to the bottom line; there isn't one and for good reason.

You can make money simply by making things people want TO PAY FOR (going 1 step further than YC).

Back up what you say, just don't spout claims like this as fact without any qualification!

[Zviki]

Bob,

I'm glad to see you're taking a stand on GetSatisfaction. I was missing it in the post you wrote regarding community vs users forum.

I'm still sitting on the fence. I'm not sure if this is the best solution for users support. I would love to read a deeper post on this.

[James]

LOL, thanks for the laugh, on this cold December day!

You spend your months twitting, blogging, communitying etc.

We'll spend the time improving our software and increasing our sales to businesses.

I am reminded of the great Web 2.0 hype, when a generation of entrepreneurs/developers were fooled into creating webapps that generated no revenue, leaving an entire class of the market to us desktop developers, and ensuring that we got very rich indeed :-)

[Steve Jones]

Social Media is definitely taking off, especially in the business world. Database people, who seem older, stodgier, and more conservative are using social media more and more. Surprising to me.

Twitter, Facebook, etc. ARE the new interruption media. They ping people, encourage interaction, and their "look at this now" type of getting attention is one reason they have valuation.

But are they necessary for your company? I'm not sure about that. There are plenty of people that don't look at company blogs and don't care what you write. They won't "follow" you unless you produce interesting content.

Having good products is a must. Having good support is right there as well. It's expected and if you can't deliver as a small company, I don't think that people will buy your software.

But you can get a competitive advantage if you can put out good content. If you show you have interesting things to say, or perhaps more importantly, useful technical information, then it can help get people interested in you. Not buy your software, but get interested in your company.

Is it worth it? I'm not sure, a lot of that depends on the effort expended and how much it distracts you from your business.

I'm biased. I run a community site and a software vendor pays me to run it. They say it's worth it, so I think as long as the paychecks show up, perhaps it is. However I could see the value of community before they bought my site, and I think I could really get people interested in a product, either by association, or by talking about AROUND other, useful information.

[Bob Cramblitt]

Good point, Steve, about Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn being the new interruptors. It's pretty simple: Beyond great products and support, real communication is the key. Not spewing some worn bromides, but providing information that is useful to your audience. I favor a variety of approaches that are well integrated -- one size doesn't fit all. Whether it's a conversation or an interruption, you better bring something good to the table. Bad or superfluous use of social media is worse than bad advertising or PR.

[Bob Walsh]

1. Ben: 1. Yes. 2. And what's the source of your "research"? 3. I agree with you - you can make money by making things people want. And what's a good way to find out what people what? Five figure consulting contracts with focus group companies or to ask them and interact with them via social media tools?

2. GetSatisfaction is a great first mover in the customer 2.0 space. Translated into English, they tapped a change in attitude/values of people formerly known as Users: we are going to tell companies what they are doing right and wrong whether or not they want to hear it. I agree with you re worth digging into - will see if my editor at CNET agrees.

3. James - good for you! By the way, how do people hear about your desktop software? Download.com amongst a few hundred similar apps? Or from a post they read, or a recommendation from someone who read a post. Try entering the name of your software in Google Blog Search - just because you're not talking via social media about your product doesn't mean others aren't.
4. Steve - Mr. Chief Community Officer! :) - thanks for providing some evidence to back up my post: "I run a community site and a software vendor pays me to run it. They say it's worth it, so I think as long as the paychecks show up, perhaps it is." That works.
5. Bob - "Bad or superfluous use of social media is worse than bad advertising or PR." Well, it's definitely as stupid, and unnecessary. Real communication is the key - that means both sides - company and customers, not to mention others - get their say.

Two more quick points to add: There's a generational thing at work here: the values/norms of people in developed countries in their 30s, 20s and younger are profoundly different from most people in their 50s. That difference, and who's "winning" that difference can only go one way.

Second, the history of the software industry contains a very, very long list of companies who were successful, saw no reason to change how they did business and are now out of business. Change happens - get over it and start taking advantage of it.

[ben]

Honestly, if you have to ask what the research says go get a postgrad marketing guy to fill you in. Remember you talk as though you are thoroughly immersed in the reality distortion field; only time will tell if it was a good thing to do.

In regards to your comment on focus groups and consulting contracts - rofl. That's simply not the way web products are built these days. Get a small selection of users, make them pay then make them happy.

You'd be surprised how many people will actually pay when you ask them, even in this "I must be free" world.

[Bob Walsh]

Ben - I think most people happily pay for value. But I don't agree with either:
"Do you really think that facebook, twitter, getsatisfaction and company blogs are going to make the difference? I call bullshit.

The research suggests that even "the best" company blogs aren't trusted, poorly used and aren't adding anything to the business."

- let's define difference as "More Sales": two name two companies - Zappos and Dell - twitter has made a difference. Google for details.
- Re your cited "research", funny, when I wrote a book on blogging (Clear Blogging, Apress) I interviewed large and small businesses that got specific, measurable results from their blogs. I guess they were not "the best". If a company dumps its advertising/marketing into its blog or microblog, it will be treated as the trash it is. If they engage with the people interested in their products, they will have success. As simple as that.

[ben]

Bob,

- Re your cited "research", funny, when I wrote a book on blogging (Clear Blogging, Apress) I interviewed large and small businesses that got specific, measurable results from their blogs.

Unbiased research then?

[Joshua Varney - Dialer]

I enjoyed the article, it does appear more and more that social networks continue to make anything viral prone.