My two sense on the what to take from the rest of the New Communication Forum:
1. Charlene Li's keynote (as described by Dan Karleen):
"People trust (top two of a half dozen):
1. Recommendations from frends and family
2. Consumer opinions posted online"
This was confirmed by a Pew report late January that showed Americans are making more and more important choices based on online information.
What does this mean for employee communicators? This one is pretty simple.
1. Employees are friends and family
2. Employees are consumers
3. Employees post information online
more from Li via Karleen:
"Definition of social computing: A social structure in which technology puts power in communities, not institutions.
Charlene is stressing the growing importance of RSS to companies, citing some examples of companies that have gone straight to offering RSS feeds, without having blogs, and how they are successful. She's also reminding us that customers aren't going to be happy with just one feed, so offer multiple feeds."
Remember it is all about finding the right tool to deliver the information. The low-cost and minimal maintenance required for new media allows companies to more easily utilize multiple channels.
Shel Holtz has a similarly comprehensive recap of what sounds like a great talk.
2. Scoble and Israel's closing remarks via Mr. Holtz: (here is what Shel had to say about what he forgot to say)
paraphrasing Scoble: "That’s what blogging lets me do—it lets me share my love of something."
"Companies go through a progression. I’m aware of blogs. Next, I’m going
to do a blog for PR purposes. The ultimate comes when a company gets it
that they can have people deep in the company talking about building a
transmission for a car and get feedback from a company."
Lesson: Employees are a company's best channel to develop relationships with consumers. They are the most knowledgeable, most passionate, most sincere voice of a company. Yet surprising few employees are empowered to communicate by their organizations.
On the flip side, if companies discover that employees are posting potential harmful comments, it can serve as anectodal evidence of a larger trend or issue that needs to be addressed. Employees can serve as the first line of information for vulnerabilities and opportunities inside and outside an organization. Lastly, companies cannot be naive enough to assume that if they stop employees from blogging critical comments, that will stop employees from finding another way to communicate their displeasure.
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